(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- Scientists at JILA and collaborators have demonstrated an improved laser-based “molecular fingerprinting” technique that picks out traces of key hydrogen-containing molecules and other molecules from a billion other particles in a gas in just 30 seconds or less—performance suitable for breathalyzers for diagnosing disease, measuring trace gases in the atmosphere, detecting security threats, and other applications.
Those of you pondering the various energy storage options emerging to support the development of alternative energy technologies must not forget to overlook the role of ultracapacitors in the mix. Being that my physics background is limited
Trolling through the library of Planet Green's World's Greenest Homes is turning up some interesting finds.
Kraus Schönberg Architects of Germany and London won the German Timber Award for their Haus W, which bends the local zoning regulation limiting its height to one storey by going half underground. It makes for some wonderful spaces.
photo via comedy central Stephen Colbert brought on Joe Bastardi, chief Accuweather forecaster and climate change skeptic, and Brenda Ekwurzel, a climatologist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, to debate the science of global warming. Colbert expressed his usual truthiness (and cluelessness): "On February 6 it was 10 degrees. Today it hit almost 80. At this rate, by August it will be 220 degrees."...
Photo via the Guardian The Guardian has obtained a confidential document accidentally left on a hotel computer in Europe by a member of the Obama administration. The British newspaper says it "reveals the US government's increasingly controversial strategy in the global UN climate talks." They've reproduced the entire document online--but what does the classified paper reveal about US plans for brokering a climate agreement on the international stage? I'll include the entire...
Photo: Gilberto Esparza What if an army of mobile robots could transform polluted water into plant life? Tracing a fine line between robot and plant, art project and self-sustaining mini-ecosystem machine, Mexican artist Gilberto Esparza's hybrid creation "Nomadic Plants" (Plantas Nomadas) is a quirky contraption that actively seeks polluted water to feed the vegetation and microorganisms living symbiotically inside its body...
photo via comedy central Stephen Colbert brought on Joe Bastardi, chief Accuweather forecaster and climate change skeptic, and Brenda Ekwurzel, a climatologist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, to debate the science of global warming. Colbert expressed his usual truthiness (and cluelessness): "On February 6 it was 10 degrees. Today it hit almost 80. At this rate, by August it will be 220 degrees."...
Photo via the Guardian The Guardian has obtained a confidential document accidentally left on a hotel computer in Europe by a member of the Obama administration. The British newspaper says it "reveals the US government's increasingly controversial strategy in the global UN climate talks." They've reproduced the entire document online--but what does the classified paper reveal about US plans for brokering a climate agreement on the international stage? I'll include the entire...
Photo: Gilberto Esparza What if an army of mobile robots could transform polluted water into plant life? Tracing a fine line between robot and plant, art project and self-sustaining mini-ecosystem machine, Mexican artist Gilberto Esparza's hybrid creation "Nomadic Plants" (Plantas Nomadas) is a quirky contraption that actively seeks polluted water to feed the vegetation and microorganisms living symbiotically inside its body...