The stuff that happens behind the scenes is complex. It always amazes me, for example, that computers actually work and when I turn the ignition in my jeep, the thing starts. EEtimes reports on the things that happen behind the scenes. Consider this:

Working with researchers at the University of New Mexico’s Center for Microengineered Materials, Sandia scientist John Shelnutt has created convoluted platinum structures that might be used to split hydrogen atoms from water molecules, leading to a light-driven source of hydrogen.

Controlling platinum deposition at the molecular level could be used in such applications as “catalysis, sensors and optoelectronic and magnetic devices,” he said.

Porphyrin is only one component in a complex series of molecular stages used by the photosynthetic process to convert light into the chemical ATP, which is the fuel that powers all living cells. Chlorophyll acts as an antenna that resonates with photons, passing the energy along to porphyrin, which responds by donating electrons to a complex molecular configuration that uses them to generate protons inside a cavity. The protons then drive the synthesis of ATP from precursors. The entire process is complex and still not fully understood.

Part of the quest is to find more efficient photosynthetic machines, since the natural variety is highly inefficient.

Molecular systems that mimic photosynthesis also have applications in molecular electronics. Devens Gust, a biochemist at Arizona State University (Tempe, Ariz.), has been working with Michael Kozicki in the university’s Department of Electrical Engineering to find a way to connect optical-molecular electronic switches based on photosynthetic components to the completely different material system found in silicon-based electronic circuits.

Power can be defined in all kinds of ways. Curiosity can be a part of the definition, which means that the border will always morph.

In the current issue of Scientific American Adam G. Riess and Michael S. Turner write:

Almost 75 years ago astronomer Edwin Hubble discovered the expansion of the universe by observing that other galaxies are moving away from ours. He noted that the more distant galaxies were receding faster than nearby ones, in accordance with what is now known as Hubble’s law (relative velocity equals distance multiplied by Hubble’s constant). Viewed in the context of Einstein’s general theory of relativity, Hubble’s law arises because of the uniform expansion of space, which is merely a scaling up of the size of the universe.

In Einstein’s theory, the notion of gravity as an attractive force still holds for all known forms of matter and energy, even on the cosmic scale. Therefore, general relativity predicts that the expansion of the universe should slow down at a rate determined by the density of matter and energy within it. But general relativity also allows for the possibility of forms of energy with strange properties that produce repulsive gravity. The discovery of accelerating rather than decelerating expansion has apparently revealed the presence of such an energy form, referred to as dark energy.

Whether or not the expansion is slowing down or speeding up depends on a battle between two titans: the attractive gravitational pull of matter and the repulsive gravitational push of dark energy. . . .

Because telescopes look back in time as they gather light from far-off stars and galaxies, astronomers can explore the expansion history of the universe by focusing on distant objects. That history is encoded in the relation between the distances and recession velocities of galaxies. . . .

Lots of mysteries are waiting for the present and new students of cosmology, physics and mathematics to pursue. Why is the universe still expanding? What are the qualities of dark matter and energy? What are the quantum properties of the black hole? Exciting times. This is another kind of storytelling.

It’s good to know that Mooney and Appell are keeping climate consideration arguments alive.