Energy

The concept of nuclear fusion merged with a photograph of the nuclear fusion energy display at Weiss Energy Hall, Houston Museum of Natural Science, Houston, TX on the right (Credits: Katherine Fellows, via Flikr) In November 2015, Germany switched on…

by Michael R. Gerhardt Our climate is rapidly changing, and many countries are beginning to take action. In the United States, President Barack Obama has announced the Clean Power Plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from electric power generation,…

By Andrew Wong, a second year graduate student in the Applied Physics program at Harvard University.       The increase in global energy demand and subsequent carbon dioxide emissions has driven advancements in renewable energy generation technologies…

by Erin Dahlstrom Almost two years after its May 2013 purchase of alternative wind energy company Makani, Google X, Google’s semi-secret “moonshots” lab announced at SXSW that they will be starting to test full-scale models of Makani’s kite-like wind…

Two weeks ago, the world's largest particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider, returned after two years of extensive upgrades. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is part of particle physics, a branch that examines the tiny particles that constitute…

Turning on the tap for a clean glass of water is a luxury many Americans take for granted. Though TransCanada Corporation promises minimal spillage and environmental impact through improved safety features in its plans to install a 1169-mile-long,…

Sawdust- “wood wool”; by Priwo (photo taken by de:Benutzer:Priwo) [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsHumans can’t digest cellulose. Similarly, we’ve found it hard to efficiently break down cellulose in biomass for energy applications, until now.…

What do you think of when you hear the phrase ‘green technology’? Do solar panels, wind turbines, and electric cars come to mind? What about light-emitting diodes (LEDs)? Unlike many costly green technologies, LEDs are accessible to the majority of…

Presented by Jared Atkinson, Natasha Goss, and Jordan Wilkerson The advent of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, has led to the development of previously inaccessible resources, significantly increasing world gas and…

U.S. Air Force photo/Airman 1st Class Nadine Y. BarclayIn a finding that appears in the journal Nature Materials (original article here), researchers demonstrate efficient energy harnessing using a hybrid solar cell. Specifically, they show ultrafast…