Comments

2008

Technology

Are Aliens Out There? Left- and Right-Handed Molecules May Hold the Answer

By Christine Cyr Posted on 5.4.2009 3 Comments
Proving that life exists on distant planets may seem a near impossibility, but researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have a theory that may shed light (literally!) on the age-old question. They’d like to launch an instrument into space that could detect the “chirality”—or handedness—of the light from molecules on other planets.

5.6.2009 at 01:54pm - Comment by 2008

Wow! That is really a good idea, now we are getting somewhere!
The Environment

The Newest Thing in Old Solar Technology Nets Ten Times As Much Energy Per Gram of Silicon

By Posted on 5.4.2009 8 Comments
The next frontier in traditional solar panels is concentrators - devices, usually lenses, that concentrate solar power onto the most expensive part of a solar panel - the silicon. Skyline Solar's "solar trough" design concentrates sunlight without using expensive lenses or complicated robotic armatures for tracking the sun as it crosses the sky.

5.6.2009 at 01:51pm - Comment by 2008

I read this article 10 years ago, and will probably read it again in ten years as well. Same goes for supersonic air travel and wing shaped jumbo jets. What percentage of these articles are just recycled?
Science

The Next Phage

By Elizabeth Svoboda Posted on 4.2.2009 22 Comments
It seemed like nothing at first. The red patch that appeared on Roy Brillon's thigh could have been a spider bite. But as the weeks passed, it grew and grew. By December 2004, the innocuous-looking bump had become an open wound the size of the palm of his hand. Brillon's doctor, Randy Wolcott, prescribed just about every antibiotic he could think of to cure the infection, but the lesion just got worse. "It was really bad," says Brillon, a 62-year-old retired housepainter from Lubbock, Texas. "I had to give up work because I couldn't climb ladders anymore." Brillon felt like he was being eaten away from the inside out. And in a very real sense, he was.

3.31.2009 at 12:38pm - Comment by 2008

Here is an interesting company that works with Phage as well. www.Phagebiotech.com
The Environment

Frozen Smoke on the Wastewater

By Posted on 2.20.2009 3 Comments
It’s no secret that cleaning up an oil spill is a difficult task. When most of us think of oil spills, we think of incidents like the Exxon Valdez accident, which released more than 10 million gallons of oil into the Prince William Sound in 1989. But what we don’t think about are the more than 200 million gallons of used oil that pollute U.S. wastewater every year after being dumped into sewers, streams and landfills.

2.20.2009 at 07:31pm - Comment by 2008

Exxon still never paid the fine. I guess they can't, now we should give them a bailout.
Cars

The Gas Bug

By Posted on 11.17.2008 10 Comments
E. coli has earned a nasty reputation for upsetting stomachs and killing people. But now scientists at LS9, a start-up in South San Francisco, are putting the bad bug to good use, genetically engineering it to excrete biodiesel. The fuel "burns just like diesel," says Greg Pal, the senior director at LS9 [see Breeding the Oil Bug, about the rise of microbial biofuels].

Article Rating:

10.30.2008 at 01:32pm - Comment by 2008

Unfortunately – This is just Ethanol 2.0. Yes, Diesel is easier to transport and better for engines then ethanol, but the process is still transforming a crop into an energy source usable in cars. Every Biofuel start up is claiming they can use switch grass or wood chips… but they are not. There is more ready available energy for metabolism in sugar than wood. It takes a year to grow a crop, we need a fuel that can be harvested on a daily basis, such as wind, solar, geothermal …. There may be hope in using algae to convert sunlight to fuel, but so far the only companies able to produce any quantity of fuel are cheating and using sugar to feed the algae.
The Environment

Greening Green Fuels

By Posted on 7.18.2008 9 Comments
Last week scientists were extolling the virtues of duckweed—this week, another type of pond scum is being called a possible savior. Norwegian scientists believe microalgae could slash CO2 levels—responsible for a lot of our global warming woes—and even be tapped for a more effective biofuel in the future.

7.18.2008 at 04:47pm - Comment by 2008

Mr. Jisom, Next I suppose you will be telling us that eveloution can be "scientifically" proven. We don't care about facts, just our beliefs.
The Environment

Hit a Turtle With a Frying Pan Lately?

By Posted on 2.17.2008 2 Comments
Perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) are what makes your Teflon pan slick and your stain-repellent couch bead up the red wine you spilled on it. Good for dinner parties, but not good for threatened loggerhead turtles, confirms a new study announced at AAAS today. (What is good for sea turtles these days?) During wear and tear and disposal of the pan and couch, the PFCs break down into perflurooctane sulphonate (PFOS). PFOS winds its way through the wastewater stream and ends up in crabs and mollusks which end up in loggerheads.

4.3.2008 at 08:27pm - Comment by 2008

What about the effects on people of using a non-stick pan for cooking. We all see those pans degrade and many of those pans come from china.
The Environment

Dirty Biodeisel

By Posted on 3.11.2008 5 Comments
Were still in the honeymoon period with new fuel technologies like biodiesel. Theyre clean. Renewable. No more oil-covered seabirds in the news! I can drink out of the tailpipe of my hydrogen fuelcell car! Weve been so taken with their promise that weve neglected to think much about their inevitable downside: these fuels are manufactured, and unfettered manufacturing can be dirty.

4.3.2008 at 08:21pm - Comment by 2008

Well you can if you have some scam going on. Subsidy whatever.
The Environment

Why Trashing the Oceans is More Dangerous Than We Imagined

By Posted on 4.1.2008 13 Comments
Last fall we reported on the growing mess of garbage swirling in the North Pacific Gyre. Its a swath of ocean arguably the size of the continental U.S. where all the plastic refuse from Asia and the western coast of North America ends up when its washed out to sea. Turtles mistake bags for jellyfish and birds mistake floating chips for prey. Animals have been discovered starved to death because the entire contents of their stomachs were plastic fragments. Sail a boat out to the middle of the gyre and the problem is in plain sight. Unfortunately for us, the more severe problem is the one we cant see.

4.3.2008 at 08:11pm - Comment by 2008

Most beaches in California look like that after every holiday. No matter how many trash cans they put out, there are never enough and people do not want to pack sandy wet trash back in their car.
Cars

GM Vice Chairman Calls Global Warming A "Total Crock of S**t"

By Posted on 2.13.2008 46 Comments
Heres an odd PR move making the blog rounds today: Bob Lutz, the General Motors Vice Chairman whos driving the charge to build the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid, was recently quoted in D Magazine calling global warming a crock of s**t.

4.3.2008 at 08:07pm - Comment by 2008

Because electricity is a renewable resource, oil currently has a limited supply and we currenlty have to purchase it from other countries.