Vampire Power Drains Our Finances and Resources Here s How to Eliminate It
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We all know vampires as the movie monsters that drink our blood, but vampire
power does something much worse: it drains energy and our finances. Often coming out at night when you re sleeping (or during the day when you re at work), vampire power slowly sucks the power out of your TV, computer, Alexa, Google Home, and other smart devices throughout the house, costing you more money and wasting resources.
Harvard University explains that vampire power is also known as standby power, or the power used when devices like TVs, microwaves, scanners, and printers use power even when turned off. And according to the Lawrence Berkeley National Library, vampire power accounts for typically five to 10 percent of residential energy use in most developed countries. Additionally, this standby power use is responsible for approximately one percent of global CO2 emissions. All that for power we don t even need
Novel cellulose finding may lead to new chemicals, biofuels
IMAGE: EDWARD WAGNER, COSGROVE LAB, PENN STATE
Researchers revealed the crystal orientation of cellulose fibers, pictured here in green in the cells of an onion skin peel.
Newswise UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. A multi-institutional research group led by two Penn State faculty members has identified, for the first time, how cellulose crystals orient themselves relative to the cell wall in plants, with potential implications for chemical and energy development.
“A more detailed understanding of the structure of plant cell walls could lead to new strategies for breakdown of these materials to create fuels and high-value chemicals,” said Enrique Gomez, co-principal investigator of the study and professor of chemical engineering and materials science and engineering with a co-appointment in the Materials Research Institute. “As such, our work may lead to new strategies for biofuel or biochemical production.”