Thin-film solar cells made of crystalline silicon are inexpensive and achieve efficiencies of around 14 percent. However, they could do even better if their shiny surfaces reflected less light. A team led by Prof. Christiane ...
Nanomaterials
Sep 18, 2018
1
50
What a fine view of Mother Earth and what a smooth ride.
Space Exploration
Feb 7, 2018
7
3409
A team of engineers at Caltech has discovered how to use computer-chip manufacturing technologies to create the kind of reflective materials that make safety vests, running shoes, and road signs appear shiny in the dark.
Optics & Photonics
Jul 14, 2017
0
121
Screens on even the newest phones and tablets can be hard to read outside in bright sunlight. Inspired by the nanostructures found on moth eyes, researchers have developed a new antireflection film that could keep people ...
Optics & Photonics
Jun 22, 2017
1
666
Crustaceans that thrive in the vastness of the open ocean have no place to hide from their predators.
Plants & Animals
Oct 27, 2016
0
24
Showcased at the center of this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is an emission-line star known as IRAS 12196-6300.
Astronomy
Mar 7, 2016
1
36
It has long been suspected that sulfur emissions can brighten clouds. Water droplets tend to clump around particles of sulfuric acid, causing smaller droplets that form brighter, more reflective clouds.
Earth Sciences
Dec 9, 2015
0
64
For millennia, Greenland's ice sheet reflected sunlight back into space, but satellite measurements in recent years suggest the bright surface is darkening, causing solar heat to be absorbed and surface melting to accelerate. ...
Earth Sciences
Oct 31, 2015
13
241
The manipulation of light has led to many applications that have revolutionized society through communications, medicine and entertainment. Devices consuming the energy of electromagnetic radiation, such as absorbers and ...
General Physics
Jul 20, 2015
0
62
The effect is known from the smart phone: Sun is reflected by the display and hardly anything can be seen. In contrast to this, the glasswing butterfly hardly reflects any light in spite of its transparent wings. As a result, ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 22, 2015
1
59
