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Purple Pokeberries Yield Cheap Solar Power

separsons writes "Researchers at Wake Forest's Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials created a low-cost solar power system geared towards developing nations. By coating fiber-based solar cells with dye from purple pokeberries, a common weed, scientists created a cheap yet highly efficient solar system. Wake Forest researchers and their accompanying company, FiberCell Inc., have filed for a patent for fiber-based solar. Plastic sheets are stamped with plastic fibers, creating millions of tiny 'cans' that trap light until it is absorbed. The fibers create a huge surface area, meaning sunlight can be collected at any angle from the time the sun rises until it sets. Coating the system with pokeberry dye creates even greater absorption: researchers say the system can produce twice as much power as traditional flat-cell technology."

19 of 206 comments (clear)

  1. Pokeberries? by Pojut · · Score: 3, Funny

    I can't decide if I should make a pokemon joke, or a your mom joke.

    Your mom poked my berries? I guess? I got nothin'.

    1. Re:Pokeberries? by eldavojohn · · Score: 4, Funny

      I can't decide if I should make a pokemon joke, or a your mom joke.

      Your mom poked my berries? I guess? I got nothin'.

      Go with a modified classic quote: "I eated the purple pokeberries. They taste like solar energy."

      --
      My work here is dung.
    2. Re:Pokeberries? by pavon · · Score: 4, Funny

      Your car is run by hamsters and your roof smells of pokeberries!

    3. Re:Pokeberries? by Snarf+You · · Score: 2, Funny

      An upcoming Ask Yahoo question:

      Someone poked my berries and they have now turned purple, should I be worried????

    4. Re:Pokeberries? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Researcher used Pokeberry, it was super effective.

    5. Re:Pokeberries? by JediTrainer · · Score: 2, Funny

      Thank you for that. You just made my day.

      --

      You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. The impossible just takes a little longer.
  2. PokeBerries by mvidutis · · Score: 5, Funny

    Gotta catch 'em all!

    1. Re:PokeBerries by Huzzah! · · Score: 2, Funny

      Purple pokeberries produce prodigous power. It's a natural.

  3. Re:Still need nuclear by haruchai · · Score: 3, Funny

    Wind!! Considering all the gassy North Americans I've met ( me included ) we could export power to Mars. If we could figure out a way to harness farts, it would be a multiple source - wind power, methane, hydrogen.

    --
    Pain is merely failure leaving the body
  4. The name is too long by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Wake Forest's Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials"

    Seriously? That's a little bit too long. MacGyver Photonics has a much nicer ring to it.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  5. i have a similar technology for 3rd world solar by circletimessquare · · Score: 5, Funny

    my tech is extremely advanced

    what i do is a store the construction information for a prefab nanoscale solar cell set up in a small protected sphere. with a little coaxing, the information stored in the sphere will begin assembling the solar array in a progressive manner that scales well in a fractal pattern that also maximizes solar exposure, including proprietary feedback mechanisms that is highly sensitive intellectual proerty. the solar assemblies are also plant based like the pokeberry mentioned one and are easily configured to various 3rd world climates

    the solar technology i employ even cleans up greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and converts it into oxygen, water, and an energy storage compound which also happens to taste delicious. this solar product can be utilized as an energy source by 3rd world peoples in a variety of ways, including direct reconstitution to carbon via a high energy oxygen based deconstruction process that also produces a form of heating, or- get this, this is the part i'm most proud of- the 3rd world residents can consume the solar arrays DIRECTLY and their own bodies can utilize the energy storage medium for biological sustenance

    how come nobody thought of this tech before?

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
    1. Re:i have a similar technology for 3rd world solar by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 3, Funny

      Have you considered getting some seed capital and commercializing that one?

  6. Re:And abandoned fields... by causality · · Score: 4, Funny

    And of course, you can use the leaves for poke salad. With a lot of boiling...

    Not meaning to sound like a dick, but it's poke salat. There was even a song about it way back in the day, Poke Salat Annie.

    Don't ask me what salat means, though. I have no idea.

    It's a German word that roughly translates to "Google me to learn what I mean in about ten seconds".

    --
    It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
  7. Re:Pokeberry's weed status is endangered by spookymonster · · Score: 3, Funny

    One man's weed is another man's smoke. It's all perspective, baby.

    --
    - Despite popular opinion, I am not perfect.
  8. Re:And abandoned fields... by migla · · Score: 2, Funny

    It is a clue relating to an old worldwide mystery. "salat" means "the secrets" in Finnish. I can't tell you anything more than that right now. Just trust me, you will find the coming couple of days strangely erotic...

    --
    Some of my favourite people are from th US; Vonnegut, Chomsky, Bill Hicks.
  9. Re:Pokeberry's weed status is endangered by fifedrum · · Score: 3, Funny

    they weren't weeds 150 years ago, people used the juice for a base for ink. they're toxic though, so boil it 14 times, throw the sauce away and eat the pot.

  10. Re:Unobtainium Still Required by Sexy+Commando · · Score: 2, Funny

    Professor Farnsworth, is that you?

  11. Re:And abandoned fields... by St.Creed · · Score: 2, Funny

    ... I don't remember the flower stage. I had to kill it with fire. Not joking.

    The flower stage is when the sprouts spread to unsuspecting humans and enter their brains through the nose, making them forget it happened in the process.

    Have fun :)

    --
    Therefore, by the (faulty) logic you're using, you're just a cow with a keyboard - osu-neko (2604)
  12. Re:Still need nuclear by Loko+Draucarn · · Score: 2, Funny

    You are Freeman Dyson and I claim my five pounds.