Showing 20 articles starting at article 1
Categories: Energy: Alternative Fuels, Paleontology: Early Mammals and Birds
Published New nano-device could mean your run could power your electrical wearables
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Your early morning run could soon help harvest enough electricity to power your wearable devices, thanks to new nanotechnology.
Published To kill mammoths in the Ice Age, people used planted pikes, not throwing spears, researchers say
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Archeologists say new findings might help resolve the debate about Clovis points and reshape how we think about what life was like roughly 13,000 years ago. After an extensive review of writings and artwork -- and an experiment with replica Clovis point spears -- a team of archaeologists says humans may have braced the butt of their weapons against the ground in a way that would impale a charging animal. The force would have driven the spear deeper into the predator's body, unleashing a more damaging blow than even the strongest prehistoric hunters would have been capable of by throwing or jabbing megafauna.
Published New theory could improve the design and operation of wind farms
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new model accurately represents the airflow around rotors, even under extreme conditions. The first comprehensive model of rotor aerodynamics could improve the way turbine blades and wind farms are designed and how wind turbines are controlled.
Published Sharing risk to avoid power outages in an era of extreme weather
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Heat waves, droughts, and fires place growing stress on the West's electric grid. New research suggests that more integrated management of electricity resources across the region could significantly reduce the risk of power outages and accelerate the transition to clean energy.
Published Fossil hotspots in Africa obscure a more complete picture of human evolution
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study shows how the mismatch between where fossils are preserved and where humans likely lived may influence our understanding of early human evolution.
Published Rethinking the dodo
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers are setting out to challenge our misconceptions about the Dodo, one of the most well-known but poorly understood species of bird. Researchers have undertaken the most comprehensive review of the taxonomy of the Dodo and its closest relative, the Rodriguez Island Solitaire.
Published A method that paves the way for improved fuel cell vehicles
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source More efficient and longer-lasting fuel cells are essential for fuel cell-powered heavy-duty hydrogen vehicles to be an alternative to combustion fuelled counterparts. Researchers have developed an innovative method to study and understand how parts of fuel cells degrade over time. This is an important step towards the improved performance of fuel cells and them becoming commercially successful.
Published Measuring Martian winds with sound
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Martian landers have been able capture measurements of wind speeds -- some gauging the cooling rate of heated materials when winds blow over them, others using cameras to image 'tell-tales' that blow in the wind -- but there's still room for improvement. Researchers now demonstrate a novel sonic anemometric system featuring a pair of narrow-band piezoelectric transducers to measure the travel time of sound pulses through Martian air. The study accounted for variables including transducer diffraction effects and wind direction.
Published Cricket physics: Science behind the modern bowler technique tricking batters
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have started to unravel the mysteries of how near-horizontal bowling in cricket leads to such tough-to-hit balls. The team employed a wake survey rake device made of multiple tubes designed to capture the pressure downstream of the ball and examined the flow dynamics of cricket balls rotating up to 2,500 rpm in a wind tunnel. The group found that low-pressure zones expanded and intensified near the ball when spinning, while these zones shifted and diminished downstream. At higher spin rates, the low-pressure zone begins to change to a persistent bilobed shape. The results lend support to the theory that these newer bowling techniques tap into the Magnus effect.
Published Engineering researchers enhance perovskite solar cells durability with first-of-its-kind chiral-structured 'springy' interface
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A research team has constructed an unprecedented chiral-structured interface in perovskite solar cells, which enhances the reliability and power conversion efficiency of this fast-advancing solar technology and accelerates its commercialization.
Published Early mammals lived longer
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source What distinguishes the growth and development patterns of early mammals of the Jurassic period? Paleontologists have been able to gauge the lifespan and growth rates of these ancient animals, and even when they reached maturity, by studying growth rings in fossilized tooth roots.
Published When mammoths roamed Vancouver Island
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Mammoths, the massive pre-historic ice age cousins of the modern-day elephant, have always been understood to have inhabited parts of British Columbia, but the question of when has always been a bit woolly. Now, a new study has given scientists the clearest picture yet when the giant mammals roamed Vancouver Island.
Published Giant prehistoric flying reptile took off using similar method to bats, study finds
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The pterosaur likely used all four limbs to propel itself in the air, as seen in bats today, researchers have found.
Published Stacking molecules like plates improves organic solar device performance
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers found that how well light-converting molecules stack together in a solid is important for how well they convert light into electric current. A rigid molecule that stacked well showed excellent electricity generation in an organic solar cell and photocatalyst, easily outperforming a similar flexible molecule that did not stack well. This new way of improving the design of molecules could be used to pioneer the next generation of light-converting devices.
Published Fossil shows how penguins' wings evolved
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A tiny fossil penguin plays a huge role in the evolutionary history of the bird, an international study shows.
Published Engineering researchers crack the code to boost solar cell efficiency and durability
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Photovoltaic (PV) technologies, which convert light into electricity, are increasingly applied worldwide to generate renewable energy. Researchers have now developed a molecular treatment that significantly enhances the efficiency and durability of perovskite solar cells. Their breakthrough will potentially accelerate the large-scale production of this clean energy.
Published More electricity from the sun
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A coating of solar cells with special organic molecules could pave the way for a new generation of solar panels. This coating can increase the efficiency of monolithic tandem cells made of silicon and perovskite while lowering their cost -- because they are produced from industrial, microstructured, standard silicon wafers.
Published New understanding of fly behavior has potential application in robotics, public safety
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have identified an automatic behavior in flies that helps them assess wind conditions -- its presence and direction -- before deploying a strategy to follow a scent to its source. The fact that they can do this is surprising -- can you tell if there's a gentle breeze if you stick your head out of a moving car? Flies aren't just reacting to an odor with a preprogrammed response: they are responding in context-appropriate manner. This knowledge potentially could be applied to train more sophisticated algorithms for scent-detecting drones to find the source of chemical leaks.
Published Fresh light on the path to net zero
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have used magnetic fields to reveal the mystery of how light particles split. Scientists are closer to giving the next generation of solar cells a powerful boost by integrating a process that could make the technology more efficient by breaking particles of light photons into small chunks.
Published The ancestor of all modern birds probably had iridescent feathers
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Birds tend to be more colorful in the tropics, and scientists wanted to find out how they got there: if colorful feathers evolved in the tropics, or if tropical birds have brightly-colored ancestors that came to the region from somwhere else. Scientists built a database of 9,409 birds to explore the spread of color across the globe. They found that iridescent, colorful feathers originated 415 times across the bird tree of life, and in most cases, arose outside of the tropics -- and that the ancestor of all modern birds likely had iridescent feathers, too.