While you re up, print me a solar cell

New MIT-developed materials make it possible to produce photovoltaic cells on paper or fabric, nearly as simply as printing a document. The sheet of paper looks like any other document that might have just come spitting out of an office printer, with an array of colored rectangles printed over much of its surface. But then a researcher picks it up, clips a couple of wires to one end, and shines a light on the paper. Instantly an LCD clock display at the other end of the wires starts to display the time. Almost as cheaply and easily as printing a photo on your inkjet, an inexpensive, simple solar cell has been created on that flimsy sheet, formed from special "inks" deposited on the paper. You can even fold it up to slip into a pocket, then unfold it and watch it generating electricity again in the sunlight. Graduate student Miles Barr hold a flexible and foldable array of solar cells that have been printed on a sheet of paper.