Tech: Innovative solar cell may achieve 60% efficiency

Nuclear Engineer Lonnie Johnson claims that his Johnson Thermoelectric Energy Converting (JTEC) system can achieve 60% efficiency, almost double the best results of standard photovoltaic cells. The system consists of a "hot" stack that collects solar energy and a "cold" stack that generates hydrogen. The hydrogen is forced through the hot stack to maintain a pressure equilibrium resulting in a charge differential (voltage) across the stacks. Using mirrors, solar energy would be concentrated to raise the temperature of the hot stack to 600 degrees centigrade, the minimum temperature required to achieve a theoretical 60% efficiency. Current solar concentrators can achieve temperatures of between 600 and 800 degrees so he believes the observed efficiency may be even higher than 60%. The system can also generate electricity from waste heat so could be used in industrial situations. As a side note, Johnson is best known for having invented the Super Soaker, and the profits from his previous invention fund his current research.

Amusing: How to make edible googly eyes

The people at Evil Mad Scientists Laboratories have posted instructions on how to make edible googly eyes. Essentially, take a gelatin capsule, cut the end off, and place a dark candy in the capsule, then stick to a milk-chocolate Whopper(tm) after it has been cut in half. Visit the link to get the details, including how to make your own Spaghetti Monster. Found on MAKE Magazine.

Tech: RFID-enabled clothing talks to your washer

clothTag uses RFID technology to put washing instructions on the tag that can be read by RFID-enabled washers (like we all have on of those). All that would be required of the user is to toss the clothing into the washer and it would figure out how to clean them. There appear to be large holes in this system, such as what happens if there are conflicting washing instructions among the clothes? What about backward compatibility to non-RFID clothing?

Gadgets: Desktop photo studio does 3D imaging

For those who may not be aware, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is currently underway. One of the gadgets that appeared was the Photosimile, billed as a "PC-controlled desktop photography studio". It includes a light box and rotating turntable that lets the photographer a series of different shots of the product. What is really cool is that the system comes with software to stitch up to 20 photos together to generate a 3D image of the object in just 3 minutes.