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Abandoned Mines Hold Potential to Capture Wind Energy

By Guest PostDecember 19, 2011Environmentabandoned open pit mines, al rudeck, don fosnacht, electricity demand, energy providers, Europe, great river energy, iron range, minnesota, minnesota power, power supply, pump water, pumped hydro storage, pumped hydro storage process, renewable energy sources, renewable energy technology, reservoirs, rick lancaster, university of minnesota, wind, wind energy

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL — Minnesota’s Iron Range is pocked with ponds – abandoned open pit mines – that could help energy providers more efficiently use intermittent renewable energy sources, such as wind, to meet state renewable energy mandates. A study released Friday by the University of Minnesota Duluth’s Natural Resources Research Institute shows that the water-laden pits have the potential to store wind energy using a process developed in Europe in the late 1800s.

The pumped-hydro storage process would use excess late-night wind energy to pump water uphill from the pits to a higher-elevation holding pond. Then, when electricity demand goes up during the day, the process reverses the flow and captures the energy in hydro turbines. For every 100 megawatts used to pump the water upward, the plant generates nearly 80 megawatts through the turbines. (more…)

New Survey From FITNESS Magazine and omg! From Yahoo! Reveals Jennifer Aniston as Top Choice for New Year’s Resolution Inspiration

By Guest PostDecember 19, 2011Technologybiggest loser, blake lively, cameron diaz, fitness magazine, gwyneth paltrow, halle berry, hot body celeb, jennifer aniston, jillian michaels, maria shriver, meredith corporation, no1 celebrity, omg, sofia vergara, swing, Yahoo

Aniston also voted #1 choice for celebrity work out buddy;

40% voted Britney Spears the best career makeover/comeback;

56% say Maria Shriver had the smartest life makeover of 2011 by ditching the ‘Governator’

SUNNYVALE, Calif. & NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)-– Jennifer Aniston once again tops the charts, beating fellow hot-body celeb Halle Berry with 38% percent of the vote as the celebrity whose body is most likely to inspire real life makeovers. With ‘new year, new you’ resolutions in full swing, FITNESS Magazine teamed up with omg! From Yahoo!, the No.1 celebrity news site reaching more than 28 million fans per month, for an exclusive survey of 1,500 women and men to find out which star-studded body and life transformations rev up their New Year’s resolutions.

The survey found that 44% of women are looking to Aniston to inspire their fitness goals, followed by Berry (30%), Sofia Vergara (12%), Cameron Diaz (10%), and Blake Lively (7%). However 35% of men found inspiration from Berry. (more…)

Acid Rain Poses a Previously Unrecognized Threat to Great Lakes Sugar Maples

By Guest PostDecember 19, 2011Environmentacid rain, forest overstory, granitic soils, great lakes forests, soil acidification, sugar maples

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— The number of sugar maples in Upper Great Lakes forests is likely to decline in coming decades, according to University of Michigan ecologists and their colleagues, due to a previously unrecognized threat from a familiar enemy: acid rain. (more…)

Meteorite Shockwaves Trigger Dust Avalanches on Mars

By Guest PostDecember 18, 2011Scienceairblast, alfred mcewen, atmosphere, basketball court, craters on mars, dark streaks, dust avalanches, dusty surface, equator, erosion, hirise camera, impact crater, jay melosh, kaylan burleigh, mars global surveyor orbiter, martian surface, meteorite, olympus mons, plate tectonic processes, red planet, shock wave, solar system, tallest mountain, university of arizona

Dust avalanches around impact craters on Mars appear to be the result of the shock wave preceding the actual impact, according to a study led by an undergraduate student at the UA.

When a meteorite careens toward the dusty surface of the Red Planet, it kicks up dust and can cause avalanching even before the rock from outer space hits the ground, a research team led by an undergraduate student at the University of Arizona has discovered.

“We expected that some of the streaks of dust that we see on slopes are caused by seismic shaking during impact,” said Kaylan Burleigh, who led the research project. “We were surprised to find that it rather looks like shockwaves in the air trigger the avalanches even before the impact.” (more…)

Novel Device Removes Heavy Metals From Water

By Guest PostDecember 18, 2011Environmentacid, base, brown university, cadmium, cathodic particles, cation concentration, cations, cep system, charged metal ions, concentration, copper, cyclic electrowinning precipitation, electrochemical reduction, electroextraction, engineers, environmental contaminant, environmental remediation, genie in the bottle, george hradil, heavy metal ions, hydroxides, joseph calo, landfills, metal recovery, metal removal technique, method, nickel, parts per million, pengpeng grimshaw, ph, ppm, reduction of heavy metal ions, release of heavy metals, remove, sodium hydroxide, spe, spouted particulate electrode, sulfides, sulfuric acid, technic inc, textile factories, toxic sludge, trace heavy metals, unhealthy byproduct, water, waterways, zero valent metal

*Engineers at Brown University have developed a system that cleanly and efficiently removes trace heavy metals from water. In experiments, the researchers showed the system reduced cadmium, copper, and nickel concentrations, returning contaminated water to near or below federally acceptable standards. The technique is scalable and has viable commercial applications, especially in the environmental remediation and metal recovery fields. Results appear in the Chemical Engineering Journal.*

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — An unfortunate consequence of many industrial and manufacturing practices, from textile factories to metalworking operations, is the release of heavy metals in waterways. Those metals can remain for decades, even centuries, in low but still dangerous concentrations.

Ridding water of trace metals “is really hard to do,” said Joseph Calo, professor emeritus of engineering who maintains an active laboratory at Brown. He noted the cost, inefficiency, and time needed for such efforts. “It’s like trying to put the genie back in the bottle.” (more…)

Targeting Protein Critical To Cell Division Stops Cancer Cells From Proliferating And Kills Them

By Guest PostDecember 18, 2011Scienceanti cancer therapies, apoptosis, biology and metabolism, cancers, cell death, cell division, chemotherapy, chromosome transmission, combination therapy, computational analyses, daughter cells, DNA, drug taxol, dynamic structure, formation of a tumor, function, genetic screen, jorge torres, kinesin like protein, malignant cells, mitosis, mitotic spindle, molecular motor, normal cells, novel strategy, protein, spindle function, stard9, toxic

Suppressing a newly identified protein involved in regulating cell division could be a novel strategy for fighting certain cancers because it stops the malignant cells from dividing and causes them to die quickly, according to a study by researchers at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.

During the five-year study, designed to seek new targets for anti-cancer therapies, researchers discovered that depleting the protein, called STARD9, also helped the commonly used chemotherapy drug Taxol work more effectively against certain cancers. (more…)

Discovery of A ‘Dark State’ Could Mean A Brighter Future For Solar Energy

By Guest PostDecember 17, 2011Scienceplastic semiconductor, raw sunlight, silicon solar cell, solar cell efficiency, solar cells, solar energy conversion

AUSTIN, Texas — The efficiency of conventional solar cells could be significantly increased, according to new research on the mechanisms of solar energy conversion led by chemist Xiaoyang Zhu at The University of Texas at Austin. (more…)

Are High-Stakes Tests Worth It?

By Guest PostDecember 17, 2011Educationenglish language, english language learners, proficiency assessment, proficiency test, second language

EAST LANSING, Mich. — The nationally mandated English language proficiency test, given to students whose second language is English, is causing unintended psychological stress for students who can least afford it, according to a Michigan State University researcher. (more…)

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