News tagged with energy transfer

When the soil holds not enough phosphorus: Scientists describe new transporter in cells of plant roots

Plants cannot survive without phosphorus. It forms the backbone of many crucial molecules (such as DNA) and is a key player in energy transfer reactions. Low availability of phosphorus is a major environmental ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created May 15, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Shedding light on nature's nanoscale control of solar energy

Nature's process for storing solar energy occurs in light-absorbing protein complexes called photosynthetic reaction centers (RCs). Across billions of years of evolution, Nature has retained a common light-absorbing ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Apr 18, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Sulfur in every pore: Improved batteries with carbon nanoparticles

From smartphones to e-bikes, the number of mobile electronic devices is steadily growing around the world. As a result, there is an increased need for batteries that are small and light, yet powerful. As the ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Apr 10, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Research finds bright future for alternative energy with greener solar cells

(Phys.org) -- Even alternative energy technologies can sometimes be a little greener, according to a Kansas State University graduate student's research.

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Apr 09, 2012 | popularity 3.6 / 5 (5) | comments 4

Artificially structured metamaterials may boost wireless power transfer

Scientists calculate that a "perfect lens," a slab of artificial material engineered to focus electromagnetic fields in ways that natural materials can't, may increase the efficiency of some wireless power transfer systems.

Physics / General Physics

created Mar 13, 2012 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (8) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

Major contract will supply solar panels derived from CERN technology

At Geneva International Airport, SRB Energy delivered the first of the solar panels that will form one of the largest solar energy systems of Switzerland. Ultimately, some 300 high-temperature solar thermal ...

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Mar 12, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Thermal storage gets more solar on the grid

(PhysOrg.com) -- It's 4:45 on a sweltering August afternoon, and the rooftop solar panels are starting to lose juice. The sun's lower angles and that huge cottonwood tree are interfering with the efficient ...

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Feb 15, 2012 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (7) | comments 6 | with audio podcast

Middle school teachers, students stay after school to work on science, engineering projects

The School of Education at Virginia Tech and the College of Education at University of Kentucky were awarded $1.3 million from the National Science Foundation to implement and evaluate an inquiry-based after-school ...

Other Sciences / Social Sciences

created Feb 13, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

'Dark plasmons' transmit energy

Microscopic channels of gold nanoparticles have the ability to transmit electromagnetic energy that starts as light and propagates via "dark plasmons," according to researchers at Rice University.

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Feb 09, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (11) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Stellar astrophysics explains the behavior of fast rotating neutron stars in binary systems

Pulsars are among the most exotic celestial bodies known. They have diameters of about 20 kilometres, but at the same time roughly the mass of our sun. A sugar-cube sized piece of its ultra-compact matter ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Feb 02, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (7) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Study supports role of quantum effects in photosynthesis

(PhysOrg.com) -- Until a few years ago, photosynthesis seemed to be a straightforward and well-understood process in which plants and other organisms use sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and water into sugars, ...

Physics / General Physics

created Jan 25, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (13) | comments 7 | with audio podcast feature

MSU chemists become the first to solve an 84-year-old theory

The same principle that causes figure skaters to spin faster as they draw their arms into their bodies has now been used by Michigan State University researchers to understand how molecules move energy around following the ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Dec 22, 2011 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (6) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

'Low tech' light in neutron beam illuminates photosynthesis in bacteria

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the Bio-SANS instrument at the High Flux Isotope Reactor are getting a leg up in their research from an ingenious "low tech" lighting tool that can be fixed to their samples ...

Chemistry / Analytical Chemistry

created Sep 28, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 1

Innovative superconductor fibers carry 40 times more electricity

Wiring systems powered by highly-efficient superconductors have long been a dream of science, but researchers have faced such practical challenges such as finding pliable and cost-effective materials. Now ...

Physics / Superconductivity

created Sep 07, 2011 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (23) | comments 23 | with audio podcast

Artificial light-harvesting method achieves 100% energy transfer efficiency

(PhysOrg.com) -- In an attempt to mimic the photosynthetic systems found in plants and some bacteria, scientists have taken a step toward developing an artificial light-harvesting system (LHS) that meets one ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Sep 01, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (40) | comments 22 | with audio podcast feature

Energy transformation

In physics, the term [energy] describes the amount of work which may potentially be done by forces within a system. Changes in energy in systems can only be accomplished by adding or subtracting energy from them, as energy is a quantity which is conserved. (Loosely, changes in the energy of systems also coincide with changes in the system's mass).

Energy in a system may be transformed so that it resides in a different state. Energy in many states may be used to do many varieties of physical work. Energy may be used in natural processes or machines, or else to provide some service to society (such as heat, light, or motion). For example, an internal combustion engine converts the potential chemical energy in gasoline and oxygen into heat, which is then transformed into the propulsive energy (kinetic energy that moves a vehicle. A solar cell converts solar radiation into electrical energy that can then be used to light a bulb or power a computer.

The generic name for a device which converts energy from one form to another is transducer.

For more information about Energy transformation, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.