- Scientists have enlisted a new ally in the battle to
save the planet - Popeye.
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- They have found that spinach, which gives the cartoon
sailor hissuperhuman strength, could be the power source the world needs
to combat global warming. The discovery could lead to a new version of
the old instruction: "Heat up your greens."
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- Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
reported last week that the leafy vegetable could provide the missing ingredient
needed to make solar cells sufficiently cheap and efficient to provide
the world with electricity. The cells work by harnessing the power of photosynthesis
to covert light into electrical energy.
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- The MIT team - which reports its findings in the current
issue of the scientific magazine Nano Letters - isolated photosynthetic
proteins from the leaves, laid them on a thin gold film, and covered them
with an organic material that conducts electricity. When they shone light
on this high-tech sandwich, power was produced.
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- Professor Marc Dando said that they aimed "to take
advantage of two billion years of evolution" by building on the way
that nature had developed to convert sunlight into electricity, rather
than doing it artificially.
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- But why spinach? "There's a lot of it and it's very,
very green."He added that the team was now experimenting with peas
too, and had thought of using "Olive Oyl" as a stabiliser.
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- The olive is actually ahead in providing green energy.
Five power stations burning olive oil already supply homes in Andalusia,
Spain.
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- © 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd http://news.independent.co.uk/world/environment/story.jsp?story=537873
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