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Sometimes scientific and engineering discoveries can seem more like magic than the products of disciplined investigations.
Nothing could be closer to this than the results announced by materials researchers at MIT. They have just produced photovoltaic (PV) cells printed directly onto special copy paper like you would find in any office printer. The result produced is Paper power, you might say.
[caption id="attachment_5620" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="Solar PV paper ...
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Biology, mathematics, and chemistry, were like playing for me-- physics, however, was a big stretch. I barely passed exams on vectors, forces, and electric currents in my college physics class. Years later, I toured a physics research lab in Colorado where they were trying to create artificial photosynthesis using a solid gold aspen leaf attached to a couple of wires. I thought the physics guys were crazy attempting to duplicate the process that powers life on Earth when green plants do it ...