Tag: Fiber

ScienceDaily (Feb. 13, 2010) In research that gives literal meaning to the term "power suit," University of California, Berkeley, engineers have created energy-scavenging nanofibers that could one day be woven into clothing and textiles.

These nano-sized generators have "piezoelectric" properties that allow them to convert into electricity the energy created through mechanical stress, stretches and twists.

Dye-sensitized cells get a double boost from nanowires and optical fiber.

Dye-sensitized solar cells are flexible and cheap to make, but they tend to be inefficient at converting light into electricity. One way to boost the performance of any solar cell is to increase the surface area available to incoming light. So a group of researchers at Georgia Tech has made dye-sensitized solar cells with a much higher effective surface area by wrapping the cells around optical fibers. These fiber solar cells are six times more efficient than a zinc oxide solar cell with the same surface area, and if they can be built using cheap polymer fibers, they shouldn't be significantly more expensive to make.

Another way to boost fiber and complex carbohydrates is to shun white -- white bread, rice, and pasta -- in favor of whole grains.

More than 25 studies find that people who regularly eat whole grains reduce their risk of heart disease. In the Harvard Nurses' Health Study, which followed 80,000 women for more than 20 years, women who ate at least one serving of whole grain foods daily had about a one-third lower risk of heart disease than women who rarely ate whole grains. It's not just the soluble fiber in whole grains that provides benefit. Other plant nutrients, including tocotrienols (a form of vitamin E not found in most supplements), are also at work. Yet Americans average just one serving of whole grain foods a day. Ideally, however, you should get seven to eight servings a day.

Fiber-optic lines have revolutionized long-distance phone calls, cable TV and the Internet. It enables the long-distance transmission of data in light signals, and is is probably used in more ways than you think.