The American Chemical Society assembled its grand hive mind of chemists for the 239th time in San Francisco last week. Among the 12,000 presentations delivered across a wide spectrum of scientific disciplines, a presentation by doctors Tongxiang Fan, Di Zhang, and Han Zhou of the State Key Lab of Matrix Composites at Shanghai Jiaotong University highlighted a rapidly growing trend in chemical engineering. The group presented efforts towards designing renewable energy systems with a synthetic leaf, where the prototype would capture photons and use them to change water into hydrogen fuel.
The Shanghai Jiaotong University team’s designed system leverages photosynthetic tools to incorporate nature’s efficiency into our everyday insatiable demand for energy. This approach to engineering is part of a larger engineering trend called biomimicry that is starting to dominate peer reviewed publications worldwide.
Global energy demand is only projected to increase, and competition for new energy harvesting methods is going to be fierce in years ahead.
Its exciting to think about where this research will lead. As the threats of peak oil production and climate change loom over the global economy, ideas like this are most welcome. Let us hope that the science can endure the sociopolitical uncertainties of transition, greed, and entrenched special interest.
How much is it?
Comment by Brianna — March 24, 2010 @ 1:20 pm
Neither HTC or Sprint have hinted at the price yet
Comment by savanthongvanh — March 24, 2010 @ 1:33 pm
6 Megabits? In Hong Kong we already have 21 Megabits! and it's still considered 3.5G…our 4G speeds are forecasted to be in the range of 50Mbps!
Comment by Max — March 24, 2010 @ 1:52 pm
Max, yes, US speeds suck. According to Sprint their 4g speeds will average 3-6MB/s http://www.nextel.com/en/solutions/mobile_broad...
Comment by savanthongvanh — March 24, 2010 @ 2:11 pm
I'm still using dial up. Damn dats fasssssst
Comment by 4gfool — March 25, 2010 @ 1:41 am
Well, I've been obsessively checking every day, all day long for news of a 2.1 upgrade for my Hero. To be honest, I didn't think we would see a 4g phone until the end of the year. It may be impetuous and ridiculously optimistic, but I'm planning to buy the Evo for myself and my boyfriend just as soon as it hits the shelf. I've been waiting a long time for this kind of hardware on an Android device. I was an early adopter. I've had a G1, a myTouch and now a Hero. My dad has my boyfriend's old G1, My boyfriend and I both have Sprint Heros now. We had to switch networks when we couldn't get voice or data coverage in our home or offices. We have Clear Networks as an ISP, so I'm super psyched to see Sprint partnering with them. And I'm way excited about the possibility of simultaneous voice/data services. Anyway, glad to find a community like http://www.Evo4Gforum.net with full of people as anxious as I am for the release of the Evo.
Comment by coolfx35 — April 5, 2010 @ 1:49 am