Brown is Green is working with biomedical labs to test whether traffic-light themed stickers can help researchers conserve energy without putting their research at risk.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Labs exist for experimentation, but in a few labs of the Division of Biology and Medicine, the subjects are not only cells and tissues, but also the researchers themselves. A Brown is Green initiative is piloting a way for people to save energy in the lab without worrying that they’ll compromise their work.(more…)
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have designed a new material to make smart windows even smarter. The material is a thin coating of nanocrystals embedded in glass that can dynamically modify sunlight as it passes through a window. Unlike existing technologies, the coating provides selective control over visible light and heat-producing near-infrared (NIR) light, so windows can maximize both energy savings and occupant comfort in a wide range of climates.(more…)
AUSTIN, Texas — Chemical engineers at The University of Texas at Austin have developed high-efficiency, durable filters to improve mobile water recycling systems used in hydraulic fracturing, the oil and gas drilling process known as fracking. The filters may significantly reduce the amount of water and energy that fracking requires.(more…)
Berkeley Lab researchers use an ultrafast laser to better understand high-temperature superconductors
Superconductivity, in which electric current flows without resistance, promises huge energy savings – from low-voltage electric grids with no transmission losses, superefficient motors and generators, and myriad other schemes. But such everyday applications still lie in the future, because conventional superconductivity in metals can’t do the job.
Although they play important roles in science, industry, and medicine, conventional superconductors must be maintained at temperatures a few degrees above absolute zero, which is tricky and expensive. Wider uses will depend on higher-temperature superconductors that can function well above absolute zero. Yet known high-temperature (high-Tc) superconductors are complex materials whose electronic structures, despite decades of work, are still far from clear. (more…)
