In 1925, Henry Ford observed that fuel is present in all vegetative matter that can be fermented and predicted that Americans would some day grow their own fuel. Last year, global biofuel production reached 28 billion US gallons, and biofuel accounted for 2.7% of the world's transportation fuel. Bioethanol, a popular type of biofuel, is largely derived from sugary food crops such as corn and sugarcane. However, technologies are being developed to generate bioethanol from non-food sources, such as the lignocellulosics present in switchgrass and trees.
Tech
Waiting for at least three minutes before clamping the umbilical cord in healthy newborns improves their iron levels at four months, according to research published on bmj.com today.
Delaying cord clamping is not linked to neonatal jaundice or other adverse health effects and should be standard care after uncomplicated pregnancies, adds the study.
A team at Stanford's School of Engineering has demonstrated an ultrafast nanoscale light emitting diode (LED) that is orders of magnitude lower in power consumption than today's laser-based systems and able to transmit data at 10 billion bits per second. The researchers say it is a major step forward in providing a practical ultrafast, low-power light sources for on-chip computer data transmission.
The effect of microwave heating and cell phone radiation on sample material is no different than a temperature increase, according to scientists from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Arizona State University, in Tempe, as published in a recent issue of EPJ B¹.
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists and their collaborators have conducted a series of studies that explore non-antibiotic methods to reduce foodborne pathogens that are found in the gut of food animals.
New technology now makes it possible to collect 'near real-time' data about whether people are having any side effects from vaccination. By studying people who received the 2009-10 swine flu vaccination in Scotland, researchers showed that this rapid reporting can add another layer of safety to future vaccination campaigns. In addition, the data collected revealed no significant safety issues in patients exposed to the vaccine. The project's report has just been published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.
A recent study has found that PROMETAT, a popular but controversial treatment for methamphetamine addiction, is no more effective than placebo in reducing methamphetamine use, keeping users in treatment, or reducing cravings for methamphetamine. The study was funded by Hythiam, the company that owns the PROMETAT protocol, and is published online today in the scientific journal Addiction.
Research from the University of East Anglia and University of Sussex calls for a major shake-up of carbon markets
A panel of experts will meet ahead of the Durban climate summit to discuss a new report from the University of East Anglia and University of Sussex which calls for an overhaul of how markets in carbon emissions are governed.
Imagine a cellphone battery that stayed charged for more than a week and recharged in just 15 minutes. That dream battery could be closer to reality thanks to Northwestern University research.
A team of engineers has created an electrode for lithium-ion batteries -- rechargeable batteries such as those found in cellphones and iPods -- that allows the batteries to hold a charge up to 10 times greater than current technology. Batteries with the new electrode also can charge 10 times faster than current batteries.
For laymen glas looks like glass – it might be a window, a drinking vessel, a lense for an automotive headlight. But there is much more in and to the transparent material: glass can consist of 50 to 60 different elements. Experts are constantly being asked to create glass with certain characteristics out of these elements, since new applications require new materials quite often. Let's take the car as an example: the electronic components in a car's engine compartment are being brought ever closer to the engine and so must increasingly be resistant to heat and corrosive gasses.
Adults with congenital heart disease and implanted cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) often have a high level of fear and anxiety about the device delivering a shock during sex — resulting in sexual performance problems, according to research (Abstract 14165) presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2011.
Physicians are increasingly using live cells in their treatments: in blood transfusions and bone marrow transplants, as well as in stem cell therapies and following severe burns. Cells taken from the patients themselves are ideal for replacing burned skin, eliminating immune deficiencies, repairing degenerated cartilage or to treat injured bones as they are not rejected by the immune system. These cells have to be kept, cultivated, reproduced or even modified in a patient-specific manner.
At times a shimmering gray, at times more of a greenish color, the glass facades of high-rise buildings are mostly fairly similar in appearance. They become unique when individual glass elements are shaped differently.
Cooking stoves with chimneys can lower exposure to indoor wood smoke and reduce the rate of severe pneumonia by 30 percent in children less than 18 months of age, according to a new air pollution study funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of the National Institutes of Health.
Samuel Lazerson, an associate research physicist in advanced projects at the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), has created a video simulation showing the intricate nature of a plasma pulse within an experimental fusion machine known as a heliotron. The simulation shows the superconducting field coils, saddle loops, and plasma of the Large Helical Device (LHD) at the National Institute for Fusion Science in Japan.