Art me. Words: Laurie Penny. The last drawing in our collaboration chronicling the Chicago #noNato protests for the New Inquiry. See it bigger/see the rest HERE.
Powerhouse Solar Cell Inspired by Leaf Biomimicry
A team of scientists headed up by Princeton University has achieved a whopping 47 percent increase in electricity generation from flexible plastic solar cells, simply by texturing the surface to mimic the wrinkles of a typical leaf.
Full Story: Cleantechnica
via emergentfutures:
1) Biomimicry is amazing. I love that human design is now recognizing that it has so much to learn from natural design. Especially when it can replace eco-questionable solutions with much more eco-friendly solutions - such as simply creating wrinkles on a surface as opposed to something like nano-sprays with unknown side-effects.
2) As the article notes, solar is getting very, very close to the 10-15% efficiency needed to make it competitive with traditional energy sources. And with the various solar innovations coming out, I expect we’ll hit that goal soon… and then surpass it by quite a bit. But of course, this requires research and funding. *cough*fund_science*cough*
FUCK YES
“The essence of the liberal outlook lies not in what opinions are held but in how they are held: instead of being held dogmatically, they are held tentatively, and with a consciousness that new evidence may at any moment lead to their abandonment. This is the way opinions are held in science, as opposed to the way in which they are held in theology.”
-Bertrand Russell, Unpopular Essays
Daryl Zero, the greatest detective of all time, on research:
“I can’t possibly overstate the importance of good research. Everyone goes through life dropping crumbs. If you can recognize the crumbs, you can trace a path all the way back from your death certificate to the dinner and a movie that resulted in you in the first place. But research is an art, not a science, because anyone who knows what they’re doing can find the crumbs, the wheres, whats, and whos. The art is in the whys: the ability to read between the crumbs, not to mix metaphors. For every event, there is a cause and effect. For every crime, a motive. And for every motive, a passion. The art of research is the ability to look at the details, and see the passion.”
(Source: eddardstark, via radioactivelingerie)
“ Despite the difficulties of my story, despite discomforts, doubts, despairs, despite impulses to be done with it, I unceasingly affirm love, within myself, as a value. Though I listen to all the arguments which the most divergent systems employ to demystify, to limit, to erase, in short to depreciate love, I persist: “I know, I know, but all the same…” I refer the devaluations of a lover to a kind of obscurantist ethic, to a let’s-pretend realism, against which I erect the realism of value: I counter whatever “doesn’t work” in love with the affirmation of what is worthwhile. ”
Roland Barthes, A Lover’s Discourse (via philphys)
I am convinced that this Peter Serafinowicz rock video for Hot Chip is secretly an episode of Doctor Who. I strongly suspect that I think that this means that Reggie Watts should be the Doctor. Unless it means that Terence Stamp should be the Doctor. (Or is Terence Stamp the Master?)
Robbie Cornelissen working on detail of The Capacious Memory X, 2010. Pencil on paper, total size: 240 x 1320 cm.
Photo: Adriaan van Dam.
The Capacious Memory X (detail), 2010. Pencil on paper, total size: 240 x 1320 cm.
Photo: Peter Cox, 2010.
(via cloudjunky)
Wise words from Jeffrey Lewis. “Don’t Let the Record Label Take You Out to Lunch”
Morning, comrades
(Source: lsdemon, via cosmic-dust)
