Monday, March 24, 2014

Grow your own solar panels

Stuff like this explains why Dr Who loves and hangs out with humans; we as a species have an extraordinary ability to adapt to new conditions and invent stuff just for the heck of it, the antithesis to top down design process which seeks to solve cetain problems.

Humans invent cool stuff and then see if wecan use it for anything.

This also means humanity as individuals also have boundless ability to do stupid stuff, like in, "Go get that other gas can and more bottle rockets, Zed."

[Computerworld - MIT engineers have succeeded in creating "biofilms," which combine bacterial cells with nonliving materials, such as gold nanoparticles, that can conduct electricity or emit light.

The hope is that biofilm, that slippery, slimy material made of bacteria that forms substances like dental plaque, may someday create functioning circuits that could be used to manufacture photovoltaic solar panels or act as "biosensors" that could sense toxins....

"It's an interesting way of thinking about materials synthesis, which is very different from what people do now, which is usually a top-down approach," Lu {Timothy, assistant professor of electrical engineering and biological engineering at MIT} said.]

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