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Earth Science
Key: Meeting Journal Funder Dissertation
Public Release: 5-Feb-2010
International Journal of Green Economics
Renewable oil companies
The entry of oil companies into the realm of renewable energy could present major obstacles for the development of a sustainable economy that is not based on carbon resources, according to a report in the International Journal of Green Economics.

Contact: Jack Reardon
Jreardon02@hamline.edu
Inderscience Publishers

Public Release: 4-Feb-2010
New ORNL system provides hybrid electric autos with power to spare
An advancement in hybrid electric vehicle technology is providing powerful benefits beyond transportation.

Contact: Kathy Graham
grahamkj@ornl.gov
865-946-1861
DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Public Release: 4-Feb-2010
Habit-learning device will lower energy bills under new clean energy cashback scheme
Smart control units that learn householders' energy habits and provide immediate feedback on consumption could give home energy savings of up to 20 percent without compromising comfort.

Contact: EPSRC Press Office
pressoffice@epsrc.ac.uk
44-179-344-4404
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Public Release: 3-Feb-2010
Nature
Scientists find quantum mechanics at work in photosynthesis
A team of University of Toronto chemists have made a major contribution to the emerging field of quantum biology, observing quantum mechanics at work in photosynthesis in marine algae.
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada

Contact: Sean Bettam
s.bettam@utoronto.ca
416-534-5820
University of Toronto

Public Release: 2-Feb-2010
BioEssays
New research rejects 80-year theory of 'primordial soup' as the origin of life
For 80 years it has been accepted that early life began in a "primordial soup" of organic molecules before evolving out of the oceans millions of years later. Today the "soup" theory has been over turned in a pioneering paper in BioEssays which claims it was the Earth's chemical energy, from hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor, which kick-started early life.

Contact: Ben Norman
Benorman@wiley.com
44-124-377-0375
Wiley-Blackwell

Public Release: 29-Jan-2010
Environmental Science and Technology
Hospital scanner could curb nuclear waste threat
Medical equipment used for diagnosis of patients with heart disease and cancer could be a key weapon in stopping nuclear waste seeping into the environment, according to new research.

Contact: Alex Waddington
alex.waddington@manchester.ac.uk
01-612-758-387
University of Manchester

Public Release: 27-Jan-2010
Nano Letters
Energy-harvesting rubber sheets could power pacemakers, mobile phones
Power-generating rubber films developed by Princeton University engineers could harness natural body movements such as breathing and walking to power pacemakers, mobile phones and other electronic devices.
US Intelligence Community

Contact: Chris Emery
cemery@princeton.edu
609-258-4597
Princeton University, Engineering School

Public Release: 27-Jan-2010
Nature
Microbes produce fuels directly from biomass
Researchers with the Joint BioEnergy Institute have developed a microbe that can produce an advanced biofuel fuel directly from biomass. Deploying the tools of synthetic biology, the JBEI researchers engineered a strain of E. coli bacteria to produce biodiesel and other important chemicals derived from fatty acids. JBEI is a DOE Bioenergy Research center led by Berkeley Lab.
University of California, LS9

Contact: Lynn Yarris
lcyarris@lbl.gov
510-486-5375
DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Public Release: 27-Jan-2010
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Metal hydrides for high temperature superconductivity
An international research team, comprising scientists working in the Sweden, UK, US and South Korea and led by Professor Rajeev Ahuja of Uppsala University now presents new findings for better understanding of superconducting high-pressure metal hydride systems. The study is published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Contact: Professor Rajeev Ahuja
rajeev.ahuja@fysik.uu.se
46-704-250-935
Uppsala University

Public Release: 27-Jan-2010
Physical Review Letters
Mismatched alloys are a good match for thermoelectrics
Using the supercomputers at NERSC, Berkeley Lab researchers demonstrated that the semiconductors known as highly mismatched alloys hold great promise for the future development of high performance thermoelectric devices. Thermoelectrics could play a key role in green energy production because of their ability to convert heat into electricity.
Berkeley Lab

Contact: Lynn Yarris
510-486-5375
DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Public Release: 25-Jan-2010
Energy & Fuels
Advanced engine-control system reduces biodiesel fuel consumption and emissions
Researchers from Purdue University and Cummins Inc. have developed an advanced "closed-loop control" approach for preventing diesel engines from emitting greater amounts of smog-causing nitrogen oxides when running on biodiesel fuels.

Contact: Emil Venere
venere@purdue.edu
765-494-4709
Purdue University

Public Release: 25-Jan-2010
Sweet success for sustainable biofuel research
Scientists have found a way to increase fermentable sugar stores in plants which could lead to plant biomass being easier to convert into eco-friendly sustainable biofuels. Their research is highlighted in the latest issue of Business, the quarterly highlights magazine of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

Contact: Tracey Jewitt
press.office@bbsrc.ac.uk
44-017-934-14694
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

Public Release: 24-Jan-2010
Nature Physics
Levitating magnet may yield new approach to clean energy
A new experiment that reproduces the magnetic fields of the Earth and other planets has yielded its first significant results. The findings confirm that its unique approach has some potential to be developed as a new way of creating a power-producing plant based on nuclear fusion -- the process that generates the sun's prodigious output of energy.

Contact: Jennifer Hirsch
jfhirsch@mit.edu
617-253-1682
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Public Release: 22-Jan-2010
BioEnergy Research
Biofuel crop diversity adds value, Michigan State researchers say
Diverse biofuel plantings such as native prairie attract more beneficial insects than do single crops such as corn, Michigan State University scientists find. Therefore, biofuel policies should take such added value into account, they urge, based on their pioneering studies of beneficial insects in biofuel crops.
DOE Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center

Contact: Jamie M. DePolo
depolo@msu.edu
609-702-7810
Michigan State University

Public Release: 22-Jan-2010
Using supercomputers to explore nuclear energy
A new computer algorithm developed by researchers at the US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory allows scientists to view nuclear fission in much finer detail than ever before.
US Department of Energy

Contact: Eleanor Taylor
etaylor@anl.gov
630-252-5510
DOE/Argonne National Laboratory

Public Release: 11-Jan-2010
WIREs Climate Change
The Asia-Pacific Partnership and the Kyoto Protocols: In conflict or cooperation?
Does the international strategy to tackle climate change hinge on cooperation between the United States and Asia? Analysts consider Asia-Pacific Partnership its role as an alternative to the Kyoto treaty.

Contact: Ben Norman
Benorman@wiley.com
44-012-437-70375
Wiley-Blackwell

Public Release: 7-Jan-2010
Science
Eminent group of scientists call for moratorium on issuance of mountaintop mining permits
Based on a comprehensive analysis of the latest scientific findings, a group of the nation's leading environmental scientists are calling on the US EPA and the US Army Corps of Engineers to stay all new mountaintop mining permits. In the Jan. 8 edition of the journal Science, they argue that peer-reviewed research unequivocally documents irreversible environmental impacts from this form of mining which also exposes local residents to a higher risk of serious health problems.

Contact: Christopher Conner
cconner@umces.edu
443-496-0095
University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science

Public Release: 5-Jan-2010
2009 AGU Fall Meeting
Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer
University of Nevada, Reno researcher devises new solar pond distillation system
Ecosystems of terminus lakes around the world could benefit from a new system being developed at the University of Nevada, Reno to desalinate water using a specialized low-cost solar pond and patented membrane distillation system powered by renewable energy.

Contact: Mike Wolterbeek
mwolterbeek@unr.edu
University of Nevada, Reno

Public Release: 5-Jan-2010
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Worm's eye view
Berkeley Lab researchers have developed a "molecular worm" algorithm that makes it easier and faster to simulate the passage of a molecule through the labyrinth of a chemical system, a progression that is critical to catalysis and other important chemical processes.
US Department of Energy

Contact: Lynn Yarris
lcyarris@lbl.gov
510-486-5375
DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Public Release: 5-Jan-2010
PLoS ONE
Miscanthus, a biofuels crop, can host western corn rootworm
The western corn rootworm beetle, a pest that feasts on corn roots and corn silk and costs growers more than $1 billion annually in the US, also can survive on the perennial grass Miscanthus x giganteus, a potential biofuels crop that would likely be grown alongside corn, researchers report.

Contact: Diana Yates
diya@illinois.edu
217-333-5802
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Public Release: 4-Jan-2010
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Solar-powered irrigation significantly improves diet and income in rural sub-Saharan Africa
Solar-powered drip irrigation systems significantly enhance household incomes and nutritional intake of villagers in arid sub-Saharan Africa, according to a new Stanford University study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University

Contact: Mark Shwartz
mshwartz@stanford.edu
831-915-0088
Stanford University

Public Release: 4-Jan-2010
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Scientists target East Coast rocks for CO2 storage
Scientists say buried volcanic rocks along the heavily populated coasts of New York, New Jersey and New England, as well as further south, might be ideal reservoirs to lock away carbon dioxide emitted by power plants and other industrial sources. A study this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences outlines formations on land as well as offshore, where scientists from Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory say the best potential sites may lie.

Contact: Kevin Krajick
kkrajick@ei.columbia.edu
212-854-9729
The Earth Institute at Columbia University

Public Release: 28-Dec-2009
USGS science picks
In this edition of Science Picks, learn how scientists are forecasting hazards like volcanoes and landslides, and read about a wolf named Brutus, who emails scientists from the North Pole! Also check out research on ancient salt mines, scientists using high tech remote controlled airplanes to survey dangerous areas, and why the call of the yellow-billed cuckoo is getting quieter and quieter.

Contact: Kara Capelli
kcapelli@usgs.gov
703-648-5086
United States Geological Survey

Public Release: 21-Dec-2009
AIChE Journal
Method makes refineries more efficient
Refineries could trim millions of dollars in energy costs annually by using a new method developed at Purdue University to rearrange the distillation sequence needed to separate crude petroleum into products.
US Department of Energy

Contact: Emil Venere
venere@purdue.edu
765-494-4709
Purdue University

Public Release: 21-Dec-2009
Rand Corporation study analyzes risks, benefits to Israel of increasing reliance on natural gas
Israel can make natural gas usage a bigger part of its energy portfolio without jeopardizing its security, but even more importantly, the nation needs to make conservation measures a priority in its future energy plans, according to a RAND Corporation study issued today
Y & S Nazarian Family Foundation

Contact: Lisa Sodders
lsodders@rand.org
310-451-6913
RAND Corporation