Joshua gets a solar-powered no-prize for bringing this Scientific American article about solar panel developments to our attention. It would appear that scientists have finally made a successful "first step" in applying carbon nanotube technology to solar electricity generation.

The biggest problems with current solar panels are a) they're expensive, b) they're not real efficient (15%, as I recall), and c) they're made up of really nasty toxic chemicals and materials. This development could pave the way to solving all these problems.