| Uncharted waters: Hydrogen and the "law of unintended consequences" Editor's Note: A team of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute students are traveling up New York's Hudson River this week on the New Clermont , a 6.7-meter boat outfitted with a pair of 2.2-kilowatt hydrogen fuel cells to power the boat's motor. Their journey began September 21 from Manhattan's Pier 84 and will cover 240 kilometers (at a projected speed of 8 kilometers per hour). After making several stops along the way, the crew expects to arrive back at Rensselaer Polytech's campus in Troy, N.Y., on September 25. This is the third of Scientific American.com's blogs chronicling this expedition, called the New Clermont Project. [More] rss.sciam.com |
First Passenger Flight Powered by Biofuel--But Are the Petroleum Alternatives Ready to Takeoff? Dutch airline KLM has completed a fifth jet biofuel test flight--and the first with passengers other than flight crew. Using a 50–50 blend of regular jet fuel and biofuel refined from camelina oil in one of its four engines, the flight carried 42 "observers" for an hour on November 23 from Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, enough to fill business class, according to chemist Jennifer Holmgren, who was on board. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Are Pesticides from Plants Dangerous to Humans? Chemicals derived from flowers may sound harmless, but new research raises concerns about compounds synthesized from chrysanthemums that are used in virtually every household pesticide . [More] rss.sciam.com |
Falling Tree Branch in Central Park Zoo Kills Baby The girl and her mother were posing for a photograph in front of the sea lion exhibit when they were struck. nytimes.com |
The Little Energy Program That Could? Batteries to store megawatts of power. Strong magnets that don't rely on rare earths . Turning CO2 into fuel . If you hear about some "gamechanging" energy research in the U.S., chances are ARPA-e is behind it.The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy , or ARPA-e , is intended to invest in high risk, high reward energy research that probably wouldn't be done otherwise. [More] rss.sciam.com |