Capturing the sunlight and the glow

The major obstacle to solar power was overcome by new materials that absorb all the energy in the sunlight generating electron that are free to capture – Ohio State Univ chemists combined electric conductive plastics with metals such as Molybdenum and titanium – to create hybrid materials! Colours as we see them, are different energy levels or frequencies of light – solar cells until now can only capture small range of frequencies so only capture small fraction of energy stored in the sun light. In this new hybrid material that generates electricity like all other solar energy materials, wide spectrum of frequencies are captured, and electrons remain free much longer than before, as such all the energy available is contained.

http://www.azonano.com/news.asp?newsID=8448
www.malvern.com



The much appreciated marker in Biotechnology, a protein discovered within jelly fish which show glowing property in the presence of calcium has other medical potentials for its property. It was explained, lower level of calcium can be achieved by binding ability of this glowing protein to calcium which is important in halting the progression of neurodegenerative disease (1) – the glowing protein (in the present of calcium) shows the property to bind itself to calcium and reduce calcium levels, and can be used to make up for our missing calcium binding proteins in brain as we age. This process slows down degeneration of cognitive function! Since I learned that MIT people are working on a new nano-sized calcium-sensing contrast agent that is detectable by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners (2), for brain imaging – I thought this property of the glowing protein will sure be on the agenda.

1) http://www.azonano.com/news.asp?newsID=8448

2) http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2006/imaging-neurons.html