Solar Fuels Take Two Steps Forward
Two papers out this week show huge leaps forward in the two most important aspects of adopting solar energy and fuel cells:
Cheapness and efficiency.
(via ScienceNOW)
(via jtotheizzoe)
The Sticky Problem With Tar Sands
To understand what tar sands are and why they have a slippery reputation with environmentalists, here’s a cheat sheet on these unconventional oil fields:
WHAT: Tar sands, also known as oil sands, are a mixture of roughly 90 percent sand, clay and water and 10 percent bitumen, a thick hydrocarbon liquid. After extracting that 10 percent of bitumen from the tar-sand mixture, the bitumen can be purified and refined into synthetic crude oil.
First image of electrons orbiting around a molecule
Pictured above is a single molecule of pentacene (e), made up of five rings of carbon atoms and bordered all the way around by hydrogen atoms, taken by an atomic force microscope (AFM). The images (a) and (b) show the actual electron orbitals: region of probability than an electron will exist in a certain area.
The two different pictures are showing two separate sets of orbitals: the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) which illustrates the full range of the orbiting electrons. On the bottom images are mathematical models of what the orbitals should look like.
Neuroanatomy—A Primer By Kayt Sukel
The human brain is a unique structure that boasts a complex three-dimensional architecture. Neuroscientists are only beginning to understand how the different parts of this intricate configuration work together to produce behavior. In the numerous neuroimaging studies that are published weekly, researchers use common neuroanatomical terms to denote location, organization, and, at times, implied function. Though a complete discussion of neuroanatomy is worthy of a thick textbook full of elaborate illustrations, common terminology used in neuroscientific research is highlighted below.
Click the photo to read more!
mothernaturenetwork: 11 animals that mate for life
Humans like to think of themselves as a faithful species, but when it comes to true fidelity, many other animals offer better examples of how to keep a relationship together. Although monogamy and lifelong pair bonds are generally rare in the animal kingdom, here’s our list of animals that pull it off.
How small is an atom?
Click here to see.
This is awesome.