Unaccounted Feedbacks from Climate-Induced Ecosystem Changes May Increase Future Climate Warming
The terrestrial biosphere regulates atmospheric composition, and hence climate. Projections of future climate changes already account for “carbon-climate feedbacks”, which means that more CO2 is released from soils in a warming climate than is taken up by plants due to photosynthesis. Climate changes will also lead to increases in the emission of CO2 and methane from wetlands, nitrous oxides from soils, volatile organic compounds from forests, and trace gases and soot from fires. All these emissions affect atmospheric chemistry, including the amount of ozone in the lower atmosphere, where it acts as a powerful greenhouse gas as well as a pollutant toxic to people and plants.
Although our understanding of other feedbacks associated with climate-induced ecosystem changes is improving, the impact of these changes is not yet accounted for in climate-change modelling. An international consortium of scientists, led by Almut Arneth from Lund University, has estimated the importance of these unaccounted “biogeochemical feedbacks” in an article that appears as Advance Online Publication on Nature Geoscience’s website on 25 July at 1800 London time. They estimate a total additional radiative forcing by the end of the 21st century that is large enough to offset a significant proportion of the cooling due to carbon uptake by the biosphere as a result of fertilization of plant growth. (more…)
DHS Creates Broad-Reaching Mechanism to Identify Technology Gaps
The fire service is one of the four disciplines represented by the First Responder Working Group, which identifies technology needs in the first responder community. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard.
First responders need and deserve the best tools and practices available to help save lives and protect property. The responsibility of identifying the gaps in existing technology – and working to fill those gaps – belongs to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T). DHS S&T knows that first responders need to be part of the process. As a result, DHS has created a new First Responder Integrated Product Team (IPT) specifically for first responder needs. The First Responder IPT was established to address the highest priority research, development, test, and evaluation needs of the nation’s first responders, using a process driven by the first responder community.
DHS S&T already has IPTs in place to identify the research priorities of DHS components, such as the Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. IPTs identify, prioritize, and work to fill capability gaps. In short, they ask what their stakeholders need in order to perform their jobs more safely and effectively. IPTs also work with stakeholders to rank which of those needs is most important.
DHS has collaborated with first responders through programs such as TechSolutions, a component of the First Responder Technologies program that funds the development of prototypes to bridge capability gaps identified by first responders. While these individual efforts have reaped rewards, DHS S&T wanted to have broader and more direct involvement with the first responder community – through tribal, state, local, and territorial responders. The new First Responder IPT does exactly that. (more…)
New Study Ranks Countries on Environmental Impact
Director of Ecological Modelling Professor Corey Bradshaw.
A new study led by the University of Adelaide’s Environment Institute in Australia has ranked most of the world’s countries for their environmental impact.
The research uses seven indicators of environmental degradation to form two rankings – a proportional environmental impact index, where impact is measured against total resource availability, and an absolute environmental impact index measuring total environmental degradation at a global scale.
Led by the Environment Institute’s Director of Ecological Modelling Professor Corey Bradshaw, the study has been published in the on-line, peer-reviewed science journal PLoS ONE (found at www.plosone.org).
The world’s 10 worst environmental performers according to the proportional environmental impact index (relative to resource availability) are: Singapore, Korea, Qatar, Kuwait, Japan, Thailand, Bahrain, Malaysia, Philippines and Netherlands.
In absolute global terms, the 10 countries with the worst environmental impact are (in order, worst first): Brazil, USA, China, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, India, Russia, Australia and Peru.
The indicators used were natural forest loss, habitat conversion, fisheries and other marine captures, fertiliser use, water pollution, carbon emissions from land use and species threat. (more…)
Climate Conditions in 2050 Crucial to Avoid Harmful Impacts in 2100
"Setting mid-century targets can help preserve long-term policy options while managing the risks and costs that come with long-term goals," says co-lead author Brian O'Neill, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).
While governments around the world continue to explore strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, a new study suggests policymakers should focus on what needs to be achieved in the next 40 years in order to keep long-term options viable for avoiding dangerous levels of warming.
The study is the first of its kind to use a detailed energy system model to analyze the relationship between mid-century targets and the likelihood of achieving long-term outcomes.
“Setting mid-century targets can help preserve long-term policy options while managing the risks and costs that come with long-term goals,” says co-lead author Brian O’Neill, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).
The study, conducted with co-authors at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Austria and the Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands, is being published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It was funded by IIASA, a European Young Investigator Award to O’Neill, and the National Science Foundation, NCAR’s sponsor.
The researchers used a computer simulation known as an integrated assessment model to represent interactions between the energy sector and the climate system. They began with “business as usual” scenarios, developed for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2000 report, that project future greenhouse gas emissions in the absence of climate policy. They then analyzed the implications of restricting emissions in 2050, using a range of levels. (more…)
Research Behind World’s Largest Wave Energy Device
The full-scale version of Aquamarine Power's 'Oyster' wave power device as it was being built in Scotland in 2008. (Aquamarine Power)
Queen’s University Belfast has helped the global wave energy industry take a major stride forward with the launch of the world’s largest working hydro-electric wave energy device by Aquamarine Power.
Known as Oyster, the device has been officially launched by Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond MP, MSP at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney.
It is currently the world’s only hydro-electric wave energy device producing power and is now producing power by pumping high pressure water to its onshore hydro-electric turbine. This will be fed into the National Grid to power homes in Orkney and beyond. A farm of 20 Oysters would provide enough energy to power 9,000 three bedroom family homes.
Oyster was first conceived out of work funded by an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research grant to Queen’s between 2002 and 2004, to develop surging power-wave devices.
Professor Trevor Whittaker from Queen’s School of Planning, Architecture and Civil Engineering was the principal investigator and was supported by Dr Matt Folley. Aquamarine Power Ltd was formed by a Scottish entrepreneur specifically to develop the technology. Today there is a joint agreement which results in Queen’s undertaking all the hydrodynamic testing for Aquamarine. (more…)
10 Technologies That Made News in 2009 - Ones To Watch Ones in 2010
A first-of-its kind inhalable measles vaccine for developing countries, where the disease remains a scourge. A “nanogenerator” that could recharge iPods and other electronic devices with a shake. And for Fido and Fluffy, a long-awaited once-a-month pill for both ticks and fleas.
It’s list season, the time to prepare inventories of what stood out in 2009 and holds promise for the year ahead. Those three advances are among more than 250 research advances publicized in 2009 by the American Chemical Society (ACS) Office of Public Affairs. With 154,000 members, ACS is the world’s largest scientific society. The advances were selected from among 34,000 scientific reports published during 2009 in ACS’s 34 peer-reviewed journals, and 18,000 technical papers presented at ACS’s two National Meetings. For a look at more than 250 other advances, publicized in the ACS News Service Weekly PressPac or National Meeting press releases, click here. If you use any of these discoveries in articles, please credit the journal or the American Chemical Society. (more…)
Glimpsing a Greener Future
Shane Stephens-Romero built a computer model called STREET that foresees the effects of alternative transportation fuels. (Photo by Daniel A. Anderson / University Communications)
UCI computer model foresees effects of alternative transportation fuels.
It’s the year 2060, and 75 percent of drivers in the Greater Los Angeles area have hydrogen fuel cell vehicles that emit only water vapor.
Look into Shane Stephens-Romero’s crystal ball - a computer model called STREET - and find that air quality has significantly improved. Greenhouse gas emissions are more than 60 percent lower than in 2009, and levels of microscopic soot and ozone are about 15 percent and 10 percent lower, respectively.
“For the first time, we can look at these future fuel scenarios and say how they’re going to impact things like ozone and particulate matter, which have severe effects on people’s lungs and quality of life,” said Stephens-Romero, a UC Irvine doctoral candidate in the Advanced Power & Energy Program. (more…)
Major Advance in Organic Solar Cells
Guillermo Bazan is a professor of Chemistry and of Materials at UC Santa Barbara.
Gains in speed, quality and current over conventional production techniques hold promise for both research and commercial production
Professor Guillermo Bazan and a team of postgraduate researchers at UC Santa Barbara’s Center for Polymers and Organic Solids (CPOS) today announced a major advance in the synthesis of organic polymers for plastic solar cells. Bazan’s team:
* reduced reaction time by 99%, from 48 hours to 30 minutes, and
* increased average molecular weight of the polymers by a factor of more than 3.
The reduced reaction time effectively cuts production time for the organic polymers by nearly 50%, since reaction time and purification time are approximately equal in the production process, in both laboratory and commercial environments.
The higher molecular weight of the polymers, reflecting the creation of longer chains of the polymers, has a major benefit in increasing current density in plastic solar cells by as much as a factor of more than four. Over polymer batches with varying average molecular weights, produced using varying combinations of the elements of the new methodology, the increase in current density was found to be approximately proportional to the increase in average molecular weight. (more…)
New Designs for Smarter Buildings
Fall 08 UA Solar Decathlon Team standing inside prototype strucuture.
The small Solar Decathalon home inspires big ideas on how to live more sustainably.
After two years of design, experimentation, fund-raising and building, the University of Arizona’s Solar Decathlon team has completed construction of its 800-square-foot solar-powered house on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
The UA’s team will compete with entries from 14 other states, Puerto Rico, Canada, Germany and Spain.
The Solar Decathlon effort is but one of the UA’s efforts to broaden the horizon of sustainable architecture and building.
“I think what you’re looking at is a college that has made a strategic decision to really focus in on sustainability,” said Janice Cervelli, dean of the UA College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. “What we specialize in is the practice of – we’re not theoretical, we’re not conceptual.” (more…)
Building Earthship Homes with Near Zero Carbon Footprints: PBS Segment
Michael Reynolds, the man behind Earthship Biotecture.
Excerpted from the Earthship Biotecture web site:
For the last 40 years, Earthship Biotecture has been working toward developing a fully sustainable prototype home that has a zero carbon footprint on the planet, what the founder calls an Earthship.
Earthships can be built in any climate, anywhere in the world.
Earthships will keep you comfortable in any climate in the world with little to no utility bills / fossil fuels.
An Earthship is defined by the following 6 principles:
* Thermal/Solar Heating & Cooling
* Solar & Wind Electricity
* Contained Sewage Treatment
* Building with Natural & Recycled Materials
* Water Harvesting
* Food Production (more…)
New Material May Expand Uses for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells
Georgia Tech researchers Meilin Liu, Mingfei Liu, Lei Yang and Kevin Blinn examine test results for their new fuel cell material. (Georgia Tech Photo: Gary Meek)
A new ceramic material described in this week’s issue of the journal Science could help expand the applications for solid oxide fuel cells – devices that generate electricity directly from a wide range of liquid or gaseous fuels without the need to separate hydrogen.
Though the long-term durability of the new mixed ion conductor material must still be proven, its development could address two of the most vexing problems facing the solid oxide fuel cells: tolerance of sulfur in fuels and resistance to carbon build-up known as coking. The new material could also allow solid oxide fuel cells, which convert fuel to electricity more efficiently than other fuel cells, to operate at lower temperatures, potentially reducing material and fabrication costs.
“The development of this material suggests that we could have a much less expensive solid oxide fuel cell, and that it could be more compact, which would increase the range of potential applications,” said Meilin Liu, a Regent’s professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “This new material would potentially allow the fuel cells to run with dirty hydrocarbon fuels without the need to clean them and supply water.” (more…)
Catalyst Simulations Could Lower Fuel Cell Cost
Dane Morgan, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin - Madison, at the 2nd Annual Fuel \Cells Durability & Performance 2006 conference.
Imagine a car that runs on hydrogen from solar power and produces water instead of carbon emissions. While vehicles like this won’t be on the market anytime soon, University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers are making incremental but important strides in the fuel cell technology that could make clean cars a reality.
Materials science and engineering assistant professor Dane Morgan and Ph.D. student Edward (Ted) Holby have developed a computational model that could optimize an important component of fuel cells, making it possible for the technology to have a more widespread use. Essentially, they investigate how particle size relates to the overall stability of a material, and their model has shown that increasing the particle size of a fuel cell catalyst decreases degradation and therefore increases the useful lifetime of a fuel cell. (more…)
UGA Licenses Technology to Make Fuel from Dead Forests and Agricultural Waste
An innovative process for turning waste biomass – such as dead trees, agricultural waste and lumber byproducts – into a liquid fuel to power conventional engines has been licensed by the University of Georgia Research Foundation, Inc. to Tolero Energy, LLC, a private biofuels company based in Sacramento, Calif. The technology represents a leap forward for the biofuels industry: the ultra-low-sulfur biofuel does not require additional refinement or processing before blending with biodiesel and petroleum diesel.
The exclusive license provides Tolero Energy global rights to the technology, including the right to grant sublicenses.
Tolero CEO Chris Churchill said the company will focus on the transportation fuels market as it completes development of the UGARF bio-oil technology. He expects to make product based on the technology available in the first half of 2010.
Lead inventor of the technology is Tom Adams, a retired member of the University of Georgia Faculty of Engineering. Co-inventors are John Goodrum, Manuel Garcia-Perez, Dan Geller and Joshua Pendergrass – all presently or previously associated with the UGA Faculty of Engineering. (more…)
Moving Toward a New Vision of Education
The goals of the study have been to draw up theoretical proposals to help to improve educational practices. (SINC)
Successfully introducing Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) into classrooms is one of the biggest challenges proposed by new educational plans. A research group from the University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU) has studied substituting the current way in which education is structured for a new one that takes full advantage of the potential of new technologies.
Little by little, Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) have started to penetrate the educational sphere. A few years ago, the experts thought that the arrival of computers and the Internet in classrooms would have a drastic effect on the way that classes were given and received. However, “the studies carried out at compulsory education level were not able to show the transformation and improvement of learning in schools that had been promised as a result of incorporating technology into the classroom”, Asun Martínez, one of the authors involved in the UPV-EHU study, tells SINC. (more…)
Electronic Nose Sniffs Out Toxins
Kenneth S. Suslick, Ph.D. (above) and his colleagues have created an artificial nose for the detection of toxic industrial chemicals that is simple, fast, inexpensive, and works by visualizing colors. (University of Illinois)
Imagine a polka-dotted postage stamp-sized sensor that can sniff out some known poisonous gases and toxins and show the results simply by changing colors.
Support for the development and application of this electronic nose comes from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health. The new technology is discussed in this month’s issue of Nature Chemistry and exemplifies the types of sensors that are being developed as part of the NIH Genes, Environment and Health Initiative (GEI) (http://www.gei.nih.gov/index.asp).
Once fully developed, the sensor could be useful in detecting high exposures to toxic industrial chemicals that pose serious health risks in the workplace or through accidental exposure. While physicists have radiation badges to protect them in the workplace, chemists and workers who handle chemicals do not have equivalent devices to monitor their exposure to potentially toxic chemicals. The investigators hope to be able to market the wearable sensor within a few years. (more…)
Looking Deeply into Polymer Solar Cells
This is a 3-D electron tomography image of a polymer-metal oxide solar cell. The 3-D nanoscopic morphology shows the interpenetrating metal oxide network in (yellow) below an aluminum contact (gray) inside a polymer matrix (black). (Eindhoven University of Technology)
Researchers from the Eindhoven University of Technology and the University of Ulm have made the first high-resolution 3D images of the inside of a polymer solar cell. This gives them important new insights in the nanoscale structure of polymer solar cells and its effect on the performance. The findings were published online in Nature Materials on Sunday 13 September.
The investigations shed new light on the operational principles of polymer solar cells.
These solar cells do not have the high efficiencies of their silicon counterparts yet. Polymer cells, however, can be printed in roll-to-roll processes, at very high speeds, which makes the technology potentially very cost-effective. Added to that, polymer cells are flexible and lightweight, and therefore suitable to be used on vehicles or clothing or to be incorporated in the design of objects. (more…)
Wind Energy Manufacturing Laboratory Establish
Iowa State University researchers, left to right, Vinay Dayal, Matt Frank, Frank Peters and John Jackman are working to establish a Wind Energy Manufacturing Laboratory on campus. They're pictured with turbine blades at TPI Composites' Newton factory. (Iowa State University)
It’s not easy to make the machines that convert wind to electricity.
Just consider the turbine blades that spin in the wind: a single blade can be 40 to 50 meters long and 12,000 to 15,000 pounds. It has to be built within millimeters of specifications. It has to be built to withstand 20 years of harsh conditions in the field. And it has to be built to handle speeds up to 200 miles per hour at the tip.
Iowa State University researchers are working with researchers from TPI Composites, a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company that operates a turbine blade factory in Newton; and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M., to improve the process currently used to manufacture turbine blades. (more…)
Who Are You? Mobile ID Devices Find Out Using NIST Guidelines
Mobile ID devices allow users in the field to collect biometrics and compare them with identity databases wirelessly. (Orandi, NIST)
A new publication that recommends best practices for the next generation of portable biometric acquisition devices—Mobile ID—has been published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
Devices that gather, process and transmit an individual’s biometric data—fingerprints, facial and iris images—for identification are proliferating. Previous work on standards for these biometric devices has focused primarily on getting different stationary and desktop systems with hardwired processing pathways to work together in an interoperable manner. But a new generation of small, portable and versatile biometric devices are raising new issues for interoperability. (more…)
Smart Cane Provides Navigation Cues for the Blind
Kumar Yelamarthi, a CMU assistant professor of engineering, stands back as CMU seniors Chris Zeleney (left) and Wil Martin (right) explain how the Smart Cane works with the RFID technology. (Robert Barclay)
More than 1 million people in the United States are visually impaired, and according to the National Center for Health Statistics, the biggest challenges for these individuals are the ability to determine direction and travel freely from place to place.
While common tools available today include canes or guide dogs, a group of engineering students at Central Michigan University say they have designed another tool to improve mobility. The Smart Cane is a device that detects obstacles and provides navigation cues by using Radio Frequency Identification technology - similar to what some major retailers use to tag merchandise to prevent theft.
“We are one of the first to research the use of RFID technology outdoors,” said Kumar Yelamarthi, a CMU assistant professor of engineering and project leader. “We’re very excited about what this project will lead to.” (more…)
New Experiment Could Reveal Make-up of the Universe
Dr Andy Boston, from the University of Liverpool's Department of Physics, explains: "There is a huge abundance of elements in the Universe, but we know very little about why this is.
The detectors will become part of the Advanced Gamma Tracking Array (AGATA) experiment, currently based in Italy, which aims to create a ‘fingerprint’ of the inside of the atomic nucleus to understand the structure of all matter in the Universe, including human beings and the stars.
The experiment will help scientists analyse particle interactions that produce gamma rays, which are also commonly used for their penetrating properties in medical diagnostics and treatments such as PET scans and radiation therapy. Scientists will use these interactions - and the energy required to make them - to probe rare ‘exotic’ nuclei. These are formed by nuclear reactions, which occur in the heart of stars as well as the large accelerator facilities used to study them on earth.
Exotic nuclei are difficult to detect and consist of extreme proton and neutron ratios, making them highly unstable. The new experiment will help scientists understand why some nuclei are more stable than others and why they have a wide variety of different shapes. (more…)
More ‘Green’ Energy from Algae
Tomorrow's energy suppliers may be microalgae under the microscope. (Photo by Florian Lehr)
In view of the shortage of petrochemical resources and climate change, development of CO2-neutral sustainable fuels is one of the most urgent challenges of our times. Energy plants like rape or oil palm are being discussed fervently, as they may also be used for food production. Hence, cultivation of microalgae may contribute decisively to tomorrow’s energy supply. For energy production from microalgae, KIT scientists are developing closed photo-bioreactors and novel cell disruption methods.
Microalgae are monocellular, plant-like organisms engaged in photosynthesis and converting carbon dioxide (CO2) into biomass. From this biomass, both potential resources and active substances as well as fuels like biodiesel may be produced. While growing, algae take up the amount of CO2 that is later released again when they are used for energy production. Hence, energy from algae can be produced in a CO2-neutral manner contrary to conventional energy carriers. (more…)
Wastewater Produces Electricity and Desalinates Water
Penn State researchers, Bruce Logan, Kappe Professor of Environmental Engineering (right) and Maha Mehanna, postdoctoral fellow (left) are already at work on the next generation of microbial desalination cells based on using air cathodes. (David Jones, Penn State)
A process that cleans Penn State researchers, Bruce Logan, Kappe Professor of Environmental Engineering (right) and Maha Mehanna, postdoctoral fellow (left) are already at work on the next generation of microbial desalination cells based on using air cathodes. (David Jones, Penn State) and generates electricity can also remove 90 percent of salt from brackish water or seawater, according to an international team of researchers from China and the U.S.
Clean water for drinking, washing and industrial uses is a scarce resource in some parts of the world. Its availability in the future will be even more problematic. Many locations already desalinate water using either a reverse osmosis process — one that pushes water under high pressure through membranes that allow water to pass but not salt — or an electrodialysis process that uses electricity to draw salt ions out of water through a membrane. Both methods require large amounts of energy. (more…)
Exploring the Secrets of Electricity-Producing Materials
Tokyo : Late last year, the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) announced that it is installing piezoelectric elements in the floors of its Tokyo station in an attempt to generate power from passengers passing through ticket gates. (Photo Credit: Altus via flickr/ Creative Commons License)
Researchers press on in their mission to power nanodevices of tomorrow.
Much like humans, materials are capable of some pretty remarkable things when they’re placed under pressure. In fact, under the right conditions, materials can even produce electricity.
Driven by the vision of our society one day being basically self-propelled, a team of University of Houston scientists has set out to both amplify and provoke that potential in materials known as piezoelectrics, which naturally produce electricity when literally subjected to strain. The goal is to use piezoelectrics to create nanodevices that can power electronics, such as cell phones, MP3 players and even biomedical implants. (more…)
New Free Energy Claim - the Kapanadze Generator
A Georgia Republic inventor, Tariel Kapaladze, claims to have invented a 5 kilowatt free energy generator.
Recently (July 9), a new entry on PESWiki calls attention to yet another “free energy” generator claim as yet unverified by known independent investigators.
The PESWiki entry notes:
“A Georgia Republic inventor, Tariel Kapaladze, claims to have invented a 5 kilowatt free energy generator. In a demonstration video, the device appears to produce copious amounts of energy from no visible source. Though it appears to be extracting energy from the aether (, some people think it could be a matter of stealing energy from the electrical grid through inductive coupling. The necessary parameters seem to be present. (more…)
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