Green Options » scientists

Should Environmental Scientists Be Policy Advocates?

Dave Levitan — Wed, 20 May 2009 23:56:19 +0000

This week on Capitol Hill, the House Energy and Commerce Committee is in the process of thoroughly mutilating some of the science behind climate change and energy independence. With an expected 450 or so amendments to the American Clean Energy and Security Act, it is abundantly clear that politics and segmented interests are shaping what should largely be a scientific plan of action. One could easily ask the question: “Why are politicians doing what a scientist should be doing? Why aren’t the scientists telling us how this should go?” It is a question that has been discussed for decades, if not centuries, and boils down to whether or not a scientist has a duty to be—or to NOT be—an advocate for what he or she studies.

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SolveClimate: Universities Start Tailoring Degrees to Green Jobs

SolveClimate — Mon, 11 May 2009 15:49:34 +0000

Image credit: Jack Dempsey and NREL/DOE

Written by Renee Cho and published on May 10, 2009, at SolveClimate.

Green jobs go far beyond the hands-on renewable energy and energy efficiency work that the Obama administration emphasizes with each new project and grant announcement.

To deal with the effects of climate change, jobs will be springing up across the spectrum of research and development, fueled by billions of dollars in Department of Energy grants and scientific funding provided by the economic recovery program and proposed through the Markey-Waxman bill’s National Climate Change Adaptation Program and Fund.

As Energy Secretary Steven Chu likes to say, borrowing from hockey great Wayne Gretzky:

“The United States should skate to where the puck is going to be.”

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MIT Battery Breakthrough Could Revolutionize Electric Cars

Andrew Williams — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 10:59:04 +0000

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed battery cells capable of charging in under a minute, an astonishing 100 times faster than a regular rechargable battery.

The breakthrough could revolutionize electric car battery technology and pave the way for ultra-fast charging electric vehicles in as little as two years.

The discovery came when MIT researchers Byoungwoo Kang and Gerbrand Ceder found out how to get a common lithium compound to release and take up lithium ions in a matter of seconds. According to Ceder, the compound, known as lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4), has a crystal structure that creates “perfectly sized tunnels for lithium to move through,” allowing the team to reach “ridiculously fast charging rates.”

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Top 10 Eco-Best Seafood

Sonya — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 00:58:29 +0000

Many eco-conscious families struggle with buying seafood that is both healthy for themselves and the environment.

“Choosing eco-friendly seafood is not only good for the oceans, it’s good for your family too,” says Katharine Burnham, spokesperson for the Environmental Defense Fund.

So what exactly is eco-friendly seafood? Anchovies are the Eco-Best Seafood, according to the Environmental Defense Fund’s research. In its health facts, the fund says anchovies are high in heart-healthy omega-3s and have low contaminant levels.

Anchovies can be safely eaten by adults and children for more than four meals per month, research indicates. They have “short life spans and reproduce quickly (and) are resilient to fishing pressure and remain plentiful.”

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World’s Most Powerful Supercomputer to Help Tackle Global Warming, Develop Renewable Energy

Andrew Williams — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 20:04:04 +0000

The world’s most powerful supercomputer, the Cray XT Jaguar, is to be to used in the quest to fight global warming and develop renewable energy.

The computer, housed in the National Center for Computational Sciences (NCCS) at Oak Ridge National Labs (ORNL), Tennessee, has been upgraded to a staggering 1.64 petaflops - and put at the disposal of some of the world’s leading climate scientists and renewable energy experts.

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Scientists Discover Method to Mass Produce Graphene, Major Boost for Renewable Energy

Andrew Williams — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:24:55 +0000

US Scientists have figured out a way to mass produce the nanomaterial graphene, opening the door to significant advances in the storage of hydrogen, as well as the electricity produced by solar and wind energy.

Graphene, produced by reducing graphite down to a sheet only one atom thick, is one of the strongest materials known to man. It has been shown to have huge potential for hydrogen and renewable energy storage, but up until now has been held back by a lack of supply. Now the team, based at the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) at UCLA, have discovered a method of producing graphene sheets in large quantities.

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Scientists Develop Oil Spill and Pollution Spotting Bacteria

Andrew Williams — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 15:10:10 +0000

A team of researchers have developed a color-coded bacteria that will make it much easier to detect oil-spills and other forms of environmental pollution.

During a recent sea expedition the team successfully used the bacteria, which contains a protein that glows blue when viewed though a simple light-detecting device, to detect oil.

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Discovered: Nature Segregates Dirty, Rich Nations From Clean, Poor World

Sam Aola Ooko — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 15:16:38 +0000

Nature has finally confirmed it: the industrialized nations may be rich but the air that people breathe in poorer nations in the Southern Hemisphere is cleaner four times over.

A chemical equator - an atmospheric line - discovered by scientists suggests the existence of a 50 kilometer-wide boundary between polluted air of the Northern Hemisphere and the largely uncontaminated atmosphere of the Southern Hemisphere.

In a model, the red that represents high levels of carbon monoxide present in the air in the Northern Hemisphere gives way to blue that reflects clean air of the South; in between, a white-colored ‘chemical equator’ separates them.

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