Chemically treated wood could send excess heat to space

Boiled in hydrogen peroxide and compressed, the wood can passively manage heat.

Read the whole story

 

[Mrweidler]

The end result is that, if the treated wood absorbs some of the heat of a structure, wood can radiate it away so that it leaves the planet entirely.

Great. So now instead of global warming, we'll have solar system warming.

/s

(This is really neat work. I assume they've filed for a patent.)

There is an a/c technology which uses the same principle of radiating in the unabsorbed infrared spectrum. It converts general heat to specific wavelengths, IIRC.

 

[Mrweidler]

"...three of the team members behind the new paper have a patent out to commercialize the tech."

I always thought the public-funded research should be patent-free, or at least the profits from the patent should return to the public.

Cool stuff though.

Sometimes you have to make concessions in order to attract the best people and be competitive with private industry.

It depends on the grant. Universities generally own the patents produced with their resources. The faculty involved in creating the invention usually get first dibs at trying to commercialize it with a cut going to the university.

Some federal grants come with the stipulation that the results are public property and can be licensed from the gov't. There is even a federal tech transfer agency (or there used to be). You would not believe the stuff they have on file and available for license.