Important Innovations

German Scientists' Breakthrough Invention Source:  Max Planck Institute Potential Wide Applications Scientists at the Max Planck Institute and the University of  Bayreuth in Germany have invented a transparent, extremely thin material that both conducts and insulates heat simultaneously.  That's a first.  The scientists say the first application is for the creation of high-performance LEDs.  But it could be even bigger than that. Everyday Life Applications Thermal insulation and thermal conduction are important to our everyday lives from heating our homes to computers, where it's important to dissipate heat as quickly as possible.  The new material has the potential of widespread impact as it both conducts and insulates heat at the same time. Novel Breakthrough The team made the material by manipulating how heat travels.  They stacked wafer thin plates of glass in layers and placed polymer chains between them.  The configuration cut the vertical emission of h

Inexpensive Alternative to Glass Windows and Solar Panels Source:  American Chemical Society KTH Transparent Wood New Innovation from Sweden's KTH This is important innovation in materials science.  Researchers at Sweden's KTH Royal Institute of Technology have developed a transparent, synthetic wood that can store and release heat.  The material is transparent.  It's an inexpensive alternative to glass used in windows and solar panels. Their innovation was just presented at the American Chemical Society meeting in Orlando, FL. Building on KTH Research This is an important iteration on a research theme and results achieved by KTH.  They previously created a transparent wood by cutting the lignin from the cell walls of balsa wood and combined that with plexiglass. New Transparent Wood They've now added the phase change polymer polyethylene glycol (PEG) to the wood fiber and plexiglass mixture.  The result:  material that absorbs heat and stores energy that