research

Conserving trees is not only good for the environment - but also good for your health. New research shows findings that fare well for the environment.

Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) renews his effort to take a new look at combating global climate change. In his speech to the Senate, Barrassostresses the importance of developing technology to remove existing excess green houses gases from the atmosphere andpermanently sequester them. The "Greenhouse Gas Emission Atmospheric Removal Act," or GEAR Act, will establish an award system for scientists andresearchers.

Maybe the U.S. can catch up with the leaders of solar energy technologies.

Dr. Halimaton Hamdan from the Universiti Teknologi in Malaysia has developed a method of producing aerogel that could reduce the cost of producing this material by 80% by using agricultural waste from rice husks as the feedstock. Rice husks evidently have a high silica content, and silica is the main constituent of aerogel. In addition to potentially being able to produce aerogel for one-fifth the current cost, this also addresses a problem with disposing of rice husk waste.

Researchers at Michigan State are trying to get corn-stover to digest itself after harvest. Doing so would mitigate the costly pretreatment steps needed for the production of cellulosic ethanol from the non-edible parts of the corn plant.

Does anyone think this is actually a good idea? 

Margot Gerritsen, Faculty Member, Department of Energy Resources Engineering, Stanford University,  interviews Scott Elrod, Manager of the Hardware SystemsGroup, Palo Alto Research Center (PARC); about the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center's ventures into the clean technology area. Recently, PARC worked together with the start-up SolFocus on the development of a new type of solar PV system, which is as effective as existing solar PV technology but requires a muchsmaller volume of silicon per unit area.

Ethical Design Lab intends to promote awareness of, and demand for, ethical design. Throughout the world there is a growing demand for ethically designed products from people who are more aware than ever of the impact they can have as consumers. The site is for retalers, designer and anyone interested in ethical design. It will showcase products, highlight trends and publish news.

As if it wasn’t bad enough that particulate matter from diesel exhaust causes a range of respiratory problems including 15,000 premature deaths each year, new research shows that even short-term exposure to nanoparticles found in diesel fumes can affect brain

That’s one of the major findings of the recently-released 2007 National Technology Readiness Survey (NTRS), sponsored by the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, and research firm Rockbridge Associates, Inc.

A PennState researcher is working on developing corn varieties which more efficiently use nitrogen fertilizer.

Switchgrass has been shown to produce 540% more energy than was used to grow, harvest, and process it into cellulosic ethanol, while reducing greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions by 94% when compared to gasoline. It could potentially displace 30% of US fuel usage.

A University of Minnesota study found that using higher blends of ethanol (20%) blended into gasoline did not cause damage or cause performance problems when used in standard gasoline engines.

If you ever buy retail biodiesel for your diesel vehicle, it turns out you might not be getting exactly what you paid for—or you may be getting quite a bit more.

The Top 100 Grocery Brands report article "Healthy eating trend takes natural turn" just out says that in 2007 "some of the top-selling brands are naturally healthy or functional"

"Brands that have sold well in 2007, for example, include the smoothie company Innocent (up 45.6%), Cravendale milk (up 30.6%), Cathedral City cheese (up 29.3%), Uncle Ben's rice (up 26.9%) and Danone Activia probiotic yogurt (up 25.9%)."

Very intersting report on the whole.

See http://www.talkingretail.com/top-100-grocery-brands for the full report

A scientific project funded by the EU's research programme has found that introducing hydrogen into the energy system would reduce the total oil consumption by the road transport sector by 40% between now and 2050...