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Gizmorama - February 3, 2014
Good Morning, Attention Scientific Community! NASA says five Earth science missions will be launched into space in 2014, the busiest science launch program in more than a decade. I can't wait for us to go back there!
Learn about these interesting stories from the scientific community in today's issue.
Until Next Time,
ErinP.S. Did you miss an issue? You can read every issue from the Gophercentral library of newsletters on our exhaustive archives page. Thousands of issues, all of your favorite publications in chronological order. You can read AND comment. Just click
GopherArchives****-- Genetically engineered yeast, table sugar used to make biofuel --*AUSTIN, Texas - Researchers in Texas say they've developed a new source of renewable energy, a biofuel, from genetically engineered yeast cells and ordinary table sugar. Scientists at the University of Texas at Austin say this yeast produces oils and fats known as lipids that can be used in place of petroleum-derived products. Because the yeast cells grow on sugars, research leader Hal Alper calls the biofuel produced by this process "a renewable version of sweet crude." The technique produces the highest concentration of oils and fats reported through fermentation, the process of culturing cells to convert sugar into products such as alcohol, gases or acids, the researchers wrote in the journal Nature. Genetically engineering the yeast cells enables up to 90 percent of the cell mass to become lipids, which can then be used to produce biodiesel, they said. "To put this in perspective, this lipid value is approaching the concentration seen in many industrial biochemical processes," Alper, a professor of chemical engineering, said. "You can take the lipids formed and theoretically use it to power a car."
*-- NASA plans busy 2014 schedule of Earth science missions --*WASHINGTON - NASA says five Earth science missions will be launched into space in 2014, the busiest science launch program in more than a decade. The five launches, including two to the International Space Station, are part of an active year for NASA Earth science researchers, who will use satellites and aircraft to help scientists and policymakers find answers to critical challenges including climate change, sea level rise, decreasing availability of fresh water, and extreme weather events, the space agency said Thursday. The first NASA Earth science mission of 2014 will be the Global Precipitation Measurement Core Observatory, a joint satellite project with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency as part of an unprecedented international satellite constellation that will produce the first nearly global observations of rainfall and snowfall, NASA researchers said. The precipitation measurement spacecraft, built at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., is set to launch Feb. 27 from JAXA's Tanegashima Space Center on a Japanese H-IIA rocket. Other 2014 missions will include the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2, to make precise, global measurements of carbon dioxide, and the Soil Moisture Active Passive mission to track Earth's water into one of its last hiding places, the soil. "As NASA prepares for future missions to an asteroid and Mars, we're focused on Earth right now," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. "With five new missions set to launch in 2014, this really is shaping up to be the year of the Earth, and this focus on our home planet will make a significant difference in people's lives around the world."
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