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Altered Organism Triples Solar Cell Efficiency
An anonymous reader writes "By harnessing the shells of living organisms in the sea, microscopic algae called diatoms, engineers have tripled the efficiency of experimental dye-sensitized solar cells. The diatoms were fed a diet of titanium dioxide, the main ingredient for thin film solar cells, instead of their usual meal which is silica (silicon dioxide). As a result, their shells became photovoltaic when coated with dyes. The result is a thin-film dye-sensitized solar cell that is three times more efficient than those without the diatoms."
Well, it doesn't take millions of years to make more when we run out.
I guess you were busy "Go Green! Hate Bush!" posters on the day in Science class where they mentioned you can't get more than 100% efficiency.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
someone cooked up while being stoned
"so we feed the bugs the solar cell stuff man, and they just like use it make better solar cells. whoa"
and yet it works. amazing
all hail marijuana science
next up from stoned science: "dude, did you ever look at your hand, no, i mean really look at it?: curing phantom limb symptoms by really looking at your hand"
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Yeah, we get it, you're so fucking cool.
How long before use of this technology by a farm will disqualify the farm's produce from the "USDA organic" label?
They already can not use genetically modified ingredients (which are harmless), equating GM with pesticides and anti-biotics (which aren't)...
Someone (PETA?) will claim, that such twisting of nature is bad, unethical, and somehow unhealthy and lobby the government to add the requirement for its "organic" certification...
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.