Glass microspheres aren't the answer for saving Arctic sea ice

A proposal to cover Arctic sea ice with layers of tiny hollow glass spheres about the thickness of one human hair would actually accelerate sea-ice loss and warm the climate rather than creating thick ice and lowering the ...

'Switchable' smart windows reduce energy consumption significantly

Smart windows that act as blinds in the summer and let all the sunlight through in the winter. That's the idea of the reflective windows Hitesh Khandelwal developed during his doctoral research at TU/e, that are able to reflect ...

Artificial leaf as mini-factory for drugs

Using sunlight to make chemical products has long been a dream of chemical engineers. The problem is that the available sunlight generates too little energy to kick off reactions. However, nature is able to do this. Antenna ...

Sponge creates steam using ambient sunlight

How do you boil water? Eschewing the traditional kettle and flame, MIT engineers have invented a bubble-wrapped, sponge-like device that soaks up natural sunlight and heats water to boiling temperatures, generating steam ...

Understanding the impact of snow's reflectance

To help improve the accuracy of climate models, an international team involving the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) has measured the reflectance of rough, snow-covered surfaces at large solar zenith angles.

Study of aerosols stands to improve climate models

(Phys.org) —Aerosols, tiny particles in the atmosphere, play a significant role in Earth's climate, scattering and absorbing incoming sunlight and affecting the formation and properties of clouds. Currently, the effect ...

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