(via Being a Geek on Facebook)
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Secrets of the First Practical Artificial Leaf
A detailed description of development of the first practical artificial leaf — a milestone in the drive for sustainable energy that mimics the process, photosynthesis, that green plants use to convert water and sunlight into energy — appears in the ACS journal Accounts of Chemical Research. The article notes that unlike earlier devices, which used costly ingredients, the new device is made from inexpensive materials and employs low-cost engineering and manufacturing processes.
[read more] [paper] [via reddit] [photo credit: ACS]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3t0hj0MBS1r08k60o1_500.jpg)
Secrets of the First Practical Artificial Leaf
A detailed description of development of the first practical artificial leaf — a milestone in the drive for sustainable energy that mimics the process, photosynthesis, that green plants use to convert water and sunlight into energy — appears in the ACS journal Accounts of Chemical Research. The article notes that unlike earlier devices, which used costly ingredients, the new device is made from inexpensive materials and employs low-cost engineering and manufacturing processes.
[read more] [paper] [via reddit] [photo credit: ACS]
FRIGHT OR FLIGHT A woman searched for items at a dump site as Greater Adjutant storks gathered nearby near Deepor Beel wildlife sanctuary on the outskirts of Guwahati, India, Thursday. (Photo: EPA via the Wall Street Journal)
Easily one of the most surreal, sad examples of photojournalism I’ve ever seen.
It took me a minute to realize that wasn’t photoshopped.
New York City artist kris scheifele has created a series of sculptures formed from acrylic paint. in working with layers of paint-chips or disintegrated acrylic panels, scheifele has developed an arsenal of artistic techniques to create her experimental actualizations. all of the artist’s pieces investigate the physicality of a medium— removing the surface in which the solution is applied, instead, fashioning forms from the paint itself. scheifele tells designboom of her paint squares, “the technique of building up and cutting away all this layered paint not only embeds the work with a temporal record, but also produces a great deal of debris. in the spirit of ‘using every part of the animal’, the acrylic paint chips are collected in boxes where more time must elapse before they fuse into porous cubes.”
Chris Fraser creates dazzling light installations by turning a dark enclosed room into variation on a camera obscura. A precursor to the camera, the camera obscura is “a box or room with a hole in one side. Light from an external scene passes through the hole and strikes a surface inside where it is reproduced, upside-down, but with color and perspective preserved.”
Fraser on his project:
My light installations use the ‘camera obscura’ as a point of departure. They are immersive optical environments, idealized spaces with discreet openings. In translating the outside world into moving fields of light and color, the projections make an argument for unfixed notion of sight.
A historic meeting of Latin America’s leaders [Summit of the Americas], to be attended by Barack Obama, will hear serving heads of state admit that the war on drugs has been a failure and that alternatives to prohibition must now be found. […]
Otto Pérez Molina, the president of Guatemala, who as former head of his country’s military intelligence service experienced the power of drug cartels at close hand, is pushing his fellow Latin American leaders to use the summit to endorse a new regional security plan that would see an end to prohibition. In the Observer, Pérez Molina writes: “The prohibition paradigm that inspires mainstream global drug policy today is based on a false premise: that global drug markets can be eradicated.”
Pérez Molina concedes that moving beyond prohibition is problematic. “To suggest liberalisation – allowing consumption, production and trafficking of drugs without any restriction whatsoever – would be, in my opinion, profoundly irresponsible. Even more, it is an absurd proposition. If we accept regulations for alcoholic drinks and tobacco consumption and production, why should we allow drugs to be consumed and produced without any restrictions?”
He insists, however, that prohibition has failed and an alternative system must be found. “Our proposal as the Guatemalan government is to abandon any ideological consideration regarding drug policy (whether prohibition or liberalisation) and to foster a global intergovernmental dialogue based on a realistic approach to drug regulation. Drug consumption, production and trafficking should be subject to global regulations, which means that drug consumption and production should be legalised, but within certain limits and conditions.” […]
Latin America’s increasing hostility towards prohibition makes Obama’s attendance at the summit potentially difficult. The Obama administration, keen not to hand ammunition to its opponents during an election year, will not want to be seen as softening its support for prohibition. However, it is seen as significant that the US vice-president, Joe Biden, has acknowledged that the debate about legalising drugs is now legitimate.
This is how evolution of culture happens.
