| Two for the Road With limited time, a tight budget, and a minivan as overnight lodging, a couple make their way across the country, fulfilling a dream for both. travel.nytimes.com |
Recreational Boat Motors Get Greener with New EPA Emission Standards Dear EarthTalk: I’ve heard that hybrid engine technology is now being used to power boats. What’s happening with that? --D. Smith, Portland, ME [More] rss.sciam.com |
Better Mileage Now--Improving the Combustion Engine (preview) Demand for automobiles is rising worldwide. So is concern about greenhouse gas emissions. In response, scientists and engineers are working diligently to perfect new power plants for future vehicles, including battery and hydrogen fuel-cell electric cars. Although these and other alternatives show great promise for the long term, perhaps the single greatest way to reduce fossil-fuel consumption in the near term is to further improve today’s dominant transportation power plant: the gasoline internal-combustion (IC) engine.Fortunately, efficiency can be raised in a number of ways, notably, better control over the air-fuel mixture entering the combustion chamber, over the way gasoline is ignited there, and over the mechanical systems that harness that energy. These can improve traditional automobiles as well as gasoline-electric hybrid models. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Mat of microbes the size of Greece discovered on seafloor Gargantuan whales and hefty cephalopods are typically thought of as the classic marine mammoths, but they might have to make way for the mighty microbes, which constitute 50 to 90 percent of the oceans' total biomass, according to newly released data. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Chicago Is Mayor Daley’s Kind of Town Richard M. Daley made Chicago one of the most forward-looking cities, with art and green space alongside an expanding skyline. nytimes.com |