http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/ Engadget Comments for Self-assembling solar cells built using ancient wisdom, modern technology http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/Jan 15th 2010 9:17AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/Jan 15th 2010 9:32AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/
Fast-forward to the last sentence...

". If the method's future proves successful, we'll all be using electronics built on flexible, plastic, metal, or otherwise unconventional substrates sometime soon."]]>Jan 15th 2010 12:05PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/It means we will now be able to make very thin beer battered crackers with light beer. Why I Dun No]]>Jan 15th 2010 12:39PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/
As a doctor, you may remember from the biology class that you had to take that the cells of just about every living organism have a lipid bilayer membrane, most often the phospholipid type. Each lipid has a head and tail. The head is hydrophillic, meaning it seeks water, and the tail is repels water. As shown in the diagram, a layer of oil floats on top of the water. The elements have a 'water-loving side' that will seek water and a 'water-fearing' side that will repel water. This orients the elements in only one direction; the one that allows it to stick to the solar cell as it's pulled through the liquid (via FM, I guess). ]]>Jan 15th 2010 1:04PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/"and the tail is repels water" should read:

"and the tail is hydrophobic, meaning it repels water"]]>Jan 15th 2010 1:06PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/Surely I can't be the only one who got the startrek reference, can I?]]>Jan 15th 2010 5:16PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/Jan 15th 2010 9:18AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/Jan 15th 2010 3:12PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/Jan 15th 2010 9:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/]]>Jan 15th 2010 9:28AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/laugh all you want.
the days of gasoline and coal are numbered.]]>Jan 15th 2010 9:30AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/Jan 15th 2010 10:30AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/Jan 15th 2010 10:45AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/
Not quite. Solar power still isn't at the efficiency and cost levels that would make it viable compared to coal and oil. In addition, it is not a form of "baseload" power - it is not consistent. Also, you must consider what is going to power portable machines, like vehicles and remote equipment. Unless you also invent a viable super capacitor, using a bunch of batteries as a total replacement for liquid fuels isn't going to work right now for everything.

Oil and coal will still be with us for a long time... not a big deal. We'll swich over eventually thanks to the market and people's desire to just stop using fuel. Nuclear power will help reduce the grid's reliance on oil and natural gas. The US has significant reserves of coal right here in our country, so that's not a concern. Coal power is at its cleanest as it has ever been, and if the .gov decides to fund Clean Coal, it will become cleaner than even nuclear power.

It's a pity most people just jump on the anti-everything bandwagon without really educating themselves. If it were up to them, I think we'd all be living in tents and using wind up flashlights. That's not progress.]]>Jan 15th 2010 11:11AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/Jan 15th 2010 11:11AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/
One of the two biggest problems facing the economy is lack of cheap clean energy (I believe aneutronic fusion is the only viable answer .. with solar as a backup plan).

Nuclear fusion never received the funding to do the experiments that scientists said were needed. In the 70's we were 25 years away from fusion but then funding was cut by 90% for no good reason.

We need aneutronic fusion research to be made a priority and research projects like Z machine need to be funded.

Also, basic research in dramatically reducing the cost of solar energy is not being funded. Billions of dollars are being wasted in sustaining the old inefficient solar panels by funding the manufacturers of them to keep making them without researching alternatives.

Anyway, the second biggest problem is the lack of improved battery technology. To truly replace gasoline, batteries need a 10x improvement in storage ability. Yet advanced fundamental battery research gets only a few million dollars in funding (an unbelievably small amount considering that a 10x improved battery would save trillions of dollars).]]>Jan 15th 2010 11:28AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/
"Nuclear fusion never received the funding to do the experiments that scientists said were needed. In the 70's we were 25 years away from fusion but then funding was cut by 90% for no good reason."

Well making sure you don't lose the billions upon billions of moneyz oil and gas would make over the next 25 years+ would be a pretty good reason to any government body with oil tycoons in their ears.

Atm France and Britain, Seeing Neutrons on video screens at Oxford still amazes me :P, seem to be the only ones really pushing viable Fushion but even that is quite a stretch in the use of the word "Push".

Environmental pressures aside we will always go with what's bringing in the cash since we live in a global society mostly driven by money...]]>Jan 15th 2010 12:23PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/]]>Jan 15th 2010 11:27AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/"Unemployment Continues to Rise: Assembly Laborers Replaced By Revolutionary Fluidic Process"]]>Jan 15th 2010 12:56PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/Tony UK !]]>Jan 15th 2010 12:02PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/
... in a flash of short-sighted brilliance, someone hurry and sell this to the Koreans or Chinese so that ONCE AGAIN some seemingly revolutionary technology is first developed here in the US, but ultimately gets sold to a foreign company and benefits the people of that nation while screwing us out of both jobs and future profits.
It's the American way!]]>Jan 15th 2010 2:34PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/
So I guess you buy only American-made products?

Like that car in your avata- wait... ]]>Jan 17th 2010 5:59PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/self-assembling-solar-cells-built-using-ancient-wisdom-modern-t/Jan 15th 2010 7:05PM