Water


Researchers Examine How Invasive Plants Encourage Wildfires

The past decade has seen 77,951 fires burn about 6.7 million acres in the United States. One condition that facilitates the spread of wildfires is invasive plant species. Nonnative weeds can modify the vegetation of a landscape and provide a source of fuel that did not previously exist.

MEMS Device Generates Energy From Small Vibrations

Today’s wireless-sensor networks can do everything from supervising factory machinery to tracking environmental pollution to measuring the movement of buildings and bridges.

GE Launches Energy Technology for Use of Natural Gas with No Need for Water

GE's latest energy innovation, the FlexAero LM6000-PH, enables growth and development everywhere with fast, flexible, natural gas-driven power generation.

EPA Funds Pollution Prevention Projects in New Jersey and New York

From funding smart meters on college campuses, to reducing hazardous chemicals in high school laboratories, to promoting alternatives to dry cleaning, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is making its pollution prevention grants count across New Jersey and New York. The EPA has awarded more than $600,000 in grants to fund projects that help prevent pollution in these two states.

Department of Transportation Proposes to Ban Electronic Cigarettes on Aircraft

The Department of Transportation is proposing to explicitly ban the use of electronic cigarettes on aircraft.

New Propulsion Design Challenges Current Efficiencies of Light Airplanes

A team of students from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University demonstrated a first in aviation history.

British Group Releases List of Chemical Elements at Risk

The list highlights vulnerable elements where global production is concentrated in a small number of countries, including metals that are critical to development of a low-carbon digital economy. The list helps to focus future research on diversifying supply from new resources, using greener production technologies and cost-effective recycling.

Scientists Claim Water Evaporated From Trees Cools Global Climate

Scientists have long debated about the impact on global climate of water evaporated from vegetation. New research from Carnegie's Global Ecology department concludes that evaporated water helps cool the earth as a whole, not just the local area of evaporation, demonstrating that evaporation of water from trees and lakes could have a cooling effect on the entire atmosphere.



The First U.S. Gas-to-Liquids Facility to Open in Louisiana

The project is slated to be the first plant in the United States to produce GTL transportation fuels and other products.

Research Shows Solar Rays Could Replace Petroleum Fuels

Alternative fuel sources for cars may have a glowing future as a Kansas State University (K-State) graduate student is working to replace petroleum fuels with ones made from sunlight.

Sea Level Rise May Take a Toll on California

California beach towns could face hefty economic losses caused by sea level rise in the next century, according to a new state-commissioned study.

Empire State Building Achieves LEED Gold

The Empire State Building has been awarded LEED® Gold for Existing Buildings certification as further recognition from the $550 million Empire State ReBuilding program.

Case Study: Church Cuts Stormwater Costs by Third With Subsurface System

Engineers create a detention system that follows city mandate to keep stormwater discharge to pre-development levels.

Indigenous Alaskans Discuss Unique Insight into Climate Change’s Effects

They expressed concerns ranging from safety, such as unpredictable weather patterns and dangerous ice conditions, to changes in plants and animals as well as decreased availability of firewood.

Researchers Say Oceans' Increasing Acidity Will Likely Hurt Biodiversity

Stanford researchers have gotten a glimpse into an uncertain future where increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere will lead to higher levels in the ocean as well, leaving the water more acidic and altering underwater ecosystems.

Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center to Recieve Biomass Gasification System

The state-of-the-art biomass gasification system will provide clean, carbon-neutral heat and power to the medical center.

University of Houston Tests Local Buses for Fuel Efficiency

It seems fuel economy is on everyone's minds these days. The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, with its large bus fleet, is no exception.

NOAA's Climate Prediction Center: La Niña is back

La Niña, which contributed to extreme weather around the globe during the first half of 2011, has re-emerged in the tropical Pacific Ocean and is forecast to gradually strengthen and continue into winter.

IIIEE: Producer Responsibility is the Solution to Electronic Waste in Developing Countries

How can legislation be used to avoid hazardous waste being dumped where it could poison people and the environment in developing countries? Introducing producer responsibility could be one solution, says Panate Manomaivibool of the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics (IIIEE) at Lund University, Sweden, in a new thesis.

Parabolic Mirrors Concentrate Sunlight to Power Lasers

Legend tells of Greek engineer and inventor Archimedes using parabolic mirrors to create "heat rays" to burn the ships attacking Syracuse. Though the underpinnings of that claim are speculative at best, a modern-day team of researchers at the Scientific and Production Association in Uzbekistan has proposed a more scientifically sound method of harnessing parabolic mirrors to drive solar-powered lasers.