In recent years, perovskites have taken the solar cell industry by storm. They are cheap, easy to produce and very flexible in their applications. Their efficiency at converting light into electricity has grown faster than that of any other material – from under four percent in 2009 to over 20 percent in 2017 – and some experts believe that perovskites could eventually outperform the most common solar cell material, silicon. But despite their popularity, researchers don’t know why perovskites are so efficient.

Now experiments with a powerful “electron camera” at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have discovered that light whirls atoms around in perovskites, potentially explaining the high efficiency of these next-generation solar cell materials and providing clues for making better ones.

It might seem like a tomato plant and a subway system don’t have much in common, but both, it turns out, are networks that strive to make similar tradeoffs between cost and performance.

Using 3D laser scans of growing plants, Salk scientists found that the same universal design principles that humans use to engineer networks like subways also guide the shapes of plant branching architectures. The work, which appears in the July 26, 2017, issue of Cell Systems, could help direct strategies to increase crop yields or breed plants better adapted to climate change.

When the NASA-NOAA Suomi NPP satellite passed over the Eastern Pacific Ocean on July 25 it captured a visible close-up of Hurricane Hilary.

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument aboard the NASA-NOAA Suomi NPP satellite captured a visible light image of Hilaryon July 25 at 5:54 p.m. EDT (2154 UTC). The Suomi NPP image showed that Hilary appeared somewhat asymmetric.

A new study found that Caribbean staghorn corals (Acropora cervicornis) are benefiting from “coral gardening,” the process of restoring coral populations by planting laboratory-raised coral fragments on reefs.

The research, led by scientists at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and partners, has important implications for the long-term survival of coral reefs worldwide, which have been in worldwide decline from multiple stressors such as climate change and ocean pollution.

NASA's Aqua satellite provided a near-infrared look at Typhoon Noru as it continued its western track at sea, far to the southeast of Japan.

Near-infrared satellite imagery from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite taken on July 26 at 0211 UTC (July 25 at 10:11 p.m. EDT) showed provided a look at the temperatures of Noru’s clouds. That data was false colored and made into an image at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California to highlight cloud top temperatures.

Tropical Storm Nesat formed early on July 26 just east of the Philippines and NASA's Aqua satellite passed overhead gathering temperature data to determine the location of the most powerful storms. Imagery showed strong storms from Nesat's western side were affecting the central Philippines.

Infrared satellite imagery from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite taken on July 26 at 0529 UTC (1:29 a.m. EDT) provided a look at the temperatures of Nesat’s clouds. That data was false colored and made into an image at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California to highlight cloud top temperatures.

The University of Twente and the German Research Centre Jülich are collaborating on developing membranes for an efficient separation of gasses, to use for the production of oxygen or hydrogen, for example.

These hot summer days may prompt you to cut back on outdoor activity – just as cold weather during the winter can be a reason to sit on your sofa.

A research team at the University of Regina, led by Dr. Katya Herman, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Health Studies, is looking into how the seasons affect physical activity.

A research paper published today by Nature Astronomy sheds light on the so far unexplored nightside circulation at the upper cloud level of Venus. Researchers from the Rhenish Institute for Environmental Research at the University of Cologne are part of an international research project which has now presented its preliminary findings. They discovered unexpected patterns of slow motion and abundant stationary waves in Venus’s nighttime sky. 

NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite captured an image of Hurricane Hilary as it continued to strengthen. The National Hurricane Center expects Hilary to become a major hurricane on July 27.