Great Blue Marble

Chicago-Based Eco-Friendly Dentist Doubles Down on Green

elegant — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 02:48:00 +0000

Almost exactly five years ago, I took at look at Transcendentist, a Berkeley based green dentistry office that combined environmental responsibility with a very different approach to patient care. Rather than the typical clinical approach, the founders of Transcendentist created a spa-like atmosphere complete with foot massages. Even then, the idea was taking off: nothing like a little calm to take the edge off of that fear of the dentist thing.

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Chicago-Based Eco-Friendly Dentist Doubles Down on Green

Arrested for Excessive Sweetness

elegant — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 02:07:00 +0000

Put your hands up and step away from the sugar! No, not really. But one day, sugar may be a regulated substance, on par with alcohol and tobacco. The notion seems draconian at first, but once you look at the reasoning behind it, it begins to make a lot of sense. Researchers from the University of California (UC) San Francisco stipulate that excessive consumption of sugar is behind the global obesity pandemic. Sugar contributes to over 35 million deaths per year from diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and other diseases. Their desire is to see a healthier world with fewer health-related costs through the restriction and regulation of sugar.

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Arrested for Excessive Sweetness

High-precision map of Milky Way’s magnetic fields charted

admin — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:15:15 +0000

Scientists have pooled their radio observations into a database, producing the highest precision map to date of the magnetic field within our own Milky Way galaxy.

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High-precision map of Milky Way’s magnetic fields charted

A battle of the vampires, 20 million years ago?

creative — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:24:24 +0000

They are tiny, ugly, disease-carrying little blood-suckers that most people have never seen or heard of, but a new discovery in a one-of-a-kind fossil shows that “bat flies” have been doing their noxious business with bats for at least 20 million years.

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A battle of the vampires, 20 million years ago?

Classic portrait of a barred spiral galaxy

elegant — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:24:24 +0000

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken a picture of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1073, which is found in the constellation of Cetus (The Sea Monster). Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is a similar barred spiral, and the study of galaxies such as NGC 1073 helps astronomers learn more about our celestial home.

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Classic portrait of a barred spiral galaxy

Surface of Mars an unlikely place for life after 600-million-year drought, say scientists

creative — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:20:20 +0000

Mars may have been arid for more than 600 million years, making it too hostile for any life to survive on the planet’s surface, according to researchers who have been carrying out the painstaking task of analyzing individual particles of Martian soil.

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Surface of Mars an unlikely place for life after 600-million-year drought, say scientists

DuPont and Suntech Sign Strategic Agreement

publisher — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:41:00 +0000

To help increase the supply of photovoltaic materials and technologies for the growing global market for solar energy, the world’s largest producer of solar panels has signed a strategic agreement with DuPont. The agreement focuses on technology advancements, supply chain optimization cost reduction initiatives, and DuPont™ Tedlar® polyvinyl fluoride film supply.

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DuPont and Suntech Sign Strategic Agreement

Electric Vehicle Market Forecast – 10 Year Horizon Looks Strong

elegant — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:29:00 +0000

IDTechEx has been tracking developments in the electric vehicle market for the last eleven years by touring the world’s companies, research institutes and conferences to gain insights into key technology changes and business opportunities in the EV market. They have just published their new 2012 forecast with a 10 year horizon, and whether you like EVs or not – their take is that they are here to stay.

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Electric Vehicle Market Forecast – 10 Year Horizon Looks Strong

Alaskan Yellow Cedar

elegant — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:58:00 +0000

Yellow-cedar, a culturally and economically valuable tree in southeastern Alaska and adjacent parts of British Columbia, has been dying off across large expanses of these areas for the past 100 years. But no one could say why. “The cause of tree death, called yellow-cedar decline, is now known to be a form of root freezing that occurs during cold weather in late winter and early spring, but only when snow is not present on the ground,” explains Pacific Northwest Research Station scientist Paul Hennon, co-lead of a synthesis paper recently published in the February issue of the journal BioScience. “When present, snow protects the fine, shallow roots from extreme soil temperatures. The shallow rooting of yellow-cedar, early spring growth, and its unique vulnerability to freezing injury also contribute to this problem.”

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Alaskan Yellow Cedar

The Super Green Bowl

creative — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:20:00 +0000

For the past 18 years, the NFL has been working to decrease the environmental footprint of the largest annual sporting event in the U.S. – the Super Bowl. Two years ago, we wrote about several initiatives aimed at reducing the events’ impacts. Last year, we covered how Super Bowl XLV was slated to be the greenest NFL championship game in history. This year, the NFL is trying to outdo itself yet again by working with the Green Mountain Energy Company and the Indianapolis community to make Super Bowl XLVI the greenest yet. I talked with Jack Groh, Director of the NFL’s Environmental Program, to get the details on this year’s efforts.

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The Super Green Bowl