In the yeeeaaarrr twooo-thooooousannnd...

Communism? Terrorism? Peace? What's going to take over the world?

MIT Researchers, if they keep up at this rate....

Frankenstein meets Mr. Burn's (germ clinic proprietor, not nuclear power provider) meets James Bond's Q meets Dupont.

"Excuse me, miss? Is that sweater made out of viruses?"

From the article:

November/December 2007
Virus-Built Electronics
Assembling nanomaterials with the help of innocuous viruses could lead to threadlike batteries and photovoltaics that can be woven into clothing.

By Kevin Bullis

Angela Belcher leans in to watch as a machine presses down slowly on the plunger of a syringe, injecting a billion harmless viruses into a clear liquid. Instead of diffusing into the solution as they escape the needle, the viruses cling together, forming a wispy white fiber that's several centimeters long and about as strong as a strand of nylon. A gradu­ate student, Chung-Yi Chiang, fishes it out with a pair of tweezers. Then he holds it up to an ultra­violet light, and the fiber begins to glow bright red.

In producing this novel fiber, the researchers have demonstrated a completely new way of making nanomaterials, one that uses viruses as microscopic building blocks. Belcher, a professor of materials science and biological engineering at MIT, says the approach has two main advantages. First, in high concentrations the viruses tend to organize themselves, lining up side by side to form an orderly pattern. Second, the viruses can be genetically engineered to bind to and organize inorganic materials such as those used in battery electrodes, transistors, and solar cells. The programmed viruses coat themselves with the materials and then, by aligning with other viruses, assemble into crystalline structures useful for making high-­performance devices.

Continue reading here.

Cost efficient solar is coming....

Technologyreview.com has some excellent articles I haven't been able to put down. Everything from biotech to nanotech to energy-related articles, covering the gamut of all that is new and fresh. I HIGHLY suggest this site, including these two articles [1 2] on the greening of concrete. Registration is free, so be sure to check it out.

Solar Power at Half the Cost

A new roof-mounted system that concentrates sunlight could cut the price of photovoltaics.

A new mechanism for focusing light on small areas of photovoltaic material could make solar power in residential and commercial applications cheaper than electricity from the grid in most markets in the next few years. Initial systems, which can be made at half the cost of conventional solar panels, are set to start shipping later this year, says Brad Hines, CTO and founder of Soliant Energy, a startup based in Pasadena, CA, that has developed the new modules.

Read more.

Would body paint make me a robot?

What advancements have there been in the field of solar nanotechnology?

I'm glad you asked. You're so inquisitive.

Well, what would you say if I told you that you could paint on solar paneling?

That's right, it's solar paint!

From the website:

The secret is "quantum dots," particles made from semiconductor crystals. They can be tuned to absorb particular colors of light, dots so tiny they can be dispersed in a solvent and then painted onto something else - a house, a car, even a sweater.