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Solar Power

An artist's rendition of Juno in orbit around Jupiter. The craft is powered entirely by the sun's rays.

Trending Today

Juno Is Now Humanity’s Furthest-Flung Solar-Powered Craft

Armed with over 18,000 solar cells, the Jupiter orbiter is taking solar-fueled space exploration to new lengths

Does Altitude Affect Animals the Same Way it Affects Humans and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

Thin Red Line Aerospace Chief Engineer and CEO Maxim de Jong inspects a UW-CAES “Energy Bag” during initial test inflation

Future of Energy

Could Renewable Energy Be Stored in Balloons in the Ocean?

Underwater compressed air energy storage is promising, but the fate of this tech remains unknown

Inspired by the ancient art of paper folding researchers hoped to make a device that could both fold itself and move on its own.

Watch This Piece of Paper Fold Itself Up and Walk Away

Scientists created a piece of graphene-based paper that can fold itself into a box, pick up objects and even inch around corners

Kirigami-cut solar cells

Future of Energy

Using Kirigami, the Japanese Art of Paper Cutting, to Build Better Solar Panels

Researchers have used the art technique to make light panels that twist to follow the sun

Age of Humans

Are Floating Farms in Our Future?

A Barcelona design firm imagines a two-million-square-foot barge that would yield tons of vegetables, fruit and fish each year

A rendering of the installation, which officially launches June 28. Seventeen artist-made stars will glow each night in a constellation above an abandoned castle.

Urban Explorations

An Abandoned Island Now Glows Star-Bright Under a New Constellation

Artist Melissa McGill creates a luminous public art project above a ruined castle on a mysterious piece of land in the Hudson River

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Discussion

Letters from our readers

This winter jacket is light, thin and made of the same special ingredient that insulates astronaut spacesuits.

This Week in Crowdfunding

A Winter Jacket Made From the Same Material as NASA Spacesuits and Other Wild Ideas That Just Got Funded

Plus, a high-tech update to the tried-and-true jump rope

Before it departed from Abu Dhabi, the plane carried out an inaugural flight, taking off from the Payerne airport in Switzerland.

This Solar-Powered Plane is Currently Circumnavigating the World

With 17,000 solar cells in its wing and tail, the aircraft relies solely on sunshine to keep its motors running

A Norwegian Company is Transforming Deserts Into Farmland

Solar power plants in Qatar and Jordan, not far from the sea, are powering desalination systems that irrigate plants in and around greenhouses

Solar Panels in the Screens of Smartphones Could Power the Devices

Kyocera unveils a prototype for a phone with a layer of transparent crystals in its screen that helps to charge it both indoors and outside

The Hemingwrite is a newfangled take on the old school typewriter, featuring cloud back-up.

This Week in Crowdfunding

Five Wild Ideas That Just Got Funded: From a Digital Typewriter to Treadmill-Powered Gaming

A Los Angeles group is also creating greeting cards with personalized audio messages from top celebrities

Cool Finds

Solar Power Provides About As Many Jobs As the Coal Industry in the U.S.

Estimates might even give solar and edge in the jobs department, but is that a good thing?

(Clockwise from top left) Katrin Macmillan, Ashutosh Saxena, Richard Lunt and Horace Luke are hard at work on exciting new projects.

Eight Innovators to Watch in 2015

From food science and robotics to solar tech and sustainable architecture, these folks are poised to do big things

Just add water. The Zephyr has an electrolyzer on board that uses nine liters of water to produce hydrogen to inflate.

A Photovoltaic Balloon Could Bring Electricity to Disaster Zones

Moored to a base with batteries, the Zephyr collects enough solar energy to power 15 relief tents and a telecommunications network

Kids in a small Nigerian village line up to learn at the Hello Hub.

How Do Kids Learn Where There Are No Teachers? It May Take a Village…Computer

A non-profit called Projects for All has a plan for educating children without schools: Turn them loose on outdoor computer kiosks in their community

This year, the Solar Cloth Company unveiled the world's first solar fabric tensile structure parking lot in Cambridge, UK.

Future of Energy

A Football Stadium Covered in This Solar Cloth Could Power a Small Town

Perry Carroll, founder of the Solar Cloth Company, has integrated super-thin photovoltaics into flexible fabric

This is how you build the world's first solar bike path.

A Bike Path Near Amsterdam Is Now Generating Solar Power

As cyclists ride above, solar panels embedded in the pathway pump energy into the power grid

The transparent solar concentrator material doesn’t block visible light, but turns light in other parts of the spectrum into electricity.

Tech Watch

This Clear Plastic Material Harvests Solar Energy Without You Even Knowing It’s There

Researchers are developing transparent solar collectors that let sunlight in, while turning ultraviolet and near-infrared light into electricity

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