Thursday was my favorite day of the program. In the morning we attended a lecture on Art Conservation by Giacomo Chiari, a scientist who works at the Getty Museum. His job is to scientifically analyze art and preserve it for generations to come. His career is almost the epitome of combining art and science. His lecture was quite interesting because it taught me about a field of research I have never heard of before. Although I did fall asleep through part of his lecture due to lack of sleep, I found it to be one of the more interesting lectures we have had so far.
More interesting than that was the lab visits. We visited three interesting labs that day; a Renewable Energy Research lab, A Material Science lab, and a lab containing a SEM microscope that we were allowed to play with. The renewable energy lab opened my eyes to the problem of using oil for power, and the fact that it was non renewable. The sun is a possible Energy source that could power our world in the years to come. The only setback is that the cost of building solar panels is highly expensive and only captures about 10% of the light hitting its surface area. The researchers are attempting to find new substances to create solar panels, but also they are studying fuel cells and biological energy. A researcher is studying the algae found during the red tide months. When disturbed these small creatures emit a glow similar to that of a glow stick. The theory is that the energy from this light could be captured or recreated in a lab and harnessed to power out world.
The best lab we visited on Thursday was hands-down the Material Science lab. Here they utilize a material called Sol Gel. Sol Gel is a liquid substance that when shaken and stirred can solidify at room temperature and form glass. This allows for many biological and heat sensitive items to be stored in glass. One theoretical use of this substance is a biological battery that would be powered off of enzymes and only needs basic sugar to operate. This could reduce the need to replace batteries in pace-makers, and could lead to new batteries for portable devices that could be recharged by simply adding sugar. A whole new field of opportunity was opened with the creation of Sol Gel
http://www.lambdaphoto.co.uk/products/180
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/fuel-efficiency/alternative-fuels/fuel-cell.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymer_solar_cell
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sol-gel
http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:Q2fp_YKyZlAJ:voh.chem.ucla.edu/classes/Superhydrophobic_Surfaces/pdf/Superhydro%2520%2520Presentation.ppt+superhydrophobic+surfaces&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a