Solar powered Hornet

[VirusType2]

The brown and yellow parts of its body have the ability to absorb solar radiation, and a pigment in the yellow area is known to play a role in photosynthesis.

They found that the brown shell is made of an array of grooves that split sunlight into diverging beams. The yellow parts has small oval-shaped protrusions, each with one or two “pinhole” depressions. The yellow sections also contain the pigment xanthopterin tightly packed in granules. Xanthopterin has the ability to change light into electrical energy. So basically the shell is trapping sunlight and the xanthopterin is converting it to energy.

The team also modeled the structure of the hornet's body by building a solar cell that used xanthopterin as the light-harvesting molecule. But because they were unable to precisely model the complex nanostructures found in the shell, the solar cell had a low conversion rate. For their next work, they'll be looking at how to replicate the intricate grooves and pinhole depressions. It could happen that one day, we have solar cells inspired by the Oriental hornet.

Full article: http://news.discovery.com/tech/hornet-has-natural-solar-cells-in-its-body.html

Nature has a way of being extremely efficient and ingenious. If we can mimic the sunlight diverter design, maybe we can use that idea to improve solar panel technology.

 

[Warped]

DNA is an amazing code. I also think it would be awesome if in another part of the Galaxy or Universe, that there would be a completely different orientation of DNA and the wackiest animals emerged

 

[<RJMC>]

but sure dont have enough horsepower as a fuel fueled one like allways,and how you will do when is cloudy?
does it have a extra generator? is that is then it breaks the whole point of solar powered

 

[VirusType2]

It only said it became more active as it became more sunny. It's just extra energy. It doesn't say, but I'm going to have to confirm that it must eat as well, because plants get nutrients from the soil, and the hornet doesn't have that capability. So it gets 'cloudy day' energy from food.

There's a pdf: http://blogs.discovery.com/files/fulltext.pdf

 

[<RJMC>]

It only said it became more active as it became more sunny. It's just extra energy. It doesn't say, but I'm going to have to confirm that it must eat as well, because plants get nutrients from the soil, and the hornet doesn't have that capability. So it gets 'cloudy day' energy from food.

There's a pdf: http://blogs.discovery.com/files/fulltext.pdf

...........

so wich is the picture people use here to say "you missed the joke"?

 

[VirusType2]

I'm sorry, I'm tired.

 

[Unfocused]

I enjoyed the "fuel fueled" joke.

 

[VirusType2]

I thought it was a typo.