96% Solar Efficiency

A new anti-reflective coating developed by researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute could help to overcome two major hurdles blocking the progress and wider use of solar power. The nanoengineered coating boosts the amount of sunlight captured by solar panels and allows those panels to absorb the entire spectrum of sunlight from any angle, regardless of the sun's position in the sky.
An untreated silicon solar cell only absorbs 67.4 percent of sunlight shone upon it — meaning that nearly one-third of that sunlight is reflected away and thus unharvestable.
After a silicon surface was treated with Lin's new nanoengineered reflective coating, however, the material absorbed 96.21 percent of sunlight shone upon it — meaning that only 3.79 percent of the sunlight was reflected and unharvested. This huge gain in absorption was consistent across the entire spectrum of sunlight, from UV to visible light and infrared, and moves solar power a significant step forward toward economic viability.

Source: PhysOrg

DNA and molecular factories

If you thought nanobots might give us cause for concern when the singularity occurs, how about nanobots made from DNA? U.S. scientists have developed microscopic robots composed of DNA that can follow instructions and work together like an assembly line to make products such as particles of gold.

Reporting in the journal Nature, New York University chemistry professor Nadrian Seeman and colleagues describe a tiny DNA factory consisting of a DNA track for assembly, three molecular forklifts that can deliver parts, and a DNA "walker" that moves around like a car on an assembly line.
The team had produced the first such DNA walker in 2004, knitting together strands of DNA to form a mobile molecule. With the walker working in the nano-factory, the plant can be programmed to produce up to eight different combinations of gold nanoparticle chemical species, according to the researchers.

Source: CNET