Don't swat that pesky hornet... study it!

As every middle-school child knows, in the process of photosynthesis, plants take the sun's energy and convert it to electrical energy. Now a Tel Aviv University team has demonstrated how a member of the animal kingdom, the Oriental hornet, takes the sun's energy and converts it into electric power -- in the brown and yellow parts of its body -- as well.

In the course of their research, the Tel Aviv University team also found that the yellow and brown stripes on the hornet abdomen enable a photo-voltaic effect: the brown and yellow stripes on the hornet abdomen can absorb solar radiation, and the yellow pigment transforms that into electric power.

Physicists discover how the outer shell of a hornet can harvest solar power

In the Sahara desert, sand + sun = solar power

The Sahara Solar Breeder Project (a joint project by universities in Algeria and Japan) aims to begin by building a silicon manufacturing plant in the desert to transform silica in the sand into silicon of sufficiently high quality for use in solar panels. Solar power plants will be constructed using the solar panels, and some of the electricity generated will supply the energy needed to build more silicon plants to produce more solar panels, to produce more electricity...



Image credit: Diginfo TV

Sahara desert project aims to power half the world by 2050

Shh... Listen...Can you hear that? It's the sound of pain-free disease diagnosis

A new breakthrough in imaging technology using a combination of light and sound will allow health care providers to see microscopic details inside the body. Access to this level of detail potentially eliminates the need for some invasive biopsies, but it also has the potential to help health care providers make diagnoses earlier than ever before -- even before symptoms arise.

Unlike common ultrasound techniques that send in a sound wave and "listen" for the echo, PAT (photoacoustic tomography) sends in a light beam that excites and warms certain proteins, such as the hemoglobin in red blood cells. The minutely heated proteins emit a sound wave that is then detected by the ultrasound transducer.

Medical imaging breakthrough uses light and sound to see microscopic details inside our bodies