A research team at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, USA, has created a new 3D solar cell that traps photons more efficiently than any photovoltaic device currently in operation. Thanks to microscopic tower structures – 100 microns high, 40 microns by 40 microns square, 10 microns apart, and made of millions of vertically-aligned carbon nanotubes – the cell reflects back far fewer photons than the conventional systems, thus greatly increasing its efficiency at any angle from the source of light.

Future optimization of the cell is planned, along with testing of its operation in space as part of satellites power-producing systems. Back on Earth, this new cost-effective technology may soon give the use of solar energy a more realistic outlook.

Unique three-dimensional solar cells that capture nearly all of the light that strikes them could boost the efficiency of photovoltaic (PV) systems while reducing their size, weight and mechanical complexity.

Source: Georgia Institute of Technology Research News

The search for an extra-solar planet with the same composition and size as Earth – therefore a good contender for the presence of life – is rendered extremely difficult by the glare of the star it orbits, and has often been compared to “looking for a firefly next to a searchlight.” Two scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, USA, have devised a new method to mask the glare of the star and thus increase the chances of finding a much dimmer body close to it.

Science-fiction fans may rejoice at the prospect of discovering a twin planet to ours, but we still will have a long way to go before we can build space ships able to travel to what will certainly be a very distant world. Whatever other life there may be in the Universe, it is still quite safe from Mankind’s interference.

For the first time ever, NASA researchers have successfully demonstrated in the laboratory that a space telescope rigged with special masks and mirrors could snap a photo of an Earth-like planet orbiting a nearby star. This accomplishment marks a dramatic step forward for missions like the proposed Terrestrial Planet Finder, designed to hunt for an Earth twin that might harbor life.

Source: Science Daily

A previous report on the absence of detectable water on an extra-solar planet had spurred the comparison with Frank Herbert’s famous “Planet Dune”, also known as Arrakis. New analysis of the data collected by the Hubble space telescope has shown that the planet is likely to harbor water in its atmosphere. Some scientists, however, remain skeptical as to the results of the analysis and suggest that it may simply be instrumental noise caused by the telescope itself.

Even if there is indeed water on “Arrakis”, this is not quite the place where space tourism is likely to flourish in the next centuries. With a surface temperature of about 1,000°Celsius and an orbit closer to its star than Mercury is to the Sun, this planet would certainly give you more than a mere suntan!

Source: New Scientist

A team of researchers at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (Columbia University, New York, USA) has forecasted that the Southwestern United States may well be completely dry by the middle of this century. A combination of human-induced climate change and water demand increase due to population growth will soon transform this region into a desert if nothing is done. This permanent drought is also likely to hit other sub-tropical regions of the globe, such as southern Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, as well as some parts of South America.

If these models are correct, the levels of aridity of the recent multiyear drought, or the Dust Bowl and 1950s droughts, will, within the coming years to decades, become the new climatology of the American Southwest.

Source: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

Smokers know that certain foods and beverages alter the taste of their cigarettes. Researchers at Duke University, North Carolina, USA, have looked into this phenomenon in more depth and have concluded that diets or gums containing the taste-altering compounds could be used to help those who decide to quit smoking.

Milk does the body good — and may help smokers break the habit, say researchers at Duke University Medical Center.

Source: Duke University