• Calculating the benefits of switching from food to energy crops

    Along with the growing interest in biomass energy crops as renewable alternatives to fossil fuels comes a growing list of questions from corn and soybean farmers about what it will cost them to switch; researchers developed a customizable online calculator to eliminate some of the guesswork and help farmers make the decision

  • Death, destruction in wake of Hurricane Sandy

    Hurricane Sandy’s left millions along the U.S. East Coast without power or mass transit, in all likelihood for days; the U.S. death toll reached 48, with most of the dead being killed by falling trees; the hurricane cut power to more than 8.2 million across the East Coast; airlines canceled more than 15,000 flights; Sandy will end up causing about $20 billion in property damage and $10 billion to $30 billion more in lost business, making it one of the costliest natural disasters on record in the U.S. history

  • DOD faces shortfall in quality STEM workers; overhaul of recruitment policies needed

    The principal challenge for the U.S. Department of Defense’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) work force is recruiting and retaining top quality professionals for critical positions, says a new report; the agency must become — and be perceived as — an appealing career destination for the most capable scientists, engineers, and technicians, all of whom are in great demand in the global marketplace

  • A coal economy has multiple health, social risks, says major review

    A major review of evidence on the impact of coal mining has highlighted serious, ongoing health and social problems, and an urgent need for improvements in government coal mining policy

  • Hurricanes will test Florida buildings, built under new, post-Wilma building codes

    In 2005 Hurricane Wilma was responsible for five deaths and millions of dollars worth of damage in Florida; building codes in the state were updated, and experts predict that these new buildings, most of which were designed with wind-tunnel testing, should perform well in all but the most severe conditions

  • Human activity can trigger an earthquake

    Earthquakes occur when tectonic plates try to move past each other, and the friction between them holds them in place; the friction creates energy which builds up, and when the plates move past each other, the energy is released, triggering an earthquake; fracturing increases the fluid pressure inside faults; this increased pressure, in turn, lowers the stress threshold for triggering an earthquake enough for one to take place

  • ISC East postponed

    Owing to the state of emergency declared by New York the governor, and the potential danger presented by Hurricane Sandy, ISC Events has decided to postpone ISC East; the event was scheduled for 30-31 October at Jacob Javits Convention center in New York

  • Making toilets out of waste plastic

    Washington Open Object Fabricators (WOOF) has won the 3D4D Challenge, and awarded a prize of $100,000 to help toward implementing the winning project – which will enable waste plastic to be used as filament for 3D printing machines, to create new products; the winning team plans to use the winning technology to address local issues in water and sanitation in Oaxaca, Mexico

  • iPhones replacing Blackberries at more U.S. agencies

    The security features of Blackberry phones kept them as the favorites with government agencies even as iPhones and Samsung’s Galaxy models were offering more features, but this security advantage appears to have disappeared, and iPhones are replacing Blackberry phones at more and more government agencies

  • Scientists improving process to recycle rare-earth materials

    Recycling keeps paper, plastics, and even jeans out of landfills. Could recycling rare-earth magnets do the same? Perhaps, if the recycling process can be improved; scientists are working more effectively to remove the neodymium, a rare earth element, from the mix of other materials in a magnet; initial results show recycled materials maintain the properties that make rare-earth magnets useful

  • Large-scale production of algae-based biofuels poses sustainability concerns

    Scaling up the production of biofuels made from algae to meet at least 5 percent — approximately thirty-nine billion liters — of U.S. transportation fuel needs would place unsustainable demands on energy, water, and nutrients, says a new report from the National Research Council; these concerns, however, are not a definitive barrier for future production, and innovations that would require research and development could help realize algal biofuels’ full potential

  • New biorenewables technology about to reach the marketplace

    Innovative technology provides a new way to transform cellulosic biomass into renewable fuels and high-value chemicals; ,the technology uses ionic liquids to break down cellulosic or non-food plant biomass without using enzymes or costly pretreatment steps

     

  • Entrepreneurial approach to Japan’s disaster recovery

    The 9.0 magnitude earthquake hit off the east coast of Japan in March 2011 killed more than 12,000 people, sent tsunami waves six miles inland, and damaged or completely flattened more than a million buildings; combined with the tsunami and the nuclear meltdown at Fukushima, it was the most economically damaging disaster in world history, costing Japan an estimated $235 billion, according to the World Bank; a Japanese organizations tries a new approach to disaster recovery: entrepreneurship

  • Looming sequestration causes Navy to looking at future technology, fleet size

    Adm. Mark Ferguson, vice chief of naval operations, offered a revealing look at the potential future for the Navy if sequestration, or automatic defense cuts, goes into effect in January; without some sort of adjustment by Congress, currently the subject of discussion on Capitol Hill, the nearly 10 percent across-the-board Department of Defense budget cuts are slated to commence in 2013 and continue for ten years

  • TSA replaces backscatter scanners with millimeter wave scanners at some airports

    TSA is replacing some backscatter scanners at large U.S. airports with millimeter wave scanners; backscatter scanners were criticized for violating travelers’ privacy, and risking travelers’ health by emitting high levels of radiation