Energy & Particles : Science World Report

Apr 20, 2012 11:45 AM EDT

Save Big on Heating, Cooling Costs with Efficiency Controls

U.S. commercial building owners could save an average of 38 percent on their heating and cooling bills if they installed a handful of energy efficiency controls that make their heating, ventilation and air conditioning, also known as HVAC, systems more energy efficient, according to a recent report ...

Apr 20, 2012 10:59 AM EDT

Stable Electrodes for Improving Printed Electronics

Imagine owning a television with the thickness and weight of a sheet of paper. It will be possible, someday, thanks to the growing industry of printed electronics. The process, which allows manufacturers to literally print or roll materials onto surfaces to produce an electronically functional devic...

Apr 20, 2012 09:07 AM EDT

Enea Buys 50 Megawatt Wind Farm in North-western Poland

Polish utility Enea has bought a 50 megawatt wind farm in the north-western part of the country from world's biggest wind turbine maker Vestas and plans to expand its capacity to a maximum of 60 MW.

Apr 19, 2012 01:34 PM EDT

First Atomic-scale Real-time Movies of Platinum Nanocrystal Growth in Liquids

They won't be coming soon to a multiplex near you, but movies showing the growth of platinum nanocrystals at the atomic-scale in real-time have blockbuster potential.

Apr 19, 2012 01:23 PM EDT

Study: Optimizing Biofuel Supply Chain is a Competitive Game

As biofuel production has increased - particularly ethanol derived from corn - a hotly contested competition for feedstock supplies has emerged between the agricultural grain markets and biofuel refineries. This competition has sparked concern for the more fundamental issue of allocating limited far...

Apr 19, 2012 12:28 PM EDT

The Solar Cell That also Shines: Luminescent 'LED-type' Design Breaks Efficiency Record

To produce the maximum amount of energy, solar cells are designed to absorb as much light from the Sun as possible. Now researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, have suggested - and demonstrated - a counterintuitive concept: solar cells should be designed to be more like LEDs, able t...

Apr 19, 2012 11:15 AM EDT

Where Do the Highest-energy Cosmic Rays Come from? Probably not from Gamma-ray Bursts

The IceCube neutrino telescope encompasses a cubic kilometer of clear Antarctic ice under the South Pole, a volume seeded with an array of 5,160 sensitive digital optical modules (DOMs) that precisely track the direction and energy of speeding muons, massive cousins of the electron, which are create...

Apr 19, 2012 09:58 AM EDT

IceCube Neutrino Observatory Explores Origin of Cosmic Rays

Although cosmic rays were discovered 100 years ago, their origin remains one of the most enduring mysteries in physics. Now, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a massive detector in Antarctica, is honing in on how the highest energy cosmic rays are produced.

Apr 19, 2012 07:50 AM EDT

Nature's Billion-year-old Battery Key to Storing Energy

New research at Concordia University is bringing us one step closer to clean energy. It is possible to extend the length of time a battery-like enzyme can store energy from seconds to hours, a study published in the Journal of The American Chemical Society shows.

Apr 19, 2012 06:20 AM EDT

ESF and ICTP Explore the Newest Breakthroughs in Geometry and Dynamics

The European Science Foundation (ESF) and the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) have joined forces to support, manage and co-sponsor a series of high-level conferences on Geometry and Dynamics.

Apr 18, 2012 04:58 PM EDT

NIST/UMass Study Finds Evidence Nanoparticles May Increase Plant DNA Damage

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass) have provided the first evidence that engineered nanoparticles are able to accumulate within plants and damage their DNA. In a recent paper,* the team led by NIST chemist Brya...

Apr 18, 2012 01:00 PM EDT

Europe Meets to Discuss Progress in Energy Research and Development

The Second European Energy Conference (E2C), which opened today in Maastricht, The Netherlands, brings together high-level researchers, policymakers and practitioners to discuss the future of European Energy. Experts from all sectors of energy will share their ideas on how to make the European energ...