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A new technique for creating solar cells has been discovered by researchers at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science. Prof. Yang Yang, of the school, substituted a plastic atom for a carbon atom at the back of the solar panel resulting in an increased solar absorption and better output.
“Polymer solar cells utilize organic compounds to produce electricity from sunlight. They are much cheaper to produce than traditional silicon-based solar cells and are also environmentally friendly.”
It’s going to be nice when I can buy a solar panel and install it myself. Thanks to Prof. Yang Yang people are that much closer to getting better-made solar panels.
Source: Wong Kromhout, Weileen. UCLA Newsroom. “UCLA researchers create polymer solar cells with higher efficiency levels”. November 11 2008.
I love when school intermingles with anything I’m interested in. Example: Green roofs originated from beer gardens. When people didn’t have fridges they would store beer in a cellar to keep it cold. When a beer was ordered it was brought up from the cellar to a drinking area located on top of the cellar which was a beer garden. Green roofs were designed to house beer – awesome. This green idea came around along time ago and now is when it becomes most relevant… funny how that works.
I like the idea of a green roof – it sucks water up, decreases pollution drastically, saves tons of money by not having to reroute that extra water, and looks so good. A green roof has a purpose in the world instead of releasing tons of bad chemicals to the planet.
Green roofs are easier to make in a climate that has warmer winters than Winnipeg. The problem with green roofs here is that when the snow melts in spring the drainage systems are plugged by ice. So how do we get the water off the roof without flooding it? This is one of the large problems with green roofs in Winnipeg. If we could find an easy solution I think the city would benefit from it.
Here’s an interesting design from the past: a giant pyramid that could house people. This complex city could be the sustainable city of the future. Just think about the design of such a complex – layered infrastructure could serve to compact cities into comfortable areas where cultures could thrive.
A good location for Ziggurats would be along the Gangi river. Make the giant Ziggurats and raise them out of the ground to support the cities along the river – then when flood seasons comes to town everyone will be safe, allowing the floods to happen naturally with little destruction.
Picture and inspiration from: “21st-Century Ziggurat Could House 1 Million People -a Sustainable City of the Future”. The Daily Galaxy.
I wonder how we can build anything and it stays there for a long period of time. If you think about how much the face of the earth changes it is really amazing. In a matter of a year 4 radical seasons take place. To know that half way across the world there are buildings that have been standing for thousands of years. In Winnipeg we can barely make a building that will last a hundred years and that’s without any crazy storms or flooding. So how do we build for something like flooding?
The lecture given in class was about how people in other countries deal with flooding. They build away from the banks of rivers and their cutlers are integrated directly to flooding. When the flood season comes people are more or less prepared for the destruction it will cause. Floods are caused by the surrounding landscapes inability to absorb the surrounding water. I think that looking at flooding as a design problem we can find a solution that could eliminate flooding. The flood way in Winnipeg allows extra water to flow without flooding so flooding can be diverted if it is examined properly.
The Sahara Forest Project in Africa is an complex that takes advantage of seawater greenhouse and solar power. By implementing these technologies together the project has the ability to make fresh water from salt water and sustain crops in the middle of the Sahara(1). It is neat to see a sustainable project in the middle of nowhere showing us that we can live anywhere.
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(1)Leonora Oppenheim,Incredible Sahara Forest Project to Generate Fresh Water, Solar Power and Crops in African Desert, Treehugger, 09/02/08 http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/09/sahara-forest-project.php
The theory on music in relation to space got me thinking: why does music move me? During the lecture we were introduced to the fact that sounds make neurons fire in the brain. Music is experienced in the pleasure center of the brain.
I am a singer and have been for a very long time. When I was in choir I always sang in boring songs but there where parts of the songs that I would wait to hear, usually the parts of four or five harmonies. The harmonies would fire a lot of neurons at once in the pleasure centre. It’s weird to have evidence to why I enjoyed those parts so much.
The class continued with spaces giving sounds a unique quality (like an echo). I have sung in more buildings and cathedral halls then I can count. I couldn’t put my finger on why, after singing the same song over and over again, it would sound different in different buildings. The Buildings were designed with different types of music in mind. For example, cathedrals are designed to echo notes and regular buildings have lots of padding that absorb the notes.
I found this class very intriguing and I have been listening to music carefully to hear these harmonies. It’s kinda cool.
It’s funny how we as a society are so comfortable with destroying our home planet. Drive our cars from place to place useing ridiculous amounts of energy for nothing. We have become so dependent on our mechanisms we forgot how most things work. I have friends that have no clue how to cook. They can’t even feed themselves, a basic need for all life. Becoming so dependent on a technology that becomes obsolete within a few months is not a wise choice. But it’s what we got.
We could reduce our foot print by doing small things like walking to work, biking or just keeping the heat down to 18 degrease Celsius in our homes.
I came across a report called Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report (1). It basically states we need to change our way of living or we will do so much damage to the earth that we can never repair it. I know that this stuff has been said over and over but people need to know.
In the future if we don’t reduce emissions we will be looking at a 4 degree temperature increase world wide (2). Even if we do decrees or emissions we will still be looking at a 2 degree increase(2).
Pardon the analogy but we are just like a frog that is sitting in warm water that is slowly being brought to boil. The frog will sit in the water until it boils then die because it notice the change temperature.. We are just like the stupid frog and some of us now it. WE NEED TO CHANGE!
(1) Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report, http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/syr/ar4_syr.pdf
(2) Climate Change, From Europa, http://ec.europa.eu/environment/climat/home_en.htm
This is so awesome a design solution that is simple but highly effective. By rethinking the consept of rolling under a car desiners from Davison Design & Development, Inc. and Whiteside Manufacturing Company, Inc. came up with a hover board for machanics.
The hover board runs off a compressed air machine that most mechanic shops have. The board can suporrt a 300 pound person. The idea of using a very common mechine to creat something very extrodinay is what designers strive for.
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(1)Check it out at http://www.idsa.org/IDEA2006/galleries/idea/idea2006/award_details.asp?ID=57
I really like the out doors more then most people and usually find myself looking around instead of in front. I find the aspect of having a moment in time when a piece of nature or a garden can exist and then be gone (very provoking). I walk out side and look at the same thing day in and out it sure would be nice to have something different to redirect my attention.
People are usually disconnected from thier environment because there is nothing new for them to see. If we can make them see a new world it may bring them back to being connecting to the land. As a species we have a need for nature and in our manufactured landscapes we turn away from that.
Plastic why do we use it? We have the technology to create biodegradable plastic, it’s just a matter of making it. Polyhydroxyalkanoates or PHA is a form of corn that has been fermented by bacteria and is then formed into biodegradable plastic(1). This way of making plastic should become what we strive for in the future. We are killing the planet with plastic. It’s a matter of not having this manufactured globally but once it is corn plastic will be as big as sliced bread.
Pioneer electronics researcher Tasuo Hosoda displays a prototype model of a Blu-ray disc made of corn starch polymer. On the right are corn starch polymer pellets(1).
(1)from Freudenrich Craig, Ph.D., How Plastics, How Stuff Works, science.howstuffworks.com/ plastic.htm/printable
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