40% is just the efficiency of the individual molecules in converting photons to electric charge. The overall efficiency of the device must be abysmal. The real breakthrough here lies in the fact that these guys can disassemble and reassemble the component light harvesting molecules of the device. This is important since photovoltaic devices using organic molecules are prone to degradation during irradiation by sunlight (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymer_solar_cell).
Hold on a minute there. I haven't read the PNAS article only the one posted on medicaldaily.com, but it seems to me that nobody has said anything about intelligence, or problemsolving ability here, only memory (although it is highly interlinked with intelligence).
Humans will certainly be around, there is not much doubt about that. However, our way of life, the way we do things and live our lives ie. civilization will suffer a massive shock which it will not survive unchanged.
I think the article strikes a general note that is true. The continuation of our civilization (way of life) is strongly dependent on the availability and the price of energy.
Here's an interesting talk from a man who studies the collapse of civilizations, Jared Diamond.
"The bird dropped some bread on a section of outdoor machinery, eventually leading to significant over heating in parts of the accelerator."
I've seen this before. On one side we have a huge and expensive piece of machinery, bent on destroying a planet, using a high energy beam. On the other side we have our hero, cleverly dropping his projectile into the right spot, being able to cripple the machine.
Slashdot Mirror
40% is just the efficiency of the individual molecules in converting photons to electric charge. The overall efficiency of the device must be abysmal. The real breakthrough here lies in the fact that these guys can disassemble and reassemble the component light harvesting molecules of the device. This is important since photovoltaic devices using organic molecules are prone to degradation during irradiation by sunlight (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymer_solar_cell).
Hold on a minute there. I haven't read the PNAS article only the one posted on medicaldaily.com, but it seems to me that nobody has said anything about intelligence, or problemsolving ability here, only memory (although it is highly interlinked with intelligence).
Bah. I'll wait until it's ported to linux.
What about /b/?
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There's one in each of us.
"Wow, I've beaten WOW !!! Ok sweet! Now what?"
Humans will certainly be around, there is not much doubt about that. However, our way of life, the way we do things and live our lives ie. civilization will suffer a massive shock which it will not survive unchanged.
I think the article strikes a general note that is true. The continuation of our civilization (way of life) is strongly dependent on the availability and the price of energy.
Here's an interesting talk from a man who studies the collapse of civilizations, Jared Diamond.
"The bird dropped some bread on a section of outdoor machinery, eventually leading to significant over heating in parts of the accelerator."
I've seen this before. On one side we have a huge and expensive piece of machinery, bent on destroying a planet, using a high energy beam. On the other side we have our hero, cleverly dropping his projectile into the right spot, being able to cripple the machine.
"break chemical bonds or ionize electrons"
Don't know about breaking apart DNA, but I'm pretty sure they can't ionize electrons.