Posts

April 23, 2013

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1:46 AM | Hear the Coral Sing, Beefy Issues, the Other Earth Days

By The Editors Fed fight!: The State Department is in charge of deciding whether a Canadian energy company should be allowed to build the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would transport tar sands oil 1,700 miles from Alberta to refineries on the Gulf Coast. But the Environmental Protection Agency gets a say in the project, too -- and it's saying the State Department did a pretty poor job with its review of the pipeline plan. The department underplayed […]

April 22, 2013

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9:01 PM | What We Talk About When We Talk About Trash

By Elizabeth Royte Hint: It’s probably the wrong things -- because focusing on recycling risks missing the bigger picture. As an eager consumer, and sometime producer, of garbage-related writing, I was thrilled to be invited to provide a blurb for Robin Nagle’s recently released Picking Up: On the Streets and Behind the Trucks with the Sanitation Workers of New York City. Plunging into the book with the zeal of a dumpster diver, I emerged utterly […]

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5:30 PM | GE Launched ‘LNG in a BOX’ Natural Gas Fueling Solution

GE Oil & Gas introduced last week a new small-scale, plug-and-play, re-deployable liquefied natural gas (LNG) fueling system that could accelerate the transition from diesel to cleaner liquefied natural gas fuel. The world’s first commercial application of the LNG In A Box system will be for LNG fueling stations in Europe to be delivered by Luxembourg-based LNG firm Gasfin. Read more »

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5:19 PM | Are We Ignoring the Most Important Science About the Gulf Spill?

By Rachel Nuwer After the Exxon Valdez dumped 11 million gallons of crude oil into Alaska’s Prince William Sound in 1989, a pod of orcas there stopped having babies. The whales have yet to birth a single calf in more than 20 years, and scientists now consider those orcas to be functionally extinct. (See “The Woman Who Loves Orcas,” Spring 2013.) The oil would certainly seem to have something to do with it, but we don’t know for sure. Why? Because […]

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3:54 PM | What I do: Parents edition with special animated GIF for Mom and Dad

One of my goals is to help the masses understand scientific discovery. More precisely, why should we care (i.e. spend money) about bacteria and/or plants. Visiting the parents this weekend, my mom and dad talked about some of my posts that I have on Facebook. Something dad said has stuck with me, I paraphrase: he [...]

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3:15 PM | Online Tools Provide Information on Hydraulic Fracturing in the U.S.

Two data collection tools specifically developed for tracking oil, gas, injection well, and source water protection activities are available to regulatory agencies and the public. The primary purpose of this tools is to provide factual information concerning hydraulic fracturing and groundwater protection. Read more »

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1:50 PM | Earth Day Edition: Park Therapy, 'Big Men' Villains, Peep Shows on the Prairie

By The Editors Beyond the pipe: Some curmudgeons under the big tent of environmentalism like to knock the anti-Keystone XL campaign for being too narrow in scope, for taking on the wrong target, or for using the wrong tactics. But what they don’t get is that the campaign isn’t -- and never was -- just about the pipeline. It's about changing the face of the environmental movement. And it’s working. SlateWorking environment: What might be the greenest […]

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1:38 PM | An invitation to a brainstorm

Who of us would not be glad to lift the veil behind which the future lies hidden; to cast a glance at the next advances of our science and at the secrets of its development during future centuries? What particular goals will there be toward which the leading [geoscientific] spirits of coming generations will strive? What new methods and new facts in the wide and rich field of [geoscientific] thought will the new centuries disclose? — Adapted from David Hilbert (1902). Mathematical […]

April 20, 2013

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5:28 PM | Independent Report Finds ‘Lack of Confidence’ in Concentrated Solar Power

An independent report investigating the potential to accelerate the deployment of small-scale concentrated solar power (CSP) in various developing countries was undertaken by the Carbon Trust for the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change. According to the report, the critical barriers to deployment of CSP in industrial applications are low awareness, lack of confidence, and unattractive payback periods. Read more »

April 19, 2013

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7:23 PM | Supermoms Vs. Superbugs

By Jessica Camille Aguirre Everly Macario lost her 18-month old son, Simon, in 2004 after he contracted an antibiotic-resistant strain of Staphylococcus. It took an autopsy to determine the exact cause of his death; his lungs looked like Swiss cheese from the bacteria. When Macario was notified, she was bewildered. “When the doctors first told me, I just didn’t understand,” Macario recalls. “I felt insane because I didn’t understand how he got it. […]

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7:04 PM | A work in progress: scene 2 of extracellular electron transfer as animated GIF

A definite work in progress. However scene 2 of extracellular electron transfer as an animated GIF is here. The green sphere is iron 3+ that is reduced by the glowing electron exiting the cell via, in this case, MtrB pore protein and MtrF extracellular cytochrome of Shewanella. Related articles A proud day: I did [...]

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5:00 PM | Lockheed Martin to Build Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion Power Plant in China

Lockheed Martin has announced that it is working with Reignwood Group to develop an Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) pilot power plant off the coast of southern China. This technology is based on using the temperature difference between cooler deep and warmer surface ocean waters to run a heat engine and produce electricity. A memorandum of agreement between the two companies was signed in Beijing last Saturday. Read more »

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4:17 PM | A proud day: I did it! Scene 1 from my bacteria animation

The movie is to be about extracellular electron transfer. Hope to have a second scene going soon. Related articles Animated bacteria GIF: What lies within (mhrussel.wordpress.com) Sometimes, not seeing is believing: animated GIFs of disabled bacteria (mhrussel.wordpress.com) Electric Bacteria Could Be Used for Bio-Battery (livescience.com) Stress: It’s not just for humans; animated bacteria GIFs (mhrussel.wordpress.com) [...]

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4:12 PM | Weekend Reads: Humane Slaughter? Python Poster Kids? Renewable Fossil Fuels?

By The Editors Five greenreads to discuss over grilled tofu at your Earth Day BBQ.Brian Lam in Popular Science on the secret lives of sharks: Every day, the fishing industry snags more than a quarter-million sharks, either accidently as bycatch or purposely for their fins. It almost always means death for the sharks, but what do such sizeable predator losses mean for the ocean overall? That’s the answer a crew of scientists-cum-pirates-cum-cowboys are […]

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3:38 PM | Simple Upgrade Significantly Lowers CO Emissions From Portable Generators

Portable electric generators retrofitted with off-the-shelf hardware by the University of Alabama (UA) emitted significantly lower levels of carbon monoxide (CO) exhaust, according to the results of tests conducted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Read more »

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1:19 PM | U.S. Department of Energy Invests in Nuclear Fuel Storage Research

U.S. Department of Energy announced yesterday a new dry storage research and development project led by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). The goal of the project is to design and demonstrate dry storage cask technology for high burn-up spent nuclear fuels that have been removed from nuclear power plants. Read more »

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12:11 PM | ‘Boots Versus Suits’ in Nebraska Tar Sands Showdown, N.C. Shuns Science, Fear the Flooded Street Sewer Geyser

By The Editors TOP STORY: KEYSTONE CLASHMore than 1,000 Nebraskans braved near-blizzard conditions to attend a public hearing on the proposed Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline yesterday. The meeting was scheduled to last eight hours, but when the time limit was reached, many people who wanted to testify still hadn’t gotten to speak. So State Department officials agreed to keep going, eliciting cheers from the pipeline opponents (who reportedly […]

April 18, 2013

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8:36 PM | Who Needs Hurricanes When You've Got the North Carolina Legislature?

By David Gessner I have lived in the state of North Carolina for just short of a decade now. My daughter, Hadley, turns 10 in May and has never called any other place home. During those 10 years, I have grown to love this place -- its people, of course, but also its great bounty of water, birds, beaches, and barrier islands. And now, during the last few months, I have watched -- stunned -- as state lawmakers have done their best to make sure that this […]

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8:15 PM | GM Starts Manufacturing Electric Motors for New Chevrolet Spark EV

Until recently most electric motors and drive units in the U.S. have been imported. Yesterday, however, General Motors have celebrated becoming the first U.S.-based car manufacturer to create these key parts in America for the new Chevrolet Spark EV at its Baltimore Operations plant in White Marsh, Md. Read more »

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6:00 PM | TransCanada Dodges Questions on Its Controversial Land Agent/Preacher [UPDATED]

By Ted Genoways On Monday, I wrote about a TransCanada land agent named Myron Stafford who moved to Nebraska five years ago, got added to the board of deacons at the local First Baptist Church, and started filling in for the regular Sunday minister and performing weddings and funerals. His position at the church quickly gave him standing in the community -- and it sure didn't hurt his day job, obtaining easements for TransCanada to build the […]

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6:00 PM | Cellphone Microbattery That Can Jump-Start a Car Developed

New microbatteries developed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are only a few millimeters in size, yet they are powerful enough to jump-start a dead car battery. Innovative three-dimensional technology allows batteries to out-power even the best supercapacitors, opening a way to a whole new range of applications. Read more »

Pikul, J., Gang Zhang, H., Cho, J., Braun, P. & King, W. (2013). High-power lithium ion microbatteries from interdigitated three-dimensional bicontinuous nanoporous electrodes, Nature Communications, 4 1732. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2747

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3:52 PM | MyTH: Week 7 focus: Pseudomonas fluorescens

My Tiny Highlight (MyTH) has been on hiedas for a while. However, I’m glad to introduce this week’s organism, Pseudomonas fluorescens. This will be the second highlight featuring a Pseudomonad (Week 5). For short hand, I will write the name Pfu. This is an interesting organism due to its effects on plants and other soil [...]

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3:40 PM | Too Much Energy Efficiency Can Be Hazardous to Your Health

Too much energy efficiency can be hazardous to your health, at least when energy saving measures are not thought through properly. A study done at the University of Leeds suggests that the risk of hospital infection could dramatically increase when the windows in the ward are closed. Read more »

Gilkeson, C., Camargo-Valero, M., Pickin, L. & Noakes, C. (2013). Measurement of Ventilation and Airborne Infection Risk in Large Naturally Ventilated Hospital Wards, Building and Environment, DOI: 10.1016/j.buildenv.2013.03.006

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3:00 PM | Quality control in Excel spreadsheets- a serious and universal issue!

Via Paul Krugman’s blog, I’ve been following a fascinating online discussion about the importance of spreadsheet error-checking and independent replication of modeling results in the economic research sector: Holy Coding Error, Batman Researchers Finally Replicated Reinhart-Rogoff, and there are Serious … Continue reading →

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1:54 PM | PowerPot Transforms Campfire Into Power Plant

Students from the University of Utah created a portable cooking pot that can turn heat and water into electricity. The device could come in handy while camping in the backcountry, as it can be used to charge any kind of portable electronics. Using thermoelectricity, the PowerPot generates power by capturing the electrons moving from the heated pot to the cooler water inside. The greater the temperature difference, the more electricity is generated. Read more »

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1:12 PM | A Toxic Explosion Rocks Texas, Don't Mess with Nebraska, Eat the Fish Eating the Atlantic

By The Editors Tragedy in Texas: A massive explosion tore into the West Chemical Co. fertilizer plant and dozens of nearby homes last night, killing at least five and injuring hundreds in Texas. Half the town has been evacuated for fear of toxic fumes caused by the plant's 25 tons of ammonia and other chemicals. (Mind you, that's the stuff we've been putting on our soil and crops.) The Environmental Protection Agency fined the plant’s owner in 2006 for […]

April 17, 2013

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6:32 PM | Residents of N.Y. Town Free to Express Worries About Fracking Again

By Scott Dodd Back in February I wrote about a town in upstate New York that wanted its residents to just shut up about the potential hazards of fracking in their community. The details: I had never heard of a town that actually imposed a gag order on its own citizens, until the Natural Resources Defense Council (which publishes OnEarth) received complaints about a town board in Sanford, New York (population: 2,400), that told its residents they could no […]

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6:01 PM | New Battery Charger for Medical Implants Developed in Portugal

António Abreu, a Sustainable Energy Systems PhD Student under the MIT Portugal Program, currently doing research work at LNEG (Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia I.P.) has developed a non-invasive battery charger system for internal implantable devices like pacemakers or defibrillators, that could eliminate the need for surgical interventions. Read more »

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4:02 PM | Dry Cooling Project for Thermal Power Stations Receives ARPA-E Award

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, in the United States more fresh water is now used for thermoelectric power production (41%) than for agricultural irrigation (37%). Innovations in power plant cooling could therefore provide much needed aid in promoting water conservation efforts. The Energy & Environmental Research Center’s (EERC’s) novel dry cooling project, which has the potential to reduce the largest use of water in the United States, was recently awarded one of just 66 […]

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1:31 PM | Researcher Makes Pebble Bed Reactors Less of a Black Box

One of the most important criticisms of pebble bed reactor design is that it is impossible to place standard measurement equipment in the pebble bed core. Dr. Muthanna Al-Dahhan at Missouri University of Science and Technology is working on solving that problem, finding a new ways to understand what is happening inside the reactor. Read more »