Solar Cells Made From Bioluminescent Jellyfish 82
An anonymous reader writes "Swedish researchers have devised a way to turn bioluminescent jellyfish into solar cells. It works like this: the green fluorescent protein (GFP) that makes the Aequorea victoria glow is simply dripped onto a silicon dioxide substrate between two electrodes. The protein works itself into strands between the electrodes. When ultraviolet light is shined on the circuit, voila, the GFP absorbs photons and emits electrons, generating a current. The GFP-powered cells work like dye-sensitized solar cells, but don't require expensive materials such as titanium dioxide."
Could be worse (Score:4, Funny)
Jellyfish could be using Human Beings to generate power.
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I for one welcome our Jelly filled overlords!
Insert funny Homer Simpson quote here. MMMMMM..jelly filled donuts. Homer they're not jelly filled donuts, they're jellyfish overlords/Marge
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Stop harvesting everything from the ocean for exploitation by humans. In fact, harvesting humans from undesirable countries much be a better use of resources since their reproduction can be efficiently controlled and regulated within the corporate captives easily constructed near the place of work.
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Yes, If you eat fossil foods you produce fossil methane.
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Yeah TFS is misleading, what else is new?
Meh... (Score:1)
On the other hand, they'd be a much softer set of leaders than we have today, and they'd provide a more transparent leadership.
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HALT or be really painfully stung!
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"Solars cells are made from jellyfish! They're jellyfish!" - Ty Thorn
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Jellyfish could be using Human Beings to generate power.
Its the next Stimulus.
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Sorry, but did you just not even use capitals or punctuation in a post that's complaining about grammar? Not to mention using an unnecessary capital in the parenthesis.
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Gotta watch out for those pre-emptive stricks from PETA. :p
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How they waste their money is between them and their donors.
The Fools! (Score:3, Funny)
Haven't they played any of the Metroid games? We're all doomed!
C
So how many jellyfish would it to power a Tesla? (Score:1)
np
it's jellylicious (Score:1)
Now where's my science blender - I feel another Daiquiri discovery coming on.
This is not as much of a hardhack (Score:2)
as it is a wethack.
Being made from jellyfish just makes for even more bad jokes about wethacks.
output? (Score:3, Insightful)
What's the output on these new cells? The article mentioned the efficiency of algae cells but not these bioluminescent cells.
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Commercial crystalline solar cells are typically rated to last 20-25 years and are often manufacturer-warrantied as such. Is that what you consider "pretty quickly"?
Re:output? (Score:5, Interesting)
If you'd RTFA, you would have seen this snippet:
Of course, making electricity at sea [wikipedia.org] isn't so nearly hard to do as it is to get the electricity to a place where it can be used.
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Algaelectricity
Jellyfish are not the only sea creatures that can be exploited to generate energy: algae could power floating devices on the ocean wave. Adrian Fisher and Paolo Bombelli at the University of Cambridge and colleagues are developing biophotovoltaic devices based on algae and photosynthetic bacteria.
The team deposit a film of photosynthetic cells on top of a transparent conductive electrode, which faces a carbon cathode seeded with platinum nanoparticles.
When exposed to sunlight the algal cells begin splitting water and producing oxygen, electrons and protons. These would usually be used by the algae to convert carbon dioxide into organic compounds, but instead the device siphons them off to generate electricity, says Fisher. "The algal cells produce electrons very generously," he says.
The team has so far used a proof-of-concept device to power a clock. The sunlight-to-electricity efficiency of the device is only 0.1 per cent at present, compared with between 10 and 15 per cent for existing dye-sensitised solar cells, however. Screening different algae species to find the most productive electron donor might be one way to produce more juice.
Eventually, algal cells could float out at sea, generating electricity from sunlight and seawater. "We might end up with less efficiency than [conventional] photovoltaics, but we think we can win on cost, and we don't require space where people want to live," says Bombelli.
I RTFA. That's what I meant. They only list the algal cells, not the jellyfish protein ones. The jellyfish are only referred to in order to link these two concepts together. The 0.1 percent efficiency is for the algal cells, not the jellyfish protein ones.
Superfast Jellyfish (Score:2)
Expensive materials, whaa? (Score:5, Insightful)
I think it's cool research -- self-assembling stuff rocks -- but I'm dubious about their claim of the effectiveness of that particular cost reduction.
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Yeah, they put this in toothpaste. That's probably why it costs upwards of $1.99 per frickin tube.
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If memory serves me correctly, there was an article where a organic dye solar cell was Mac Gyvered from toothpaste and some berry juice a while ago.
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Not magnesium [ls1tech.com]?
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On: ... ... ... ...
http://www.icis.com/v2/chemicals/9076545/titanium-dioxide/pricing.html
Titanium Dioxide (TiO2) Prices and Pricing Information
Updated to mid-August 2010
Asian titanium dioxide (TiO2) prices increased by 1-4% from $2,535-2,600/tonne CFR (cost and freight) Asia in mid-May to $2,550-2,700/tonne CFR Asia in end-July on the back of tightening supplies in the region.
"don't require expensive materials.." (Score:2)
clearly this is the future of energy (Score:1)
Such a fuel cell could be used to power nano-devices embedded in living organisms, says Chiragwandi, for example to diagnose disease.
is it just me or is this quote ridiculously buzzword-esque?
or do they really think they have unlocked the key to nanotechnology and cured cancer?
titanium dioxide, really? (Score:3, Interesting)
Why would you say this? Maybe you meant indium tin oxide, which is expensive... but no, you use that one, but don't mention that in the press release.
It's not likely that someone working with this protein, who has to purchase or make it for several thousand dollars per milligram makes this claim innocently (titanium dioxide is a few cents per gram, and GFP is already one of the most mass produced purified proteins out there, it's not going to get much cheaper anytime soon). Misleading blurbs like this are terrible for science; they propagate falsehoods and direct research funding away from promising sources.
Re:titanium dioxide, really? (Score:5, Informative)
They are referring to expensive nanostructured titanium dioxide used in some solar cell technologies. The reporter, of course, is oblivious to the difference between that and the pigment in white housepaint.
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Outta mod points - this should be marked Informative, I was also unaware of the difference between the two, and hence confused by why it would be considered expensive in solar cells.
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"Nanostructured?"
Sorry, that's also BS. Spinning on a sol-gel solution is neither expensive nor "nanostructuring," and that can get you an excellent coating. You can also paint on an effective coating. If you've ever seen a self-cleaning window, and you have if you've used a car, you've seen a very cheap and effective photoactive TiO2 layer in action.
The TiO2 in photochemical cells is never the expensive part. Platinum, ITO and the dye are all more expensive. These photoactive coatings are so cheap to
Please advise (Score:4, Funny)
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Oh, we can speak of them, just not by name.
He-who-lies-dead-but-dreaming cares little for the affordability of non-fossil-fuel energy sources.
Au contraire, mon frere. Jellyfish are but poor representations of Old Ones, and should
Oh silly slashdotters, when will you learn? (Score:2)
Please feel free to refute this fact with an example product.
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It can take years before some really interesting discovery is incorporated into something you can buy at Walmart, or it may not end up there at all but instead have a specialised use.
So... (Score:1)
Anyone know why not?
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Wrong Section! (Score:2, Funny)
Hey, editor! This is in the wrong section.
Jellyfish, strictly speaking, are software. (Unless you reinforce them with an exoskeleton.)
To Paraphrase Kermit the Frog... (Score:4, Funny)
It's not easy being bioluminescent.
Like it wasn't bad enough these poor creatures spend their entire existence as lowly bags of goo. Now they have to spend half their time fleeing from horrific vertebrates that want to squeeze the life-goo right out of them for no discernible reason. Well, not actually fleeing. Trying to flee. Have you ever seen a jellyfish flee? It's sad. Pathetic really. Very slow. You can't even call it fleeing. It's more like moseying. "The jellyfish are moseying for their lives!" See what I mean? Poor things.
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Is there such a word as "shined"?
Yes.
Wasting my breath, I know.
Use fingers.
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Still sounds bad to me although technically correct, I'd go with ... " instead.
"When the circiut is illuminated with ultraviolet light,
Expensive? (Score:2)
> expensive materials such as titanium dioxide
Ummm, you mean common white paint?
Maury
TiO2 is not expensive (Score:2)
I couldn't find any sources of GFP in industrial quantities (or any industrial uses of it), but looking at the production costs of other recombinant proteins is telling. In 1997, heparinase I production was estimated to cost around $250,000 per pound [mit.edu] with capital costs in the t
But are they any good at all (Score:3, Insightful)
What is the efficiency of these particular organic solar cells under ordinary solar radiation? What is their lifetime before the organic matter decays?
bioluminescent jelly fish are going to be cheaper? (Score:2)
Man, I gotta get into the titanium dioxide production business if bioluminescent jelly fish are going to be cheaper.
There's gotta be a heck of a profit in there.
Bioluminescent Mushrooms (Score:1)
Sweet! (Score:1)
Yet another species to exploit to extinction! Yay!
Extinction unlikely (Score:1)
You can just cultivate batches of jellyfish cells, you don't need whole, live jellyfish.
In Florida, somebody on a lifeguard staff reached into a cooler and pulled out a coke bottle that looked like it was full of water but was full of water containing a batch of invisible jellyfish stinger cells. He drank it and survived with discomfort.
Anyways you can just grow the shit, you don't need to kill more than probably one jellyfish to get it started, boo hoo if they all die, though. What are you using them for?
I saw on the Discovery Channel that Jelly Fish (Score:2)
Are actually thriving, to the detriment of other species.
They reproduce so fast, and easily, as well as survive a ton of different conditions.
TiO2? Expensive? (Score:1)
At $2000 a ton, I'm left wondering how this incredibly ubiquitous material is considered expensive...perhaps someone can describe this to me. From my understanding, the TiO2 is applied using a caustic wash process, again very straightforward. I'm interested in knowing how this is difficult or expensive.