A window into better windows

By -
By Science Adviser. 

Excerpt: If you’ve ever pressed your face up to a windowpane, you know just how bad it is at insulating—both cold and warm temperatures seem to bleed right through! Researchers have now designed a highly insulating, transparent material for more efficient windows. With buildings consuming around 40% of the world’s energy, the technology could be a promising climate solution. Researchers have previously tried to engineer better windows using gas-filled panes, vacuum insulation, and even transparent aerogels. But they’ve all been pricey, difficult to manufacture, and maladapted to different uses. So, a team started from scratch, designing a new class of metamaterials built from interconnected nanoscale polysiloxane tubes. Because structural features of the material—including the diameter of the nanotubes and sizes of the pores between them—were all smaller than the wavelength of visible light, the materials let through 99% of sunlight, the researchers reported in Science. The materials could be manufactured at a range of useful sizes and shapes and insulated on par with or better than double-paned glass. Since windows leak nearly half of a building’s heating and cooling energy, these next-generation windows have the potential for energy, cost, and climate savings. The materials could even trap infrared light, raising their potential for passive, energy-generating windows that use solar energy. The findings “may represent a new class of architectural material that actively manages energy instead of merely conserving it,” wrote photonics researchers Longnan Li and Wei Li.... READ THE SCIENCE PAPER... 

Popular posts from this blog

Warmer, more crowded cities bring out the rats

By -
By Elizabeth Pennisi , Science.  Excerpt: Climate change  emerged as a driving factor behind urban rat swarms , the researchers report today in  Science Advances . As temperatures rise, they conclude, and people flock to urban areas and convert formerly “green” spaces into neighborhoods and shopping centers, they created a perfect storm for rat populations to explode. And the city that’s fared the worst over the past decade? Washington, D.C.....  Full article at https://www.science.org/content/article/warmer-more-crowded-cities-bring-out-rats . 
Read more

New Lessons from Old Ice: How We Understand Past (and Future) Heating

By -
By Mariana Mastache-Maldonado , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: Fragments of blue ice up to 6 million years old—the oldest ever found—offer key insights into Earth’s warming cycles. Researchers are using these ancient data to refine models of our future climate. ...In Antarctica...rare formations known as blue ice areas may offer a distinct look into that deep past. These areas, which make up barely 1% of the continent, form where strong winds strip away surface snow. ...The Allan Hills region, situated on the edge of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet.... Here researchers have discovered ice up to 6 million years old—the oldest yet found. Their  study  of the ice, published in  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America , revealed that parts of it formed during periods far warmer than today—times when sea levels were higher and open forests and grasslands covered much of the planet. ...studying the atmospheric remnants trapped in blue ice, the rese...
Read more

France hits hydrogen jackpot: World’s largest reserve valued $92 trillion found

By -
By Sujita Sinha , Interesting Engineering.  Excerpt: Scientists in France have made a groundbreaking discovery that could transform clean energy production. Beneath the soil of Folschviller, in the Moselle region, researchers have uncovered an astonishing 46 million tons of natural hydrogen ...providing a new source of carbon-free fuel. The discovery was made by scientists from the GeoRessources laboratory and the CNRS while they were searching for methane. Instead, at a depth of 4,101 feet (1,250 meters), they found an enormous deposit of white hydrogen. This form of  hydrogen  is naturally occurring and does not require industrial production, unlike green hydrogen, which is made using renewable energy, or gray hydrogen, which is derived from fossil fuels. To put this discovery into perspective, the newly found deposit represents more than half of the world’s annual gray hydrogen production—but without the environmental costs. If extracted efficiently, this resource coul...
Read more