by Jason Patocka
March 30, 2010
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.
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by Savan Thongvanh
March 2, 2010
EPA NAMES PANASONIC HOME & ENVIRONMENT COMPANY2010 ENERGY STAR® PARTNER OF THE YEAR
Panasonic earns award for protecting the environment through manufacturing energy-efficient products.
Secaucus, NJ (March 1, 2010) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has named Panasonic Home & Environment Company as a 2010 ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year for its outstanding contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by manufacturing energy-efficient products and helping to educate consumers about those products. Panasonic’s accomplishments will be recognized at an awards ceremony in Washington, D.C. on March 18, 2010. (more…)
by Jason Patocka
February 16, 2010
Battery life is the bane of most people’s existence, including mine. The good news is that there is certainly lots of buzz among materials engineers to develop something with greater capacity and efficiency than the ubiquitous lithium ion battery. Lewei Linat UC Berkeley is taking a different approach to extending battery life by using piezoelectric nanowires to generate electricity. For those of you new to the growing field of piezoelectric engineering, its where scientists and engineers are trying to develop novel materials that harvest kinetic energy. In other words, making a jacket that harvests electricity as a byproduct of your movement.
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