| The Origin of Oxygen in Earth's Atmosphere It's hard to keep oxygen molecules around, despite the fact that it's the third-most abundant element in the universe, forged in the superhot, superdense core of stars. That's because oxygen wants to react; it can form compounds with nearly every other element on the periodic table. So how did Earth end up with an atmosphere made up of roughly 21 percent of the stuff? [More] rss.sciam.com |
Solar snafu: The contractor finally installs the panels, but goofs Editor's Note: Scientific American 's George Musser will be chronicling his experiences installing solar panels in Solar at Home (formerly 60-Second Solar). Read his introduction here and see all posts here . The first message I got from my wife last week was happy news indeed: “Solar guys are working on our roof!” As readers of this blog know, we’d started the process of installing solar panels back in February , and we had no idea what were getting ourselves into. The red tape for the state and utility subsidies took through the end of May. Then we had to get our roof restored, which added a couple of months. In early July, I told myself, the wait was over. How wrong I was. [More] rss.sciam.com |
In the 12 Months of 2009 In the first month of 2009, people gave to me: a coal ash spill in Tennessee. (Technically occurred in 2008, but it lingered.) [More] rss.sciam.com |
Playground’s Jail Theme Is Gone, but Perplexity Lingers A “jail” sign on a jungle gym at a public housing complex in Brooklyn has been painted over. nytimes.com |
Solar Panels Dust Themselves Off Imagine giant fields filled with photovoltaic solar panels, soaking up rays. The best spots to put such panels are obviously sunny, with little rain. But such places often come with lots of dust. And the panels have to stay dust-free: just a seventh of an ounce of dust per square yard of panel can decrease solar power conversion by 40 percent. And panels in Arizona might get covered with four times that much dust each month.Cleaning the panels conventionally uses precious water. So researchers are turning to dust-cleaning technology developed for one of the driest, dustiest locations possible: Mars. The work was reported at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society. [Malay Mazumder et al] [More] American Chemical Society - Solar power - Technology - United States - Energy rss.sciam.com |