Understanding the properties of something chaotic such as a bowl of spaghetti may seem a daunting task. But that’s what Garry Rumbles from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in the USA, Natalie Stingelin from Imperial College London in the UK, and coworkers are trying to do. With success. They study polymers – long spaghetti-like molecules [...]
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Tag Archives: solar cells
2010 – twelve months of great science
December 27, 2010
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The past year has been a great year for science with major advances in several areas. Too many exciting results to mention here. Instead, to reflect about the past year I have chosen a representative paper for each month of the year that I hope can serve as an example of the great science going [...]
Read moreRedoubled efforts in solar cells
October 4, 2010
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Solar energy is obviously one of the key renewable energy resources available to us. At the same time researchers are hitting against a glass ceiling. A famous 1961 paper by William Shockley (who co-invented the transistor) and Hans Queisser comes to the conclusion that for a semiconductor such as silicon the maximum conversion efficiency of [...]
Read moreIn other news: self-regenerating solar cells
September 10, 2010
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This week my colleagues at Nature Chemistry landed an impressive scoop, the publication of a paper by Michael Strano and colleagues from MIT on self-regenerating solar cells. The performance of any kind of solar cell tends to degrade over time. This is particularly the case for organic solar cells, where sunlight can easily destroy the structure of the [...]
Read moreSolar cells brought into shape
August 31, 2010
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Solar energy is a huge market and any improvement to the efficiency of solar cells has a significant impact. In 2008, worldwide photovoltaic solar energy production was about 5 gigawatts, and this is expected to rise to 15 gigawatts in 2015. To put this figure in context, a nuclear reactor produces around 1 to 1.5 [...]
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Welcome to my personal blog, where I write about the latest exciting developments in the physical sciences. As editor at one of the leading scientific journals in the physical sciences I bring my own perspective to the latest trends in the field.
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- Great, the physics Nobel prize for graphene! Now don’t overhype it…
- Science in the age of austerity
- Transparency in peer review
- Semiconductor optical switches reach the speed of light
- What are the realistic promises of metamaterials and cloaking?
- The air is getting thinner for silicon’s competitors
- High-risk research can’t be kept secret forever
- The economics of science
- Decisions, decisions
- Transistors reach the single atom limit
- Why fancy illustrations are so wrong
- From ‘abbreviations’ to ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’
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medical billing technician: Though I agree that high-risk research can't be ke...
- Disegnare la fisica | Quantum Beat: [...] tempo fa, Joerg Heber si lamentava (clic) de...
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maurymw: Should be happens via a small electric current tha...
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Why do we need academic journals in the first place? — Tech News and Analysis: [...] academic journals are supposed to provide so...
- ResearchBlogging.org News » Blog Archive » Editor’s Selections: Dropout electrons, Single-atom transistors, and Apple/Cracker Pie: [...] continues in the field of quantum computing....
