These breakthroughs sent shock waves through their scientific fields

SOLAR GOOD VIBRATIONS

1 Silicon-based solar cells are relatively efficient, but expensive to produce, whereas zinc oxide-based cells are cheap but inefficient.

Researchers at Queen Mary University in London and Imperial College London tried playing music to zinc oxide cells, knowing that nanoscale rods of the oxide will wobble in response to mechanical stress, such as sound, producing an electric field. This increased the efficiency of these cells by 50 per cent, showing they would be more effective in noisy places.

VOLCANO ASH SENSORS FOR AEROPLANES

3 Many aircraft are now fitted with volcanic ash detectors, after infrared technology was successfully tested using an artificial ash cloud. The Airborne Volcanic Object Imaging Detector (AVOID) uses infrared cameras to spot the silicate particles in volcanic ash. In a test carried out above the Bay of Biscay, an aircraft released ash collected from Icelandic volcanoes. Another aircraft fitted with AVOID was able to detect the ash from 37 miles away – a distance at which pilots can adjust their flight paths to avoid ash clouds. Norway’s Nicarnica Aviation, which developed AVOID, as well as other airlines who were involved in the test, hope the technology will avoid a repetition of the disruption that happened when Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted in 2010, grounding aircraft.