Tech | Page 1199 | Science Codex

New, fossil-fuel-free process makes biodiesel sustainable

EAST LANSING, Mich. — A new fuel-cell concept, developed by an Michigan State University researcher, will allow biodiesel plants to eliminate the creation of hazardous wastes while removing their dependence on fossil fuel from their production process.

The platform, which uses microbes to glean ethanol from glycerol and has the added benefit of cleaning up the wastewater, will allow producers to reincorporate the ethanol and the water into the fuel-making process, said Gemma Reguera, MSU microbiologist and one of the co-authors.

Carnegie Mellon, Microsoft Research automate privacy compliance for big data systems

PITTSBURGH—Web services companies, such as Facebook, Google and Microsoft, all make promises about how they will use personal information they gather. But ensuring that millions of lines of code in their systems operate in ways consistent with privacy promises is labor-intensive and difficult. A team from Carnegie Mellon University and Microsoft Research, however, has shown these compliance checks can be automated.

A new way to harness waste heat

CAMBRIDGE, Mass-- Vast amounts of excess heat are generated by industrial processes and by electric power plants; researchers around the world have spent decades seeking ways to harness some of this wasted energy. Most such efforts have focused on thermoelectric devices, solid-state materials that can produce electricity from a temperature gradient, but the efficiency of such devices is limited by the availability of materials.

Skinny lens makes cheap surveillance camera for home use

WASHINGTON, May 21, 2014—Dark alleys might not feel so dangerous someday thanks to a new ultra-thin type of lens, which could pave the way to making smaller and cheaper heat-sensing imagers. A team of French researchers has found a way to make a thermal infrared (IR) camera with a lens made of silicon, a much less expensive material than is commonly used today.

Laser light needs more bass

They shed light on atomic and molecular processes: ultrashort laser pulses are required to study extremely fast quantum phenomena. For years, scientists have been trying to tune the shape of light waves so as to, for instance, steer an electron on exactly the right path. At the TU Vienna, an extraordinarily powerful new method to influence the shape of the laser light wave has been developed in cooperation with the Imperial College in London and the Max-Born-Institute in Berlin.

Shale development generally helps local government coffers

Oil and gas development from shale fields has generally helped the public finances of local communities, providing new revenues and resources that usually -- but not always -- outweigh the increased demand for public services and other costs, according to a new analysis from two Duke University researchers.

Immigration at a young age may increase risk for later alcohol and drug problems

Hispanic immigrants have lower rates of alcohol- and drug-related problems than their U.S.-born counterparts.
A new study assesses the impact of age of immigration on risk for alcohol/drug problems in adulthood.
Results suggest that cultural values from the country of origin may be less strongly solidified when immigration occurs before adolescence.

Shrub growth decreases as winter temperatures fluctuate up

Many have assumed that warmer winters as a result of climate change would increase the growth of trees and shrubs because the growing season would be longer. But shrubs achieve less yearly growth when cold winter temperatures are interrupted by temperatures warm enough to trigger growth.

New analysis eliminates a potential speed bump in quantum computing

A quantum particle can search for an item in an unsorted "database" byjumping from one item to another in superposition, and it does sofaster than a classical computer ever could.

This assertion assumes, however, that the particle can directly hop from any item to any other. Any restriction on which items the particle can directly hop to could slow down the search.

Is there really cash in your company's trash?

This news release is available in French.

One company's trash can be another's treasure.

Take Marmite. Made from a by-product of commercial beer production, the yeast-based spread has topped toast throughout the Commonwealth for decades. By recuperating the waste product from one company, another was able to thrive.

Professors' super waterproof surfaces cause water to bounce like a ball

In a basement lab on BYU's campus, mechanical engineering professor Julie Crockett analyzes water as it bounces like a ball and rolls down a ramp.

This phenomenon occurs because Crockett and her colleague Dan Maynes have created a sloped channel that is super-hydrophobic, or a surface that is extremely difficult to wet. In layman's terms, it's the most extreme form of water proof.

Researchers sequence genome of primitive termite

North Carolina State University entomologists are part of a research team that has for the first time sequenced the genome of a member of the termite order, the dampwood termite (Zootermopsis nevadensis). A paper reports the findings today in Nature Communications.

Power plant emissions verified remotely at Four Corners sites

Air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from two coal-fired power plants in the Four Corners area of northwest New Mexico, the largest point source of pollution in America, were measured remotely by a Los Alamos National Laboratory team. Led by Laboratory senior scientist Manvendra Dubey, the study is the first to show that space-based techniques can successfully verify international regulations on fossil energy emissions.

The results obtained in the evaluation of environmental strategies on livestock farms

In this project a detailed study has been made of the technologies present on livestock farms belonging to various regions in the Atlantic Area. Together with Neiker-Tecnalia, the public body that reports to the Sub-Ministry for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Policy of the Government of the Basque Autonomous Community, the following are part of this project: Teagasc-The Agriculture and Food Development Authority (Ireland), IRSTEA (France), INTIA (Navarre), the University of Glasgow Caledonian (Scotland), and the Higher Institute for Agronomy (Portugal).

Scientists develop new approach for sampling gut bacteria

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 19 -- Scientists at Forsyth, Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard School of Public Health have developed a new protocol for collecting saliva and stool samples for genomic and transcriptomic analyses. This method eliminates the need for specialized personnel and facilities while keeping the sample intact. It also provides critical insight into the genetic makeup of the microbiome of the digestive tract and the bacteria associated with celiac disease, oral cancer, perodontitis and obesity.