/ News
Science gets one step closer to artificial photosynthesis
Despite our best efforts, photovoltaic solar cells are still expensive and only moderately efficient. Plants have been making electrochemical energy from the sun since time immemorial, which has led to a great deal of interest in duplicating the process in the lab. Artificial photosynthesis could prove to be an important technology in any sustainable energy system, and a team from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has taken a big step toward making that a reality with a new catalytic model of cobalt oxide.
When we use traditional photovoltaic solar panels, the photons striking the surface produce electrons directly. The efficiency of this process is a little over 20% for commercially available panels. Plants aren’t after electrical energy, but they still need a lot of electrons to generate biochemical energy. Energy in eukaryotic cells (like animals and plants) comes mostly from the molecule ATP. The overwhelming majority of ATP in cells is produced through the electron transport chain. That is what artificial photosynthesis is trying to tap into — the flow of electrons.
Plants undergoing photosynthesis are able to enzymatically catalyse the oxidation of water in a structure called photosystem II. When good old H2O is oxidized, you’re left with four electrons, two hydrogen ions (protons), and one oxygen. This process is highly endothermic on its own, which means you have to put a lot of energy into the system to make it happen. The work going on at the Berkeley National Laboratory is centered around catalyzing the oxidation of water so it can be done with light, just like in a plant.
It has been known for some time that cobalt oxide nanocrystals were able to catalyse the oxidation of water when exposed to light, but the process wasn’t good enough. Oxidizing water is a four-electron process, but the second and third steps have always been sluggish with cobalt oxide. Through analysis of the reaction with infrared spectroscopy, the Berkeley team realized there are different types of catalytic sites in a cobalt oxide surface — some are faster, and the others are slower. To oxidize water more efficiently, you simply need to control the structure of the catalyst so its surface has more of the fast sites.
So you’ve broken down water molecules, but now what? A plant uses the electrons to run redox reactions and in order to shuffle the protons around and produce ATP. The oxygen is released as a waste product, much to our benefit. In artificial photosynthesis, the energy from the electrons can be used to generate fuels from carbon dioxide and protons (those hydrogen ions).
The researchers suspect that a cobalt oxide catalyst that has been properly created to produce more fast catalytic sites could use the available light more efficiently than photovoltaics. Cobalt oxide is also plentiful and easy to work with. Solving this intermediate step in the process is not the last piece of the puzzle, but it’s starting to come together.
Source: http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/177865-science-gets-one-step-closer-to-artificial-photosynthesis
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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