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Comment: Headline grabber (Score 1) 1

by Lurching (#38903177) Attached to: MIT creates solar cell from grass clippings

Nothing to see here -- keep moving.

Seriously, the costs of the "specially treated glass" will probably exceed the costs of most of the alternatives. And what kind of a usable life can we hope to get from this? Will we have to clean it and recoat it every month?

An interesting academic exercise, but not much more. Let's try news on something practical.

Medicine

Vaccine developed against Ebola->

Submitted by Lurching
Lurching writes "Scientists have developed a vaccine that protects mice against a deadly form of the Ebola virus.

First identified in 1976, Ebola fever kills more than 90% of the people it infects.

The researchers say that this is the first Ebola vaccine to remain viable long-term and can therefore be successfully stockpiled.

The results are reported in the journal Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences."
Link to Original Source
Cellphones

Verizon blocks Google Wallet on Galaxy Nexus

Submitted by adeelarshad82
adeelarshad82 writes "With nobody willing to settle on a standard for mobile wallets, Google's NFC technology seems to be suffering the consequences. In the latest development, Verizon has blocked the Samsung Galaxy Nexus from running Google Wallet presumably because Verizon backs a competing standard called Isis. Mobile Analyst Sascha Segan points out that there's just too much money and too many customers at stake for any of the big players to give up control to any of the others. The solution, as he points out, is to have devices support multiple standards."
United States

Reverse Robocall Turns Tables On Politicians-> 2

Submitted by
jfruhlinger
jfruhlinger writes "One of the great banes of election season is that any politician can shell out a few pennies per voter and phone-spam thousands of people who'd rather not hear a recorded pitch. But turnabout's fair play, and now a service called reverse robocall will deliver your recorded message to elected officials as often as you'd like for a nominal fee. If you got someone who you'd like to call repeatedly, check them out."
Link to Original Source
Biotech

These shoes were made for generating electricity->

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "A team of engineers from the University of Wisconsin have used a process called electrowetting to create about 10 watts of power from simply walking along. Electrowetting is where a liquid, usually hydrophobic, and a mixture of oil and water in this case is forced to move by applying an electric current. These shoes reverse the process and force the mixture over some electrodes, creating a current which is stored in a battery."
Link to Original Source
Power

Gas Powered Fuel Cell To Fix Electric-Car Range An->

Submitted by thecarchik
thecarchik writes "While electric-car advocates may avoid the issue, some buyers simply won't choose a plug-in car that can't travel unlimited distances. That's where the Chevy Volt-style range extender comes in, though the Volt adds unlimited range by burning gasoline in a conventional engine to generate electric power.

Now a new type of fuel cell offers the potential for a different kind of range extender, one that removes the enormous practical problem facing hydrogen fuel cells: the lack of a distribution infrastructure to fuel vehicles that require pure hydrogen to feed their fuel cells.
Researchers at the University of Maryland have managed to shrink the size and lower the operating temperature of a solid-oxide fuel cell by a factor of 10, meaning it could conceivably produce as much power as a car engine but occupy less space.

The advances come from new materials for the solid electrolyte, as well as design changes, and the researchers feel they have further avenues for improvement left to explore."
Link to Original Source
Red Hat Software

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.2 Now Shipping->

Submitted by wiredmikey
wiredmikey writes "Red Hat today announced the availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.2, the latest version of its enterprise operating system that brings significant improvements in resource management, high availability, and new features aimed at storage and file system performance and identity management.

On the performance front, enterprises can take advantage of the latest multi-core processor technology to boost and maximize performance. The latest version also brings more features and improvements in terms of operating in virtual environments and improved network performance."
Link to Original Source
NASA

Solar flares tear off tons of moon, Mars surface->

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes "NASA scientists said today that massive solar storms like the ones being thrown off by the Sun of late shave off significant portions of the moon and can sandblast other magnetically unprotected planets like Mars.

Some 100 to 200 tons of lunar material — the equivalent of 10 dump truck loads — could be stripped off the lunar surface during the typical 2-day passage of one of the Sun's intense Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs)..."
Link to Original Source

Work expands to fill the time available. -- Cyril Northcote Parkinson, "The Economist", 1955