Focus: Energy & the Environment

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For more than a decade, ecologists have been warning of a downward trend in bumble bee populations across North America, with habitat destruction a primary culprit in those losses. While efforts to preserve wild bees in the Midwest often focus on restoring native flowers to prairies, a new Illinois-based study finds evidence of a steady decline in the availability of springtime flowers in wooded landscapes.

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Pollution from miniscule pieces of plastic, or microplastics, have been a growing concern for scientists, public health advocates and environmentalists as these nondegradable items have increasingly made their way into waterways and even the air we breathe. Now, scientists are showing that they might be altering cellular function.

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Certain brightly colored coral species dotting the seafloor may appear indistinguishable to many divers and snorkelers, but Florida State University researchers have found that these genetically diverse marine invertebrates vary in their response to ocean warming, a finding that has implications for the long-term health of coral reefs.

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Scientists examined cell abundances, size, cellular carbon mass, and how photosynthetic cells differ on polymeric and glass substrates over time, exploring nanoparticle generation from plastic like polystyrene and how this might disrupt microalgae. Conservative estimates suggest that about 1 percent of microbial cells in the ocean surface microlayer inhabit plastic debris globally. This mass of cells would not exist without plastic debris in the ocean, and thus, represents a disruption of the proportions of native flora in that habitat.

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Scientists have long believed that ocean viruses always quickly kill algae, but Rutgers-led research shows they live in harmony with algae and viruses provide a “coup de grace” only when blooms of algae are already stressed and dying. The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, will likely change how scientists view viral infections of algae, also known as phytoplankton – especially the impact of viruses on ecosystem processes like algal bloom formation (and decline) and the cycling of carbon and other chemicals on Earth.

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The U.S. Department of Laboratory's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory will lead the design and construction of several diagnostics for ITER, the international fusion experiment. At the same time, engineers are completing design work on a microwave reflectometer diagnostic called a low field side reflectometer.

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Algae are tiny biological factories that use photosynthesis to transform carbon dioxide and sunlight into energy so efficiently that they can double their weight several times a day, producing oil in the process "” 30 times more oil per acre than soybeans, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Like soybean oil, the algae oil can be burned directly in diesel engines or further refined into biodiesel.

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Researchers in the Georgia Tech Research Institute's (GTRI) Center for Innovative Fuel Cell and Battery Technologies believe that understanding how and why fuel cells fail is the key to both reducing cost and improving durability. The problems they are addressing include chemical attack of the membrane, carbon corrosion and platinum instability.

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Virginia Tech released the inaugural Green500 List (www.green500.org) this morning (Nov. 15, 2007) at the Supercomputing 2007 (SC|07) conference in Reno.

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Planet Bob," a joint video production from Arizona State University's International Institute for Species Exploration and Media Alchemy Inc., uses live action, state-of-the-art animation, and the vocal talents of venerable TV host Hugh Downs and others, to present the mysterious, exciting "“ and surprisingly funny "“ side of taxonomy.

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The "Energy Efficiency Partnership of Greater Washington" will tackle global warming by retrofitting existing buildings with energy efficiency products designed to decrease energy use and significantly cut carbon emissions.

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Beneath a sulfurous cauldron in European seas lies a class of microorganisms known as extremophiles. These organisms and their associated enzymes could somehow unlock the key to a new transportation economy based on a renewable biofuel, lignocellulosic ethanol. That's the concept behind a research program at Sandia National Laboratories.

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Chemists at the University of California, San Diego have demonstrated the feasibility of exploiting sunlight to transform a greenhouse gas into a useful product.

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Illustrating their commitment to sustaining the environment and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the Town of Blacksburg, City of Roanoke, and Virginia Tech are converting their diesel fuel-powered public works and facilities vehicles and power equipment to biodiesel fuel "” a cleaner-burning, renewable diesel fuel replacement made primarily from soybean oil.