Archive for the ‘Possible Solutions’ Category ( text size - + )
sciam.com: By Matthew L. Wald
The need to tackle global climate change and energy security makes developing alternatives to fossil fuels crucial.
Renewable energy, such as from photovoltaic electricity and ethanol, today supplies less than 7 percent of U.S. consumption. If we leave aside hydroelectric power, it is under 4.5 percent. Globally, renewables provide only about 3.5 percent of electricity and even less of transportation fuels.
But increasing that fraction for the U.S.—as seems necessary for managing greenhouse gases, trade deficits and dependence on foreign suppliers—has at least three tricky components. The obvious one is how to capture the energy of wind, sun and crops economically. After that, the energy has to be moved from where it is easily gathered, such as the sunny American Southwest or the windy High Plains, to the places it can be used. And the third is to convert it into convenient forms. Most prominently in the last category, electricity for transportation has to be loaded into cars and trucks, either through batteries or perhaps as hydrogen. [ read more ]
sciam.com: By David Biello
Molten salts can store the sun’s heat during the day and provide power at night
Near Granada, Spain, more than 28,000 metric tons of salt is now coursing through pipes at the Andasol 1 power plant. That salt will be used to solve a pressing if obvious problem for solar power: What do you do when the sun is not shining and at night?
The answer: store sunlight as heat energy for such a rainy day.
Part of a so-called parabolic trough solar-thermal power plant, the salts will soon help the facility light up the night—literally. Because most salts only melt at high temperatures (table salt, for example, melts at around 1472 degrees Fahrenheit, or 800 degrees Celsius) and do not turn to vapor until they get considerably hotter—they can be used to store a lot of the sun’s energy as heat. Simply use the sunlight to heat up the salts and put those molten salts in proximity to water via a heat exchanger. Hot steam can then be made to turn turbines without losing too much of the original absorbed solar energy. [ read more ]
sciam.com: By Mark Fischetti
Tracking packages and food sources would lead to faster recalls and lessen contamination risks
If a natural pathogen, or a perpetrator, contaminates food, lives will be saved if the tainted product can be quickly detected, then traced back to its point of origin so the rest of the batch can be tracked down or recalled. The following technologies, in development, could help:
Microfluidic Detectors—Botulinum bacteria produce the most poisonous toxin known. They and similar agents, such as tetanus, could be detected during food processing by microfluidic chips—self-contained diagnostic labs the size of a finger. The University of Wisconsin–Madison is crafting such a chip, lined with antibodies held in place by magnetic beads, that could detect botulism during milk production. The chip could sample milk before or after it was piped into tanker trucks that leave the dairy and before or after it was pasteurized at a production plant. Other chips could detect other toxins at various fluid-processing plants, such as those that produce apple juice, soup or baby formula. [ read more ]
sciam.com: By Eitan Haddok and David Biello:
The enhanced system at Soultz in France is the first such artificial geothermal power plant. Since the 1920s The Geysers geothermal power plant 72 miles (115 kilometers) north of San Francisco has been pumping out electricity harvested from hot rocks deep within Earth’s crust. But there are only so many natural volcanic formations to be tapped. In locations that are not blessed by easy access to this natural resource, drilling into the hot rock bed and pumping fluid through it has the potential to unleash 2,000 times the total annual consumption of energy in the U.S., according to a 2007 report from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. [ see more ]
AFTER 25 years battling the mother of all viruses, have we finally got the measure of HIV? Three developments featured in this issue collectively give grounds for optimism that would have been scarcely believable a year ago in the wake of another failed vaccine and continuing problems supplying drugs to all who need them.
Perhaps the most compelling hope lies in the apparent “cure” of a man with HIV who had also developed leukaemia. Doctors treated his leukaemia with a bone marrow transplant that also vanquished the virus (see “One shot to rid body of HIV”). Now US company Sangamo Biosciences is hoping to emulate the effect using gene therapy. If it works, and that is still a big if, it would open up the possibility of patients being cured with a single shot of gene therapy, instead of taking antiretroviral drugs for life. [ read more ]
discovermagazine.com: by Dava Sobel
One remarkable forest is busy purifying the planet. A legacy of the Argonne National Laboratory’s early foray into atomic energy lies buried here on its campus, about 25 miles southwest of Chicago. Although solid wastes from all sorts of experiments have been sealed in a landfill, certain liquids, mostly chlorinated solvents, still taint the water that runs under the site. The ongoing attempt to remove these contaminants occupies an enormous experimental facility that covers four acres and looks like a forest.
“I like to brag that I have the biggest lab at Argonne,” says agronomist Cristina Negri, indicating an expanse of 900 poplars and willows growing in rows. The trees stand about 30 feet high. More important, their roots extend 30 feet down, where they tap the contaminated aquifer and literally pull pollutants out of the ground. [ read more ]
wired.com: By Brandon Keim
Infectious diseases may have an unexpected weakness: their own propensity for laziness. Researchers genetically engineered “cheating” versions of a common, inflammation-causing microbe. When injected into already-infected mice, the bugs benefited from the chemical labors of other microbes without working themselves. Able to devote their energies to reproduction, the lazy bugs divided faster than their brethren, and infections turned rapidly less virulent.
“The wild bacteria expend all this energy to make these signaling compounds and virulence factors. That slows down their growth,” said Kendra Rumbaugh, a microbiologist at Texas Technical University and lead author of the study, published Thursday in Current Biology. “The cheaters save up like crazy, divide like crazy, and take over the population.” [ read more ]
wired.com: By Priya Ganapati
Green is the new black — and bamboo is the new titanium. After years of churning out glossy, metal-finish, high-polish products, electronics companies are taking their design cues from nature — and trying to pick up the sheen of eco-friendliness — by wrapping their products in bamboo veneers.
Bamboo has become the “it” material for many gadget designers. PC maker Dell has launched its Studio Hybrid PC with the option of a bamboo case, while Asus offers a Bamboo series notebook. There are also bamboo speakers, a keyboard, mouse and USB hub available, all wearing the woody-stemmed grass. [ read more ]
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