| News Briefs - July-September - Online Extra |
Lasers In —
Spark Plugs Out
Lasers may soon replace spark
plugs in automobile engines. A
team at the Conference of Lasers
and Electro-Optics said they have
designed lasers that could ignite
the fuel/air mixture in combustion
engines. The new approach
would make engines more
efficient and reduce pollution by
igniting more of the mixture.
Lasers have been tried before,
but the advent of smaller ones
make them a practical
replacement for spark plugs.—
BBC News (4/23/11)
LED Bulbs-Good but Costly
LED bulbs bright enough to
replace energy-guzzling 100-watt
light bulbs will likely go on sale
next year. The technology
involved in typical incandescent
bulbs is more than a century old,
and these bulbs waste most of the
energy feeding them by turning it
into heat. A law passed by
Congress in 2007 will in effect ban
the bulbs beginning in 2012. The
LED bulbs though will be costly,
about $50 a piece, so compact
fluorescents are a more obvious
replacement at first.—Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel (5/17/11)
Kindle E-Books Now
Outsell Paper Books
Kindle e-books are now outselling
all print books including
paperbacks and hardcover
editions, according to Amazon.
The figures do not even include
free e-books. Kindle books
surpassed hardcover sales in July
2010 and then paperbacks in
December, 2010.
Environmentalists say e-books
have a lower carbon footprint than
print books.—Yahoo News
(5/19/11)
Spark Plugs Out
Lasers may soon replace spark
plugs in automobile engines. A
team at the Conference of Lasers
and Electro-Optics said they have
designed lasers that could ignite
the fuel/air mixture in combustion
engines. The new approach
would make engines more
efficient and reduce pollution by
igniting more of the mixture.
Lasers have been tried before,
but the advent of smaller ones
make them a practical
replacement for spark plugs.—
BBC News (4/23/11)
LED Bulbs-Good but Costly
LED bulbs bright enough to
replace energy-guzzling 100-watt
light bulbs will likely go on sale
next year. The technology
involved in typical incandescent
bulbs is more than a century old,
and these bulbs waste most of the
energy feeding them by turning it
into heat. A law passed by
Congress in 2007 will in effect ban
the bulbs beginning in 2012. The
LED bulbs though will be costly,
about $50 a piece, so compact
fluorescents are a more obvious
replacement at first.—Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel (5/17/11)
Kindle E-Books Now
Outsell Paper Books
Kindle e-books are now outselling
all print books including
paperbacks and hardcover
editions, according to Amazon.
The figures do not even include
free e-books. Kindle books
surpassed hardcover sales in July
2010 and then paperbacks in
December, 2010.
Environmentalists say e-books
have a lower carbon footprint than
print books.—Yahoo News
(5/19/11)
Scientists Work on
Invisibility Cloak
Two separate teams of scientists
have succeeded in developing an
invisibility cloak that can hide
objects as large as paper clips.
Physicists at the U. of Birmingham
in England made a paper clip
disappear while an MIT engineer
and his team made a rolled-up
piece of paper vanish. In both
cases, the researchers placed the
objects in a chamber on a mineral
known as calcite which has an
optical property called
anisotropy. The mineral splits up
light rays and reflects them in
such a way that the chamber
becomes invisible.—Discover
(May, 2011)
Electronic Faucets May Not Be
Healtheir
The belief that hands-free
electronic faucets may be
healthier because users don’t
have to touch them may be in
error. A team from Johns Hopkins
Hospital in Baltimore have found
that these faucets are more likely
to be contaminated with
Legionella bacteria than the
conventional kind. Some 50% of
samples from electronic faucets
were found contaminated with the
bacteria compared to 15% of
samples from manual faucets.
The likely reason: the complicated
system of valves in electronic
faucets is hard to clean.—
(Racine) Journal Times (4/6/11)
Invisibility Cloak
Two separate teams of scientists
have succeeded in developing an
invisibility cloak that can hide
objects as large as paper clips.
Physicists at the U. of Birmingham
in England made a paper clip
disappear while an MIT engineer
and his team made a rolled-up
piece of paper vanish. In both
cases, the researchers placed the
objects in a chamber on a mineral
known as calcite which has an
optical property called
anisotropy. The mineral splits up
light rays and reflects them in
such a way that the chamber
becomes invisible.—Discover
(May, 2011)
Electronic Faucets May Not Be
Healtheir
The belief that hands-free
electronic faucets may be
healthier because users don’t
have to touch them may be in
error. A team from Johns Hopkins
Hospital in Baltimore have found
that these faucets are more likely
to be contaminated with
Legionella bacteria than the
conventional kind. Some 50% of
samples from electronic faucets
were found contaminated with the
bacteria compared to 15% of
samples from manual faucets.
The likely reason: the complicated
system of valves in electronic
faucets is hard to clean.—
(Racine) Journal Times (4/6/11)
Strength of Glass and
Toughness of Metal
Engineers have long been looking
for a material with the strength of
glass, but one that wouldn’t
shatter, and the toughness of
metal, but which wouldn’t be
malleable. Now Caltech scientists
have created a glass made from
metals which combines both
strength and toughness. After
combining the metals palladium
and silver with other ingredients,
rapid cooling froze the atoms into
an arrangement resembling glass
but which resisted cracking.—
Discover (May, 2011)
Soil May Soak Up CO2
Rattan Lal, a researcher at Ohio
State, believes plain old soil may
be a simple solution to excessive
carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere. Some growers are
practicing an approach known as
“regenerative agriculture,” a
system that uses composting,
keeping fields planted the year
around, reducing tillage, and
increasing plant diversity. Since
these strategies can also increase
the amount of carbon that can be
stored in soil, researchers believe
they can be used in combating
climate change—Discover (May,
2011)
Fears of Aspartame
Appear Groundless
The American Dietetic Association
has clarified some misconceptions
about the artificial sweetener,
aspartame. Aspartame does not
have a “rebound” effect making
users more hungry nor does it
cause people to gain weight. The
ADA also said the sweetener does
not appear to have any adverse
side effects.—Tufts Health &
Nutrition Letter (Volume 10G)
Toughness of Metal
Engineers have long been looking
for a material with the strength of
glass, but one that wouldn’t
shatter, and the toughness of
metal, but which wouldn’t be
malleable. Now Caltech scientists
have created a glass made from
metals which combines both
strength and toughness. After
combining the metals palladium
and silver with other ingredients,
rapid cooling froze the atoms into
an arrangement resembling glass
but which resisted cracking.—
Discover (May, 2011)
Soil May Soak Up CO2
Rattan Lal, a researcher at Ohio
State, believes plain old soil may
be a simple solution to excessive
carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere. Some growers are
practicing an approach known as
“regenerative agriculture,” a
system that uses composting,
keeping fields planted the year
around, reducing tillage, and
increasing plant diversity. Since
these strategies can also increase
the amount of carbon that can be
stored in soil, researchers believe
they can be used in combating
climate change—Discover (May,
2011)
Fears of Aspartame
Appear Groundless
The American Dietetic Association
has clarified some misconceptions
about the artificial sweetener,
aspartame. Aspartame does not
have a “rebound” effect making
users more hungry nor does it
cause people to gain weight. The
ADA also said the sweetener does
not appear to have any adverse
side effects.—Tufts Health &
Nutrition Letter (Volume 10G)
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