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Fly Eyes Used For Solar Cells
disco_tracy writes "Researchers took corneas from blow flies, fixed them on a glass substrate, added a polymer to protect the shape and then coated nine-eye arrays in nickel within a vacuum chamber. The result was a master template that retained those useful nanoscale features and can be used to make solar cells."
welcome our electric fly overlords
man....peta's gonna have a heart-attack....perhaps even an aneurysm too.
On one hand, they want to support alternative energy....but for them to know that flies were harmed...
I for one welcome our solar powered blow fly overlords.
Come to Australia so we can strip search you and rob you of your internets, pr0n, rights and freedoms.
I expected something a little more symmetrical - better use of space
How hard is it to remove a fly's cornea, and can the process be automated from a cloud of flies?
I can see the headline now:
PETA Blocks Alternative Energy Research
What, they use inflammatory headlines all the time, might as well give 'em a taste of their own medicine!
This game will waste your life. Don't clicky!
Are they in need of more fly eyes? Perhaps my extensive collection might now be worth some money!
Gonna replace my flyswatter with a butterfly net.
Help meeeeeeeeee!!!!
I know how this one goes. First you start taking the eyes out of blowflies for 'solar energy research', but before you know it it's all gone downhill and you're pulling the wings off butterflies to make your product the right shade of red.
I've often wondered why God made such a worthless, pesky creature. To give us solar power?! I gotta admit, this is very interesting.
Come off it. PETA's platform doesn't include energy policy. If they bitch about fly eyes, that won't make them hypocrites.
Say it right: "Nuc-le-ah Powah".
>> PETA's platform doesn't include energy policy.
That statement related to the environmental impact of current sources of energy. Which they do care about: http://blog.peta.org/archives/environment
So there's a fly on the wall. I was about to swat it when the bartender said to me "Noooo, don't do it!!!". I asked why, and he said "because it's charging".
Thanks for the list of individuals' blog posts which happen to be tagged "environment". Many of which make no mention of energy of any kind, alternative or otherwise.
I was actually trolling for the PETA organization's platform statement of policy agenda regarding alternative energy, as the OP claimed. Can you google *that* for me?
Say it right: "Nuc-le-ah Powah".
Not hard, and yes: winged micro-sharks with lasers. Genentech is working on them right now.
Now they'll smash into parked windshields. Nice going, guys.
Table-ized A.I.
... of the lens they're after. Wouldn't a better approach be to take one eye (the best candidate based on performance) and find a way to scale up its duplication? With some sort of MEMS duplicator that stamps out one copy, moves some amount, stamps out another, etc., etc.
Eventually, we are going to want to make sheets of these that measure meters on a side. Paying grad students to glue fly eyeballs to a sheet doesn't seem to be the most efficient process.
Have gnu, will travel.
Are there any results as to how much electrical power was generated? Voltages? Currents? Anything?
Can they wire up my house from the existing collection of fly eyes currently located in my windowsill?
Now do that with bot fly eyes! That fucker lived in my arm rent-free for a few weeks.
The game.
Substrate? Nanoscale?
Stop using buzzwords...
*cough*
Homonyms are fun!
You're driving your car, but they're riding their bikes there.
Feel my stare, always there
There's nothing you can do about it
Develop and expose
I feed upon your photons
And so my power grows
I'm made of metal
My circuits gleam
I am perpetual
I keep the country clean
Animal parts... but used to develop solar tech... omg!
What to do with the leftover flies?
http://spatulatzar.com/fly_plane/original.jpg
But that sir is without question. Pets == Slaves.
Now if you excuse me, I have to clean my cats litter box, buy food for it, entertain it, and sit still for about 8 hours as it sleeps on my lap unless I wish to talk in a high voice.
FREE HUMANS! Oh shit, it heard HELP M[CARRIER LOST]
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Unfortunately, this entire line of argument has gone off the rails.
Saying that PETA is hypocritical for having a position on alternative energy but opposing a particular scheme is just plain silly. The primary good they are pursuing is animal welfare. Energy policy has *utility* toward that good. An energy policy that promotes animal welfare is from their perspective a good thing. They are perfectly entitled to dislike a policy that harms animals, whether that policy is "alternative" or "conventional".
If we applied the very low standards for hypocrisy floating around in the background of this argument consistently, everyone would be a hypocrite. If you said, "I'm against government interference in the way businesses conduct their affairs," I could say, "Aha, but you *also* think that party A in a dispute should be able to avail itself of state power to compel B to comply with a contract. Since that interferes with how B conducts its business, you are a hypocrite." Then we can have a long and pointless argument about the meaning of "interfere" and "compel", when we both know darn well your position is that businesses should have an environment where they are free to identify and pursue their rational self-interest. From this point of view the impingement of others' self interest on that freedom is what is wrong, whether it is private fraud or public regulation beyond what is necessary to secure that freedom.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Have the scientists figured out how to eliminate the buzzing noise these new solar cells will surely generate?
If "disco" means "I learn" in Latin, does "discothèque" mean "I learn technology"?
Teddybear
Not hard, and yes: winged micro-sharks with lasers. Genentech is working on them right now.
Informative? WTF!
You will not drink with us, but you would taste our steel? - Walter Matthau, The Pirates
I know... that's funnier than my attempted joke. I'm going back to pulling the wings offa bees now and leave the humor to the experts.