Raising the heat to lower the cost of solar energy

Sandia National Laboratories will receive $10.5 million from the Department of Energy to research and design a cheaper and more efficient solar energy system.

NASA Measures Heavy U.S. Rainfall From Space

For close to two weeks the combination of a nearly stationary front and tropical moisture caused almost continuous precipitation over much of the Mid-Atlantic. Using data from a constellation of satellites, NASA calculated the extreme rainfall that occurred in parts of the U.S.

NASA's Aqua Satellite Observes Formation of Tropical Cyclone 02S

Tropical Cyclone 02A formed about 655 nautical miles south of Masirah Island, Oman. When NASA's Aqua satellite passed over the Arabian Sea, Northern Indian Ocean and captured a visible image of the newly developed storm.   

UNM scientists find widespread ocean anoxia as cause for past mass extinction

For decades, scientists have conducted research centered around the five major mass extinctions that have shaped the world we live in. The extinctions date back more than 450 million years with the Late Ordovician Mass Extinction to the deadliest extinction, the Late Permian extinction 250 million years ago that wiped out over 90 percent of species.

Over the years, scientists have figured out the main causes of the mass extinctions, which include massive volcanic eruptions, global warming, asteroid collisions, and acidic oceans as likely culprits. Other factors sure to play a part include methane eruptions and marine anoxic events – when oceans lose life-supporting oxygen.

“Living drug factories” may one day replace injections

Patients with diabetes generally rely on constant injections of insulin to control their disease. But MIT spinout Sigilon Therapeutics is developing an implantable, insulin-producing device that may one day make injections obsolete.

Sigilon recently partnered with pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Company to develop “living drug factories,” made of encapsulated, engineered cells that can be safely implanted in the body, and produce insulin over the course of months or even years. Down the road, cells may also be engineered to secrete other hormones, proteins, and antibodies.

Adaptable and driven by renewable energy, saildrones voyage into remote waters

In March 2009, engineer Richard Jenkins broke the world land speed record for a wind-powered vehicle by sailing a bright green sailboat on wheels across a dried lakebed in Nevada at 126 miles per hour. Now, after many engineering developments and an orange paint job, Jenkins’ design autonomously sails the sea gathering ecologic, oceanic, and atmospheric data in the employ of NOAA.

437 million tonnes of fish, $560 billion wasted due to destructive fishing operations

Industrial fisheries that rely on bottom trawling wasted 437 million tonnes of fish and missed out on $560 billion in revenue over the past 65 years, new UBC research has found.

Buyer beware: Some water-filter pitchers much better at toxin removal

Water pitchers designed to rid water of harmful contaminants are not created equal, new research has found.

Climate change broadens threat of emerald ash borer

More Canadian cities will experience damage from the emerald ash borer than previously thought. As a result of climate change and fewer days of extreme cold, the beetle may eat its way further north than originally estimated.

A new giant virus found in the waters off Oahu

A new, unusually large virus that infects common marine algae has been characterized by researchers at the Daniel K. Inouye Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education (C-MORE) at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa‘s School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. Found in the coastal waters off Oʻahu, it contains the biggest genome ever sequenced for a virus infecting a photosynthetic organism.