Attention Greens and Geeks: Time for an Energy Revolution

By Sonia Arrison
TechNewsWorld 
04/17/09 4:00 AM PT

The United States' power grid is asked to deliver more and more electricity every day, yet its basic structure hasn't changed much in over 100 years. It's time to innovate new solutions like smart-grid technologies. To take root, however, new ideas will need greater backing from entrepreneurs and less interference from government regulators.

Earth Day is fast approaching, yet despite the awareness this day brings, most people are powering their computers with electricity from coal-burning power plants, delivered by "dumb" networks. Change is long overdue, and it's not a difficult matter.

The electricity grid's basic structure hasn't changed much since Thomas Edison came up with the idea back in 1882. That's a long time with little innovation, especially since electricity demands continue to rise. Some might argue that the grid didn't need changes and it's not wise to mess with a system already working. That argument no longer holds, anyone who lives in California's Silicon Valley knows. Blackouts and shortages are a constant worry every summer and the grid is unable to properly handle newer and cleaner sources of energy such as solar and wind.

Worse, when a blackout does happen, the utility company usually doesn't know until someone phones in the problem. That's because the system can't sense the problem -- it is "dumb" and only sends inputs one way. So how come the grid isn't smarter, and what can we do about it? The answer is not as complicated as one might imagine.

Wanted: Entrepreneurs

President Obama has shown leadership on this issue by stating that that he wants 10 percent of the nation's electricity to come from renewable sources by the end of his first term, a call many in America are willing to answer if the conditions are right. To make the conditions right, we need only ask how other things that society needs are produced. How is it that fresh food is always stocked at the grocery store despite complicated trucking routes and multiple providers? Or how is it that broadband providers continue to implement upgrades that the electricity grid does not?

The answer is that entrepreneurs created a diverse basket of solutions in response to consumer demand. Goods and services do not generally get produced because the government executes one centralized plan. As experiments in communist countries attest, such methods are slower and prone to more mistakes than a properly operating marketplace.

For an example of how badly America's government-controlled electricity system is currently working, consider a recent news piece from Cnet on how a California electric utility, PG&E, "said that it will seek approval from regulators to purchase 200 megawatts worth of solar energy delivered from stealth space solar power companySolaren over 15 years." Such a sentence should make anyone who cares about the environment cringe.

Forced Obedience

PG&E needs approval from the government just to buy from a new and cleaner power source. Imagine the lack of innovation that would result if Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN)  needed regulatory approval to buy from a new server supplier or if Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) needed government approval to introduce a new product. Such suggestions seem ridiculous, but that is the real world of regulated utilities who pay for their near-monopolies with forced obedience to Big Brother.

Such a system needs to end now, and new players need to be allowed to enter the market. This will not only bring new ideas to the marketplace, but it will also force the slow and outdated utilities to upgrade faster than any government mandate ever could.

Moving away from clunky monopolies to a market-based energy system might seem "inconvenient" to some, but the truth is that is the only way to fix things and move more quickly toward cleaner energy and smarter grids. According to the Pacific Research Institute's Daniel Ballon, specific fixes to implement immediately include "direct access" so consumers can buy their power from any provider. Also, an end to price controls would allow recoupment of investments made to produce cleaner power. Allowing competition in standards for smart-grid technologies is a good idea too.

This Earth Day, environmentalists and the technology industry should embrace a common goal: a revolution in the energy production sector. It is time to shed the shackles of government control and venture into new frontiers that will provide all of us with cleaner and more stable energy systems for years to come

Feds Approve Stem Cell Tests on Patients With Spinal Cord Injuries

By Renay San Miguel
TechNewsWorld 
01/23/09 1:33 PM PT

The Food and Drug Administration has given the go-ahead to biotech company Geron to begin testing the effect of embryonic stem cells on patients with severe spinal cord injuries. The procedure involves injecting the cells into the patients and monitoring their progress.

andidate Barack Obama promised to lift Bush Administration restrictions on embryonic stem cell research. Two days after he became President Obama, the government gave its approval for the first-ever human trials using therapies derived from this controversial area of science.

Geron, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based biotechnology firm, was given the go-ahead by the Food and Drug Administration  Thursday. While officials at both the company and the agency are calling the timing of the announcement coincidental, the news reignites the debate between those who see the promise of miracle-like cures in human stem cells and opponents who say the harvesting of cells from embryos is akin to murder.

Geron will choose 10 patients who have suffered spinal cord injuries resulting in paralysis. The patients will be given the treatments between 7 to 14 days after being injured, and will be studied for up to a year. If the patients remain safe, then Geron will ask for permission to expand the study and increase the dosage.

"This marks the beginning of what is potentially a new chapter in medical therapeutics, one that reaches beyond pills to a new level of healing: the restoration of organ and tissue function achieved by the injection of healthy replacement cells," Geron president and CEO Dr. Thomas Okarma said.

A Shift in Research Priorities

"It's a bold step, and the hard part of this is going to be managing expectations," Chuck Murry, Ph.D., codirector of the University of Washington's Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, told TechNewsWorld. "People have very high hopes for stem cells to do something remarkable. We have to keep in mind -- the wonder with working with embryonic stem cells is that they can turn into anything, and the hardest thing with working with stem cells is that they can turn into anything."

Making sure the embryonic cells turn into targeted, healthy spinal cord cells and don't become disorganized rogue cells will be the focus of the trials. "Based on what we know, there's very good reason to think this can be done safely," Murry said.

Murry knows some of Geron's researchers and has asked them about the timing of the approval. Last spring Geron submitted a 21,000-page application for testing, "which may be the largest in the history of the FDA," he said. "It seems more than coincidental, but they assured me it was just coincidence. This [approval] was going to come either way, it just happened to be this week."

The arrival of the Obama administration is rekindling enthusiasm among researchers, who have seen countries like Israel, Italy, South Korea and the UK take the lead over the U.S. in embryonic stem cell science since August 2001, when then-President George W. Bush allowed limited testing of existing cell lines while placing restrictions on further research. The research community is aware that the political and ethical landscape remains filled with potential obstacles -- Congress must still weigh in -- and a new hurdle has arisen since 2001: a weak economy and its impact on federal funding, Murry said.

"We don't have our heads in the sand," Murry said. "Everybody thinks we're going to get expanded permission, but will there be resources to do so? In order to make up for lost time, will resources be made available?"

The Difference Between Ethics and Safety

The Bush administration's policies may have resulted in federal researchers leaving the field for private or overseas work, while states like California, New York and Massachusetts kept up the scientific pace, said Summer Johnson, executive managing editor of the American Journal of Bioethics. "What we've seen now announced is that stem cells are still moving forward and the private sector is doing well," she told TechNewsWorld. "I think even with the polices and the brain drain that we saw over the last eight years, companies like Geron were still able to have some progress."

Johnson reminds those who are excited about Obama's campaign promises that he recently said he may leave it to Congress to lift the previous administration's restrictions. And there is also the question of whether or not the research community has thought through the bioethics issues involved, now that stem cell research is back on the agenda.

"Safety is not the same thing as bioethics," she said. "There's simply more to it. It's making sure that we're picking the right diseases for studying stem cell clinical trials, the right patient population, making sure once we've picked the right patients that we're telling them all the information they need to know. Once we've enrolled people, are we gathering data appropriately, and if there are adverse events, are we disclosing that information?

"If we've learned anything from gene therapy experimentation and other things we've done in human research, it's that a momentary pause sometimes makes the difference between research going well and research going not so well."

That takes the point back to managing expectations. The patients selected for Geron's trials will have suffered the worst kinds of spinal cord transection injuries, Murry said. "These are the most difficult patients to help. Usually in animal models where these cells have been shown to be effective, the injuries were not the severest, not through-and-through transections. You always start where you do the least harm, but sometimes you also end up starting where you do the least good. It wouldn't surprise me if the initial study would show modest benefits.

Flu-Coverage Fever: A Web-Borne Virus

OPINION
Flu-Coverage Fever: A Web-Borne Virus

By Renay San Miguel
TechNewsWorld 
05/01/09 8:30 AM PT

The emergence of the swine flu is an opportunity for the Internet and journalists in general to show off, to provide detailed coverage that doesn't rely on fear mongering. Unfortunately, based on many of the headlines and graphics found on countless online news sources, the calm presentation of helpful info does not appear to be a priority.

y now, you know the best ways to protect yourself: Wash your hands, manage your stress, avoid contamination. Wearing a mask is optional, but it couldn't hurt. However, if by chance you are exposed to an infectious swine-flu-related headline or story on cable news or the Internet, stay in your home and contact the proper authorities.

A hazmat team will be sent as soon as possible.

After nearly two weeks of coverage, I'm now convinced that the threat of a flu pandemic that may have started south of our border is much too important to leave to the likes of the round-the-clock news landscape. I come to this conclusion fully aware that news executives around the country are doing their best to refrain from the "P" word -- "panic" -- in what's quickly become a consistent lead story, and that media critics more experienced and articulate than yours truly have already filed copy about the first few days of coverage.

The consensus of that analysis -- which has included the Internet -- seems to be that everybody is trying their best to avoid scaring their loyal viewers/readers, but the coverage has occasionally been dialed up to 11. A too-energetic anchor here, a scary graphic there, a Web site headline and pic over there. Call me ultra-cynical, but I contend that the temptation to drive viewer ratings and reader traffic to Web sites -- either standalone news sites or the Web divisions of traditional media -- will become too much to resist, and not even a Purell body wash will help.

The early symptoms are already showing up. As I write this on a Wednesday evening (April 29), the big headline on the widely readDrudge Report -- the unofficial managing editor for many a cable news network, local TV station and radio talk show host -- reads "Level 5." It refers to the World Health Organization (WHO) raising its flu alert level to the last stage before declaring a pandemic. In the upper-left-hand corner, sufficiently "above the fold," are 12 links designed to keep you clicking away: "World takes drastic steps to contain flu," "Hits home in U.S.; now in 11 states," "FARMERS RIOT," "UK to leaflet every house," and so on. Embedded deep in the link list  is this: "WHO: Only 7 swine flu DEATHS, not 152;" a World Health Organization expert now says the original flu death toll from Mexico is incorrect. The WHO headline certainly has not been as ubiquitous as the video and pictures of people around the world donning surgical masks.

If you weren't aware that it's the May sweeps period for local U.S. television markets, this item would certainly hammer that home:Newsblues.com, via Orlando Sentinel TV critic Hal Boedeker, reported that the news director of the ABC affiliate in that Florida city used his Twitter  account to tell his audience that he had "Breaking News! Florida Hospital confirms Orlando's first diagnosed case of swine flu. Details on WFTV.com and on Eyewitness News at Noon." (Did we mention it's sweeps month?) He cited an internal email from that hospital's chief medical officer, who later said his email was "unofficial" and taken out of context, and there were no confirmed cases in Orlando. But swabs were taken from a Mexican tourist who recently visited Walt Disney World, and they have been sent to the CDC. But test results aren't back yet. But everybody should act like swine flu is already there. But we don't know if it really is or not. But another station blamed the ABC station on-air for frightening citizens.

There's nothing like competitive ratings pressure to spark clear, concise reporting, huh? Especially when the stakes involve your health.

Echoes of Another Big Story

I am currently reading Dave Cullen's Columbine, a fascinating book that is shattering myths about another huge story that dominated the news a decade ago. Those myths -- that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were Goth-wannabes, members of something called "The Trench Coat Mafia" that was targeting jocks when they went on their murderous high school rampage on April 20, 1999 -- were part of a sad feedback loop involving local and national media and some "eyewitness" students.

The Internet was just starting to make its presence felt in business and media back then, so Cullen focuses most of the analysis in the chapter "Media Crime" on the reporting by local and national newspapers and TV, none of which had yet begun their major expansions to the Web. However, a familiar name shows up regarding inaccurate reports that the killers were gay:

Most significantly, the Drudge Report quoted Internet postings claiming that the Trench Coat Mafia was a gay conspiracy to kill jocks.

The online magazine Salon is also mentioned for publishing a story after the shootings about alienated youth who fantasized about hurting classmates but didn't act on those impulses. For the most part, though, Cullen outlines the good, the bad and the ugly of traditional news organizations that tried to present a clear picture of the tragedy in its early hours.

The Columbine murders and the swine flu threat are obviously different types of stories with differing dynamics, each presenting unique challenges to journalists. Columbine was a bloody, sudden spasm; this flu threat did suddenly become a story over a weekend, but it has been slowly gathering momentum in the days after. Yet imagine if today's Internet, with its niche broadcasting, anonymous-comment-fed energy, and sheer omnipresence had been in full roar when Klebold and Harris started taking lives.

Sure, those myths might have been dispelled from the start, but I doubt it; they probably would have been multiplied by a factor of 10. How might that have affected the way "different" students would have been treated at schools around the country? How quickly would the Web echo chamber have filled with subjective takes on gun crimes, parenting, violence in the media, and reporting suspicious activities near schools? Granted, some of that did happen in the wake of Columbine, but the need to fill Web pages and sell nearby online ad space -- not to mention keeping the 24/7 media beast fed -- would have been staggering.

That same danger exists if this flu does indeed reach official pandemic levels. The Web could help the fear spread faster than sneezes on a plane (forget about those nasty snakes from that awful movie.)

The Flu Coverage Prognosis

"Swine Flu Alert Level Jumps - 'All of Humanity That Is Under Threat'" intones the above-the-fold headline on AOL.com. Clearly, this Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) property thinks it has the first big potential blockbuster of the summer, not 20th Century Fox and its "X-Men Origins: Wolverine." (For the record, the "all of humanity" quote does indeed come from WHO Director General Margaret Chan, who said during an April 29 press conference that "it really is all of humanity that is under threat during a pandemic.")

Grabby headlines aside -- is this a big story? Of course. WHO has never declared a Level 5. Tracking illness reports and the response of agencies and governments deserve extra coverage -- thoughtful, reasoned, deliberate coverage that doesn't rely on SEO-powered headlines, not to mention lower-third TV screen graphics that liberally use the words "panic," "fear," "deadly," etc.

The Internet has many health-related Web sites, not to mention the medical sections of the largest general news sites and aggregators. They could be using this opportunity to educate and dispel some myths, too, provided the information is presented not only without sensationalism, but also in a clear, easy-to-find manner.

Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) , to its credit, has a "find simple flu prevention tips" link on its home page, but finding them is anything but simple. Click on that link and it leads to another set of links. Click on the very first link on that results page, and guess what? You get sent to yet another links page. By the time I actually find the flu prevention tips, they'll be dragging me away to quarantine.

While we're talking fear, here's my biggest one: that the focus on Mexico as the flu's epicenter, together with earlier links on Drudge and other Web sites that raise questions about whether the border should be closed, will soon create its own mutant strain as it merges with the immigration debate and party politics. Some lawmakers apparently need camera time, and the Web and talk radio will no doubt help them get ready for their closeups.

Once again, there's an opportunity for the Internet and journalism to show off, to provide detailed coverage that doesn't rely on fear mongering. It missed its chance with the financial crisis and the 2008 elections. If it can't do the job now -- on what might end up being a very important story, indeed -- it could be enough to make you sick.

Better Particle Filters For Trucks

ScienceDaily (June 25, 2009) — Particle filters are standard in the basic fittings for cars. Construction machines, city buses and garbage trucks must now follow suit. This can be achieved effectively and inexpensively thanks to a new material and design for ceramic filters developed by Fraunhofer researchers.

From 2011, new EU guidelines for emission values will apply. The aim is to reduce particle emissions by up to 95 per cent. Off-road vehicles such as diggers and fork-lift trucks, but also city buses and garbage trucks, will then have to be fitted with filters. Retrofitting is also worthwhile in view of the vehicles’ long lives and high purchasing costs. Until now, such special engine variants have been catered for with basic geometric forms similar to those used for car filters, i.e. squares. The disadvantage is that in order to fit the square filters into the circular pipes, approximately 20 per cent of the material has to be cut away using expensive diamond cutters – costly waste.

There’s a better way of doing this, figured Jörg Adler and Dr. Reinhard Lenk from the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS in Dresden. Based on a material patented at the IKTS, a porous silicon carbide ceramic, they developed a highly efficient ceramic diesel particle filter for off-road applications together with HUSS Umwelttechnik GmbH. They will be awarded with one of the 2009 Joseph von Fraunhofer prizes for their work.

The material was adapted for use in a diesel particle filter in terms of size, distribution and volume of its pores. The raw materials are comparatively inexpensive and can be handled at lower temperatures as well. “We agonized over the basic shape of the filter segments,” says Jörg Adler. A four-cornered trapezium was the result from which square-edged or circular surfaces can be fitted together without any wastage. The channels in the segments are three-cornered, not square, providing a larger filter surface. This means that, fitted behind the engine, it takes longer for sooty particles to accumulate in the individual channels and to reach the stage where they must be burnt off. Following the material and geometric form, it was then necessary to develop technologies suitable for series production. With a team of colleagues, the scientists tested all the work steps in a pilot production run at the institute and coordinated them with one another.

Clean Diesel Ceramics GmbH, a subsidiary of HUSS, was established to produce the ceramic filters. Sponsored by the Saxon State Ministry for Economic Affairs and Labor, the company started its operations in May 2008. “We have also thought about the series at all stages of the development and defined the conditions for it with our partner,” says Dr. Lenk. “Some of the CDC staff members were initially directly involved in the project work at the institute, in order to simplify the transfer to production.”

Google's English language search engine of spreading vulgar content that violated the nation's law

Google's English language search engine of spreading vulgar content that violated the nation's law.

 

BY REUTERSJUNE 25, 2009

 

 1 )

 

 

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Foreign Ministry on Thursday accused Google's English language search engine of spreading vulgar content that violated the nation's law.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang did not directly answer a question about whether government action was responsible for recent disruptions in access to Google sites from within China.

But he made plain the government's anger at the U.S. company.

"According to complaints from many residents, Google's English language search engine has spread large amounts of vulgar content that is lascivious and pornographic, seriously violating China's relevant laws and regulations," he told a regularly scheduled news conference.

Qin said various measures taken against Google were in keeping with the law, but did not detail what the measures were or directly comment Wednesday evening disruptions to Google services in China.

"I want to stress that Google China is a company operating within China to provide Internet search services, and it should strictly abide by Chinese laws and regulations."

Google said last week it had met with Chinese government officials to discuss the problem of "pornographic content and material that is harmful to children on the web in China."

(Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Ken Wills and Dean Yates)

What happened after the big bang?

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Jill Rowbotham | June 24, 2009

Article from: The Australian

A SCIENTIFIC fog as impenetrable as the hydrogen and helium generated by the big bang 13.7 billion years ago has hampered astrophysicists forming an exact understanding of what happened next. Among those seeking clarity is Emma Ryan-Weber, from Swinburne University of Technology's Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing.

"In astrophysics we have got to the point where we can measure and compute numbers such as the age of the universe and its rate of expansion, but detecting the surrounding forms of the first stars and the galaxies is hazy," Ryan-Weber says. "So this is the hottest topic at the moment.

"What led to the end of the dark ages, the billion years after the big bang, during which the universe lit up? How many stars formed in the early universe and how much light was there from those first stars?"

Stars glow because of the nuclear explosions occurring in their cores. When they explode, becoming supernovas, some materials within them, including the carbon, are expelled. A strong link has been established in earlier research between the presence of carbon and starlight. It was thought that if the ancient carbon from the early universe could be quantified it would indicate the amount of starlight that dispelled the fog and made the universe visible. Starlight ionises the fog and objects become visible.

But Ryan-Weber, lead author of a paper on the subject published last month in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, and colleagues from Cambridge in Britain and the University of California at Santa Cruz in the US, have concluded there does not appear to have been enough carbon, and therefore enough starlight, to do the job.

Given that no telescope exists that can be used to optically observe the early stars and their remnants, including carbon, Ryan-Weber and the team had to find another technique.

They worked on looking for the carbon signature in the near infra-red wavelength that is detectable by some telescopes. This process is further complicated because detection can be done only through gaps between the lines of intense airglow in the night sky. Airglow is light from atoms and molecules in the atmosphere that are energised by sunlight during the day and at night emit light as a result of photochemical reaction.

The team made 10 sets of observations using the Very Large Telescope in northern Chile and the twin Keck telescopes in Hawaii.

They measured the carbon detected and extrapolated from there. "We found not quite enough carbon there based on current theories as to how much starlight in the universe would cause the fog to lift. The problem now is to work out where the rest of the carbon is or consider whether there is another source of light that doesn't produce carbon."

For example, she says, it may have come from quasars, the massive objects that produce no carbon yet emit light, powered by black holes.

Ryan-Weber and the team have more time booked at the Keck telescopes in December, when they will search again for a different form of carbon in the hope of discovering a missing source that could account for the shortfall.

Are we alone?

Are we alone? Alien life may be thriving on Saturn's frozen moon

By DAVID DERBYSHIRE
Last updated at 8:26 AM on 25th June 2009

Alien life could have evolved on one of Saturn's moons, scientists say. 

They have found evidence that seas may lie beneath the frozen surface of Enceladus  - the planet's sixth biggest moon. 

It follows the discovery of a giant plume of salt water and ice spurting hundreds of miles into space from the moon's surface. 

Nasa's Cassini spacecraft discovered the 'ice geyser' near the south pole of Enceladus, one of Saturn's 60 moons, in 2005. 

Saturn's moon Enceladus taken in 2005 by the Cassini spacecraft. The surface shows evidence of ongoing geological activity

Since then, scientists have debated whether this meant that Enceladus - a ball of ice and rock with a diameter of only 310 miles - was hiding a reservoir of liquid water. 

Dr Frank Postberg, of the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, studied data from Cassini's cosmic dust collector and discovered it had picked up salty grains of ice from the geyser. 

Their presence is powerful evidence of salty lakes, reservoirs or seas within Enceladus. 

The findings, published in the journal Nature, raise the prospect that alien fish and other marine life might have evolved there. 

'If you have this large amount of water in contact with a rocky core and you have heat, then you have very good conditions,' Dr Postberg said. 

'On top of that we measured a slightly alkaline pH value, which is very good for the formation of complex organic molecules.' 

He believes the ice geyser comes from a liquid underground source - most likely a deep cavern reservoir.

The water is kept liquid by heat generated by Saturn's tidal pull. 

Evidence: This picture shows water vapour jets erupting from Saturn's icy moon, Enceladus

Until recently, most astronomers had ruled out the possibility of aliens in the Solar System, arguing that other planets were either too hot, too cold or had atmospheres that were unsuitable for life.

But robotic space missions over the last few decades have shown that conditions for marine life could exist on some of the water moons orbiting Saturn and Jupiter.

The ice geyser spurts from fractures, called tiger stripes, on the moon's south pole.

Commenting on the research, US planetary scientist Dr John Spencer, from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, said: 'Our picture of its subsurface must now be expanded to include the possibility of misty ice caverns floored with pools and channels of salty water, lurking beneath the tiger stripes. 

 

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'What else may lurk in those salty pools, if they exist, remains to be seen.'

Enceladus is one of only three moons in the Solar System that generate eruptions of vapour and dust.  

Aside from the Earth, Mars and Jupiter's moon Europa, it is one of the only places in the solar system where astronomers have found evidence of water.

Dr Postberg said: 'The original picture of the plumes as violently erupting Yellowstone-like geysers is changing.

'They seem more like steady jets of vapour and ice fed by a large water reservoir. 

'However, we can't decide yet if the water is currently 'trapped' within huge pockets in Enceladus' thick crust ice or still connected to a large ocean in contact with the rocky core.'

A second study in Nature - from the University of Colardo - suggests there are no salty oceans on the moon - and that the geysers spew from deep caverns of water.

Using telescopes on the Earth, astronomers found no evidence of sodium slats in the plumes from Enceladus.

That suggests the vapour originates from caverns deep within the moon where water evaporates slowly and contains little salt.

 

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