Insulation panels that are both thin and effective are expensive. At present these high-end products are built into energy-saving refrigerators. Innovative components and production techniques are now set to sink the costs -- so that private home-builders can also benefit from the new technology.
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Most technologies for harnessing the sun’s energy capture the light itself, which is turned into electricity using photovoltaic materials. Others use the sun’s thermal energy, usually concentrating the sunlight with mirrors to generate enough heat to boil water and turn a generating turbine. A third, less common approach is to use the sun’s heat — also concentrated by mirrors — to generate electricity directly, using solid-state devices called thermophotovoltaics, which have their root...
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The mobile space laboratory, which is the size of a car, was launched on Saturday and will touch down on Mars in August 2012. Once there, it will use a laser to analyse particles of dust to test for evidence of life. The laser from its ChemCam system will vaporise a sample area as small as a pinhead while a telescope will record the colours of light created by the glowing plasma.
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Whether free-burning or smoldering, uncontrolled fire can threaten life and destroy property. On Earth, a little water, maybe some chemicals, and the fire is smothered. In space, where there is no up or down, flames behave in unconventional ways.
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Pyrite, better known as "fool's gold," was familiar to the ancient Romans and has fooled prospectors for centuries -- but has now helped researchers at Oregon State University discover related compounds that offer new, cheap and promising options for solar energy.
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At first glance, supercomputers, car parts, entertainment systems and radar antennas may not have much in common, but they all stand to benefit from important advances in thermal management technology being achieved by an EU-funded project. Materials developed under the project have been demonstrated in different application sectors, and some are already in use commercially, or likely to be in the near future.
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University of Utah scientists may have solved one mystery by showing how cold water can get before it absolutely must freeze — 55 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. That's 87 degrees Fahrenheit colder than what most people consider the freezing point of water.
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Britain will on Monday open the world's first subsidy scheme designed to support the use of renewable energy sources for heating, two months later than its initial start date after the European Commission requested a rate change.
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The demand for sustainable energy is higher than ever. According to a study by BP, global energy consumption has seen a 5.3% increase within the last year, the largest jump since 1973. Our digital lifestyles have contributed to the rise in energy consumption — it takes 35 times more energy to produce a pound of smartphone than to make a pound of book.
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Scientists have been working for years to develop alternative fuel sources to reduce the U.S. reliance on fossil fuels. In their effort to generate a new kind of power source, engineers are manipulating many of the oil and gas wells that have already been dug throughout the globe, New Scientist reports.
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