Tag: Environment

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Computational Chemistry Shines Light on Solar Energy Storage in Plants

Figure 1. Electron flow in Photosystem II. Plants take electrons from water to store energy from the sun. Whether it is the oxygen that we breathe or animals that we eat, our lives are made possible by photosynthesis.  Photosynthesis is the process that plants have used for billions of years to convert energy from the sun, water, and carbon dioxide into the life-sustaining biomolecules and oxygen … Continue reading Computational Chemistry Shines Light on Solar Energy Storage in Plants

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Alien Worlds of Hydrothermal Vents

Presented by Heather Olins Since their discovery in 1977, scientists and non-scientists alike have been captivated by hydrothermal vent ecosystems. The geological setting and the biological processes that occur in these locations make them unlike any ecosystem on Earth. In this talk we will start out with some background about what these vents are and how they form. We will discuss the “alien” nature of … Continue reading Alien Worlds of Hydrothermal Vents

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Keeping Warm: A discussion with Dr. Murray Hamlet on cold weather physiology

— Less than three weeks ago, the Northeast US was slammed by the largest blizzard in years: winter storm Nemo. Swarms of people ran to the grocery stores and gas stations to stock up on food, batteries, flashlights, clean water supplies, and gas in preparation for the storm. Fortunately, being able to stay within the comfort and warmth of their homes, most people didn’t have to be concerned about one of the greatest threats that comes with winter weather: cold weather injury. This month, the Science in the News Flash got in touch with Dr. Murray Hamlet, an expert on cold weather physiology and retired director of the Cold Research Division for the US Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine (Natick MA), to learn more about this fascinating, yet frightening, topic. Continue reading Keeping Warm: A discussion with Dr. Murray Hamlet on cold weather physiology

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Encouraging Sustainable Energy in the Developing World

Societies will always need energy to develop and function; how this energy is generated and delivered will determine whether we can achieve a sustainable future. Today, approximately 40% of the world’s population, mostly in low- and middle-income countries, don’t have access to modern sources of energy, instead relying on old-fashioned biomass burning, such as the use of firewood, charcoal, or animal waste, which leads to … Continue reading Encouraging Sustainable Energy in the Developing World

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Counting Spots: How Clean Are The Tar Sands?

— Measuring, or what Richard Feynman called “quantitative observation” in his Lectures on Physics, is one of the defining features of science. Some scientists, most notably Steven Hawking, even believe that science is nothing but measuring – if something can’t be measured it isn’t science. But measuring is also fraught with surprising practical, philosophical, and political implications – and even important social consequences – as demonstrated by a recent study of the Alberta tar sands. Continue reading Counting Spots: How Clean Are The Tar Sands?

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Spinning electricity out of thin, moving air

The sun’s beaming rays heat the Earth, but not evenly. Many attributes of the Earth – such as its atmosphere, topography, bodies of water, and rotation – contribute to uneven heat distributions, which create air movement, or wind []. Windmills use wind-generated kinetic motion to perform useful work, such as pumping water or grinding grains, whereas wind turbines use it to generate electricity []. Wind … Continue reading Spinning electricity out of thin, moving air

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Electric Vehicles and Hybrids: Where are we now?

As President Eisenhower said, our “transportation systems are dynamic elements in the very name we bear—United States.  Without them, we would be a mere alliance of many separate parts.” (Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Feb 22, 1955). The automobile became a household staple and a powerful symbol of our industrialized economy, such that cars are now intimately intertwined with our lives. As we move into the … Continue reading Electric Vehicles and Hybrids: Where are we now?

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Why We Need Sustainable Energy

The degree to which we use energy has far-reaching consequences. For example, the simple act of driving to work uses fuel that is ultimately tied to both international conflict and global climate change. The success of modern civilization is fundamentally linked to our ability to harness energy, primarily in the form of fossil fuels like oil, coal, and natural gas. As shown in Figure 1, … Continue reading Why We Need Sustainable Energy

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Black Silicon: Working around the current limits of solar cells

For many years, sunlight has been seen as a potential gold mine of useable energy for our global needs.  Having successfully used the sun to grow food to feed the world, people are now trying to harvest the sun’s energy and convert it into electric energy.  The principle way this has been accomplished is through the use of solar cells, also known as solar photovoltaics … Continue reading Black Silicon: Working around the current limits of solar cells

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Synthetic Biology for Fuels

Fossil fuels are running out Since the mid nineteenth century, humans have progressively mastered the discovery, extraction, and combustion of fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are the remains of organisms, mostly thick growths of plants from more than 500 million years ago, that were buried under heavy layers of sediment and slowly heated and compressed, under conditions without oxygen, into carbon-rich deposits. These are now used … Continue reading Synthetic Biology for Fuels