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Testing the Water for Bioenergy Crops

By Guest PostSeptember 3, 2011Environmentanjuli bamzai, atmospheric humidity, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, changing climate, corn, darren drewry, energy, environmental advocates, Germany, grasses, hydrologic cycle, hydrology, land conversion, large scale biofuel production, large scale land conversion, limiting factor, max planck institute, miscanthus, phong le, praveen kumar, rainfall patterns, runoff, soil moisture, switchgrass, university of illinois at urbana champaign, vietnam education foundation, water

*Water significant limiting factor in growing crops like switchgrass*

Energy researchers and environmental advocates are excited about the prospect of gaining more efficient large-scale biofuel production by using large grasses like miscanthus or switchgrass rather than corn.

They have investigated yields, land use, economics and more, but one key factor of agriculture has been overlooked: water.

“While we are looking for solutions for energy through bioenergy crops, dependence on water gets ignored, and water can be a significant limiting factor,” said Praveen Kumar, an environmental engineer and atmospheric scientist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (more…)

Thawing Permafrost Could Release Vast Amounts of Carbon and Accelerate Climate Change by the end of this Century

By Guest PostAugust 27, 2011Environmentalternative energies and atomic energy commission, amount of soil carbon, atmosphere, berkeley lab, boreal and arctic land ecosystems, canada, carbon, carbon dioxide, charles koven, climate changes, combine, computer modeling, energy, European Union, france, frozen soils, global warming, high latitude permafrost, intergovernmental panel on climate change, land surface ecosystem model, lawrence berkeley national laboratory, methane emissions, orchidee, organic matter, plant growth, project, rate of soil carbon decomposition, simulation, supercomputing facility, temperature, united kingdom

*New computer modeling study, led by a Berkeley Lab scientist, could help revise understanding of permafrost’s role in global warming*

Billions of tons of carbon trapped in high-latitude permafrost may be released into the atmosphere by the end of this century as the Earth’s climate changes, further accelerating global warming, a new computer modeling study indicates.

The study also found that soil in high-latitude regions could shift from being a sink to a source of carbon dioxide by the end of the 21^st century as the soil warms in response to climate change. (more…)

IBM Expands the Institute for Electronic Government in Washington to Focus on Advancements in Analytics and Cloud Computing

By Guest PostMarch 1, 2011Technologyanne altman, budget, business analytics, defense, energy, ibm, ieg, institute for electronic government, jerry mechling, logistics, Technology, virtual collaboratory, Washington

*Virtual Collaboratory to Connect Thousands of Government Leaders Globally*

WASHINGTON – 01 Mar 2011: IBM today announced a major expansion of its Institute for Electronic Government (IEG) in Washington, D.C., adding cloud computing and analytics capabilities for public sector organizations around the world.

IBM has moved and expanded the facility in order to meet the growing demand from Government, Health Care and Education leaders who recognize the potential of cloud computing environments and business analytics technologies to improve efficiencies, reduce costs and tackle energy and budget challenges. (more…)

Spacecraft Catches Thunderstorms Hurling Antimatter into Space

By Guest PostJanuary 14, 2011Scienceantimatter, antimatter particles, beams, earth, egypt, electric fields, energy, fermi gamma ray space telescope, fermi spacecraft, gamma ray, joseph dwyer, light, michael briggs, NASA, phenomenon, scientists, seattle, spacecraft, steven cummer, storm, terrestrial gamma ray flash, tgf, thunderstorms, zambia

WASHINGTON — Scientists using NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have detected beams of antimatter produced above thunderstorms on Earth, a phenomenon never seen before.

Scientists think the antimatter particles were formed in a terrestrial gamma-ray flash (TGF), a brief burst produced inside thunderstorms and shown to be associated with lightning. It is estimated that about 500 such flashes occur daily worldwide, but most go undetected. (more…)

IBM Acquires PSS Systems

By Guest PostOctober 14, 2010Technologyabbott, analyzing enterprise content, basf, bp, calif, cgoc, compliance, conocophillips, data management, david stryker, deidre paknad, devon energy, e-discovery, emails, energy, first data, ge, governance and oversight council, healthcare, ibm, information governance policies, information lifecycle governance software, mountain view, petro-chemical, pfizer, pharmaceutical, pss systems, records, ron ercanbrack, search and analytics, williams

ARMONK, N.Y. – 14 Oct 2010: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that it has acquired PSS Systems, a privately held company based in Mountain View, Calif. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

PSS Systems’ software helps organizations analyze, automate and implement information governance policies across massive amounts of electronic business information and dispose of that information in an automated way. These capabilities are critical elements to remaining responsive to legal obligations while reducing data storage costs. (more…)

Time Machine Built in Europe, Russian Scientists Say

By PravdaAugust 7, 2010Science Fictionbig bang, black hole, center of the european council for nuclear research, CERN, closed time-like curve, energy, france protons, Galaxy, igor volovich, irina arefyeva, kip thorne 2008, Large Hadron Collider, lhc, physicist, russian physicists, science fiction, steklov, switzerland, time travel, universe, wormholes

Russian physicists seriously believe that the Large Hadron Collider can be used for time travel. However, it will only happen when it starts working at full capacity and stops breaking down. If earlier time travel was considered science fiction, now it suddenly turned into the favorite pet project of theoretical physicists. Renowned physicist Kip Thorne of the California Institute of Technology once said in one of his lectures:

(more…)

Berkeley Lab Part of California Team to Receive up to $122 million for Energy Innovation Hub to Develop Method to Produce Fuels from Sunlight

By Guest PostJuly 24, 20101 commentEnvironment, Scienceartificial, berkeley lab, breakthrough innovations, cal tech, california, carbon dioxide, daniel poneman, energy, fuels, george l. argyros, innovation hub, jcap, joint center for artificial photosynthesis, nathan s. lewis, paul alivisatos, peidong yang, photosynthesis, senator boxer, sunlight, sunlight energy

Washington, D.C. – As part of a broad effort to achieve breakthrough innovations in energy production, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman announced, on July 22, an award of up to $122 million over five years to a multidisciplinary team of top scientists to establish an Energy Innovation Hub aimed at developing revolutionary methods to generate fuels directly from sunlight.

(more…)

Between the Nightmare of the Gulf and the Magic of Solar Impulse

By PravdaJuly 18, 2010Economy, Sciencealberta, alternative, bp, canada, China, cost efficient, deepwater horizon, deforestation, deserts, electricity, energy, environmental disaster, fort mcmurray, gulf of mexico, largest oil reserve, oil, oil sands, saudi arabia, Scandinavia, solar impulse aircraft, solar plane, solar stoves, sun ray, tar sands, thermo conversion, tibet, tibetan women, tsedang, unicamp data

While the BP Deepwater Horizon well spits tens of thousands of barrels of oil offshore on the Gulf of Mexico, an environmental disaster of proportions never before imagined, a beautiful new kind of bird flies silently in the skies on its first test flight.

(more…)

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