MIT Perfects The Low Cost Artificial Leaf

Back in July 2011 we published an exciting little post on MIT’s work with artificial leaves - MITs Artificial Leaf  - based on a silicon solar cell.

The leaf consists of a thin, flat, three-layered silicon solar cell with catalysts bonded to both faces of the silicon. Placed in water and exposed to sunlight, silicon absorbs photons of sunlight, generating electrons with enough energy to conduct through the silicon.

The process leaves behind positively charged electron vacancies called “holes” that can also move through the material. The holes migrate to a cobalt-containing catalyst painted on one face of the silicon cell, where they strip electrons from water molecules, breaking them into hydrogen ions (H+), and oxygen atoms. The catalyst then knits pairs of oxygens together to make O2. Meanwhile, the H+ ions migrate to another catalyst on the opposite face of the silicon cell, where they combine with conducting electrons to make molecules of H2. In principle, the H2 can then be stored and either burned or run through a fuel cell to generate electricity.

This is Photocatalytic water splitting, world meet the ARTIFICIAL LEAF!

Professor Daniel Nocera’s work has finally borne fruit. Nocera’s team developed the catalyst three years ago, the first practical artificial leaf has now been developed, and this new technology may help to deliver efficient carbon neutral energy to the world’s poor and developing nations.

Building on their previous research, the researchers at MIT in Boston have created an artificial leaf that, unlike earlier devices is made from inexpensive materials, and employs  low-cost engineering and manufacturing processes :: Read the full article »»»»

Chinese Tree Offers Hope For Alcoholics

Researchers at the University of California – UCLA –  are investigating a 500-year-old Chinese hangover cure in the hope they can put its properties into a pill to help alcoholics and stave off hangovers. Alcoholism is a huge problem globally, killing 2.5 million people each year according to the World Health Organization. There has been serious research recently looking for drugs that stop people drinking, or at least encourage them to drink less.

In an article published in the latest issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, they describe how dihydromyricetin blocks the action of alcohol on the brain and neurons and also reduces voluntary alcohol consumption, with no major side effects, in an early study with rats. Only an estimated 13 percent of people identified as having an alcohol use disorder receive medical treatment, partly due to a lack of effective medications without major side effects. Read the full article »»»»

Lieberman’s Barefoot Runnings

A softer ride for barefoot runners

Theres nothing like a barefoot run in the park, grass between your toes and an exfoliation socks can only dream of. So why don’t we do it more often? fear of foot damage, germs and an all round sheltered life!? Then of course theres the age old question, Heel Strike or Ball First?

It turns out that barefoot endurance runners may have a more cushioned ride than most people who run in shoes, according to a biomechanical analysis. Barefoot long-distance running has been a small but growing trend in the athletics community, driven in part by popular books and articles that maintain that runners might get fewer injuries if they ran the way humans evolved to run,  without supportive, cushioned running shoes. But although the idea is seductive, with running shoe companies recently marketing ‘minimal’ footwear, there has until now been little evidence to support the claims. Read the full article »»»»