News tagged with thermal energy

Related topics: energy

Cantilever bends repeatedly under light exposure for continuous energy generation

(PhysOrg.com) -- With the goal to enable small electronic devices to harvest their own energy, researchers have designed a device that can convert light and thermal energy into electricity. When exposed to ...

Physics / General Physics

created Oct 05, 2010 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (20) | comments 10 | with audio podcast feature

Solar-powered process could decrease carbon dioxide to pre-industrial levels in 10 years

(PhysOrg.com) -- By using the sun's visible light and heat to power an electrolysis cell that captures and converts carbon dioxide from the air, a new technique could impressively clean the atmosphere and ...

Chemistry / Other

created Jul 22, 2010 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (107) | comments 215 | with audio podcast feature

Nanocrystal-coated fibers might reduce wasted energy

(Phys.org) -- Researchers are developing a technique that uses nanotechnology to harvest energy from hot pipes or engine components to potentially recover energy wasted in factories, power plants and cars.

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Apr 17, 2012 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (9) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Graphene battery demonstrated to power an LED

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists in Hong Kong have reported, in ArXiv, their experiments to make a graphene battery that they say generates an electrical current by drawing on the ambient thermal energy in the sol ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Mar 16, 2012 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (25) | comments 24 | with audio podcast report

Solar-thermal flat-panels that generate electric power

(PhysOrg.com) -- High-performance nanotech materials arrayed on a flat panel platform demonstrated seven to eight times higher efficiency than previous solar thermoelectric generators, opening up solar-thermal ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created May 01, 2011 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (6) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

Start-up company aims to harness the full potential of producing electricity from waste heat

(PhysOrg.com) -- Matt Scullin co-founded Alphabet Energy just one year ago, but already the CEO has ambitions of turning the San Francisco-based start-up company into the "Intel of waste heat." By harnessing ...

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Sep 02, 2010 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (14) | comments 19 | with audio podcast report

New solar energy conversion process could revamp solar power production

Stanford engineers have figured out how to simultaneously use the light and heat of the sun to generate electricity in a way that could make solar power production more than twice as efficient as existing ...

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Aug 02, 2010 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (64) | comments 38 | with audio podcast

Controlling the interaction between light and matter

(PhysOrg.com) -- "One of the most exciting things about this is that it gives us nice, clean control over the interaction between light and matter," William Kelly tells PhysOrg.com. "Our technique has the potential to giv ...

Physics / General Physics

created Apr 30, 2010 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (19) | comments 22 | with audio podcast feature

Sound could save circuits: Researchers theorize acoustic waves may cool microelectronics

(PhysOrg.com) -- "Hot sounds" has one meaning to music fans and another to physicists. Count a team of researchers at Rice University among the latter, as they've discovered that acoustic waves traveling along ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Apr 28, 2010 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (14) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Solar Home Built by Students

(PhysOrg.com) -- Students from the Boston Architectural College (BAC) and Tufts University have submitted a completely solar-powered home, the Curio House, as New England's entry into the Solar Decathlon competition. ...

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Sep 22, 2009 | popularity 3.9 / 5 (13) | comments 7 weblog

Scientists Track Heat in Tiny Rolls of Carbon Atoms

(PhysOrg.com) -- IBM Research scientists today announced a landmark study in the field of nanoelectronics; the development and demonstration of novel techniques to measure the distribution of energy and heat in powered carbon ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Mar 02, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 0

The sun is a star when it comes to sustainable energy

At a national scientific meeting last week where biofuels - principally ethanol - were uniformly trashed as an environmental train wreck, one bright, carbon-free light gleamed in our energy future: the sun.

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Feb 25, 2009 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (25) | comments 56

Scientists glean new insights into convection in planets and stars

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new study by UCLA planetary scientists and their colleagues in Germany overturns a longstanding scientific tenet and provides new insights into how convection controls much of what we observe ...

Physics / General Physics

created Jan 19, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (11) | comments 0

US, European nuclear and coal-fired electrical plants vulnerable to climate change: study

Warmer water and reduced river flows in the United States and Europe in recent years have led to reduced production, or temporary shutdown, of several thermoelectric power plants. For instance, the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created 23 hours ago | popularity 3.4 / 5 (10) | comments 29 | with audio podcast

Energy-saving chaperon Hsp90

A special group of proteins, the so-called chaperons, helps other proteins to obtain their correct conformation. Until now scientists supposed that hydrolyzing ATP provides the energy for the large conformational ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Jan 13, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 1 | with audio podcast