Topic: Science & Technology

Chemists report that carbon dioxide removed from smokestack emissions in order to slow global warming could become a valuable raw material for the production of DVDs, beverage bottles and other products made from polycarbonate plastics.

Carbon dioxide removed from smokestack emissions in order to slow global warming in the future could become a valuable raw material for the production of DVDs, beverage bottles and other products made from polycarbonate plastics, chemists are reporting.

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Chemists have developed greener ways to manufacture plastics, such as material found in CDs and beverage bottles, from waste CO2.

Rising temperatures due to climate change will reduce the availability of water in New England during the summer, when demand is highest, and increase sediment and pollution loads carried by rivers and streams. These changes are expected to impact agriculture, forestry, fisheries, water supply systems and hydroelectric power generation.

The Connecticut River Watershed is vital to New England, serving as the primary water supply for Greater Boston and a National Fish and Wildlife Refuge for thousands of species of plants and animals. A study done at the University of Massachusetts Amherst shows that rising temperatures due to climate change will reduce the availability of water during the summer when demand is highest, and increase sediment and pollution loads carried by rivers and streams.

Tea drinkers who opt for black, oolong, green or white teas may find that these beverages offer health benefits.

Despite their reputation for deadly attacks on humans and pets, alligators are wiggling their way toward a new role as potential lifesavers in medicine, biochemists in Louisiana reported last week at the 235th national meeting of the American Chemical Society. They described how proteins in gator blood may provide a source of powerful new antibiotics to help fight infections associated with diabetic ulcers, severe burns, and “superbugs” that are resistant to conventional medication.

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Alligator blood could provide a powerful new source of antibiotics for fighting deadly superbugs and other infections, researchers say. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Find out from an industry insider about different cleaners and their cautionary labels, resources to help discover true facts, what green lessons consumers can learn from the professional cleaning industry; how consumers can quickly verify the authenticity of their green cleaners, and how to purchase professional "green" products for household use.

As consumer interest in green cleaners grows, so does the number of green choices on the shelf. How can you tell if a "green product" is really green, or if the green logo on the bottle is merely a marketing ploy?

The aquatic invasive plant hydrilla harbors a blue-green algae which is potentially toxic to birds. Birds--namely waterfowl--eat the algae-harboring hydrilla, become poisoned and eventually die. Eagles that prey on infected waterfowl contract the disease and perish as well.

The aquatic invasive plant hydrilla (Hydrilla verticillata) not only is a costly nuisance impeding waterways and recreational lakes, it also may have deadly impacts on eagles and waterfowl. Its invasive nature earned it a spot on the Federal Noxious Weed list in 1979 and it is the topic of this Invasive Plant Spotlight from the Weed Science Society of America.

New research provides a better understanding of a deadly fungus that is killing off frogs throughout Central and South America, and that could threaten amphibian populations in North America as well.

Research, led by SIUC zoologist Karen R. Lips, and SIUC zoologist Michael W. Sears, underscores the dire circumstances facing up to 43 percent of known amphibian species in the world and points up the need for more regulations, conservation efforts and quarantines to prevent the fungus’ spread.

Scientists investigated yield differences between organic and conventional cash grain and forage crops in the Upper Midwest to compare the productivity of the two cropping systems. The researchers found that organic rotations had similar yields as their conventional counterparts.

Can organic cropping systems be as productive as conventional systems? The answer is an unqualified, “Yes” for alfalfa or wheat and a qualified “Yes most of the time” for corn and soybeans according to research reported by scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and agricultural consulting firm AGSTAT in the March-April 2008 issue of Agronomy Journal.

Although we know that air pollution in the 19th century was a major problem, as the Industrial Revolution brought about the massive buring of coal, we now find that this pollution reached as far north as the artic.

Scientists know that air pollution particles from mid-latitude cities migrate to the Arctic and form an ugly haze, but a new University of Utah study finds surprising evidence that polar explorers saw the same phenomenon as early as 1870.

The term Colony Collapse Disorder, which was coined by scientists in 2007, is being used to describe the sudden disappearance of adult bee populations, an unexplained phenomenon that has plagued honeybee colonies around the world.

More than 2,000 beekeepers in Virginia face the possibility of losing entire bee colonies to the Colony Collapse Disorder, but through Virginia Cooperative Extension, they have access to the latest research-based information about the problem.

A harbor town, nearly 3,500 years old, has been found in amazingly intact condition on the Greek shorline. Researchers with Florida State University and the University of Pennsylvania are conducting a study of the site.

Along an isolated, rocky stretch of Greek shoreline, a Florida State University researcher and his students are unlocking the secrets of a partially submerged, “lost” harbor town believed to have been built by the ancient Mycenaeans nearly 3,500 years ago.

“This is really a remarkable find,” said Professor Daniel J. Pullen, chairman of FSU’s Department of Classics. “It is rare indeed to locate an entire town built during the Late Bronze Age that shows this level of preservation.”