Human beings can solve any problem given enough time. We are unlimited in our creative potential. Our only limits in the real world are that we must work with matter, and it takes time to do so.
"Three things can happen to light when it hits a material," says Boston College Physicist Willie J. Padilla. "It can be reflected, as in a mirror. It can be transmitted, as with window glass. Or it can be absorbed and turned into heat.
Given time, we will develop solutions to any problem which presents itself. If we find ourselves earth-bound, we will learn to fly. If we find that we get sick, we will find ways to attack and destroy the disease. If we find we are running out of a particular form of energy, we will find a way to use other common materials to create new forms of energy.
We are now developing new "nano-arrays" which will allow us to capture all the energy of light without any waste. Light can thus be turned into heat, which of course, can be turned into energy.
The nano-array pictured above is described as a perfect absorber of light--it reflects none of the incident light, instead turning all radiant energy into heat.
"Three things can happen to light when it hits a material," says Boston College Physicist Willie J. Padilla. "It can be reflected, as in a mirror. It can be transmitted, as with window glass. Or it can be absorbed and turned into heat.
This metamaterial has been engineered to ensure that all light is neither reflected nor transmitted, but is turned completely into heat and absorbed. It shows we can design a metamaterial so that at a specific frequency it can absorb all of the photons that fall onto its surface."...
Because its elements can separately absorb the electric and magnetic components of an electromagnetic wave, the "perfect metamaterial absorber" created by the researchers can be highly absorptive over a narrow frequency range.
The metamaterial is the first to demonstrate perfect absorption and unlike conventional absorbers it is constructed solely out of metallic elements, giving the material greater flexibility for applications related to the collection and detection of light, such as imaging, says Padilla, an assistant professor of physics.
Metamaterial designs give them new properties beyond the limits of their actual physical components and allow them to produce "tailored" responses to radiation. Because their construction makes them geometrically scalable, metamaterials are able to operate across a significant portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.
The nano-array above was previously discussed here at Al Fin and at New Energy and Fuel.
This second array was designed to capture the radiative energy of light and turn it into electrical energy. Compare the two arrays at your leisure and note the similarities and differences. Both nano-arrays can be optimised for particular ranges of photon wavelength.
The potential range of applications for these arrays, and similar "metamaterials" made from precise nano-configuration of ordinary matter, is immense. These nano-arrays are something new under the sun, and worth considering.
Our planet is constantly bathed by showers of photons, and other particles from the sun. Until recently, humans have used the sun for agriculture, tanning, and heating, and inadvertently for Vitamin D production. It is long past time for us to begin using the sun, and other sources of infrared radiation, more thoroughly.
9 comments:
Maybe nano-arrays will get us off oil for good. That would definitely help us in the war on terror. It would eliminate Iran and Saudi Arabia's biggest source of income! The Jihadists would be left in the dust. If you think the Islam-o-fascists are pathetic now, wait until we have no need for oil!
Don't get your hopes up. If you had worked in science long enough, you would immediately recognize this as the latest in a long line of inventions that coulda, woulda, shoulda change the world but usually never did. This looks like another two-bit scientist drumming up some attention so that he can wheedle grant money from some funding agency. Until there is a working, large-scale prototype that can be fabricated cheaply, I'm not holding my breath.
Damien,
Anonmyous has a good point. I wonder, however, if Anonymous will come back, because I'm sure he understands that nano-arrays are not the only energy technology on the horizon. I read about stuff like this every few days
For instance, I wonder what Anonymous would have to say about this:
http://www.jcvi.org/cms/research/projects/synthetic-bacterial-genome/press-release/
And, also, I wonder if Anonymous would deny the power of nano-technology, or synthetic molecules in general.
While I agree that that neither of these two technologies are anywhere near ready to take to the market, I also believe that these new technologies sit among a constellation of new attempts within specific fields which are provably yielding results.
Do you agree, Anonymous?
The point is NOT whether or not the arrays are THE 'answer'.
The point is that ALL channels should be pursued with all possible alacrity and sense of urgency, as should have been done from 1973 onwards.
Never mind bridges in Alaska, spotted owls, snail darters, and funding for the National Tea Council. The overwhelming urgency of energy independence drowns out ANYTHING but maximum effort along all feasible practical engineering, and PURE RESEARCH channels. I do not hear that from either party, in a presidential election year.
It is now late in the day.
Epa,
You're a scientist. Do you agree with me that the fields of nano-tech and synthetic molcules creation are ripe?
The changes will come in the next few decades. Not tomorrow, or even five years from now, but in 10-40 years.
The answer to that is my definition of luck....when opportunity meets preparedness.
We will never have the right chance, unless we are banging on all of these doors. Many discoveries are by accident as a branch off some good idea that was diligently pursued, but may be a dead end.
There is no doubt in my mind that any theoretical light-electricity or light-heat technology MUST be pursued, and each level of understanding of what works and what doesn't will lead us INEVITABLY to the right answer.
Gotcha.
It may be my naiivete regarding science, but I tend to think of some areas of science as fertile fields. I think nano-tech and molecular synthesis are the future.
Anonymous,
Pastorius,
Don't worry I wasn't intending to hold my breath on the nano-arrays. But it does give me hope.
When it comes to the creative power of Western Civilization, there is a lot of hope.
I wonder what our Anonymous friend is being negative about.
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