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Category: sustainability – Page 516

In a recent paper (Generating Light from Darkness), published on Joule, Stanford University researchers Aaswath P. Raman, Wei Li, and Shanhui Fan are reporting the successful creation of a device that is able to generate electricity by exploiting the difference of temperature that can be established during the night between the surrounding air and the surface of the device that is cooling itself by emitting infrared radiations towards the night sky.

In a recent paper, published on Joule, Stanford University researchers are reporting the successful creation of a device that is able to generate electricity by exploiting the difference of temperature that can be established during the night between the surrounding air and the surface of the device that is cooling itself by emitting infrared radiations towards the night sky.

The possibility to generate electricity by exploiting thermal difference is not new, what is new here is the idea of creating a temperature difference by having part of the device radiating energy into the outer space.

As shown in the graphic, the device contains a thermoelectric generator, one side exposed to the air temperature and the other in contact with an aluminum plate. This plate, like a solar panel, actually an anti-solar panel, is facing the night sky and radiates thermal energy towards the sky. This lowers the temperature of the plate, some 2 centigrades less than the lower part of the device that has the same temperature of the air. How is it possible the aluminum plate has not the same temperature of the air? Good question! Here is the trick. The aluminum plate is isolated from the ambient temperature with a transparent insulating panel that lets the radiating energy go through but blocks the heat exchange.

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Are consumers ready for meat grown in a lab?

Companies like Memphis Meats, Aleph Farms, Higher Steaks, Mosa Meat and Meatable are all trying to bring to supermarkets around the world meat made from cultivated animal cells, but the problem has always been the cost.

Now, Future Meat Technologies has raised $14 million in new financing to build its first pilot manufacturing facilities to bring the cost of production of a cell-made steak down to $10 per pound — or $4 if the meat is combined with plant-based meat substitutes.

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Circa 2010

Ultra-fast pulses from a powerful laser can create droplets of water out of thin air, according to a new study. With the right conditions and large enough droplets, the researchers say, the technique could be used to make rain on demand.

Rain forms when water condenses around tiny particles in the atmosphere. Most of the time, dust or pollen do the job, but humans have long attempted to speed the process by seeding clouds with chemicals like silver iodide. Those chemicals provide the so-called “condensation nuclei” that trigger the consolidation of water into raindrops.

Unfortunately, such methods are difficult and could have environmental side effects, said Jérôme Kasparian, an optical physicist at the University of Geneva, Switzerland who was on the team that demonstrated the laser-triggered condensation. The study was published online May 2 in the journal Nature Photonics.

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If we want to colonize Mars, we’re going to need to figure out a way to feed ourselves there, and continuously sending food to the Red Planet isn’t a sustainable plan.

But now, a team of researchers thinks it’s figured out a way to produce enough food on Mars to feed a million people — and they say their plan to make Martian colonists self-sufficient would take just a hundred years to implement.

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Moses West is a former Ranger. Four years ago he set out to change the world, one atmospheric water generator at a time. He created these to provide clean drinking water to communities in Flint, MI, The Bahamas and Puerto Rico. Get this, he doesn’t charge these residents one penny. So far, he’s created 12 of these AWGs. He currently has one of these generators planted in Flint. More of these machines are currently being manufactured in WI to transport to Flint in the near future. He found a few minutes to down with Spectrum News 1’s Michelle London.

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https://youtu.be/7-KxonnCXFY

3 Cool Gadgets Under $50 — https://youtu.be/plsGaFOFRd8?list=PL7u4lWXQ3wfI_7PgX0C-VTiwLeu0S4v34

This machine from Ecoloblue takes moisture from the air and turns it into clean drinking water.

More info here — https://ecoloblue.com

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Research led by University of Texas at Dallas physicists has altered the understanding of the fundamental properties of perovskite crystals, a class of materials with great potential as solar cells and light emitters.

Published in July in Nature Communications, the study presents evidence that questions existing models of the behavior of perovskites on the .

“Our enhanced understanding of the physics of perovskites will help determine how they are best used,” said Dr. Anton Malko, associate professor of physics in the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and a corresponding author of the paper.

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