Gizmag News - Boeing to mass-produce record-breaking 39.2 percent efficiency solar cell

Welcome to the newsletter for gizmag Emerging Technology Magazine. These are the headlines for November the 25th, 2010. Boeing to mass-produce record-breaking 39.2 percent efficiency solar cell When it comes to solar cells, everyone is chasing the highest conversion efficiency. Although we’ve seen conversion efficiencies of over 40 percent achieved with multi-junction solar cells in lab environments, Boeing subsidiary Spectrolab is bringing this kind of efficiency to mass production with the announcement of its C3MJ+ solar cells which boast an average conversion efficiency of 39.2 percent. Read More Lava's HD LED Android Scandinavia Internet TV sets a high standard for all that follow Internet-connected television is not new, with LG’s Netcast, Panasonic’s Viera Cast, Samsung’s Internet@TV and Sony’s internet-integrated Bravia all presenting cut-down versions of the internet. The world’s first TV with an Android operating system though, is a breath of fresh air by comparison, using proprietary graphics processors inside the set to enable the 42 inch HD LED Lava Scandinavia to handle the full internet experience you’d get with a normal computer. Gizmag’s Mike Hanlon and Noel McKeegan spent some time with the Scandinavia recently and came away VERY impressed. Read More RavenSkin insulation stores up daytime heat for release when temperatures drop RavenBrick, the company that brought us the smart tinting RavenWindow, has added to its folio of temperature regulating building materials with RavenSkin. Unlike traditional insulation that blocks all heat equally, this innovative wall insulation material absorbs heat during the day to keep the interior cool and slowly releases the stored heat at night to warm the building when the sun goes down. Read More First exoplanet from beyond our galaxy discovered Astronomers have been discovering planets outside of our solar system – or exoplanets – at a steady rate in recent years. The number has now topped 500 and with earth-bound detection improving all the time and the Kepler mission out hunting with the largest camera ever sent into space, the rate is not likely to slow down anytime soon. Among these discoveries are some extraordinary finds like the first "potentially habitable" exoplanet, but what's different about this latest discovery is not the Earth-like qualities of the planet, it's the fact that it originated from outside the Milky Way – which makes it an extragalactic exoplanet. Read More Sahara Solar Breeder Project aims to provide 50 percent of the world’s electricity by 2050 This is ambition with a capital A. Universities in Japan and Algeria have teamed up on a project that aims to solve the world’s energy problems. Called the Sahara Solar Breeder Project, the plan is to build manufacturing plants around the Sahara Desert and extract silica from sand to make solar panels, which will then be used to build solar power plants in the desert. The power generated by the initial plant or plants would be used to “breed” more silicon manufacturing and solar power plants, which will in turn be used to breed more again, and so on. The ultimate goal is to build enough plants to provide 50 percent of the world’s electricity by 2050, which would be delivered via a global superconducting supergrid. Read More Eyes, ears and brains being developed for underwater robots Engineers from Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Optronics are working on an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) that would be inexpensive enough to use for industrial applications such as hull and dam inspection, yet independent enough that it wouldn’t require any kind of human control. Typically, more cumbersome but less costly remote operated vehicles (ROVs) are used for grunt work – they are connected to a ship on the surface by a tether, where a human operator controls them. The more technologically-advanced AUVs tend to be used more for well-funded research, but according to the engineers, one of the keys to creating “blue collar” AUVs is to overhaul the ways that they see, hear and think. Read More Battlefield Extraction-Assist Robot to ferry wounded to safety The U.S. Army is currently testing a robot designed to locate, lift and carry wounded soldiers out of harm’s way without risking additional lives. With feedback from its onboard sensors and cameras, the Battlefield Extraction-Assist Robot (BEAR) can be remotely controlled through the use of a special M-4 rifle grip controller or by hand gestures using an AnthroTronix iGlove motion glove. This equipment would allow a soldier to direct BEAR to a wounded soldier and transport them to safety where they can be assessed by a combat medic. Read More X-ray microscope images cells faster, without the need for dyes When obtaining three-dimensional images of cells using a scanning electron microscope, individual cells are scanned one section at a time and those images are then put together to form one complete 3D picture of that cell – the process often takes a long time to complete. When using a fluorescence microscope, cells must first by dyed so that they show up against their surroundings. Now, a team from Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) have demonstrated a process called X-ray nanotomography, that can instantly obtain 3D images of cells in their almost natural state. Read More Logitech's downsized Lapdesk N550 for notebooks and netbooks Logitech has followed up on its N700 Lapdesk with a unit designed for 14-inch or smaller notebooks and netbooks – the Lapdesk N550. The new addition features integrated stereo speakers, an ergonomic design and four layered heat-shielding. Read More New biosensor quickly detects viruses such as Ebola While there are already effective methods of screening samples of body fluids for viruses such as Ebola, these tend to require a fair amount of sample preparation time and a decent technological infrastructure. Time isn’t always in abundance at places such as airports, while infrastructure is lacking in many developing nations. Fortunately, researchers have created a diagnostic tool that can detect viruses quickly and easily, and that’s about the size of a quarter. Read More The Q2 puts a new twist on Internet radio The Internet has opened up a brave new radio world to listeners who otherwise suffer airwave restrictions. With tens of thousands of stations now pumping out just about every kind of music imaginable around the clock, tuning in can be overwhelming and complicated. The Q2 Internet Radio from Armour Home Electronics offers to make the process a whole lot easier and a lot more fun. Read More Rubber device mimics bird song Zebra finches, beware! That tweeting noise you’re responding to might not be coming from another finch at all, but from a rubber tube-based bird-call-imitating device. The gizmo was devised by a team of physicists at Harvard University in an effort to understand the physics of bird song. Read More Digital dessert – the Cricut Cake Printer Modern technology has advanced so quickly, so why shouldn’t it also advance our cake decorating skills. The Cricut Cake printer will do just that ... and it might inspire a new wave of neighborhood cake competitions and children’s parties. The printer is designed to make cake decorating as simple as printing a piece of paper, but instead of using paper and ink, it cuts shapes, words, motifs and decorations into frosting sheets, cookie dough, modeling chocolate and soft candies. Read More The Koostik wonderfully lo-tech iPhone dock There's no denying that the Zeppelin and Mini from Bowers & Wilkins are handsome and powerful ways to dock your iPhone. While the Koostik dock can't hope to compete in the amplification stakes, there's something about the simple design and natural wood finish that makes it just as pleasing to the eye – and more than a little cheaper, too. Read More ASUS reveals Eee Note EA800 details In May, ASUS announced that it was going to release an amalgam of a notepad and e-Reader tentatively named the Eee Tablet. The details of just such a device have now emerged, although the company is now calling it the Eee Note EA800. The 8-inch glass touchscreen display is said to be ultra-sensitive to pressure from a stylus input, with the monochrome screen image remaining clear even in bright sunlight. It supports all of the main e-Book formats as well as Microsoft Office documents, benefits from wireless connectivity and has quite an impressive battery life. Read More Tokyo Make Meeting 06: Mommy Tummy lets you be Mr. Mom for a day One of the more popular exhibits at Tokyo Make Meeting this past weekend was Mommy Tummy, a pregnancy experience simulation system developed by Kosaka Laboratory of Kanazawa Technical College. It allows men (and others who have never carried a child) to not just feel what it's like to be pregnant, but to also gradually experience the changes. The Mommy Tummy suit is pumped full of water, and the onscreen display updates you as to how far along your pregnancy has progressed. The man's breasts will get bigger as well – did I just write that? – via a pair of inflatable balloons on the front. Read More If you would like to refer this newsletter to a friend or colleague, please point them at our free subscription page. 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