January 25, 2012

Good Morning,

A British company looks to the ocean for energy, but aims to keep the production on shore to avoid the hostilities of the ocean environment and it's effects on equipment. Check out the last article for all the details.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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Feather color suggests dinosaur flight

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - U.S. researchers studying the winged dinosaur Archaeopteryx say they've found evidence the creature's feathers were rigid and durable enough to allow it to fly. Scientists have long debated whether Archaeopteryx could indeed fly, and if so, how well. Research led by Brown University determined the feathers of the raven-sized dinosaur were black, and that color and the parts of cells that would have supplied the pigment suggests the feathers would have contributed to a flying ability. "If Archaeopteryx was flapping or gliding, the presence of melanosomes [pigment-producing parts of a cell] would have given the feathers additional structural support," lead author Ryan Carney, a Brown evolutionary biologist, said in a university release Tuesday. "This would have been advantageous during this early evolutionary stage of dinosaur flight." The researchers also determined Archaeopteryx's feather structure is identical to that of living birds, suggesting modern wing feathers had evolved as early as 150 million years ago in the Jurassic period. "We can't say it's proof that Archaeopteryx was a flyer," Carney said. "But what we can say is that in modern bird feathers, these melanosomes provide additional strength and resistance to abrasion from flight, which is why wing feathers and their tips are the most likely areas to be pigmented."


File-sharing sites in activity retreat

WASHINGTON - As the U.S. government pursues charges against file-sharing site Megaupload.com, other sites have changed their policies to avoid similar actions, analysts say. Rival file-sharing sites FilesSonic and Uploaded. to have significantly altered their services to avoid allegations of copyright infringement such as those brought against Megaupload, accused of storing and distributing unauthorized copies of movies, TV shows, music and other media. FileSonic has ceased all file-sharing activities, saying that "our services can only be used to upload and retrieve files that you have uploaded personally," while Uploaded.to has blocked U.S. traffic to its site although it remains accessible elsewhere in the world, Slash Gear reported Monday. The actions follow the arrests of MegaUpload Chief Executive Officer Kim Dotcom and other employees of the site. Dotcom, also known as Kim Schmitz, appeared in a court in New Zealand Monday following his arrest in that country at the request of the U.S. Justice Department, which is seeking his extradition to the United States. His lawyer said Dotcom was innocent and should be allowed bail, CNN reported. "Mr. Dotcom emphatically denies any criminal misconduct or wrongdoing and denies the existence of any 'mega-conspiracy,'" attorney Paul Davison said. If granted bail, Dotcom would be willing to submit to electronic surveillance, Cnet reported Davison as telling the court.


'Magnetic' soap could clean oil spills

BRISTOL, England - British researchers say a new magnetic soap could be used to help clean up oil spills by applying a magnetic field to areas containing the soap. The new formulation is similar to ordinary soap but contains iron atoms which can help form tiny particles that are easily removed magnetically, they said. "If you'd have said about 10 years ago to a chemist: 'Let's have some soap that responds to magnets', they'd have looked at you with a very blank face," researcher Julian Eastoe of the University of Bristol told BBC News. "We were interested to see, if you went back to the chemical drawing board with the tool-kit of modern synthetic chemistry, if you could...design one," he said. Eastoe and his colleagues started with detergent molecules "very similar to what you'd find in your kitchen or bathroom," he said, and found a way to simply add iron atoms into the molecules. The droplets that the soap formed were attracted to a magnet, just as iron filings would be, he said. With further development, the researchers said, the soap could be used to clean up oil spills and waste water. "We have uncovered the principle by which you can generate this kind of material and now it's back to the drawing board to make it better," Eastoe said.


Aquatic power generator takes to the sea

LONDON - An aquatic system likened to a bicycle pump is set to take to the seas and turn wave power into clean electricity, a British company says. The system's inventor says the Searaser system, unlike other wave power technologies, does not generate the electricity in the hostile environment of the ocean but rather pumps saltwater to an onshore generator. "If you put any device in the sea, it will get engulfed in storms, so it all has to be totally sealed," Alvin Smith told The Guardian newspaper. "Water and electricity don't mix -- and sea water is particularly corrosive -- so most other devices are very expensive to manufacture and maintain." The Searaser system, acquired by green energy company Ecotricity, has been tested in
prototype form, the company said. It uses the rise and fall of a large float to pressurize water, and then sends pressurized sea water onshore to drive an electrical generator. Ecotricity says "it is not over-ambitious" to expect 200 Searaser devices to be installed at depths of 60 to 100 feet around Britain within five years -- generating enough renewable electricity to power 236,000 homes.

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