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We define the testing of photovoltaic materials to the realization of specific laboratory tests aimed at determining their resistance to inclement weather.

This type of testing performed on the laboratory test chambers, of which the most common are the climatic chambers for environmental testing and accelerated solar simulation, which can accurately reproduce, on a laboratory scale, the different climates can Photovoltaic modules suffer exposed to the weather.

A team with participation of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), described in a model plant molecular mechanism that prevents the body from inheriting epigenetic alterations of the DNA of their parents. These alterations in the genome of different genetic mutations and involved in the development of different diseases may arise from exposure of DNA to the external environment over the years. Confirmed the presence of similar processes in mammals, the finding would help to understand why some diseases, especially cancer, its incidence increases with age.
The findings are published in Science.

The work product of an international collaboration, with the participation of researchers of the CSIC Mario Fernández Fraga, National Center for Biotechnology (CSIC) in Madrid, as well as that of Mary Berdasco and Manel Esteller of the Institute of Biomedical Research Bellvitge-Institut Català d'Oncologia (ICO-IDIBELL) and researcher of the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), Barcelona.

Blends of well characterized polystyrene-polybutadiene SB diblock and polybutadiene continuous SBS triblock copolymers provide rubbery network systems with controlled amounts of terminal chains of known molecular weight. Such systems also provide quantitative information on the concentrations of trapped and untrapped chain entanglements which is not available in conventional elastomers. Three different SB diblocks were synthesized using homogeneous anionic polymerization techniques. These diblocks were blended in various-amounts with a single research grade SBS triblock to form three series of samples for mechanical testing.

The mechanical properties of these materials were studied (1) in free oscillation at about 0.2 Hz over a temperature range from -150?C to 100?C, and (2) in dynamic uniaxial compression from 0.1 to 1000 Hz at various temperatures between -87 and 85?C.