We posted a new preprint from the lab on arXiv and would love your comments.

Crystal Solar has completed a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) funded Incubator project regarding technology development and manufacturing cost-effectiveness of epitaxial solar cells and modules. Thin epitaxial silicon solar cell  technology has the capability to improve the way silicon is made by eliminating many steps in the current process flow while retaining the high efficiency of mono-crystalline silicon.  

They estimate this could result in reduction of module costs by approximately 50% from today's levels to ~$0.40/W, enabling the cost of solar power to become comparable to existing energy costs in most parts of the world.  

Is kite power economically viable in the 21st century?

We'll find out. The TwingKite,  based on Empa's Tensairity technology, is set to take flight thanks to a  “Venture Kick” jury that is providing 10,000 Swiss Francs in support.

A kite, a reel and a console are the components of this new method for making electricity from wind. Rather than going up a hundred meters, like legacy wind efforts, TwingKite will go up to 300.

As narratives of modern “hook-up” culture in young people take center stage in popular media, behavioral researchers are starting to ask what psychological consequences, if any, may be in store for young adults who engage in casual sex.

A new survey found higher levels of general anxiety, social anxiety, and depression among students who recently had casual sex.

Hockey moves fast. As efforts to track the puck visually showed, it can be dizzying to keep track of things in a small field of view like a television.

Analyzing games and plays means manual work, for that reason. But Disney Research, located in Pittsburgh and Zurich, have developed an automated technique for analyzing the patterns of play of field hockey teams, providing a new tool for coaches and commentators who must make sense of mountains of video and other game data. 

The current administration may be worried that the high profile of its domestic tracking and spying and punitive efforts will make it harder for them to monitor the public.  

MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory may be able to help. They may be able to help us be a little more like Superman, really. Technology to build a device capable of seeing people through walls has involved the use of expensive and bulky radar technology that uses a part of the electromagnetic spectrum only available to the military - and anyone in the  government who says monitoring citizens is a national security issue.

Dr. Daniel P.

To our forefathers, distinguishing the living from the dead centered on calidum innatum - vital heat. Aristotle showed that when the heart turns cold, compared to other organs, a person dies and postulated that the vital heat produced in the heart caused blood vessels to react like water bubbles in boiling water - heat which our lungs cooled with air, to keep the cycle going. Modern microbiology knows body heat is not what the ancients envisioned and is more complex than an organ; biological processes should produce thermal signatures no matter how small, even within single cells, it was just that nobody knew how to measure them.

Phone Hacking Scandal - Appeal Dismissed

Rebekah Brooks, News International’s former chief executive,  Andy Coulson, former No. 10 spin doctor (Downing Street communications chief), and others have lost an appeal which attempted to redefine what is meant by the ordinary words which define  the unlawful interception of communications.

They, or rather their lawyers, tried to persuade the Appeal Court that the legal and technical definitions concerning the transmission of telecommunications did not cover voicemails.