What a whopper - IEEE

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IEEE is the  Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.  They should have known better than this.

In the current issue of their Spectrum magazine there is this article:

Light Makes Might
For eons, leaves have been creating the fuel that plants run on virtually out of thin air. A little sun, plus some oxygen and water, is enough to keep a plant going strong. Now, scientists are making strides in the ongoing effort to reverse engineer the leaf. The aim is to pull the carbon dioxide from the air and, using a catalyst, generate a cleaner alternative to the fossil fuels on which we so greatly depend. Researchers will continue trying to improve the yield and efficiency of photovoltaic devices designed to produce hydrogen fuel by splitting the water covering about three-fourths of the Earth’s surface. But a team at the University of Cambridge has demonstrated an artificial leaf that sits on the surface of a body of water and does a fairly good job of producing syngas from carbon dioxide and water. The version shown here (floating on the River Cam near the Cambridge campus) has a surface area of only 100 square centimeters. The Cambridge team already has its sights set on bigger models that would each be capable of powering dozens of homes in carbon-neutral fashion.

Emphasis mine — channeling my inner Steve Martin:  Well Excuuuuuuuuuse me

A little sun, plus some oxygen and water  ?¿?¿?¿?¿ 

Photosynthesis takes in Sunlight and Water and Carbon Dioxide.  The oxygen that the author is referring to is a (very fortunate) waste product.  Photosynthesis makes the complex carbohydrates that are the building block of life.  Note the CARBO (as in carbon) and HYDRATE (as in water).  Carbon Dioxide is plant food.

For an organization of their stature, the IEEE really goofed here.  Simple basic high-school biology.

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This page contains a single entry by DaveH published on October 27, 2022 11:32 AM.

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