Nanotrees harvest the sun's energy to turn water into hydrogen fuel

Posted: 07 Mar 2012 08:23 AM PST Electrical engineers are building a forest of tiny nanowire trees in order to cleanly capture solar energy without using fossil fuels and harvest it for hydrogen fuel generation. The team said nanowires, which are made from abundant natural materials like silicon and zinc oxide, also offer a cheap way to deliver hydrogen fuel on a mass scale.

Potentially game-changing advances in energy materials

Posted: 06 Mar 2012 11:25 AM PST Specific advances in materials and manufacturing can deliver significant energy, environmental, and economic impacts to U.S. businesses in as soon as two to ten years, according to a new study.

Advancing understanding of energy storage mechanisms

Advancing understanding of energy storage mechanisms Posted: 05 Mar 2012 12:07 PM PST Materials researchers have given the engineering world a better look at the inner functions of the electrodes of supercapacitors -- the low-cost, lightweight energy storage devices used in many electronics, transportation and many other applications.

Heart-powered pacemaker could one day eliminate battery-replacement surgery

Posted: 02 Mar 2012 04:37 PM PST A new power scheme for cardiac pacemakers turns to an unlikely source: vibrations from heartbeats themselves.

Fukushima one year on: poor planning hampered Fukushima response Posted: 02 Mar 2012 05:30 AM PST One year after  an earthquake and tsunami hit Japan on March 11, 2011, an independent investigation panel has highlighted the country's failures in disaster planning and crisis management for the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. The article shows that agencies were thoroughly unprepared for the cascading nuclear disaster, following a tsunami that should have been anticipated.

Generating power from salty water: Unique salt allows energy production to move inland

Posted: 01 Mar 2012 11:37 AM PST Production of energy from the difference between salt water and fresh water is most convenient near the oceans, but now, using an ammonium bicarbonate salt solution, researchers can combine bacterial degradation of waste water with energy extracted from the salt-water fresh-water gradient to produce power anywhere.

Exotic material boosts electromagnetism safely Posted: 29 Feb 2012 07:51 AM PST Using exotic man-made materials, scientists believe they can greatly enhance the forces of electromagnetism, one of the four fundamental forces of nature, without harming living beings or damaging electrical equipment.

The 10,000-RPM, No-Pulse Heart

The 10,000-RPM, No-Pulse Heart

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SCIENCE No Pulse: How Doctors Reinvented The Human Heart This 10,000-rpm, no-pulse artificial heart doesn't resemble an organic heart--and might be all the better for it [read full story] Gallery: Lytro's Light-Field Camera Focus here. No, there! Images of the Week, February 20-24, 2012 None of us will ever be as happy as this Chinese boy going to ChompTown on some strawberries Gallery: The Six Places on Earth That Most Resemble Other Planets The most otherworldly (literally!) places on the planet ries	REVIEWS Lytro Light-Field Camera Review: Shoot, Then Focus Lytro's promise of post-shot refocusing is unlike anything we've ever seen--but does it live up to expectations? [Read full story] SEX FILES Does a Splash of Red Make a Woman More Attractive? And if so, why? [Read full story] TECHNOLOGY Under the Sea: In the Age of Wireless, Can't We Do Better than Intercontinental Fiber Optic Cables? This week's outage in Africa reminds us of the vulnerable physicality of the Internet [Read full story] STAR TALK PopSci Talks To Neil deGrasse Tyson About Politics, New Frontiers, and Science Evangelism Tyson's book "Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier" is out today [Read full story]

Finding a potent new energy source by listening for Earth's gas bubbles?

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Finding a potent new energy source by listening for Earth's gas bubbles? Posted: 29 Feb 2012 11:21 AM PST What if we could cheaply and efficiently detect a potent new energy source, while also monitoring for environmental safety? Physicists are using the symphony of sound produced in the ocean to do just that.