Environment
The First All-Energy Canada Exhibition and Conference
August 24, 2012 12:51 pm | News | CommentsReed Exhibitions, the world's leading event organiser, has now announced the first All-Energy Canada, which is being held on October 2nd and 3rd 2013 at Exhibition Place, Toronto. Having acquire...
Mars rover Curiosity makes first test drive
August 22, 2012 11:40 am | by ALICIA CHANG - AP Science Writer - Associated Press | News | CommentsThe NASA rover Curiosity made its first test drive Wednesday on ancient soil of Mars."Wheel tracks on Mars," Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineer Allen Chen tweeted along with an image sent from one of the rover's cameras. "The EDL (Entry, Descent and Landing) team is finally done. Congrats to...
AMAX Announces Ballapalooza Basketball Networking Event
August 22, 2012 7:40 am | by The Associated Press | News | CommentsAMAX, a trusted leader in Custom OEM x86 Appliances, Server, Cluster and Storage Solutions in North America, has announced registration is now open for its inaugural AMAX Ballapalooza Silicon Valley basketball tournament, with proceeds to benefit Autism Speaks. AMAX Ballapalooza is a fun and...
Canadian Government Grants for Small Business Collaborative Research and Development Funding Projects
August 22, 2012 5:40 am | by The Associated Press | News | CommentsA common business challenge SMEs face is the lack of capital and resources needed to carry out research and development efforts. When companies collaborate with post-secondary institutions, they are able to carry out their research more efficiently and effectively, allowing access to a critical...
Gardens blooming at schools teach lessons
August 21, 2012 9:40 am | by JAMIE STENGLE - Associated Press - Associated Press | News | CommentsGathered in the large garden behind an elementary school here, a group of kindergartners watched as their teacher snipped some basil, let them smell the leaves, and then did the same with oregano."We do a lot of smelling out there. Looking. Digging," the teacher, LeaAnne Pillers, said. She took...
Researchers reproduce plasma loops to help understand solar physics
August 21, 2012 6:18 am | News | CommentsSunny skies reign supreme in one California Institute of Technology laboratory, which has recreated so-called plasma loops that emanate from the sun’s surface. Considered to be possible precursors to solar flares, which release sometimes damaging radiation, these loops may be used to serve as a warning system for massive flares.
Advances in decades-old dream of mining seawater for uranium
August 21, 2012 6:04 am | News | CommentsAt this week’s American Chemical Society meeting, a number of scientists reported progress toward workable solutions for extracting uranium for nuclear power from seawater, which holds at least four billion tons of the material. The concept, which dates back 40 years, is seen as a crucial step for making future nuclear power operations viable.
Speeding the search for better carbon capture
August 21, 2012 3:46 am | News | CommentsLawrence Berkeley National Laboratory researchers helped develop the first computational model to accurately predict the interactions between flue gases and a special variety of the carbon dioxide-capturing molecular systems known as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). This new model should greatly accelerate the search for new low-cost and efficient ways to burn coal without exacerbating global climate change.
Experiment would test cloud geoengineering as way to slow warming
August 20, 2012 10:59 am | News | CommentsEven though it sounds like science fiction, researchers are taking a second look at a controversial idea that uses futuristic ships to shoot salt water high into the sky over the oceans, creating clouds that reflect sunlight and thus counter global warming. The point of the paper is to encourage more scientists to consider the idea of marine cloud brightening and even poke holes in it.
Biorefinery finds treasure in spent coffee grounds and stale bakery goods
August 20, 2012 10:18 am | News | CommentsIn a report presented this week at the American Chemical Society meeting in Philadelphia, researchers based in Hong Kong, in cooperation with Starbucks restaurant chain, described their work on development and successful laboratory testing of a new biorefinery designed to change food waste into a key ingredient for making plastics, laundry detergents and scores of other everyday products.
Researchers improve soil carbon cycling models
August 17, 2012 3:35 am | News | CommentsA new carbon cycling model developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory better accounts for the carbon dioxide-releasing activity of microbes in the ground, improving scientists' understanding of the role soil will play in future climate change.
Researchers find material for cleaner-running diesel vehicles
August 17, 2012 3:23 am | News | CommentsEngineers at a company co-founded by a University of Texas at Dallas professor have identified a material that can reduce the pollution produced by vehicles that run on diesel fuel. The material, from a family of minerals called oxides, could replace platinum, a rare and expensive metal that is currently used in diesel engines to try to control the amount of pollution released into the air.
Mobile climate observatory prepares for campaign aboard ship
August 16, 2012 9:38 am | News | CommentsFollowing a six-month land-based campaign in the Maldives to study tropical convective clouds, the U.S. Department of Energy's second Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) mobile facility, called AMF2, is being readied for its first marine-based research campaign aboard a cargo container ship in the Pacific Ocean.
Discovery has implications for finding life on Earth, Mars
August 16, 2012 6:30 am | by Ashley Washburn | News | CommentsA recent finding by a University of Nebraska-Lincoln research team shows that Moqui marbles, unusual balls of rock that can be found rolling around the southwestern U.S. sandstone regions, were formed roughly 2 million years ago with the help of microorganisms. Previous theories of their formation had suggested a chemical reaction devoid of life, but clear evidence of life’s role has been discovered.
Impulsive micromanagers help plants to adapt, survive
August 14, 2012 10:02 am | News | CommentsSoil microbes are impulsive. So much so that they help plants face the challenges of a rapidly changing climate. Michigan State University biologists studied how plants and microbes work together to help plants survive the effects of global changes, such as increased atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, warmer temperatures, and altered precipitation patterns.
FAW Group R & D Center, Changchun, China, Design Complete
August 14, 2012 4:40 am | by The Associated Press | News | CommentsFirst Automotive Works (FAW Group), China's leading vehicle manufacturer of quality passenger cars, commercial trucks, and buses, has approved SmithGroupJJR's final design plans for a new 422,400-square meter (4.5-million square foot) research and development center in the...
Modeling reveals climatic impacts of megapolitan expansion
August 13, 2012 9:12 am | News | CommentsIn the first study to attempt to quantify the impact of rapidly expanding megapolitan areas on regional climate, a team of researchers from Arizona State University and the National Center for Atmospheric Research has established that local maximum summertime warming resulting from projected expansion of the urban Sun Corridor could approach 4 C.
Are methane hydrates dissolving?
August 13, 2012 8:57 am | News | CommentsThe average temperature of oceans is rising along with the temperatures in the atmosphere, raising concern that ice-like compounds called methane hydrates could dissolve this powerful greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. An expedition to Spitsbergen in the high Arctic could help answer this question.
Study: Skin-aging radicals also age naturally-formed particles
August 10, 2012 3:54 am | by Jocelyn Duffy | News | CommentsPine trees give off gases that react with airborne chemicals, creating tiny, invisible particles that muddy the air. New research shows that the biogenic particles formed from pine tree emissions are more chemically dynamic than previously thought. A study has generated the first experimental evidence that such compounds are chemically transformed by free radicals, the same compounds that age our skin, after they are first formed in the atmosphere.
Cheaper, cleaner, more efficient catalyst for burning methane
August 9, 2012 12:06 pm | News | CommentsResearchers from the University of Pennsylvania, along with collaborators from Italy and Spain, have created a material that catalyzes the burning of methane 30 times better than currently available catalysts. The discovery offers a way to more completely exploit energy from methane, potentially reducing emissions of this greenhouse gas from vehicles that run on natural gas.
American Marketing Association Houston Chapter Announces 2012 - 2013 Board of Directors
August 9, 2012 5:44 am | by The Associated Press | News | CommentsThe Houston Chapter of the American Marketing Association announces its 2012-2013 Board of Directors. The organization's fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30. The Board consists of 50 volunteer-members that oversee membership, programming, communications and finances for the largest and most...
Discovered: New atmospheric compound tied to climate change
August 9, 2012 3:39 am | News | CommentsAn international research team led by the University of Colorado Boulder and the University of Helsinki has discovered a surprising new chemical compound in Earth's atmosphere that reacts with sulfur dioxide to form sulfuric acid, which is known to have significant impacts on climate and health.
NASA mission gives a peek of rover's Mars journey
August 7, 2012 2:41 pm | by ALICIA CHANG - AP Science Writer - Associated Press | News | CommentsNASA's latest adventure to Mars has given the world more than just glimpses of a new alien landscape.It opened a window into the trip itself, from video footage of the landing to a photo of the rover hanging by a parachute to a shot of discarded spacecraft hardware strewn across the surface....
The economic cost of increased temperatures
August 7, 2012 7:09 am | by Peter Dizikes, MIT News Office | News | CommentsEven temporary rises in local temperatures significantly damage long-term economic growth in the world's developing nations, according to a new study co-authored by an Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist.
Study finds correlation between injection wells and small earthquakes
August 7, 2012 6:58 am | News | CommentsThe Barnett Shale is a geological formation in North Texas bearing a large amount of natural gas that was difficult to recover prior to recent technological advances such as hydraulic fracturing. A geophysicist at the University of Texas at Austin analyzed seismic data over a two-year period and has found that while proving any one earthquake was caused by drilling is impossible, a connection between earthquake frequency and fracking does exist.
