1 Happy St

William Yuan, a seventh-grader from Portland, OR, developed a 3-dimensional solar cell that absorbs UV as well as visible light. The combination of the two might greatly improve cell efficiency. William's project earned him a $25,000 scholarship and a trip to the Library of Congress to accept the award, which is usually given out for research at the graduate level.

William, your thoughts?

Well, "current solar cells are flat and can only absorb visible light. [What I did was] I came up with an innovative solar cell that absorbs both visible and UV light. My project focused on finding the optimum solar cell to further increase the light absorption and efficiency and design a nanotube for light-electricity conversion efficiency."

Ah, interesting. Actually, I still don't even understand what it is you developed. So I can go outside without a shirt on now?

"You're an idiot."

Fair enough.

To keep in the spirit of insane scientific experiments, a team of biologists are closing in on bringing non-living matter to life.

Go ahead, click that link and read the article. And try to make it all the way through without wondering what the fuck it's about AND without putting your fist through your computer monitor. A team of biologists claim that they can now form a self-replicating, evolving system that satisfies the conditions of life, but isn't anything like life on earth now, but might represent life as it began or could exist elsewhere in the universe.

The money quote in the article IMO is this one from one of the molecular biologists: "One of the things that always comes up when people talk about life and universal qualities is water. But is water really necessary? What if we could design a system that works in something else?" - Jack Szostak

Um, guys? CANCER STILL EXISTS! Please cure something!

Honestly, what's next? Even Darwin would ask that we take a step back.

So will the world end tomorrow? That's some people's fears. But it's not Mayan.

/Puns.

Can I really be concerned with something called a Large Hadron Collider? Are those even real words? Whenever I hear that science is trying to kill me, I always look to our Commander in Chief. And of this experiment, he said "what's this 'science' you speak of?"

So no, I'm not concerned.

Have a great weekend, everyone!