In the arid regions of the American Southwest, an unseen world lies beneath our feet. Biocrusts, or biological soil crusts, are communities of living organisms. These industrious microbes include cyanobacteria, green algae, ...
Ecology
Apr 20, 2023
0
238
Mobility is a key parameter for semiconductor performance and relates to how quickly and easily electrons can move inside a substance. Researchers have now achieved the highest mobility among thin films of tin dioxide ever ...
Materials Science
Apr 22, 2020
0
484
Building resilience in renewable energy and food production is a fundamental challenge in today's changing world, especially in regions susceptible to heat and drought. Agrivoltaics, the co-locating of agriculture and solar ...
Environment
Sep 3, 2019
0
433
Physicists have discovered a novel kind of nanotube that generates current in the presence of light. Devices such as optical sensors and infrared imaging chips are likely applications, which could be useful in fields such ...
Nanomaterials
Jun 19, 2019
0
39
There's a tradeoff when sprawling solar farms pop up on agricultural land: farmland disappears, perhaps forever, in return for growth in the promising renewable energy sector.
Environment
Dec 19, 2017
5
332
Mechanics know molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) as a useful lubricant in aircraft and motorcycle engines and in the CV and universal joints of trucks and automobiles. Rice University engineering researcher Isabell Thomann knows ...
Optics & Photonics
May 5, 2016
0
44
Ultra-high efficiency solar cells similar to those used in space may now be possible on your rooftop thanks to a new microscale solar concentration technology developed by an international team of researchers.
Energy & Green Tech
Feb 5, 2015
2
154
When Mike Arnold thinks about solar energy, he thinks big, as in the "more than one-hundred-million-billion watts of sunlight that the Earth continuously bathes in." But he also thinks very, very small, exploring how a one-billionth-of-a-meter ...
Nanomaterials
Nov 10, 2014
0
0
3D printing guru Joshua Pearce wants nothing more than to provide the means of production to everyone, especially people in developing regions who must get by on very little. But there has been a drawback.
Engineering
Oct 13, 2014
3
0
Growing agave and other carefully chosen plants amid photovoltaic panels could allow solar farms not only to collect sunlight for electricity but also to produce crops for biofuels, according to new computer models by Stanford ...
Energy & Green Tech
Apr 9, 2014
2
0
