Month: February 2012

  • Small Town Gets Court To Ban Fracking

    This week, a New York state judge ruled that the town of Dryden, N.Y., could prohibit fracking as part of its zoning ordinance. It’s one of 30 towns throughout central and southern New York that have taken the step. State environmental officials in New York placed a moratorium on fracking while they come up with…

  • Titan Seasons

    Ground-based observations have revealed previously seasonal variations in cloud cover. Over the course of Saturn’s 30-year orbit, Titan’s cloud systems appear to manifest for 25 years, and then fade for four to five years before reappearing again. A set of recent papers, many of which draw on data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, reveal new details…

  • Is Shale Gas Good or Bad? Panelists and the Audience at KPMG Summit are Split

    “Is the emergence of shale gas a positive or negative development with respect to sustainability?” This was one of the most interesting questions discussed on one of the panels at KPMG’s Global Summit last week in New York. Given the growth of both interest and dispute around shale gas, is shale gas is a bridge…

  • New Apple HQ to be really green!

    Last year, the late Steve Jobs revealed plans for Apple’s new ‘Spaceship’ building to be located in Cupertino City, California. The futuristic structure should be completed in 2015 and will house approximately 13,000 employees. It may look like it’s been plucked from the imagination of Philip K Dick, but what was previously the realm of…

  • Carbon Sequestration in Illinois

    Carbon capture and sequestration, refers to technology attempting to prevent release of large quantities of CO2 into the atmosphere. The process is based on capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from large point sources and storing it where it will not enter the atmosphere. One of these methods is to inject it into the ground. Geologists are…

  • Illinois Researchers Identify Promising New Biofuel

    Biofuel production has ratcheted up to become a major part of America’s energy and agricultural industries. Corn, or maize, is by far the most widely grown crop to be converted into ethanol. However, the dominance of maize in the biofuel industry is not without its pitfalls. Now, researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign…

  • Low Levels of Fallout from Fukushima Release

    There is always concern when something radioactive is released as to what its downwind effects might be. Certainly there are effects at the actual site but thousands of miles away? Fallout from the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power facility in Japan was measured in minimal amounts in precipitation in the United States in about 20…

  • Mortality Rates Are Underestimated

    Despite great medical advances that have lengthened human life spans, your chances of living a very long life may be lower than you’d hoped. That’s the conclusion of a study by two longevity experts who reviewed the standard models that predict mortality rates and turned up a major error. Instead of confirming that death rates…

  • Startup Develops Floating Solar Farm

    While solar energy companies throughout the world are competing for the relatively few vast land areas required to house solar farms, Israeli startup Solaris Synergy has found a new terrain to use. Instead of a land-based solar system, the company decided to develop a water-based technology. In other words: a floating solar power plant.

  • Science Spending

    Science has changed the world. It has created new products and ease of service. What the future will bring is, of course, always uncertain. “It’s not every day you have robots running through your house,” Barack Obama quipped last week at the White House science fair, a showcase for student exhibitors that also gave the…