Gizmorama
April 6, 2011
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Good Morning,
One of my favorite subjects in science and technology, as you
have probably noticed, is the advancements in alternative
energy. It's an exciting category with an inevitable future.
See what one town in California is doing to counter-act the
rising gas prices and dwindling resources; this should be a
more common project if you asked me.
Until Next Time,
Erin
Questions? Comments? Email me at: mailto:gizmo@gophercentral.com
Email your comments
P.S. You can discuss this issue or any other topic in the new
Gizmorama forum. Check it out here...
http://gizmorama.gophercentral.com
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NASA puts off Endeavour launch
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA says it will delay the launch of
the shuttle Endeavour by at least 10 days to avoid conflict
with an unmanned Russian cargo ship also launching this
month. The agency has tentatively set the launch of space
shuttle Endeavour's STS-134 mission to the International
Space Station for 3:47 p.m. EDT on Friday, April 29, a NASA
release said Monday. The original launch date would have
created a scheduling conflict with a Russian Progress cargo
spacecraft, an unmanned ship set to launch on April 27 and
arrive at the ISS on April 29. "Looking at the International
Space Station, it was the best thing to do to have Endeavour
stand down for a week and a half, and launch once the
Progress is already docked to the space station," NASA
spokesman Allard Beutel told SPACE.com. Shuttle managers will
hold a Flight Readiness Review on Tuesday, April 19, and an
official launch date will be confirmed at the conclusion of
the meeting, NASA said.
Scientists eye algae for nuclear cleanup
EVANSTON, Ill. - U.S. researchers say common freshwater algae
can remove radioactive strontium from water and could be used
to clean up nuclear waste. Scientists at Northwestern Uni-
versity and Argonne National Laboratory say Strontium 90 is
one of the more dangerous radioactive fission materials cre-
ated within a nuclear reactor and is present in the 80 million
gallons of radioactive waste sludge stored in the United
States, a Northwestern release reported Monday. Strontium 90
has a half-life of about 30 years and is chemically very sim-
ilar to calcium and thus is drawn to bone, creating a high
cancer risk from exposure when strontium is bound in bones
for many years. The researchers say Closterium moniliferum,
one of the bright green algae often seen in ponds, can sequ-
ester strontium in the form of barium-strontium-sulfate
crystals. The knowledge could lead to using algae for direct
bioremediation of waste or accidental spills in the environ-
ment, they say. "Nuclear waste cleanup is a problem we have
to solve," senior researcher Derk Joester, who experienced
Chernobyl's radioactive fallout when he was a teenager living
in southern Germany, said. "Even if all the nuclear reactors
were to shut down tomorrow, the existing volume of waste is
great, and it is costly to store. "We need to isolate highly
radioactive 'high-level' waste from 'low-level' waste," he
said. "The algae offer a mechanism for doing this, which we
would like to understand and optimize."
City to build solar carports with chargers
CITY OF INDUSTRY, Calif. - A Southern California community
says it will build almost 1,000 solar carports at a commuter
rail station to produce electricity and charge electric
vehicles. The carports at the Metrolink station parking lot
in the City of Industry will have photovoltaic solar roof
panels to provide about 2 megawatts of power for Southern
California Edison, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported
Sunday. The carports will also feature charging stations for
electric cars, becoming more popular as gas prices climb.
"The city has a responsibility to try things," city engineer
J.D. Ballas said. The city proposed to be a part of an Edison
program, approved by the state Public Utilities Commission,
to generate 500 megawatts of solar energy from unused rooftop
space on warehouses and other sites, the Tribune reported.
While commuters might assume the electric charging stations
will use the solar power, they will not, Ballas said. Instead,
he said, the charging stations will be powered by a separate
source. "When you think about it, if the sun's not out, your
car won't get a charge," Ballas said. Construction of the
$1.2 million project is set to begin this summer with an
intended completion date of next January or February.
Study: Basic science courses need overhaul
MONTREAL - Introductory science courses -- and how they're
taught -- can make or break a student's decision to enter a
scientific field, Canadian researchers say. Courses can even
affect a student's decision on whether to pursue higher edu-
cation at all, researchers at Montreal's Concordia University
said. "The language, fundamentals and scope of science gate-
way courses can be akin to a foreign culture," Calvin Kalman,
principal of Concordia's Science College, said. "Students can
have great difficulty reading scientific texts -- even when
they are written in their native language -- and they must
also cope with complex knowledge taught by their professor."
In a recent study, Kalman had students practice what he calls
"reflective writing," in which students digest, analyze and
write down their thoughts on assigned material before class-
room discussions, a Concordia release said Wednesday. "Re-
flective writing gets students to initiate a self-dialogue
about texts and ask: 'What do I understand?' and 'What do I
not understand?'" Kalman said. Teaching and learning is most
successful when a student's outlook on a course is close to
that of his professor, he said. "Students are often looking
for basics to pass courses, but that doesn't engage them,"
he said. "Unless they come to class prepared to ask questions,
students end up serving time." Kalman encourages professors
to go beyond PowerPoint presentations and lectures to promote
critical thinking both inside and outside the classroom.
"Bolstering student understanding of basic science courses
can improve retention rates in this field," he said.
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