Posts

May 07, 2013

3:12 PM | Researchers Cook Solar Cells in Old Microwave Oven

University of Utah metallurgists created a “recipe” to produce solar cell material in a microwave oven. Using this kitchen appliance, a nanocrystal semiconductor suitable for photovoltaic applications can be manufactured rapidly from cheap abundant and less toxic metals than other semiconductors. Scientists hope that this new method will be used for more efficient photovoltaic solar cells and LED lights, biological sensors and systems to convert waste heat to electricity. Read more »

Sarswat, P. & Free, M. (2013). An investigation of rapidly synthesized Cu2ZnSnS4 nanocrystals, Journal of Crystal Growth, 372 87-94. DOI: 10.1016/j.jcrysgro.2013.03.022

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2:33 PM | The Village Green Project: An Opportunity for STEM Enrichment (without the Lab Coat)

By Kelly Leovic Thankfully, all hands in the classroom eagerly shot up when I said, “Raise your hand if you are a human.” I began by explaining to the fifth graders that our job at EPA is to protect human heath and the environment. I then asked if they breathe, eat or drink, or play [...]

1:22 PM | Oregon Spotted Frog Infographic

Did you know that the Oregon spotted frog is the most endangered amphibian in Canada? Take time to learn about this amazing amphibian and help it make a comeback!

9:45 AM | Mozambique loses it's last known rhinocerous'

The last known rhinoceroses in Mozambique have been wiped out by poachers. It has emerged that this was made possible due to the fact that these poachers were working alongside the rangers that were tasked with protecting them.

5:48 AM | Bath Time for Baby, an Acid Trip for the Arctic, Bats Join the Endangered Pollinators Club

By The Editors No more tears?: Thanks to Washington State's "Children's Safe Product Act," companies must now disclose whether their items they sell for kids contain certain industrial chemicals. The bad news: Ethylene glycol, antimony, parabens, and other ominous-sounding and potentially dangerous ingredients can be found in everything from building blocks to bibs to booster seats. The good news: At least one company is getting the message that using […]

1:01 AM | Total Mead/Powell storage headed for lowest level since Powell first filled

Ever the journalist in search of gloomy extremes, I just noticed that total storage in Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the two largest reservoirs used to manage flows on the Colorado River, is currently forecast (USBR pdf here) to end the current water year at its lowest level since 1968, when Powell, the uppermost reservoir [...] Related posts: River Beat: Estimated Storage in Mead, Powell River Beat: Water Level Update Storage In Mead and Powell

May 06, 2013

11:11 PM | Old fish bones

In 1996 a shipwreck was discovered during a survey of the Dor lagoon on the Israeli Mediterranean coast, south of Haifa. Based on some metal objects and Carbon14 tests of some organic materials, the so called Tantura F shipwreck was dated to the 7-8th centuries AD which is known to be the region’s Early Islamic period.Among the findings were eight amphorae made of Nile Delta silt with resinous linings. The 6-7-liter amphorae contained bones from all […]

10:53 PM | Europe’s Pumped Hydropower Storage Can Be Increased Tenfold

One of the major drawbacks of the solar and wind power stations is the unstable power output (solar plants generate no power at nighttime). One way to compensate for that is to use pumped-storage hydroelectricity for load balancing. A new JRC report assessing Europe’s potential for pumped hydropower revealed that for a set of countries for which comparable data are available, the current storage capacity could be increased by up to 10 times when new plants are based on one existing reservoir. […]

8:04 PM | Why Al Gore Can’t Be the Face of Climate Activism

A long time ago, in the pre-blog era, I watched a TV debate on CNN between a newly minted U.S. Vice President and a quirky Texas businessman who, at one point during his extended 15 minutes of fame, was considered a serious presidential candidate. In the span of 90 minutes, Al Gore sold wavering Americans on the [...]

7:58 PM | The Top 20 Lead-Tainted Lipsticks

By Maggie Severns This article originally appeared at Mother Jones.Many women say lipstick makes them feel beautiful and confident. But could it also be making them sick?In a small study out last week, researchers asked a group of teenage girls to hand over their lipsticks and glosses and tested them for toxic metals, including lead and cadmium. Though metal content varied widely from brand to brand, they found that women who apply lipstick two to three […]

6:34 PM | Buildings May be Powered by Graphene-Coated Walls, Study Suggests

A combination of graphene (a novel one-atom thick material) with other similar 2D crystals will allow to significantly increase the efficiency of solar cells and create the next generation of optoelectronic devices, scientists have revealed. University of Manchester and National University of Singapore researchers have shown how building multi-layered heterostructures in a three-dimensional stack can produce an exciting physical phenomenon exploring new electronic devices. Read more »

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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5:27 PM | EPA’s Hydraulic Fracturing Drinking Water Study: What’s the latest?

By Aaron Ferster As a member of EPA’s science communication crew and the editor of our science blog, I’m always on the lookout for breaking news and good stories to share about Agency research. That’s why I as a bit dismayed during our daily team meeting Thursday morning when one of my colleagues mentioned seeing [...]

5:16 PM | Life Cycle of a Frog

Have you ever wondered how a tadpole turns into frog? It's called metamorphosis! We've broken it up so you can see how this amazing process works.

4:56 PM | China’s bizarre architecture

Lily Kuo, writing for Quartz: Bizarre buildings have increasingly been piercing China’s skylines, earning the country a reputation for being “a playground for bad design.” Unattractive Chinese buildings have become so commonplace that a Chinese architectural firm, Archcy, has started surveying residents on what they believe are the country’s 10 ugliest buildings (article in Chinese). [...]∞

4:53 PM | Lost in the Geometry of California’s Farms

Verlyn Klinkenborg, writing about California’s Central Valley for the New York Times: It’s easy to let yourself be overwhelmed by the agricultural geometry of the valley, all those rows seeming to rush past as you drive. But to understand its true immensity and capacity for transformation, you have to drop down off the interstate and [...]∞

4:03 PM | ABB to Power the New 75 MW Photovoltaic Plant in South Africa

Recently we wrote about the new power plant in Mauritania that claims to be the largest solar photovoltaic (PV) plant on the African continent, and noted that its 15 MW power generation capacity is fairly low for a typical solar photovoltaic plant. A significantly larger 75 MW solar PV power plant is being built now in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. ABB, one of the largest engineering companies in the world, has won an order worth around $25 million to supply electrical and control […]

2:35 PM | Texas vs. North Carolina Steel Cage Match in Science Stupid

Look out, North Carolina — Texas is not going to let you run away with the title of State Most Shamefully Committed to the Stupid Political Ruination of Science. Despite North Carolina’s impressive recent yearlong streak of stunning science-related legislative psychosis — from legislating against the sea itself to removing scientists from scientific commissions to [...]

1:59 PM | Making the Enviro Case for Obama, Al Gore Unilaterally Attacks Canada, Europe's Carbon-Credit Collapse

By The Editors Verdict's not in: "The assumption that Obama’s climate-change record is essentially one of failure is mainly an artifact of environmentalists’ understandably frantic urgency," writes Jonathan Chait, in a lengthy essay that asks environmentally conscious (and, yes, understandably frantic) readers to take a deep breath and re-evaluate the amount of progress that the administration has made on the issue of climate change. "[T]here is a […]

1:57 PM | Does more money = greater research impact?

A month or so ago, Alex from The Lab & Field got in touch with me about writing a joint blog post evaluating some of the finer points of the [...]

1:56 PM | Paper Suggests Ways to Develop Hydrocarbons in the Amazon With Minimal Environmental Impact

Hydrocarbon development in the Western Amazon Basin continues to gain momentum. A group of scientists has recently published a paper that outlines ways to save the unique ecosystem of the largest rainforest in the world by reducing the negative impact of oil and gas projects. A 10-point, best-practice framework combines technical engineering criteria with consideration of ecological and social concerns. Read more »

Finer, M., Jenkins, C. & Powers, B. (2013). Potential of Best Practice to Reduce Impacts from Oil and Gas Projects in the Amazon, PLoS ONE, 8 (5) DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0063022

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1:55 PM | Geology Photo of the Week #32 – Name that squid!

This edition of the photo of the week highlights another piece from my personal collection. This is a cephalopod. More specifically it is a member of the Order Endocerida and the Family Endoceratidae. This creature, which hopefully you can see was pretty large (golf tee for scale) was the largest of the Ordovician cephalopods found in Ontario [...]

1:35 PM | Simple Suppers: Five-Spiced Courgettes

The sun has finally made an appearance, and it’s time to start hardening off all of those plants that will soon be living outside. I won’t be growing courgettes this summer, but I bought some the other day on a whim and then had to figure out something to do with them. I threw this together, and it turned out to be divine, so I am sharing it :) It’s a very simple dish – you simply slice a courgette and slowly fry it in olive oil and/ or butter in which you have […]

1:00 PM | The Dirt on Oil Sands

By Scott McNally With the U.S. Department of State currently reviewing TransCanada’s application for a presidential permit of the Keystone XL pipeline, protests from environmental groups opposing the pipeline have been heating up. The main reason for the opposition to the pipeline is that environmentalists generally consider oil sands to be “dirty” – partially because [...]

May 05, 2013

8:25 PM | While you’re waiting for the bus May 4, 2013

Stuff worth reading Debtors Prisons Are Punishing the Poor Across America Where’s our Dickens? the work of grief The XX Factor: How Working Women Are Creating a New Society

6:37 PM | Enough with the fear-mongering, fracking edition

Okay, environmental movement, Time Out. Your latest anti-fracking video, shared in an Upworthy post titled “In Case You Missed It, A Seriously Scary Thing Is Scheduled To Happen To New York City This November” is scaring and confusing people and it’s hurting your mission. The video has been making the rounds on Facebook and Twitter. [...]

5:21 PM | stuff I wrote elsewhere: junior groundwater pumping and the “futile call”

It’s complicated. That’s what I realized this morning as I engaged in the now-nearly-mandatory journalistic self-promotion exercise – tweeting my work. On one of the local water mailing lists, I was recently taken to task for feeding drought paranoia rather than pulling together comprehensive analyses. It’s a fair cop. I’ll try to keep it in [...] Related posts: Stuff I wrote elsewhere: The “futile call” – a water rights priority dilemma Moving […]

3:30 PM | The Boar Truth

The first wild boar I saw were not wild per se, but were held in a captive programme near Białowieża Forest, Poland. The park contains many other large wild mammals native to the central European area including wolves, lynx and … Continue reading →

Frantz, A., Massei, G. & Burke, T. (2012). Genetic evidence for past hybridisation between domestic pigs and English wild boars, Conservation Genetics, 13 (5) 1355-1364. DOI: 10.1007/s10592-012-0379-1

McDevitt, A., Carden, R., Coscia, I. & Frantz, A. (2013). Are wild boars roaming Ireland once more?, European Journal of Wildlife Research, DOI: 10.1007/s10344-013-0721-z

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3:21 AM | Fountain, then and now

Above is Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain. Below, the Drinkwell Original Pet Fountain. Homage? Related posts: Should we embrace the Bellagio Fountain? More on where the Bellagio fountain gets its water Water in the desert, Las Vegas edition

3:05 AM | Water in the desert, cute doggie edition

In the midst of our drought, you can still find water if you know where to look. The Rio Grande through Albuquerque is flanked by drains most of the way, ditches dug to intercept groundwater, draining swampy bottomland so it could be farmed and, ultimately, become our urban/suburban landscape. This dog, with help, found the [...] Related posts: Earth, air, fire and water Water in the Desert: Moving Flash Floods Arizona Groundwater

May 04, 2013

2:35 PM | U.S. Liquefied Petroleum Exports to Continue for the Next Several Decades

Last year the United States became a net exporter of liquefied petroleum gases (LPG) for the first time. LPG includes the natural gas liquids (NGL) components ethane, propane, butanes, and marketed refinery olefins. In its Annual Energy Outlook 2013 (AEO2013), EIA projects that the United States will continue to be a net exporter of LPG through 2040, mainly because of continued increases in natural gas and oil production. Read more »

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