Well, exams are over (and passed), so now i won’t have to take an exam or be at a lecture again … ever. As promised the rate of articles will pick up somewhat now, so here goes.

It seems like every other story we do somehow involves MIT doing something revolutionary, those guys are really at the forefront of science/engineering. This time around they claim to have made the worlds most power-efficient solar power solution.

The contraption is basically a cleverly designed mirror that focuses the sunlight it reflects onto a small area that absorbs the heat from the light quite efficiently into copper wires, that then transfer the heat to water surrounding them. The water then heats up and eventually produces steam, that could be used to power turbines, creating electricity. I could babble on here about the design and such, but MIT’s news service is actually quite good, and they have a video with the lead-designer explaining everything quite well, and he even demonstrates how the light beam is powrful enough to quickly make a plank of wood go up in flames. So check out this video here. I can also recommend reading their press-release on the matter.