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Hidden Dangers in the Air We Breathe

By Guest PostMay 10, 2013Environment, Healthacrolein, air quality, air we breathe, average american, berkeley lab, brett singer, california, cardiovascular systems, chronic exposure, daly, factories, fine particles, gas, health hazards, hidden dangers, indoor air pollutants, indoor air quality, max sherman, micrometers in diameter, phillip price, respiratory, title 24, united states, urban environment, us population, vehicles, world health organization, world war

Berkeley Lab researchers work on new building standards after discovering previously unknown indoor air pollutants.

For decades, no one worried much about the air quality inside people’s homes unless there was secondhand smoke or radon present. Then scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) made the discovery that the aggregate health consequences of poor indoor air quality are as significant as those from all traffic accidents or infectious diseases in the United States. One major source of indoor pollutants in the home is cooking.

The Berkeley Lab scientists are now working on turning those research findings into science-based solutions, including better standards for residential buildings and easier ways to test for the hazardous pollutants. These efforts are the result of a paper published in Environmental Health Perspectives in 2012 that described a new method for estimating the chronic health impact of indoor air pollutants. That research uncovered two pollutants that previously had not been recognized as a cause for concern—fine particles and a gas called acrolein. (more…)

Meet the ‘Plumbers’ Powering ‘Halo 4’ Infinity Multiplayer

By Guest PostOctober 31, 2012Technology343 industries, armor abilities, bungie, cloud services, commander, dvr, Entertainment, game online, game studio, halo 2, halo 4, halo universe, halo waypoint, infinity multiplayer, jerry hook, luigi, mario, master chief, Microsoft, news center, plymouth rock, s curve, sara palmer, sci fi, social, spartan ops, subterranean it, tamir melamed, vehicles, video game, virtual machines, weapons, windows azure, xbox live

Members of 343 Industries talk to the Microsoft News Center about the infrastructure behind the “Halo 4” Infinity Multiplayer suite and the video game industry’s shift to a world of 24/7 live services.

REDMOND, Wash. — Oct. 31, 2012 — Meet Jerry Hook and Tamir Melamed, the hardest-working plumbers in the video game world not named Mario or Luigi.

Hook and Melamed lead the engineering team laying the subterranean IT structures that will power every pixel of the multiplayer experience in “Halo 4.” Everything fans experience online – stats, screenshots, the simple joy of blasting a friend or stranger to smithereens – depends on the infrastructure they’ve built over the past year and half. That infrastructure is supported by Windows Azure, which provides the team with the affordable scalability they need to keep a game like “Halo 4” running smoothly for fans. (more…)

Want Fuel Cells? Think Outside the Hydrogen Tank

By Guest PostNovember 19, 2011Scienceamerica, bi layer electrolyte, biofuels, craig a marlowe, diesel, eco-friendly, electricity, eric wachsman, fuel cell, fuel cell research, future technology, gasoline, hydrogen based fuel cells, hydrogen powered cars, kang taek lee, natural gas today, oxidize, pem, power density sofc, professor, proton exchange membrane fuel cell, sofc, solid oxide fuel cell, Technology, temperature, vehicles, water, zirconia based electrolyte

In this week’s Science magazine, an energy expert advocates investing in “the other fuel cell” to reduce reliance on fossil fuels now, not in decades.

COLLEGE PARK, Md.– When most people hear the words “fuel cell,” they think of eco-friendly, hydrogen-powered cars that emit nothing more than water.

And that, says Professor Eric Wachsman, director of the University of Maryland Energy Research Center (UMERC), is one of the reasons we’re all not driving one.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) recent decisions about how to fund fuel cell research, he says, are putting the country at risk of falling behind in the development and implementation of the most efficient means of converting fuel to electricity. Fuel cells have up to three times the efficiency of an internal combustion engine. (more…)

Tag Archives: vehicles

Hidden Dangers in the Air We Breathe

Meet the ‘Plumbers’ Powering ‘Halo 4’ Infinity Multiplayer

Want Fuel Cells? Think Outside the Hydrogen Tank