April 11, 2012

Good Morning,

Can you imagine charging your phone or laptop with just sunlight? Well European and Japanese researchers have developed a solar cell that may be small enough to enable such technology. Check out the second article for more details on these ultra-small solar cells.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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Star's dust ring hints at alien planets

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - A ring of dust around a nearby star may owe its unusually tidy appearance to the possible presence of two planets sculpting the ring, U.S. researchers say. The dust ring around the star Fomalhaut, just 25 light-years away from Earth, is thin with sharply defined inner and outer edges, a shape astrophysicists say is unlikely unless something is shepherding the ring particles into line. "The best explanation so far is that there are two planets out there," astrophysicist Aaron Boley of the University of Florida told ScienceNews.org. Boley and his colleagues used a collection of radio telescopes in the Chilean high desert to map the location of particles that are tugged around only by the gravity of planets and not by the radiation from a star. "We want to look at material that's only affected by the planet," Boley says. What they found was a dust a ring with well-defined edges, suggesting the presence of so-called shepherding bodies. "We do see a similar scenario in our solar system, with the Epsilon ring of Uranus being herded by two small moons," astrophysicist Ray Jayawardhana of the University of Toronto said. Planets, not moons, could be responsible for sculpting the Fomalhaut ring, researchers said, one cleaning up the inner edge and the other doing the same to the outer edge. The planets are each probably between the size of Mars and a super-Earth, they said, too small to be seen or detected with available technologies, "These sharp edges of the disk do indicate that there should be some planet in there that hasn't necessarily been seen yet," astronomer Markus Janson of Princeton University said.


Ultra-thin solar cells developed

TOKYO - Japanese and European researchers say they've developed solar cells thinner than a thread of spider silk and flexible enough to be wrapped around a human hair. At just 1.9 micrometers in thickness, a 10th of the thinnest solar cells now available, they could find a number of new future uses, researchers said, including portable electrical charging devices or electronic textiles woven into clothing. "Being ultra-thin means you don't feel its weight and it is elastic," researcher Tsuyoshi Sekitani from the University of Tokyo said. "You could attach the device to your clothes like a badge to collect electricity [from the sun]. Elderly people who might want to wear sensors to monitor their health would not need to carry around batteries," he said in a report published the online science journal Nature Communications. Researchers from Johannes Kepler University of Austria and from the University of Tokyo, who collaborated on the thin solar cells, say they believe they could be put to practical use within five years, Britain's Daily Telegraph reported.


Company touts self-healing film for screen

TOKYO - A Japanese firm says it is getting ready to mass produce a film coating that will allow scratches on electronic device screens to self-heal. Toray Advanced Film Co. said its "Self-cure Coat Film" repairs itself quickly and automatically if scratched or scuffed, solving the problem of marred finishes and reduced visibility that has bedeviled the touch screen industry. The company said the film can heal itself in as little as 10 seconds at room temperature, physorg.com reported Monday. The film can only heal itself if a scratch is less than or equal to the film's depth, the company said. The thicker the film, the deeper the scratches that can heal. But thicker film means less light from the device screen can pass through it. In a test, one coated device was subjected to 20,000 scratches and still kept on healing, the company reported.


Forensic technique tags firearm type

ALBANY, N.Y. - A new forensic technique using lasers may allow investigators to match gunshot residue to a specific caliber of firearm, U.S. and European researchers say. The new technique could lead to a stronger link between a suspect and a firearm, they said. Researchers in Spain used spectroscopy to analyze six kinds of ammunition, assessing propellant from unfired cartridges then compared these spectra to the signature in residue from fired guns, ScienceNews.org reported. The analysis revealed a particular residue signature for each type of ammunition, the researchers said. U.S. scientists at the University of Albany in New York also employed spectroscopy to look for an ammunition signature in gunshot residue, comparing residue from a 9 mm and from a 0.38 special. While the spectra looked similar, statistical analysis allowed the researchers to differentiate between the two calibers, they said. The approach could be used to quickly rule out specific firearms found on a suspect or at a crime scene, researchers said. "Anything that's going to enhance or expedite the detection of gunshot residue and provide stronger evidentiary value is a way forward," chemist Jason Birkett of Liverpool John Moores University in England said.

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