A team of MIT researchers has developed a way of making a high-temperature version of a kind of materials called photonic crystals, using metals such as tungsten or tantalum. The new materials — which can operate at temperatures up to 1200 degrees Celsius — could find a wide variety of applications powering portable electronic devices, […] … learn more→

Sunlight is an unlimited source of non-polluting energy. Most power plants currently produce electricity with steam turbines. The heat to generate the steam is supplied by the combustion of fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas, or coal. Staggering volumes of carbon dioxide gas are produced through the combustion process. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse […] … learn more→

Systems to harness the sun’s energy typically generate either electricity or heat in the form of steam or hot water. But a new analysis by researchers at MIT shows that there could be significant advantages to systems that produce both electricity and heat simultaneously. The new study incorporates thermoelectrics — devices that can produce an […] … learn more→

In the past few years, there has been growing interest in geo-engineering our climate. Geo-engineering means making sometimes planetary-scale physical or chemical changes to alter the amount of heat coming into, or getting out of our atmosphere. It’s a serious step. Should we even be looking into it? There is still so much we don’t […] … learn more→