To create a truly clean alternative fuel, scientists are looking towards creating an artificial version of photosynthesis
One of the technologies being touted as the next great thing for our cars is the hydrogen fuel cell. If you’ve heard anything about them, it’s that there are no harmful emissions, the only by-product is pure water, straight from your tailpipe. Of course, that’s only part of the story. While it is true that your exhaust will be clean, that’s only because hydrogen in a cell is not a source of energy the way gasoline naturally is—it’s a carrier, like a battery. The energy to be stored in the cell has to come from somewhere else. Right now, the sources are the same as they’ve always been, relying heavily on fossil fuels. The emissions are simply moved from your exhaust to a power plant.
But what if the hydrogen could be produced with alternative energy sources? That’s a real possibility, as electricity generated by solar or wind power can be used to produce hydrogen from water through the process of electrolysis. It’s currently very expensive and not terribly efficient, but it can be done. A more direct method—and one which researchers have gotten a step closer to achieving—would be through artificial photosynthesis.
Plants use photosynthesis to convert solar energy to chemical energy. They take the sun’s rays, mix them with carbon dioxide and water to make sugars, which they consume to survive. In very simplified terms, that transfer of power would be the ideal for a hydrogen fuel cell: taking light energy, mixing it with water and converting it directly to chemical energy in hydrogen molecules which we could put in our cars.
An additional ingredient necessary to the reaction is a stable catalyst to use the light energy to turn the water into oxygen and hydrogen. The creation of the stable catalyst is what a research team of German and American scientists has succeeded in doing. It’s a very small step, but it’s an important one. The larger challenge now is to integrate that catalyst into a photoactive system. Currently, they’re only using it to transfer chemical energy to chemical energy.
Artificial photosynthesis is still a very long way off, but if we’re successful in mastering it, its applications would be much further reaching than just powering our cars. It’s arguably the most important reaction in the natural world—all life depends on it—and it could prove to be the solution to many of our problems.
Via PhysOrg
Researchers are developing mechanical mitts with better grip
No, we’re still not up to the level of Luke’s mechanical hand in Star Wars, but progress does seem to be accelerating. The i-LIMB, from Touch Bionics, debuted last year, and German researchers recently tested it against a new prototype, the Fluidhand. The researchers say both are more dexterous than the industry standard, given that the individual fingers of the mechanical hands can be controlled independently.
A patient at the Orthopedic University Hospital in Heidelberg tried out the i-LIMB and the Fluidhand, and found both to be an improvement over the other models. The battery-powered i-LIMB picks up muscle signals from the patient’s stump, and translates them into movement. The Fluidhand is powered by hydraulics, and reportedly makes it easier to grip and hold on to certain objects.
Apparently the patient gave the Fluidhand the edge, but it’s not marked for commercial production just yet.
Via PhysOrg
