http://www.energy-daily.com/index.html Fri, 17 MAY 2013 23:36:04 AEST Fri, 17 MAY 2013 23:36:04 AEST en-us U of T Engineering researchers, working with colleagues from Carnegie Mellon University, have published new insights into how materials transfer heat, which could lead eventually to smaller, more powerful electronic devices. Integrated circuits and other electronic parts have been shrinking in size and growing in complexity and power for decades. But as circuits get smaller, it becomes mor]]> Fri, 17 MAY 2013 23:36:04 AEST A new study by scientists at Duke University and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) finds no evidence of groundwater contamination from shale gas production in Arkansas. "Our results show no discernible impairment of groundwater quality in areas associated with natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing in this region," said Avner Vengosh, professor of geochemistry and water quality at D]]> Fri, 17 MAY 2013 23:36:04 AEST Graphene has dazzled scientists, ever since its discovery more than a decade ago, with its unequalled electronic properties, its strength and its light weight. But one long-sought goal has proved elusive: how to engineer into graphene a property called a band gap, which would be necessary to use the material to make transistors and other electronic devices. Now, new findings by researchers]]> Fri, 17 MAY 2013 23:36:04 AEST In the wake of the sobering news that atmospheric carbon dioxide is now at its highest level in at least three million years, an important advance in the race to develop carbon-neutral renewable energy sources has been achieved. Scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have reported the first fully integrated nanosystem for ]]> Fri, 17 MAY 2013 23:36:04 AEST Inspired by the structure of moth eyes, researchers at North Carolina State University have developed nanostructures that limit reflection at the interfaces where two thin films meet, suppressing the "thin-film interference" phenomenon commonly observed in nature. This can potentially improve the efficiency of thin-film solar cells and other optoelectronic devices. Thin-film interference o]]> Fri, 17 MAY 2013 23:36:04 AEST One of the exciting possibilities of metamaterials - engineered materials that exhibit properties not found in the natural world - is the potential to control light in ways never before possible. The novel optical properties of such materials could lead to a "perfect lens" that allows direct observation of an individual protein in a light microscope or, conversely, invisibility cloaks that compl]]> Fri, 17 MAY 2013 23:36:04 AEST Using a powerful combination of microanalytic techniques that simultaneously image photoelectric current and chemical reaction rates across a surface on a micrometer scale, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have shed new light on what may become a cost-effective way to generate hydrogen gas directly from water and sunlight.* Their quarry is a potentia]]> Fri, 17 MAY 2013 23:36:04 AEST "Spring is like a perhaps hand," wrote the poet E. E. Cummings: "carefully / moving a perhaps / fraction of flower here placing / an inch of air there... / without breaking anything." With the hand of nature trained on a beaker of chemical fluid, the most delicate flower structures have been formed in a Harvard laboratory-and not at the scale of inches, but microns. These minuscule s]]> Fri, 17 MAY 2013 23:36:04 AEST Writing in Nature, a large international team led Dr Roman Gorbachev from The University of Manchester shows that, when graphene placed on top of insulating boron nitride, or 'white graphene', the electronic properties of graphene change dramatically revealing a pattern resembling a butterfly. The pattern is referred to as the elusive Hofstadter butterfly that has been known in theory for ]]> Fri, 17 MAY 2013 23:36:04 AEST U.S. Army and Lockheed Martin officials commissioned the first U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) grid-tied microgrid integrating both renewable resources and energy storage during a ribbon cutting ceremony at Fort Bliss, Texas. The project was funded by the DoD's Environmental Security Technology Certification Program. The Fort Bliss grid-tied microgrid is designed to reduce overall greenho]]> Fri, 17 MAY 2013 23:36:04 AEST Below a critical temperature, certain fluids become superfluid and lose internal friction. In addition, fluids in this state conduct heat extremely efficiently, with energy transport occurring in a distinct temperature wave. Because of the similarities to a sound wave, this temperature wave is also called second sound. To explain the nature of superfluids, the famous physicist Lev Landau d]]> Fri, 17 MAY 2013 23:36:04 AEST Yahoo! announced on Thursday that a Mexican appeals court tossed out a $2.7 billion dollar damages award in a breach of contract lawsuit. "The appellate decision overturned all monetary awards against Yahoo! Inc. and reduced the monetary award against Yahoo! Mexico to $172,500," the California-based Internet pioneer said in a release. "Yahoo! Mexico was awarded $2.6 million in the origin]]> Fri, 17 MAY 2013 23:36:04 AEST U.S. oil and gas major Chevron will invest $1.5 billion in Argentina's ambitious shale development project in Patagonia despite energy industry skepticism over Argentine President Cristina Fernandez keeping promises made during negotiations. Chevron agreed to pour the money into a project made more controversial by its stewardship. YPF, the energy company seized from Spanish oil major R]]> Fri, 17 MAY 2013 23:36:04 AEST India has commissioned the navy's first squadron of 16 MiG-29K fighters to be operated from a forthcoming aircraft carrier. Indian Defense Minister A.K. Antony officiated at the commissioning ceremony of the fighters at the Indian Naval Air Station Hansa, near Dablom, from where the new Black Panther squadron will operate temporarily. The first four of the 16 MiG-29Ks in the new ]]> Fri, 17 MAY 2013 23:36:04 AEST New Zealand's Supreme Court on Thursday granted Kim Dotcom leave to appeal a ruling that US authorities do not have to disclose all of the evidence they have against the Megaupload founder. The Court of Appeal in March had overturned a decision ordering US prosecutors to hand over the evidence to Dotcom's legal team as they seek to extradite him to face online piracy charges. The appeal ]]> Fri, 17 MAY 2013 23:36:04 AEST