Xiao Cheng Zeng, Chancellor’s University and Willa Cather Professor of chemistry at Nebraska, recently helped explain the chemistry behind a promising new droplet-based prototype from colleagues at the City University of Hong Kong. After enough continuous water droplets have struck its surface, the small electricity generator can house enough charge to power 100 LED lights.
“The significance of this technology is the much-enhanced electric power per falling rain droplet, which makes the device much more efficient to convert energy from a falling droplet to electricity,” Zeng told Vice.
Stories on the research also appeared in Popular Mechanics, SYFY Wire and several other media outlets.
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Chigozie Obioma, English, an internationally recognized author, discussed his work and his home country of Nigeria in a Feb. 7 Noted article.
Obioma’s second novel, “An Orchestra of Minorities,” was featured in a Feb. 11 Literary Hub column on books with a mystical dimension.
Obioma was also featured in articles in the Santa Fe New Mexican and Taos (New Mexico) News. He read from his work at Taos’ Harwood Museum of Art on Feb. 14 and led a writing workshop Feb. 15.
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Robert Zink, biological sciences and natural resources, wrote a Feb. 13 guest column for the Minneapolis Star Tribune on what might happen if every deer has chronic wasting disease. He wrote that with shortened life spans and breeding shifting earlier in life, few trophy-class animals will exist. He also wrote that while there is currently no evidence of CWD passing from deer to humans, if nearly all deer become CWD-positive, more research will be directed at risks to humans.
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Researchers at the University of Nebraska’s Center for Great Plains Studies discussed new research on black homesteaders in the Great Plains during the Paul A. Olson Great Plains Lecture on Feb. 19. USA Today highlighted the event in its 50-states feature Feb. 17.
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New research from Philip Schwadel, sociology, finds the religiously unaffiliated are much more varied in their political beliefs than previously believed. As this group grows, repercussions could be felt by political parties. Stories on the research appeared on Phys.org, Science Codex and Study Finds.
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Wheeler Winston Dixon, film studies, was interviewed for a Feb. 27 Africans Live article on the new remake of “The Invisible Man” and Universal’s failed Dark Universe franchise. “There will be films about Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolf Man, the Mummy long after we’re gone,” he said. “… But the ones that will be effective will be made by people who are sincerely invested in the material and treat these creatures with deadly seriousness.”
