| The Answer to China's Future Energy Demands May Be Blowing in the Wind After just four years of rapid development, China has the world's fourth largest wind power capacity : more than 12 gigawatts. However, the power of the breeze has become available so fast that the nation is struggling to make use of it.For instance, the Jiuquan wind power base in Gansu Province--better known as "Three Gorges on Land"--is expected to supply 10 gigawatts of electricity when it reaches peak capacity in 2020. The wind farm, under construction in the Gansu Corridor--a narrow natural passage cutting through the Gobi Desert, Qilian Mountains and the Alashan Plateau--is just one of seven such giant complexes approved by the Chinese government. [More] rss.sciam.com |
More important than Copenhagen? U.S.-China deal on energy and climate When the presidents of two nations responsible together for 40 percent of Earth's climate-changing greenhouse gases sit down to talk, big things can happen. In the case of Barack Obama and Hu Jintao on Monday and Tuesday, that meant flatly stating that emission reduction targets should be set at an international negotiation on climate change in Copenhagen this December, along with financial assistance figures to help poorer countries mitigate emissions and adapt to a changing climate. Oh, and the world should cut back on deforestation. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Life at the Bottom: The Prolific Afterlife of Whales (preview) On a routine expedition in 1987, oceanographers in the submersible Alvin were mapping the typically barren, nutrient-poor seafloor in the Santa Catalina Basin, off the shore of southern California. On the final dive of the trip, the scanning sonar detected a large object on the seafloor. Piercing through the abyssal darkness down at 1,240 meters, Alvin ’s headlights revealed a 20-meter-long whale skeleton partly buried in sediment. On reviewing the dive video­tapes, expedition leader Craig Smith and his team saw that the skeleton was probably either a blue or a fin whale. The creature appeared to have been dead for years, but the bones and their surroundings teemed with life--wriggling worms, centimeter-size clams, little snails and limpets, and patches of white microbial mats. The skeleton was a thriving oasis in a vast, desertlike expanse.Almost a year later Smith, an oceanographer at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, returned for a proper study of the skeleton site. His team described several species previously unknown to science, plus some that had been observed only in unusual environments, such as at deep-sea hydrothermal vents. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Cracking the Genetic Code of a Frog Unless your father was a prince with a shady past , you probably haven't thought much about how related you are to a frog lately. But it turns out that about 80 percent of the genes known to cause diseases in humans have counterparts in the genome of Xenopus tropicalis --the western clawed frog native to sub-Saharan Africa. Scientists at the Joint Genome Institute in California revealed the Xenopus genome in the April 30 issue of Science . It's the first frog to have its genetic code cracked and the first amphibian. [More] Xenopus - California - Genetics - Biology - Gene rss.sciam.com |
Tapping the Power in Hot Rocks On September 25, 1960, the first turbine at the world's largest geothermal power plant started spinning. Using the steam created by hot rocks deep beneath California, The Geysers power plant has been pumping out 6 million megawatt-hours of power a year ever since--and it remains the world's largest such geothermal power plant 50 years later. Geothermal power has a lot of advantages: no CO2 emissions, renewable if used correctly and constantly available. Unlike other renewables, such as the wind or sun, the Earth's heat never stops. Scientists estimate that geothermal alone could supply 2,000 times the amount of energy used by the U.S. annually. [More] Geothermal power - Power station - California - Energy - Technology rss.sciam.com |