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August

  • Hidden Treasures: Art of the Abyss

    August 16, 2016

    Over a century ago, scientists at the Academy of Natural Sciences were entranced and intrigued by the lifelike beauty of a collection of glass models of marine life created by German artisans and father-and-son team Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka, and made sure the delicate creations quickly became a part of the Academy’s collection.

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  • Making a Solar Energy Breakthrough With Help From a Ferroelectrics Pioneer

    August 08, 2016

    Designers of solar cells may soon be setting their sights higher, as a discovery by a team of researchers has revealed a class of materials that could be better at converting sunlight into energy than those currently being used in solar arrays. Their research shows how a material can be used to extract power from a small portion of the sunlight spectrum with a conversion efficiency that is above its theoretical maximum — a value called the Shockley-Queisser limit. This finding, which could lead to more power-efficient solar cells, was seeded in a near-half-century old discovery by Russian physicist Vladimir M. Fridkin, PhD, a visiting professor of physics at Drexel University, who is also known as one of the innovators behind the photocopier.

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