The study of how enzymes break down plant matter is also of direct relevance to the development of processes for environmentally-friendly energy solutions such as biofuels.
and production energy to ensure that high-quality eating experience. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Kansas State university Research and Extension.
In Madagascar burning for agricultural land and extraction of wood for household energy leads to around 36000 hectares (139 square miles) of natural forest being lost each year.
***Seaweed could be next new biofuelnew research to turn seaweed into liquid biofuel aims to overcome two main barriers to the plant becoming a major source of renewable energy.
or an energy-dense snack (cookies potato chips nacho chips and cheese-filled crackers). Sixty-one percent of children in the comic group chose a healthy snack after reading opposed to just 35%of the control group.
and heart rate monitors so that researchers could measure their oxygen uptake energy expenditure and heart rate. Results showed that the 10 gardening tasks represented moderate-to high-intensity physical activity for the children.
when stimulated by an energy source like sunlight or a laser set up a harmonic oscillation of the surface charges similar to waves.
If the energy input is intense enough the output can be intense as well. In one practical example demonstrated at Rice plasmon excitation in gold nanoparticles produces heat that instantly turns even ice-cold water into steam.
That excitation energy can also be channeled in other directions through the creation of hot electrons that can transfer to suitable acceptors Link said
and energy has to leave the ocean through evaporation he explained. If you think about all the ice on top of Mt everest--who took this huge amount of material up there?
There's energy in evaporation but it's so subtle we don't see it. But until now no one has tapped that energy to generate electricity.
As Sahin pursued the idea of a new humidity-driven generator he realized that Mahadevan had been investigating similar problems from a physical perspective.
since they shrink reversibly they had to be storing energy. In fact spores would be particularly good at storing energy
because they are rigid yet still expand and contract a great deal the researchers predicted. Since changing moisture levels deform these spores it followed that devices containing these materials should be able to move in response to changing humidity levels Mahadevan said.
When Sahin first set out to measure the energy of spores he was taken by surprise. He put a solution thick with spores on a tiny flexible silicon plank expecting to measure the humidity-driven force in a customized atomic force microscope.
and adhesive tape stored energy settling on rubber as the most promising material. Then he built a simple humidity-driven generator out of Legosâa miniature fan a magnet and a spore-coated cantilever.
Sahin's prototype captures just a small percentage of the energy released by evaporation but it could be improved by genetically engineering the spores to be stiffer and more elastic.
Indeed in early experiments spores of a mutant strain provided by Driks stored twice as much energy as normal strains.
Solar and wind energy fluctuate dramatically when the sun doesn't shine or the wind doesn't blow
. If changes in humidity could be harnessed to generate electricity night and day using a scaled up version of this new generator it could provide the world with a desperately needed new source of renewable energy.
The work was funded by the U s. Department of energy the Rowland Junior Fellows Program and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard university.
And the energy required is non-negligible for an animal that has restricted such a diet.
radiation which transfers thermal energy through electromagnetic waves and conduction which transfers thermal energy through the vibrations of neighboring atoms and molecules.
Most people assume that fur and feathers keep animals warm primarily by trapping a layer of air that slows thermal conduction says Simonis.
Adding more shields also dramatically reduced the energy loss. All together the model suggests that the repeated backscattering of infrared light between radiative shields like individual hairs
because low CO2Â reduces plantsâ##ability to perform photosynthesis meaning less carbon-energy is supplied to the roots and their fungi.
She believes that aã§ai berries are used primarily as an energy supplement in their homeland Brazil.
As the most calorically dense nutrient fat has been desired a energy source across much of human evolution.
just as sweet taste is thought to signal a source of carbohydrate energy. Although scientists know that humans use sensory cues to detect fat it still remains unclear
and tested them in the lab. In spring they measured levels of chlorophyll the molecule that helps leaves photosynthesize--turn light into energy
& Society (CES) at Washington College has launched a partnership with four towns on Maryland's rural Eastern Shore that can serve as a national model for helping small communities make big reductions in energy consumption.
The Shorepower Project is being led by Briggs Cunningham Energy Programs Manager at CES and Mary Yates recently hired as Shorepower Project Coordinator.
In shaping the program the two have consulted closely with officials from the Maryland Energy Administration the Maryland Department of the Environment and the Maryland Municipal League.
and vendors to inventory each municipality's energy usage and greenhouse gas emissions develop recommendations for achieving energy savings and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and build capacity for ongoing tracking and evaluation.
Speakers included partners from the project plus Abigail Hopper Director of the Maryland Energy Administration (MEA) and Robert Summers Secretary of the Maryland Department of the Environment.
and change the way they consume energy and to incorporate more renewable sources. Secretary Summers used the event to outline the challenges that climate change
and a growing appetite for cheap clean energy are bringing to Maryland. He reviewed ways Governor Martin O'Malley's administration through its Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plan aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 25 percent by 2020 (starting with 2006 levels.
Once the molecules are in place the researchers can chill them heat them blast them with energy from a laser or electric current and measure the effect through spectroscopy
The Molecular Foundry a Department of energy User Facility at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory collaborated on the calculations component.
A few years ago we saw hints of vibrational energies moving around but nothing this clean or this systematic.
and Molecular Foundry director Jeffrey Neaton a professor of physics at the University of California Berkeley and a member of the Kavli Energy Nanosciences Institute at Berkeley.
The Robert A. Welch Foundation the Department of energy the Israel Science Foundation and the Lise Meitner Center for Computational Chemistry supported the work.
Computations were performed at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Rice university.
Assuming that the individual wants to maximise their long-term rate of energy gain it is possible to calculate which option they should take based on the currently available options
and some of the energy intake are we getting full value for that growth promotant?
the sensation of hunger fades energy expenditure at rest is enhanced and last but not least the liver produces less glucose.
This research was funded by the Department of energy the National Science Foundation and MSU Agbioresearch. Story Source:
in order to save energy. They do this by making proteins that repress the growth of the plant.
The methane is lost energy that could go into producing milk. So if we can find the right genetic mix we can find cattle that are less polluting more productive
and Dietetics that dietary fat for the healthy adult population should provide 20 percent to 35 percent of energy with an increased consumption of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids and limited intake of saturated and trans
The authors looked at 82 raven nests on the U s. Department of energy's Idaho National Laboratory land in southeastern Idaho a sagebrush steppe ecosystem where ravens increased in numbers eleven-fold between 1985 and 2009.
The results of these findings pointed to further increases in raven abundance in formerly natural sagebrush steppe following alterations made by people specifically those associated with energy development and an expanding electric grid.
Poor livestock grazing management invasive species such as cheatgrass transmission lines energy development and subdivisions are all contributing to the loss of this vital resource.
& Technology (ES&T) uses local census weather and other data--37 variables in total--to approximate greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the energy transportation food goods
The goal of the project is to help cities better understand the primary drivers of household carbon footprints in each location said Daniel Kammen Class of 1935 Distinguished Professor of Energy in the Energy and Resources Group
and the Goldman School of Public Policy and director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory.
with Kammen in the Energy and Resources Group. Unfortunately while the most populous metropolitan areas tend to have the lowest carbon footprint centers they also tend to have the most extensive high carbon footprint suburbs.
and present in a visually striking way the impacts and interactions of our energy transportation land use shopping and other choices.
Other important factors include population density the carbon-intensity of electricity production energy prices and weather.
and energy-efficient technologies said Kammen. When you package low carbon technologies together you find real financial savings and big social and environmental benefits.
in order to craft policies and programs that enable the adoption of energy and carbon-efficient technologies and practices.
and Energy Upgrade California will be accepting applications for new cities in February. Each city creates their own targeted strategies to reduce barriers
Scientists farmers and advisors have assumed generally that the reduction in fertility is primarily due to the negative energy balance of high-producing cows at the peak of their lactation
and energy, is the best course of action. I'm not suggesting that anyone become the doomer variety of prepper.
Reduce your overall energy consumption. That might mean moving to a smaller house, finding co-housing or simply upgrading the efficiency of your existing home.
For most older homes, the largest energy losses are thermal, and the first solutions are usually insulation,
Make your own energy. If you have a roof (or yard space) with a fairly unobstructed view to the south
In the United states, search the Database of State Incentive for Renewable Energy (DSIRE) to find available opportunities in your area.
5 predictions for smarter buildings in 2012in the United states, buildings make up 70 percent of all energy use,
Rethinking how buildings use energy is an essential issue of our time, and many have taken on the challenge of retrofitting energy hogs--to save money,
to make cities more efficient, and to help the planet. Smart buildings can help people translate the mass amounts of data that our buildings generate,
(and mend) our energy use. Today, the smart buildings market is estimated to be around $30 billion globally
and the need for more energy efficient buildings is still slowly making its way into planning and development agendas.
and analyzes power consumption. With the carbon matching system in place in this neighborhood, traffic patterns can be broken down,
and how much energy they are using in the form of a summary at the end of each month. Smart meters, one of the key parts of a smart building, allow building owners
and residents to instead get a real time view into their energy usage. This creates a lot more transparency,
Seeing the energy or water we use per task, then will help drive a transformation in energy efficiency.
Taking a cross-section of a building's consumption will be very helpful for larger structures and campuses. Analytics will point directly to behavior that can be changed,
as well as recommend temperatures that save energy, and show instantly when something needs to be fixed. IBM â¢s campus in Rochester, Minnesota has implemented this system of transparency.
so far cutting energy use by eight percent. Prediction 3: The proliferation of an Internet of things.
More energy options for buildings Bartlett predicts that in the near future, as we develop more low carbon energy sources,
building owners will be able to go to what he calls the energy cafe and select different kinds of energy to use--rather than a building being forced to use just one thing.
The cafe just means that there will be a number of different energy sources available over the grid.
With smart meters, not only can building operators get an idea of how much and what kind of energy they are using,
buildings in the future can choose, and change, the energy they use according to their specific needs. This method was implemented on IBM's campus, following a new sustainability mandate.
I think that it is said really cool Bartlett, because depending on your own needs and how much you want to be a part of this,
it puts people in control instead of having to take what is provided. Prediction 5: Real estate finance teams will become corporations'smarter buildings teams In the next few years,
so transparency will likely place pressure on the corporation to make aggressive changes to their energy use.
Smart building initiatives will help them listen to how their buildings are wasting energy and money,
to help 4, 000 buildings meet Mayor Bloomberg's energy efficiency goals. The technology implemented here is going to help him get transparency
Currently, the cost of energy use in New york city municipal buildings is more than $800 million per year,
which will undoubtedly push people to use the new methods of looking at energy consumption. Adoption of smart meters
but it also requires a utility that is willing to buy back the energy that you don't use.
as energy costs are higher in these areas --but its good to pave the way and show some leadership.
Compare that to cleantech--you know how painful it was to have energy utility companies take renewable energy seriously.
Water is 30 years behind the energy utility. The last thing you want to be innovative about is water.
The trigger that has worked best in California is the relationship of water and energy. Water is a mass--it must be stored.
There is a true energy cost anytime you try to move water. And an infrastructure cost.
And it's occasionally addicted to energy. New york and Pennsylvania are sitting on an enormous reserve of natural gas, the Marcellus Shale.
How energy use has become more efficient The earthquake and tsunami have changed really Japanese attitudes.
so the country has to conserve energy. The stores used to be lit brightly but now they're operating at 50%brightness or less.
There's a lot of talk about turning to renewable energy like geothermal plants, but some bathhouse owners are afraid that
The disaster hasn't changed the way my parents use energy because they never used that much of it.
All energy and climate solutions are localthe climate movement isn't dead; it's just gone underground.
Further, it makes no sense to simply clamp down on fossil-fuel emissions without replacing the displaced energy.
and sell some of the energy to other local municipal utilities. The solar projects are credited with helping to shave two percent off the city's 17 percent unemployment rate
I have advocated previously (see The revolution will be bottom-up and Crowdsourcing the energy revolution). At some point, the city will be able to back new bond offerings with its installed solar capacity.
and other energy hogs used in commercial buildings with more efficient versions. Replace residential appliances such as refrigerators, washers,
Create municipal utility districts to drive the deployment of locally-generated energy. Develop local financing options for rooftop PV and residential efficiency upgrades through local banks and credit unions.
What true energy independence looks like The photo at top, Â which I shot in the Mojave about 100 miles to the northeast of Lancaster,
 illustrates the energy transition that is already under way. In the foreground is the old Route 66
This is what true energy independence looks like: Not drilling another 25,000 to 30,000 tight oil wells and another 500,000 shale gas wells domestically to temporarily displace foreign imports,
then so are the solutions to our energy and climate challenges. Â We can kill the carbon monster
offering low rent, low energy costs, and a shared kitchen, to startups. There will also be called a brewery
In somewhat similar ventures as Bruichladdich's, Helius Energy recently announced plans to build a 7. 2-megawatt power plant in Speyside that will burn whiskey waste and woodchips, providing about 9, 000 homes
however, don't always coincide with one's zeal for clean energy. If you prefer American whiskey,
Further, brewing beer is reportedly less energy-intensive than distilling whisky, but ounce for ounce beer drinkers tend to imbibe more.
so it doesn â¢t have to depend on the city â¢s power grid for energy.
Apple Spaceship campus to hold 12,000 employees and run on green energy via the City of Cupertino and Macrumors
The piece explores farms that are attempting to blend the best elements of organic and commercial farming--using technologies to help cut energy consumption,
Energy use: 100 million mature trees around buildings in the U s. leads to an annual energy savings of $2 billion.
Real estate: Landscaping with trees increases property values. Water flow and quality: Trees can lower the expenses
And besides the economic and energy saving benefits, urban trees can help to enhance the sense of place in neighborhoods
Investors are hearing a lot of pitches about medical devices and energy products these days, and then they see this,
and the country's National Atomic energy commission (CNEA, in Spanish) is pushing forward with the design of a small, low-cost atomic energy reactor called CAREM.
thanks to the technology of a company called Energetika and a city pilot program experimenting with renewable energy sources.
The Mexican version, called Na2light, draws its power from 11 solar cells of 15 watts apiece for a total of 165 watt-hours of energy.
The company is capturing the sun's energy to kill nocturnal insects that feast on crops.
Study calculates energy lost via wasted foodamericans are known for eating a lot of food. We waste a lot, too.
we waste energy â about 1. 4 billion oil barrels worth says a new study.
The energy expense is not just about cleaning your plate of every last calorie. After all much of food gets lost along the way to the dinner table.
In March, the USDA reported that the U s. spent 15.7 percent of its annual energy budget in 2007 for food production.
The researchers, from the University of Texas, contend that wasted food represents about 2 percent of annual energy consumption in the U s.
While meat requires the most energy to produce the authors point out that the foods associated with the most energy loss are dairy products
and vegetables because they more often go to waste. Percentage of Foods Wasted in U s. Fats and Oils (33%)Dairy (32%)Grains (32%)Eggs (31%)Sugar/caloric sweeteners (31%)Vegetables (25%)Fruit (23
Vancouver turns scraps, yard trimmings into energy Image: Flickr schilling 2
Style meets function in Mick Peel's bespoke bike saddlesflat streets, good biking infrastructure and temperate weather make Melbourne, Australia, a hot spot for cycling.
and Sweco to develop efficient energy systems for the building, as well as ways to capture and process excess waste heat,
And since technology is much more energy efficient, we think there's a great opportunity to capitalize on this new green rush.
Currently, much of energy intensive light used to grow cannabis is wasted instead of being absorbed since plants can only photosynthesize so much of it.
and the restaurant uses environmentally friendly cleaning supplies and energy efficient light bulbs. But at this Kimpton restaurant near Washington Penn Quarter, executive chef Robert Weland has done much more â from recycling cooking oil to making his own vinegars and sausage.
and reducing by almost half the need for energy-sucking air conditioning. The world population is seven billion and climbing,
There no way an organism can use more energy than it produces said Alexis Karolides, an architect with the Rocky mountain Institute in Boulder,
Right now, biomimetic innovations have provided already revolutionary ideas for how new buildings are cooled and heated, one of the most energy intensive systems in a structure.
The building is cooled at one-tenth the cost of structures with old fashioned, energy-sucking air conditioning.
Yet green roofs and projects like the High Line still require a good deal of energy to sustain,
There are enormous amounts of energy that goes into demolition or materials that are tossed into waste sites and landfills and oceans.
Modern, net-zero energy homes made more affordable with modular design
The cancer fighting pizzai never really understand it when people dismiss pizza as unhealthy food.
so that it could produce energy while lowering heat. Or perhaps it would be surfaced with a permeable material like porous asphalt
while using less energy--cause cows to make more milk. The Oklahoma State study aimed to evaluate the energy savings of LEDS
and how they performed overall, including their durability on working farm, the Kansas city Star reported.
The university also will sponsor a conference next month to discuss energy-efficient lighting on farms.
and chickens believe the energy efficient lighting has calmed the birds and helped them gain more weight.
The missing link to a $7 billion marketit's the biggest renewable energy source you've never heard of,
if unsexy, source of renewable energy. Sean Ebnet is the director of biomass origination for the UK utility Drax Power,
Unfortunately, as Dean Mccraw of Georgia-based Mccraw Energy noted ruefully, much of it has been grown for the sawtimber market:
For four decades straight, the government has failed utterly to reduce our energy consumption, or transition to renewables to any significant degree.
without building a clean energy substitute for coal. Totally lacking the vision for real transportation solutions, like transitioning to rail,
Energy Detecting personal energy transitions is a considerably more difficult task. I was not able to find nonproprietary U s. data on lighting,
I have several friends who are employed professionally in the energy efficiency sector, and they have bemoaned all how difficult it is to build a scalable business around it.
the way to the renewable energy revolution was paved rather quietly, and tens of thousands of people started down it.
and create a sustainable low carbon, clean energy economy. Deforestation accounts for up to 20 percent of all greenhouse gas pollution.
since the early aughts the impact on total energy efficiency is muddled. That's because ton for ton, aluminum production is highly energy-intensive:
at least five times as intensive as steel production, says Larry Kavanagh, president of industry association Steel Market Development Institute.
taking weight off the less efficient Ford f-150 will result in a greater reduction in energy,
and overall energy consumption compared to vehicles designed largely on lightweight steel. That assessment applies credit for wrought aluminum that is recycled, rather than primary production aluminum,
A Ford spokesperson told me it's too soon to talk specifics with regard to the lifecycle energy picture
Just a slice of the energy pieat the end of the day you can get 5 percent further reduction in weight with aluminum beyond
But it accounts for only the wheel to tank part of a vehicle's energy footprint.
That's something the steel industry with its relatively lower energy footprint compared to aluminum composites, carbon fiber and other cutting-edge automobile materials would welcome.
Respondents are fairly evenly split between those who agreed that energy -and money-saving smart systems will be significantly closer to reality in people's homes by 2020
I'm going back to Spain with renewed energy and ideas Adriã Â said. Then he looked down at his unembellished arms.
and biochemical and biofuel company Virent Energy have developed successfully a drop in gasoline and jet fuel made from pine trees in a $900,
000 demonstration project funded by the U s. Energy department, the Israeli Ministry of National Infrastructure and the BIRD Foundation.
a perennial herb that gave them energy as they wandered through the forests. This plant was used later by the Tropical Botanical garden
and--especially in dense cities--energy savings. But cities shouldn't let all that get to their head.
A city s geographic situation influencing the amount of energy required for heating, cooling and lighting;
and additional energy costs can be kept to a minimum. Any additional energy will be sourced from green suppliers.
If all goes according to plan, BBC reports, the project could reach full scale by March with the first produce reaching market by the end of the summer. h/t Grist Photo:
and energy and is made from materials that are completely and easily recycled, natural and nontoxic.
Urine may seem an unorthodox energy source but it is actually a great source of fertilizer when diluted.
and local monitoring of weather changes that comes from NOAA and the Department of energy. We need mathematicians.
We have collaborations with the Doe in our challenge of producing an appropriate biomass that can be converted to biofuels.
helping to both conserve and reduce energy consumption while enabling onsite plant and food production. Bosco Verticale is designed to irrigate the plants by filtering
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