Environment
Study: Algae could replace 17% of U.S. oil imports
April 14, 2011 6:37 am | by Frances White | News | CommentsAlgae has attracted interest from biofuel producers and investors, but growing it requires a lot of water. A new study from Pacific Northwest National Lab that focuses on algae grown in open, freshwater ponds shows that being smart about where we grow algae can drastically reduce this consumption.
First galaxies were born much earlier than expected
April 12, 2011 9:24 am | News | CommentsUsing a cosmic gravitational lens, astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have discovered a distant galaxy whose stars were born unexpectedly early in cosmic history. So early, in fact, that its stars were born just 200 million years after the Big Bang. The discovery may help explain, in a roundabout way, the deficit of radiation that has caused the Universe to be transparent to ultraviolet light.
Bacterial genome may hold answers to mercury mystery
April 11, 2011 8:32 am | News | CommentsA newly sequenced bacterial genome, unlocked at the Joint Genome Institute by a team led by Oak Ridge National Lab, could contain clues as to how microorganisms produce a highly toxic form of mercury. Until now, methylation of mercury by certain anaerobic bacteria was a topic of debate for decades.
Conductivity image hints at huge Yellowstone volcano plume
April 11, 2011 6:48 am | News | CommentsUniversity of Utah geophysicists have made the first large-scale picture of the electrical conductivity of the gigantic underground plume of hot and partly molten rock that feeds the Yellowstone supervolcano. A study using the new geoelectric imaging technology revealed a plume much larger than previously thought.
Future farm: a sunless, rainless room indoors
April 11, 2011 5:26 am | by Arthur Max, Associated Press | News | CommentsThe world is already having trouble feeding itself and experts predict food prices will only get more unstable as the world population grows. To address future shortages, Dutch bioengineers have taken the greenhouse concept a step further, growing plants in dense layers, which are exposed only to the beneficial wavelengths of visible light.
Your Tax Dollars at Work
April 8, 2011 7:29 am | by Rita C. Peters | Articles | CommentsIndustry-based researchers recognize the value of government-sponsored research, but some do not want to pay extra for it.
Research Insights: National Renewable Energy Laboratory
April 8, 2011 6:39 am | Articles | CommentsNational Renewable Energy Laboratory comments on pressing topics.
Research Insights: National Energy Technology Laboratory
April 8, 2011 6:34 am | Articles | CommentsNational Energy Technology Laboratory comments on pressing topics.
Research Insights: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
April 8, 2011 6:28 am | Articles | CommentsLawrence Berkeley National Laboratory comments on pressing topics.
Research Insights: Idaho National Laboratory
April 8, 2011 6:21 am | Articles | CommentsIdaho National Laboratory comments on pressing topics.
Research Insights: Argonne National Laboratory
April 8, 2011 6:15 am | Articles | CommentsArgonne National Laboratory comments on pressing topics.
Research Insights
April 8, 2011 6:08 am | by Rita C. Peters | Articles | CommentsGovernment lab executives comment on pressing topics.
Study: Drought-exposed leaves adversely affect soil nutrients
April 7, 2011 5:41 am | News | CommentsChemical changes in tree leaves subjected to warmer, drier conditions that could result from climate change may reduce the availability of soil nutrients, according to a Purdue Univ. study.
Researchers ID microbe responsible for methane from landfills
April 6, 2011 5:09 am | News | CommentsResearchers have long known that landfills produce methane, but had a hard time figuring out why—since landfills do not start out as a friendly environment for the organisms that produce methane. New research from North Carolina State Univ. shows that one species of microbe is paving the way for other methane producers.
Richard Branson plans deep-ocean submarine dives
April 6, 2011 4:52 am | by Noaki Schwartz, Associated Press | News | CommentsOver the next two years, billionaire adventurer Richard Branson will plumb the deepest depths of the world’s five oceans with a new 18-foot-long Virgin Oceanic submarine that was unveiled Tuesday in Newport Beach, Calif. He has partnered with Scripps Institution of Oceanography and several other research laboratories to add scientific clout to his plans.
Did dinosaurs have lice?
April 6, 2011 4:11 am | News | CommentsA new study louses up a popular theory of animal evolution and opens up the possibility that dinosaurs were early—perhaps even the first—animal hosts of lice.
Organisms on Early Earth lived in a hot, acidic environment
April 5, 2011 5:09 am | News | CommentsA new study reveals that a group of ancient enzymes adapted to substantial changes in ocean temperature and acidity during the last four billion years, providing evidence that life on Early Earth evolved from a much hotter, more acidic environment to the cooler, less acidic global environment that exists today.
Tweaking the climate to save it: Who decides?
April 4, 2011 6:48 am | by Charles J. Hanley, AP Special Correspondent | News | CommentsMeeting recently at the 300-year-old Royal Society, Britain’s national science academy, some of the world’s top physicists, geochemists, environmentalists, lawyers, psychologists, and policy experts debated the merits of “geoengineering”. Acting on the premise that we are completely unprepared if the climate changes dramatically, experts discussed the feasibility of various “sunshade” schemes.
Novel technique reveals how glaciers sculpted their valleys
April 4, 2011 5:09 am | by Robert Sanders, Media Relations | News | CommentsUC Berkeley geologists reconstructed the landform history of a 300-square-mile area of New Zealand’s scenic Fjordland to help solve the mystery of how landscape appeared before glaciers cut their way through work. A new technique, helium-4/helium-3 thermochronometry provides the answers by determining the temperature of a mineral as it cools over geological time.
After delay, NASA preparing Mars rover for launch
April 4, 2011 1:40 am | by The Associated Press | News | CommentsNASA engineers are putting the finishing touches on a mega-rover to Mars before shipping it off to Florida for launch later this year.A small army of technicians dressed in protective bunny suits has been working around the clock inside a clean room at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Los...
Close-ups of Mercury show a battle-weary world
March 31, 2011 7:53 am | by Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writer | News | CommentsMessenger first moved into close orbit around the speedy inner planet about two weeks ago. By the end of this week, NASA will have received more than 15,000 pictures from the $446 million spacecraft, giving us a comprehensive view of a heavily-cratered world that may hold ice at its south pole.
Digging through the discontinuity
March 30, 2011 9:23 am | by Paul Livingstone | Blogs | CommentsIn the late 1950s and early 1960s, some of the last hurdles in human exploration of the globe were overthrown, notably the scaling of Mt. Everest and the plumbing of the depths of the Marianas Trench. They paved the way for planting a flag on the Moon. But one notable project went underfunded and eventually forgotten.
Harper to fill low-cost carbon fiber fab contract for Oak Ridge
March 29, 2011 6:11 am | News | CommentsValued at more than $12 million, the full pilot-scale carbon fiber process line from New York-based Harper International is part of the DOE’s effort to reduce the cost of carbon fiber and introduce as a high-strength component for a greater variety of products, such as automobiles. The new line at Oak Ridge National Lab will involve the use of low-cost, renewable lignin as a precursor.
Researchers use freshwater and seawater to generate electricity
March 29, 2011 4:56 am | by Louis Bergeron | News | CommentsStanford researchers have developed a rechargeable battery that uses freshwater and seawater to create electricity. Aided by nanotechnology, the battery employs the difference in salinity between fresh and saltwater to generate a current. A power station might be built wherever a river flows into the ocean.
Japan earthquake, tsunami spell need for preparedness
March 29, 2011 4:23 am | News | CommentsPerhaps lost in the recent debates related to the earthquake and tsunami in Japan is that natural disasters and not nuclear energy should be the focus, says Oak Ridge National Laboratory's John Sorensen, an emergency preparedness expert.
