Purple Pokeberries Yield Cheap Solar Power 206
separsons writes "Researchers at Wake Forest's Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials created a low-cost solar power system geared towards developing nations. By coating fiber-based solar cells with dye from purple pokeberries, a common weed, scientists created a cheap yet highly efficient solar system. Wake Forest researchers and their accompanying company, FiberCell Inc., have filed for a patent for fiber-based solar. Plastic sheets are stamped with plastic fibers, creating millions of tiny 'cans' that trap light until it is absorbed. The fibers create a huge surface area, meaning sunlight can be collected at any angle from the time the sun rises until it sets. Coating the system with pokeberry dye creates even greater absorption: researchers say the system can produce twice as much power as traditional flat-cell technology."
Pokeberry's weed status is endangered (Score:5, Insightful)
Weeds are only weeds because we don't want them. If this solar technology takes off, the Pokeberry will cease to be a weed. Horrors!
Re:And abandoned fields... (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually poke gets toxic as it gets older. By the time it has berries, you'd best not eat it.
Now shut up and start doing the hokey pokey!
Still need nuclear (Score:1, Insightful)
Nothing will change the fact that the 1100W/m^2 (that's a napkin math theoretical maximum assuming such nice impossibilities as 100% energy capture) we're getting from the sun means going completely solar will never meet our demands. Unleash nuclear power; quit the NIMBYism and forcing the industry to use 40yr old designs and North America can be a net exporter of clean generated energy in 10 years.
Re:Pokeberries? (Score:2, Insightful)
I can't wait til PokéBerry evolves into Pokéium and we can put him nuclear reactors!
Unobtainium Still Required (Score:4, Insightful)
Or we could skip the solar panels and build a steam engine.
Re:Still need nuclear (Score:5, Insightful)
Total world energy consumption ~ 1.5 terawatts.
At 1.5x10^13 / 1.1x10^3 = 1.4e10 m^2
= 1.4e4 km^2... or roughly a patch of land just 116km x 116km.
So assuming the unachievable 100% capture, we could generate all the power we need in the world by covering the state of Connecticut with magic solar panels.
I totally support the idea of clean nuclear power, but let's get our figures straight.
Longevity? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Great... (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, solar can be hooked up directly to the building you need to power, so you could get power into a school, for example, without needing any infrastructure.
And, I can see someone using this to run one of those UV water sterilizers. Imagine that -- a method of actually getting them sanitary water.
Getting cheap power to remote places facing the problems you identify might actually help them to try to alleviate some of the problems. I bet there's loads of examples that people can identify that if you can provide power, you can do something. Having power is better than not since you get more options.
Cheers
Singularly BAD articles (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:And abandoned fields... (Score:3, Insightful)
The song's title is Poke Salad Annie:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poke_Salad_Annie [wikipedia.org]
Salad. Not "Salat".
Re:And abandoned fields... (Score:3, Insightful)
the first time I saw this stuff pop up in my yard, I really couldn't believe it. The first day there was a sprout, it was purple. The second day, it was knee high, purple. At least this is the way it seems. It really did look like a cartoon drawing of an alien plant, I expected seed pods in the front yard, each capable of implanting a crab shaped alien baby for incubation in human host. After a few weeks it was 2 meters, bright green with little hard green berries sprouting, I don't remember the flower stage. I had to kill it with fire. Not joking.
Re:Still need nuclear (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Longevity? (Score:3, Insightful)
What we really need to know (Score:1, Insightful)
Do the snozberries really taste like snozberries?
Just when... (Score:2, Insightful)
pokeWEED (Score:1, Insightful)
wikipedia article calls it Pokeweed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pokeweed
Re:Sounds like a Graetzel cell (Score:3, Insightful)
If the big problem with DSSCs is that the dye breaks down, and this dye comes from a source that's as common and easy to cultivate as pokeweed, I don't see why a dye-flush couldn't be performed on the cells when it reaches the end of its lifetime.
More stable dyes would be great, but something that can be cheaply recycled/refreshed might be just as good.
"geared towards poor people" and "patented" ... (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Pokeberries? (Score:3, Insightful)
If you think you where being rational, go back and look at the reasons you gave for a woman to be a single mother.
Go on. Ill wait. Seriously it's relevant.
All of them point to a problem with the woman.
how about: 1) Rape, 2) Father left 3) father died 4) failed birth control
I mean, really.
"Rational" would be the realization that I did not say "this list is exhaustive and without exceptions" and along with it, the appreciation that I chose not to say that; it was not a coincidence or product of chance that no such claim appears in my post. Generally, the Slashdot crowd is really great at noticing the fine details of everything you say and terribly unskilled at noticing that what you didn't say or didn't claim is at least as important.
I covered your items 2, 3, and 4 by saying "especially if she has never been married to the father". Marriages sometimes fail despite the best efforts of those involved. Now that you (in a roundabout way) ask, I will answer that I do draw a distinction between a single mother who at least waited until she was in a serious, stable relationship before having a child versus a single mother who was irresponsible and did not even consider whether she wanted to become pregnant. I wouldn't want to be in a sexual relationship with either one, but certainly one person is being a lot more responsible than the other.
Rape would be a special case indeed. It also happens not to apply to the person I was responding to, who described a "gold digger" whose primary concern was collecting child support money. He did not describe a rape victim, so my response didn't cover this subject. Context is important that way.
Basically the objections you raise there would be covered by a reasonable amount of benefit of doubt. Since you dislike what I say you're playing the hostile audience where everything I say, including the fact that I neither intended to cover all possible cases nor claimed to have done so, will be used against me. That's fine, and tells me a bit about how you can't or won't dispassionately handle a controversial issue, but it doesn't address the points I made.
It's rather obvious that I was making a generalization. The thing that is well-understood about generalizations is that there is such a thing as exceptions. I wish public schools would emphasize these basic things so they'd stop being stumbling blocks in conversations. Any actual individual person I meet is going to be treated on what you may call a "case by case" basis, as there's no other way of knowing whether my generalization applies to that specific individual. That's because general rules are, well, general, and I fully understand what that means. If you don't, that reflects on your understanding and not on my statements. Sorry to put that bluntly but it's the straight truth.
Re:Still need nuclear (Score:3, Insightful)
Energy consumption refers to energy used over a period of time, hence it has units of power and the watt is quite a sensible unit to measure it.
Re:Pokeberry's weed status is endangered (Score:3, Insightful)
not poisonous if properly prepared
Anything that might kill me if I don't prepare it just right isn't coming in my kitchen.