Gizmorama - December 1, 2014

Good Morning,

Blu-rays are not only great for enhancing the picture and sound quality of your favorite movies and TV shows, they can also enhance the sun-absorbing abilities of solar panels.

Learn about this and more interesting stories from the scientific community in today's issue.

Until Next Time,
Erin

P.S. Did you miss an issue? You can read every issue from the Gophercentral library of newsletters on our exhaustive archives page. Thousands of issues, all of your favorite publications in chronological order. You can read AND comment. Just click GopherArchives

***
* Recycled Blu-ray discs improve solar panels *
CHICAGO (UPI) - In terms of movie-watching, Blu-rays have become largely obsolete (or at least undesired) -- rendered so by the ascent of Netflix and other streaming services. But that doesn't mean the blue-bottomed discs are useless. It turns out they're great for enhancing the sun-absorbing abilities of solar panels.

The minuscule patterns etched into the bottom of the discs are perfect for capturing and scattering light onto the energy absorption technologies of modern solar panels. The discs themselves, of course, block most light. But the discs themselves aren't applied -- their pattern is simply borrowed and replicated on the panel.

Scientists already knew a quasi-random pattern of microscopic grooves was ideal for capturing and dispersing light as it hits the surface of a solar panel. But manufacturing such a pattern is expensive. Blu-rays offer a viable shortcut.

"We had a hunch that Blu-ray discs might work for improving solar cells, and, to our delight, we found the existing patterns are already very good," Jiaxing Huang, a materials chemist and solar panel expert at Northwestern University, said in a press release. "It's as if electrical engineers and computer scientists developing the Blu-ray technology have been subconsciously doing our jobs, too."

Huang and his colleagues at Northwestern University first created a negative mold of the bottoms of Blu-ray discs. They then pressed the Blue-ray molds into a thin coat of liquid plastic, leaving behind the Blue-ray's signature stamp. Finally, the transparent plastic sheet is placed atop the solar panels. Testing showed the Blu-ray-patterned panels were able to absorb 21.8 percent more light than regular panels.

The ideal pattern for creating an iridescent scattering effect is one that's semi-random, and extremely condensed -- Blu-ray sequencing in a nutshell.

Superior to DVDs in their data storage abilities, Blu-rays compress so much information onto such a small surface using data processing algorithms that translate video signals into a sequence of zeros and ones. While seemingly random, the sequence actually has a bit of redundancy built in, limiting too many consecutive zeros or ones.

"It has been quite unexpected and truly thrilling to see new science coming out of the intersection of information theory, nanophotonics and materials science," Huang added.

The revelation of Huang and his colleagues is detailed in the journal Nature Communications.


*-- DIY microscope could save scientists thousands of dollars --*
LONDON (UPI) - An inverted microscope, a high-tech tool used in science labs at research centers all over the world, can cost upwards of $10,000. But when researchers at Brunel University London needed more than one to run multiple simultaneous tests, they considered a cheaper alternative -- a cheap USB microscope turned upside down.

Adam Lynch and his colleagues, who were attempting to study cell motility, needed inverted microscopes to automatically test multiple cell samples. But while Lynch needed the magnification offered by high-powered machines, he didn't need a high resolution image.

"When you're looking at motility in cells you're only interested in the data -- how fast the cell gets from A to B means more than a high-resolution image," Lynch explained in press release. "Even with a high-cost microscope you will reduce the image down so that it's just a black dot on the screen moving against a white background so that it's easier for a computer to read."

By combining the forces of three USB microscopes he purchased online, Lynch was able to replicate the effects of an inverted microscope for a fraction of the cost. Lynch estimates he spent approximately $250 on the DIY microscope. The hack wasn't perfect, but it was good enough to allow Lynch and his colleagues to complete their study.

"It worked OK, as I could sort of see cells, which are about 50 micrometers long, but the images weren't fantastic," he said. "But people don't realize that you can quite easily make a high-magnification microscope, it's just a matter of getting a lens and the right angle of lighting, so when I turned off the lighting that came with the instrument and used external lights I found I could see the cells quite clearly."

Lynch detailed his engineering feat in the latest issue of PLOS ONE.

"If money is no object you can do something better," Lynch admitted, "but money certainly is an object and really the only way we could get meaningful data without spending a disproportionate amount of time in the lab was this."

Missed an Issue? Visit the Gizmorama Archives