The mother of a 6-year-old boy who shot his teacher in a Virginia classroom is set to be sentenced and could face prison time for using marijuana while owning a gun

Scientists have made a major breakthrough with a new type of solar panel that they claim could supercharge the transition to renewable energy sources. A team from the University of Surrey discovered that a nanoscale “ink” coating could improve stability enough to make next-generation perovskite solar cells suitable for mass production. Perovskite is cheaper and lighter than conventional silicon-based cells, as well as far more efficient, however the emerging technology currently suffers from a drop in efficiency and energy output during the manufacturing process. “Performance limits of traditional solar cells are why researchers are switching to examining perovskite as the next-generation solar technology, especially as applications both terrestrial and in space are rapidly growing,” said Dr Imalka Jayawardena from the University of Surrey’s Advanced Technology Institute (ATI). “Our key development in solar panel technology shows a cost-effective approach to scaling of perovskite solar cells, a development which could help countries around the world to reach their net zero targets faster.” The breakthrough was made when the researchers identified an aluminium oxide that minimises the drop in efficiency during the conditioning of perovskite solar cells. Perovskite has been hailed as a “miracle material” for its potential to transform an array of industries, from ultra high-speed communications to renewable energy. Recent advances have seen it used to create self-healing solar panels that can recover 100 per cent of their efficiency after being damaged by radiation in space, as well as break new efficiency records when combined with silicon to form tandem cells. If the cheap-to-produce perovskite cells can be manufactured at scale while retaining their durability and reliability, then the cost of solar panels would plummet. “Solar and wind energy costs are rapidly decreasing based on technology improvements, to the level where worldwide over 80 per cent of all new additional power generation capacity is based on renewables,” said Ravi Silva, from the ATI, University of Surrey. “The levelized cost of solar electricity is now cheaper than most other power-generating sources. With the maturing of perovskite solar modules, the levelized cost of electricity will significantly decrease further, and that is why this is such an exciting area to work.” The research was detailed in a study, titled ‘Modification of Hydrophobic Self-Assembled Monolayers with Nanoparticles for Improved Wettability and Enhanced Carrier Lifetimes Over Large Areas in Perovskite Solar Cells’, published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Solar PRL. Read More Hundreds of years after it was discovered, one material is about to change the world ‘Miracle material’ smashes solar panel efficiency threshold Scientists invent solar panels that work in a snow blizzard September Supermoon: When is it and how to view it? Amazon Alexa is getting the same brain as ChatGPT

Corey Seager and Ezequiel Duran each had four hits, and the Texas Rangers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 11-7

Johnell Davis scored 26 points, Alijah Martin added 25 and No. 19 Florida Atlantic beat No. 12 Texas A&M 96-89 in a semifinal at the ESPN Events Invitational

Halloween is quickly approaching, and if you’re anything like me, you’ve been spending the month prepping a couples’ costume for you and your boo, carving pumpkins, and indulging your sweet tooth with seasonal candy. But as all Halloween bitches know, October is the most superior month of the year (sorry, December) because it lets you tap into all things spooky, scary, and sexy. Yes, that’s right. Sexy. Halloween sex appeal isn’t just costumes thrown together with pieces of skimpy lingerie (although we do love them) — there’s a whole other kind of goody to stick into your trick-or-treat bag this month. That’s right: We’re here to talk about Halloween sex toys.

Former President Donald Trump's history of making inappropriate or questionable comments on tape got another chapter on Wednesday with fresh revelations from his post-White House life.

Minuscule traces of metal from space junk that's designed to be disposable are invisibly polluting the Earth's atmosphere, a new study has found. In recent times, spacecrafts launched into space have been designed so that they fall out of orbit and fall back down to Earth after their intended use. So instead of the materials crashing on land, they can burn up in the upper atmosphere. Although the debris of rockets and satellites burn up when re-entering the planet's atmosphere, the consequences of metal vapour being left behind currently remain unknown. But given the amount of space exploration taking place, the amount of metal vapour is expected to rise in the years to come. Physicist Daniel Murphy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has led a team of researchers to investigate what effects this metal vapour could have as well as its impact over time and this study was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, as per Science Alert. He listed "iron, silicon, and magnesium from the natural meteoric source" as the current refractory material in stratospheric particular. Murphy has warned how this composition could be affected by the metal vapour from space junk. "However, the amount of material from the reentry of upper-stage rockets and satellites is projected to increase dramatically in the next 10 to 30 years," he wrote. "As a result, the amount of aluminum in stratospheric sulfuric acid particles is expected to become comparable to or even exceed the amount of meteoric iron, with unknown consequences for inclusions and ice nucleation." To find out if metal vapour remained, Murphy and his team took and analyzed 500,000 stratospheric aerosol droplet samples to see if they had traces of spacecraft metals. Aerosols contain sulfuric acid droplets made from the oxidation of the carbonyl sulfide gas and in the atmosphere, this can appear naturally or as a pollutant. Metal and silicon traces can be found in these droplets too, acquired from meteors which vaporize upon atmospheric entry. Around 20 metals were discovered from this research, and while some metals had similar ratios to the vaporizing meteors, other metals such as lithium, aluminium, copper, and lead exceeded the anticipated amounts. Particles from vaporized spacecraft were found in 10 per cent of stratospheric aerosols over a certain size while other common spacecraft metals such as niobium and hafnium were also present. Consequently, these traces of spacecraft particles could affect how water freezes into ice in the stratosphere, and stratospheric aerosol particles could change in size. Due to more space exploration planned in an "era of rapid growth" for the industry, the researchers predict "the percentage of stratospheric sulfuric acid particles that contain aluminum and other metals from satellite reentry will be comparable to the roughly 50 per cent that now contain meteoric metals." Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Lane Kiffin has been a transcendent head coach at Ole Miss. Has he ever beaten his former mentor Nick Saban head-to-head? Alabama hosts the Rebels on Saturday afternoon in Week 4.

Oleksandr Usyk’s next fight has been made official, as the Ukrainian defends the unified heavyweight titles against Daniel Dubois in Poland in August. Usyk, 36, will put the belts on the line against the 25-year-old Briton at the Tarczynski Arena in Wroclaw on 26 August. The bout came together following the collapse of talks between Usyk and WBC champion Fury, who were expected to clash in London in April. A fight between the undefeated pair, to crown an undisputed champion, is still on the cards, with Saudi Arabia the frontrunner to host the contest this winter. However, many in boxing doubt that the fight will materialise. In any case, Usyk’s focus is now on Dubois, who is the mandatory challenger to the WBA title, which Usyk holds alongside the WBO, IBF and IBO belts. “Ready for my chance!” Dubois wrote on social media. “I hope you are @usykaa.” Usyk simply wrote: “See you 26 august.” Dubois has a professional record of 19-1 with 18 knockout wins, while the sole defeat of his pro career came in 2020, when he suffered a fractured eye socket en route to a TKO loss to Joe Joyce. Last time out, Dubois recovered from multiple knockdowns to stop Kevin Lerena in December. Meanwhile, Usyk is 20-0 as a pro with 13 KO wins. The Olympic gold medalist most recently fought Anthony Joshua in August, outpointing the Briton for the second fight in a row. With that result last summer, the southpaw retained the unified titles that he took from “AJ” in the pair’s first clash. Click here to subscribe to The Independent’s Sport YouTube channel for all the latest sports videos. Read More Tyson Fury’s ‘game-changing’ return to be announced in ‘next week or so’, Frank Warren says Tyson Fury reacts to footage of Anthony Joshua using mattress as heavy bag Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder’s teams meet in London for talks over Saudi Arabia fight

MELEKHOVO, Russia (Reuters) -Jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny appeared before a Russian court on Monday to defend himself against new

CARLSBAD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 28, 2023--

Penfolds-maker Treasury Wine Estates Ltd. agreed to buy DAOU Vineyards LLC in California for as much as $1