Posts
June 06, 2013
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Reblogged from Our Homeschool Experiment: We recently started Apologia Astronomy, and I found a great project on Pinterest that we wanted to try. Yesterday we started the project - a solar system snow globe. I found the idea here. Unfortunately, it did not work out exactly the way we had planned. We used Crayola Model […]
June 05, 2013
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By Jeff Turrentine
In the multi-level parking garage that sits directly across the street from where I’m typing these words, in the heart of Manhattan’s business-filled Flatiron District, an hour of parking will set you back $27.03. I’m told by the friendly attendant there that he almost always has spaces available. Still, if you’re willing to drive around for a while and hunt for a hard-to-find metered spot on the street, you might be able to zoom
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The beer is going green, and it has nothing to do with St. Patrick’s Day—a group of scientists from the Technical University of Munich (Germany) have developed a new non-stop fermentation process that takes place in stages over a number of interconnected tanks. The tank system can be operated continuously over a period of several months, which leads to an energy reduction. The new method also promises significant resource efficiency gains. Read more »
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Tidal power is a renewable energy source that converts the energy of tides into useful forms of power—mainly electricity. Due to the lack of measurement data it is hard to exactly evaluate the existing tidal power potential. However, in a new thesis on marine current power at Uppsala University, Emilia Lalander shows that currently available water data are valuable for estimating the movement speed of water and thereby the potential energy resource available in a particular area. Read more »
Lalander, E., Grabbe, M. & Leijon, M. (2013). On the velocity distribution for hydro-kinetic energy conversion from tidal currents and rivers, Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, 5 (2) 23115. DOI: 10.1063/1.4795398
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It is well known that the energy efficiency of similar appliances can vary significantly and that the initial cost of the energy efficient equipment is usually higher than the cost of conventional models. Because of this, consumers should weigh expected energy savings against the up-front incremental costs of more efficient equipment in order to make a rational decision on purchase. Read more »
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By The Editors
The lizard king: For the last six years, a scientist at U.C. Berkeley, Jason Head, has been scouring 40-million-year-old fossils looking for clues of climate change. Finally, he discovered a six-foot lizard believed to have grown to dominance as a result of rising temperatures. Listening to the band The Doors on repeat for about the same amount of time and remembering that Jim Morrison was often an advocate for environmental issues, Head
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Quantum dots—portions of matter that has electronic properties intermediate between those of bulk semiconductors and those of discrete molecules—are being studied for use in solar cells, transistors, diode lasers and light emitting diodes. A new promising quantum dots application involves combining them with the organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). These “hybrid” OLEDs, also called quantum dot LEDs (QD-LEDs), will have increased efficiency and a larger range of colors than […]
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12:08 PM | The forum that never happened
Recently, I keep seeing this on SEG meeting information:
Note: The mechanical recording of any portion of the [meeting] in any form (photographic, electronic, etc.) is strictly prohibited. Printed reference to the [...] presentations or discussions is not permitted without the consent of the parties involved. All participants are requested to omit public reference to the [...] proceedings in any published work or oral presentation. Only registrants are permitted to attend Forum
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June 04, 2013
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Monday, June 3, 2013
Washington, D.C.—Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe. The way it responds under extreme pressures and temperatures is crucial to our understanding of matter and the nature of hydrogen-rich planets. New work from Carnegie scientists using intense infrared radiation shines new light on this fundamental material at extreme pressures and reveals the details of a surprising new form of solid hydrogen. Under
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Zha, C., Liu, Z., Ahart, M., Boehler, R. & Hemley, R. (2013). High-Pressure Measurements of Hydrogen Phase IV Using Synchrotron Infrared Spectroscopy, Physical Review Letters, 110 (21) DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.217402
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By The Editors
Five #greenreads that don't end like the "Red Wedding" in Game of Thrones -- we promise.Bruce Barcott in Bicycling on hitting the road: When at a bike shop buying a helmet for his daughter -- surrounded by all sorts and styles of "lids" -- Barcott begins wondering just how far helmet tech has come. He tours labs, interviews brain researchers, and dives into medical archives, and finds that while helmets look much different than the first
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6:32 PM | The Real Bears of New Jersey
By Scott Dodd
My morning commute from the Jersey suburbs is often fraught with confusion and delay. But this morning was the first time a black bear was to blame. There it was, in the small park just across the street from my train station, perched nervously in the lower branches of a large tree. It looked like it was seriously considering a leap onto the police SUV parked below, which is why officers were banging loudly with fallen branches and a hammer,
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5:39 PM | Re-Made in the Shade
By Jessica Camille Aguirre
OnEarth’s new cover story dives deep into what author Jeff Turrentine characterizes as the three “sins” that debased the American Eden -- that would be Los Angeles -- during its rapid growth throughout the 20th century: sprawl, traffic, and ill-gotten water. There’s a fourth sin that Turrentine could easily have included alongside that unholy trinity: segregation. And like the others, segregation is continuing to impose an
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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%). Major energy producers—like coal-fired power plants, which produce about 40 percent of our electricity—require about 150 billion gallons of fresh water per day to produce the electricity we need. While dry cooling solutions for thermal power plants are still under development, plant operators are looking for […]
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Like diamond or graphite, graphene is a structural modification (an allotrope) of carbon, that has many special properties that make it a very useful material with great potential for application in technology. In essence, graphene is an isolated atomic plane of graphite, which is very light (1-square-meter sheet weighing only 0.77 milligrams) and at the same time very strong (graphene has a breaking strength over 100 times greater than a hypothetical steel film of the same thickness). The […]
Chen, R., Das, S., Jeong, C., Khan, M., Janes, D. & Alam, M. (2013). Co-Percolating Graphene-Wrapped Silver Nanowire Network for High Performance, Highly Stable, Transparent Conducting Electrodes, Advanced Functional Materials, DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201300124
Connolly, M., Chiu, K., Giblin, S., Kataoka, M., Fletcher, J., Chua, C., Griffiths, J., Jones, G., Fal'ko, V., Smith, C. & Janssen, T. (2013). Gigahertz quantized charge pumping in graphene quantum dots, Nature Nanotechnology, DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2013.73
Britnell, L., Ribeiro, R., Eckmann, A., Jalil, R., Belle, B., Mishchenko, A., Kim, Y., Gorbachev, R., Georgiou, T., Morozov, S. & Grigorenko, A. (2013). Strong Light-Matter Interactions in Heterostructures of Atomically Thin Films, Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1235547
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By The Editors
One of the good ones: Senator Frank R. Lautenberg, a five-term Democrat from New Jersey, died from viral pneumonia yesterday at the age of 89. Through his tenure, Lautenberg was a reliable vote for many liberal and environmentalist causes. Among his greenest greatest hits: removing asbestos and radon from schools and making airplanes smoke-free environments. Washington Post Killer mice: You might worry about bear attacks when you go
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Research conducted with a large new lithium-ion battery unveiled last week in Oregon will help make the Northwest’s and the nation’s electric system smarter and more efficient, officials said at a ribbon-cutting ceremony. This new storage system is designed as a back-up power source to be used in the event of a power outage. Read more »
June 03, 2013
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Until the last few years East Africa was a sleepy backwater for the oil and gas industry, but the discovery of significant quantities of oil in Uganda followed by hydrocarbon discoveries in Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique have started a gold rush. Now every potential hydrocarbon basin across East Africa is the subject of intense interest. Read more »
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Two processes that turn woody biomass into transportation fuels have the potential to exceed current Environmental Protection Agency requirements for renewable fuels, according to research published in the Forest Products Journal and currently featured on its publications page.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s standard for emissions from wood based
transportation fuels requires a 60 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared
to using fossil fuels. The standards
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Wang, M., Han, J., Haq, Z., Tyner, W., Wu, M. & Elgowainy, A. (2011). Energy and greenhouse gas emission effects of corn and cellulosic ethanol with technology improvements and land use changes, Biomass and Bioenergy, 35 (5) 1885-1896. DOI: 10.1016/j.biombioe.2011.01.028
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Siemens has concluded a framework agreement with the largest integrated energy company in the People’s Republic of China, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). Under the terms of the agreement, Siemens is to supply the entire electrical engineering and electrical systems for the first phase of the planned Guangdong Petrochemical Refinery. The refinery will be built in Jieyang in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong and, when completed, will be the largest refinery in China. […]
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By The Editors
Trouble in paradise: "Oil and ag" have coexisted peacefully for decades in the "conservative, business friendly part of California about 110 miles northwest of Los Angeles." But now, as farmers urge stricter regulations on hydraulic fracturing and demand compensation from oil companies for damage to their land and water supplies, there may be poison in the well. New York TimesThe mane course: This month, restaurants on both coasts caught
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June 01, 2013
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The Russian feature film “Atomic Ivan” filmed with the support from ROSATOM, a Russian state-owned atomic energy agency, won one of the top awards of the III Uranium Film Festival held in Rio-de-Janeiro on May 16-26, 2013. Read more »
May 31, 2013
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4:00 PM | Hot Time for Cold Climate Wind Energy
A recent study of electrical power producing systems across Europe conducted by Siemens AG has shown that a lot of money can be saved by moving wind farms north. Indeed, wind energy capacity is growing rapidly in the cold climates of the world. According to the latest forecasts, between 45 and 50 gigawatts of wind energy will be built in cold climates by 2017, which would mean an increase of as much as 72 per cent since the end of 2012 and investments amounting to approximately EUR 75 billion. […]
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By Jocelyn C. Zuckerman
There’s a scene in The East, a film out today in limited release, in which the young corporate spy played by Brit Marling sits among half a dozen hippies at a rustic dinner table, each of them stiff-backed in a straightjacket. Bowls of what appears to be chunky tomato soup rest in front of the diners, who are members of an anarchist collective. A big brown spoon protrudes from each bowl.Marling’s Jane Moss, the newcomer, has been
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Ending a long-time controversy concerning the reason behind indium gallium nitride semiconductor efficiency, MIT and Brookhaven Lab scientists have concluded that it definitely has nothing to do with indium-rich clusters. This finding advances fundamental understanding of LED technology and opens new research pathways, that could ultimately lead to more efficient LEDs. Read more »
Baloch, K., Johnston-Peck, A., Kisslinger, K., Stach, E. & Gradečak, S. (2013). Revisiting the “In-clustering” question in InGaN through the use of aberration-corrected electron microscopy below the knock-on threshold, Applied Physics Letters, 102 (19) 191910. DOI: 10.1063/1.4807122
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Editor's Pick
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By The Editors
Four #greenreads to absorb instead of re-watching "Arrested Development" (to catch all the jokes you missed).Bruce Barcott in National Geographic on dreaming deep: James Cameron is a pretty determined guy. The filmmaker and explorer had dreamed of diving solo into the abyss of the Mariana Trench, the deepest spot on earth. He spends seven years planning, designing, and building his own submersible: a 24-foot "aquatic rocket ship" that would
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Tesla Motors announced yesterday a significant expansion of the Tesla Supercharger network—a network of 480-volt fast charging stations developed to allow the Model S sedans to make long distance trips. The rapid-charging station provides almost 100 kW of power, giving the 85 kWh version of the Model S an additional 150 mi (240 km) of range in about 30 minutes. Read more »
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By The Editors
In the doghouse: Remember yesterday when we said that rogue genetically modified wheat could be a problem for U.S. exports? Yeah, about that … Japan has just rescinded an offer to buy our grain. (It would also like to avoid being seen with us at the mall.) In other Japanese food news, a firm there will no longer sell dog snacks made out of the endangered Icelandic fin whale, after taking heat from conservation groups. Huffington Post,
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May 30, 2013
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According to the figures supplied by the Munich Re Group, the frequency of natural disasters like the Moore twister more than doubled worldwide over the last 30 years. Last year disasters killed 9,500 people, displaced millions and shook the economies all over the world. It’s no surprise that countries and companies are looking to mitigate these shocks through technology and preparation. Read more »
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A newly synthesized crystalline compound might provide a dramatically improved method for separating the highest-octane components of gasoline by selectively adsorbing low-octane isomers. The research team, which included scientists from NIST and several other universities, has published its findings in the journal Science. Read more »
Herm, Z., Wiers, B., Mason, J., van Baten, J., Hudson, M., Zajdel, P., Brown, C., Masciocchi, N., Krishna, R. & Long, J. & (2013). Separation of Hexane Isomers in a Metal-Organic Framework with Triangular Channels, Science, 340 (6135) 960-964. DOI: 10.1126/science.1234071
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2:06 PM | May linkfest
The monthly News post wasn't one of our most popular features, so it's on the shelf. Instead, I thought I'd share all the most interesting, quirky, mind-blowing, or just plain cool things I've spotted on the web over the last month.
– Do not miss this. One of them stands out above all the others. If you like modern analogs and satellite imagery, you're going to love Google Earth Engine. I've started a list of geologically interesting places to visit — please add to it!
– More
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