First Practical Artificial Leaf Makes Debut

 

 

The leaf's ability to convert sunlight and water into storable fuel makes it the ultimate in solar energy. Now researchers say they have found a way to mimic this seemingly simple feat.
The technology developed by Dan Nocera of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and colleagues could eventually power a house and bring electricity to the developing world with little more than a chip sunk into a bucket of water. The device could even store the energy for when the sun isn't shining.
The new technology copies the process of photosynthesis in which the sun's energy liberates electrons in a leaf, which then split water to form hydrogen and oxygen, providing stored energy for the plant.
"Whether you realize it or not, leaves are buzzing with electricity," Nocera said. "They just don't have any wires in them."
The leaves need two catalysts to make this reaction work, and similarly, so do the solar cells. Nocera's breakthrough is in finding two affordable catalysts that can do the reaction.
The sunlight is captured with the same silicon material that makes up a typical solar panel, but instead of connecting it to wires that can charge a battery, the coated silicon with catalysts is submerged in water.

it is taken from :http://news.discovery.com/earth/artificial-leaf-technology-solar-110329.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+discovery%2FxfJH+%28Discovery+News+-+Top+Stories%29#mkcpgn=rssnws1

Obama pivots, eyes Medicare changes, tax increases

 

  

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama, two years into a presidency marked by increased spending on a weak economy, is turning his attention to the nation's crushing debt and trying to counter a Republican anti-deficit plan with one of his own.

The president on Wednesday was to deliver a speech outlining his proposal to reduce spending in the biggest government benefits programs, raise taxes on the wealthy and cut defense costs. In a pre-emptive response Tuesday, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, called any proposed tax increase "a nonstarter."
This new clash, just a week after the president announced he would seek re-election, ensures that the nation's fiscal health will be at the center of the 2012 presidential campaign. For the past two months, Obama has been arguing to protect his core spending priorities, including education and innovation. His turn to deficit reduction reflects the pressures he faces in a divided Congress and with a public increasingly anxious about the nation's debt, now exceeding $14 trillion.
The president is wading into a potential political thicket. Liberals fear he will propose cuts in prized Democratic programs like Medicare and Medicaid, the health care programs for older adults, the disabled and the poor, and in Social Security. Moderates worry that his plan could unravel bipartisan deficit-cutting negotiations. And Republicans already are poised to reject any proposal that includes tax increases.

this article is taken from : http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110413/ap_on_re_us/us_obama_budget;_ylt=A0wNdO98VKVNsKcA6dys0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNmdjc5NmNhBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTEwNDEzL3VzX29iYW1hX2J1ZGdldARjY29kZQNtb3N0cG9wdWxhcgRjcG9zAzEEcG9zAzIEcHQDaG9tZV9jb2tlBHNlYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcnkEc2xrA29iYW1hcGl2b3RzZQ--

Old times not forgotten: Civil War at 150

  

A hush fell over the crowd filling the elegant hall in downtown Richmond, Va. The vote was about to be announced, and a young staffer of the Museum of the Confederacy balanced his laptop across his knees, poised to get out the news as soon as it was official.

Who would be chosen "Person of the Year, 1861"?
Five historians had made impassioned nominations, and the audience would now decide.
Most anywhere else, the choice would be obvious. Who but Abraham Lincoln? But this was a vote in the capital of the rebellion that Lincoln put down, sponsored by a museum dedicated to his adversary. How would Lincoln and his war be remembered in this place, in our time?

This article taken from :http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_civil_war_at150;_ylt=A0wNdO98VKVNsKcA8tys0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTFjaHI0cjNiBHBvcwMxBHNlYwN5bl9wcm9tb3NfbWlkX2JhcgRzbGsDY2l2aWx3YXIxNTB5