Submitted by admin on July 2, 2008 - 1:14pm.
Title of News: Berkeley Lab, NOAA, NASA to Use Research Aircraft in Summertime Atmospheric Greenhouse Gas Sampling Project Summary: Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the University of California, the California Air Resources Board, and NASA will use aircraft outfitted with atmospheric sampling devices in mid-June to measure greenhouse gases over California, in an effort to better understand the relative contribution of the state’s GHG emissions to the global total. Source: Lawrence Berkeley Nat'l Laboratory News Center
Submitted by admin on July 2, 2008 - 1:05pm.
Title of News: Professor John Quigley Discovers Green Building Pays Greenbacks Summary: Everyone's talking about "going green," but in the building industry, the cost of investment has been difficult to justify - until now. Haas Professor John Quigley has undertaken the first systematic analysis of environmentally sustainable construction and its economic impact on the real estate market.
In the working paper, "Doing Well by Doing Good? Green Office Buildings," Quigley and co-authors Piet Eichholtz and Nils Kok of Maastricht University, Netherlands, determined investments in proven green building practices lead to sizable increases in a property's market value and effective rent, the average per-square-foot rent paid.
Submitted by admin on July 1, 2008 - 11:55am.
Title: Call for Papers for The 8th Int'l Workshop on Micro & Nanotechnology for Power Generation & Energy Conversion Applications Description: Call for Papers
The Eighth International Workshop on Micro and Nanotechnology for Power Generation and Energy Conversion Applications with The Second Symposium on Micro Environmental Machine Systems
The operation time of portable devices dramatically increases using a high-performance miniature generator. Quick energy charging is possible by just changing fuel cartridges, which are available in 24-hours stores. The amount of used batteries, which are the most unpopular wastes, is reduced by replacing batteries with recyclable fuel cartridges ― Such innovation is now being pursued by Power MEMS, which is an exciting area of research with a tremendous market potential. Since its inception in the late 1990's, Power MEMS has expanded to include not only MEMS for micro power generation and energy conversion but also various small energy machines and related nanostructured materials. The covered power levels vary from ten nanowatts to hundreds watts, spanning 10 orders of magnitude.
The objective of PowerMEMS workshop series is to catalyze innovation in micro and nano technology for power generation and energy conversion applications. The workshop will provide researchers with a forum for discussing latest research results and promoting progress towards commercialization. The workshop also will allow interaction between the multiple disciplines required for Power MEMS, such as electrical, chemical and mechanical engineering, chemistry, and material science.
In this year, PowerMEMS workshop will be jointly held with The Second Symposium on Micro Environmental Machine Systems (μEMS). Recently, global warming has become a symbolic of environmental issues, and people are increasingly concerned about how human activities influence global environment. Environmentally-friendly technology has been rapidly growing the research area, and many micro and nano technologies have been developed to tackle the environmental problems.
The objective of μEMS is to facilitate discussion on environmentally-friendly technology in aspects of micro and nano machine systems. All topics on micro and nano technology aiming at mitigating environmental issues are welcome. Topics of interest may include, but is not limited to micro and nano technology. Abstracts for μEMS 2008 are handled equally with those for PowerMEMS 2008, and the proceedings will be published jointly.
Submitted by admin on July 1, 2008 - 11:47am.
Title of News: Climate change could severely impact California's endemic plants Summary: The native plants unique to California are so vulnerable to global climate change that two-thirds of these "endemics" could suffer more than an 80 percent reduction in geographic range by the end of the century, according to a new University of California, Berkeley, study.
Because endemic species - native species not found outside the state - make up nearly half of all California's native plants, a changing climate will have a major impact on the state's unparalleled plant diversity, the researchers warn.
Submitted by admin on June 26, 2008 - 2:47pm.
Name of job: http://www.nrel.gov/employment/job_openings.html Description: The research activities of this group are aimed at developing high-efficiency sensitized solid-state and liquid-junction nanostructured solar cells based on mesoporous photosystems. Sensitizers include quantum-scaled semiconductors and molecular dyes. The position involves research in designing, fabricating, and characterizing sensitized porous nanocrystalline semiconductor thin films and the associated solar cells and investigating possible factors limiting solar cell efficiency and stability. This research is part of integrated program involving both applied and basic research (e.g., J. Phys. Chem. B, 2006, 110, 12485; Nano Lett. 7, 69 (2007); Nano Lett. 7, 3739 (2007)). In addition to the applied work, the researcher is expected to contribute to parallel research aimed at establishing a basic understanding of charge transport and interfacial phenomena governing the cell performance.
Submitted by admin on June 26, 2008 - 2:12pm.
Name of job: Optical/Solar Thermal Concentrator Applications Description: The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) located in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Golden, Colorado, is the nation's primary laboratory for research, development and deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies. NREL’s Advanced Concepts task in the Buildings and Thermal Systems Center has an immediate opening for a full time (40 hours per week) Postdoctoral Researcher. The initial appointment is for one year, with possible renewal for up to three years. The Postdoctoral Researcher R&D will support development and testing of new optical materials for the Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) program. Highly durable (in real-world outdoor service environment) solar reflector and absorber coatings are needed for solar thermal concentrator applications. Broadband reflectors with dense, hard, protective overcoats are desired. Selective absorbers for high temperature use are also needed. Emphasis is on low-cost, scalable (by the vacuum manufacturing industry) processes
Job Duties
The overall objective of the Advanced Concepts task is to develop, validate, and aid the commercialization of advanced reflector systems that can dramatically reduce the cost of concentrating solar power. The major objectives of this project include:
• To develop advanced reflector materials that are low in cost and maintain high specular reflectance for long lifetimes under severe outdoor environments.
• To develop new, more-efficient selective coatings with both high solar absorptance and low thermal emittance that is thermally stable above 450ºC, ideally in air, with improved durability and manufacturability, and reduced cost.
Submitted by admin on June 26, 2008 - 2:00pm.
Title of News: Climate change could severely impact California's endemic plants Summary: The native plants unique to California are so vulnerable to global climate change that two-thirds of these "endemics" could suffer more than an 80 percent reduction in geographic range by the end of the century, according to a new University of California, Berkeley, study.
Because endemic species - native species not found outside the state - make up nearly half of all California's native plants, a changing climate will have a major impact on the state's unparalleled plant diversity, the researchers warn.
Submitted by admin on June 25, 2008 - 1:08pm.
Title of News: Program Funds Sustainable New Projects Summary: A campus sustainability program awarded $2 million to projects as diverse as stoves that may help decrease rape in Darfur and ultraviolet light tubes that kill waterborne pathogens last week.
The Sustainable Products and Solutions Program, based in the Center for Responsible Business at the Haas School of Business, funded 23 projects with a $2 million fund last week, part of a five-year, $10 million dollar gift from the Dow Chemical Company Foundation announced in October 2007.
Executive-in-Residence Tony Kingsbury, who manages the program, said the projects were chosen in part because of their multidisciplinary approach. Source: The Daily Californian Online Environmental News
Submitted by admin on June 25, 2008 - 12:28pm.
Name of job: NPR Hydrogen as Energy Expert Description: Shell is opening a new hydrogen pump in Los Angeles this week. I'm looking for experts who can talk about hydrogen as fuel, its viability, whether its truly safe ecologically, and whether there will be enough hydrogen cars on the roads to justify building more. Contact: Celeste Headlee, cheadlee@gmail.com
Submitted by admin on June 24, 2008 - 9:58am.
Title of News: State Calls Off Moth Spraying in Urban Areas Summary: Officials from the California Department of Food and Agriculture announced last Thursday that due to health concerns and public opposition, the controversial aerial spraying aimed at eradicating the light brown apple moth will no longer be executed in urban areas this summer.
California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary A.G. Kawamura announced Friday that officials will now attempt to control the pest with a method called sterile insect technique, which involves releasing sterilized moths into the infested areas. This method is expected to confuse the moths in much the same way as the aerial spray by preventing them from reproducing so that they eventually die off.
...
Sprayings of the hormone in Santa Cruz and Monterey last year were followed by numerous health complaints, which opponents of the spray say is evidence that it is a danger to the public.
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