Plant engineered for more efficient photosynthesis |

"It is an important first step in creating plants with more efficient photosynthesis," Hanson said.
"This is the first time that a plant has been created through genetic engineering to fix all of its carbon by a cyanobacterial enzyme," said Maureen Hanson, a co-author of the study and Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor of Plant Molecular Biology at Cornell.

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Climate change is a fact, and most of the warming is caused by human activity.

 Only recently scientists have realized that sea ice has an impact on the planet's CO2 balance.
"We have long known that the Earth's oceans are able to absorb huge amounts of CO2. But we also thought that this did not apply to ocean areas covered by ice, because the ice was considered impenetrable. However, this is not true: New research shows that sea ice in the Arctic draws large amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere into the ocean", says Dorte Haubjerg Søgaard.

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Electric car breaks 200 mph barrier to set new land speed record |

An electric car built by BYU engineering students has once again set a world land speed record, this time besting the previous mark by nearly 50 mph. About half the students who have worked on the streamliner program over the years have been manufacturing engineering technology majors, about 40 percent mechanical engineering majors, and the rest from various other disciplines, including electrical engineering. Many worked on the car as part of an annual capstone course, but most were unpaid volunteers.

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Modular Battery Exchange and Active Management |

Source:
University of California - San Diego

Summary:
Rather than swapping out  whole batteries, which is cumbersome and requires large, heavy equipment, engineers plan to swap out and recharge smaller units within the battery, known as modules. They named the project Modular Battery Exchange and Active Management, or M-BEAM for short.
Imagine... being able to switch out the batteries in electric cars just like you switch out batteries in a photo camera or flashlight. A team of engineers are trying to accomplish just that, in partnership with an engineering company. They have developed smaller units within the battery, called modules, and a battery management system that will allow them to swap out and recharge the modules.
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Using solar energy to turn raw materials into ingredients for everyday life |

Just about everything we touch in the course of a day - car, phone, computer, fridge, detergent - even medicines, rely on the chemical industry to turn raw materials such as petroleum by-products, minerals and farm products into valuable chemicals that are the ingredients of life's essential objects.

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Closing the gap between major societal problems and known solutions |

"You think you can just tell someone the scientific facts, and that will solve the problem," he said. "There is very good evidence that it doesn't solve the problem at all because personal beliefs interfere." "There is a big gap between what science offers us and what gets applied," said Northwestern University Professor Noshir Contractor.

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New study shows that rapidly charging and draining batteries may not be as damaging as previously thought.

A comprehensive look at how tiny particles in a lithium ion battery electrode behave shows that rapid-charging the battery and using it to do high-power, rapidly draining work may not be as damaging as researchers had thought – and that the benefits of slow draining and charging may have been overestimated.
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Air Pollution Harmful to Young Brains, Study Finds

Pollution in many cities threatens the brain development in children. Findings from a recent study reveal that children living in megacities are at increased risk for brain inflammation ...
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Neutron diffraction sheds light on photosynthesis

The presence of hydrogen bonds which stick the membranes together across layers of water opens the doors to a deeper understanding of Photosynthesis.

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The factories of the future... Microalgae

"Photosynthesis is the only biochemical process that removes large quantities of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and transforms them first into sugar and then into many other substances"
The goal is optimum photosynthesis performance with minimum power consumption; in addition to other parameters, the efficiency of algae cultivation depends primarily on the power requirements of the lighting.

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Indoor mold poses health risk to asthma sufferers

Date:

August 28, 2014

Source:

University of Exeter

Summary:

By critically reviewing the findings from 17 studies in eight different countries, the research has found that the presence of several types of mould can lead to breathing problems in asthma sufferers, as well as increasing the likelihood of developing the condition.

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