Archive for May, 2010

Kite Like Turbine Uses The Sea To Generate Power

Monday, May 24th, 2010

Minesto, a company from Northern Ireland have developed underwater turbines that may be ideal for generating power while still being hidden from view. The design has investors with more than 2 million euros going into the project and testing of the devices will begin next year.

The turbines basically like kites, they are attached by a cable to the sea bed allowing the turbines to move in whichever direction the water is moving in, and the 12m propellers generate the power.

Another great enviromentally friendly invention, lets hope something does come from the project.

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Carving The Worlds Smallest World

Friday, May 7th, 2010

IBM have carved a 3D map of the earth using a new nanometer-scale silicon milling machine they have developed. I suppose it’s not really printing as what this device is doing is actually carving away particles but still its extremely interesting.

The map that measures 22×11 micrometers and that took 2 mintutes and 23 seconds to make, would fit 1000 times on a single grain of salt. The nanomill used to make it uses heat and pressure to carve with extreme acurracy.

They also created a scale 3D model of the Matterhorn mountain, heres a video for more information:

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Solar Panel Paper

Friday, May 7th, 2010

Here is a very interesting and exiting scientific advancement that could change alot if it ever gets mass produced. Solar paper has been created by researchers at MIT by developing solar cells that are thin enough to print them onto paper. The posibilities are endless of what these solar cells could be printed onto, you could have mobile phones that charge thereselves in the sun or houses covered in solar cell paint.

The cells currently under 2% efficient at creating power from sunlight and compared to the 20% efficiency of regular solar panels it’s not that much. And from what the director of the project says, this technology probably won’t be with us commercially for at least another 10 years. So no solar cell covered stuff for us yet.

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