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Australian student fashions solar cells out of nail polish as only MacGyver could
What do you get when you bring together a pizza oven, some nail polish and inkjet printers? Solar cells. You and I may be scratching our heads, but the woman behind the process known as iJet, Nicole Kuepper, won two Australian Museum Eureka Prizes — Australia's top science awards. The real beauty of Ms. Kuepper's accomplishment — beyond the simple recipe — is that a low-heat process like this is both cost effective and easily replicated, meaning that developing countries could get everything they need for cheap, renewable energy using junk you could find at a garage sale.
How does it work? We don't know, and probably won't be able to find out as it has just been recently patented, but it feels like a better world already.
The Australian, via Treehugger
CORRECTION: It's MacGyver!
By Dr, McKay at 7:24 PM ON 08/22/08
OK, this just plain ticks me off. It's spelled "MacGyver," NOT "MacGuyver!" Forget any "copyright infringement" issues, or what have you, MacGyver is a household term! "Just MacGyver it together, and hope it works," etc.
PLEASE! For the sake of all the MacGyver/RDA fans out here, change it or acknowledge your error!
I'm not trying to be nasty about it, I just want a little more attention to detail. I'm a big MacGyver fan, and I always have duct tape, a ballpoint pen, a multitool (I don't own a Swiss Army knife), and some string handy, so you see why I would easily be annoyed by this error!
Sorry if I offended anyone there at dvice.com HQ!
By Kevin Hall at 9:14 PM ON 08/22/08
I humbly request your pardon, Dr. McKay. I would never want to misrepresent the king of bubblegum & duct tape. D: Correction made.
I was a fan myself and watched the show all through my childhood. There weren't monsters in my closet - just Murdoc.
By T.Anders at 11:45 PM ON 08/22/08
Good article!
By macGUYver at 9:00 AM ON 08/23/08
@ "Dr." MacKay
Apparently your little tool kit doesn't solve how not to be an asshole.
By Bio at 9:46 AM ON 08/23/08
Ya know, without specifics or a diagram, this is pointless.
By BomBay at 10:25 AM ON 08/25/08
@ BIO.
Yep, that's why we all come to Dvice. For diagrams. Hey SciFi subsidiary bring us not only the latest and greatest cool shit (some of which is still only a concept) but also show us how to DIY.
By Quey Joh at 8:29 PM ON 08/27/08
@ BOMBAY
DIY no, but how about energy yeilds? How my electricity does one of these cells generate compared to an equivalent currently on the market?
I mean, this story is cool (don't get me wrong), but there's very little actual information here (which is symptomatic of the internet's attitude to journalism, but that's a whole other issue).
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Quey Joh:
@ BOMBAY DIY no, but how about energy yeilds? How my electricity does one of these cells generate compared to an eq...More »