algae
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Climate change causes monster patch of microscopic plants in the Arctic
There aren’t supposed to be microscopic plants called phytoplankton blooming in the Arctic right now — usually that doesn’t happen until after the ice melts in the summer, i.e. months from now. But a research team has just discovered a huge, 60-mile-long, three-foot-thick slick of phytoplankton where no phytoplankton should be. It was “like finding […]
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Critical List: Emperor penguin population double previous estimates; a new fracking working group
A team using very high resolution satellite pictures counted twice as many emperor penguins in Antarctica than any previous study had. President Obama formed a new working group in Washington to coordinate federal oversight of fracking. Those earthquakes in Oklahoma and Arkansas could be caused not just by fracking wastewater disposal but by fracking itself.
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Your new offshore energy source: Floating algae farms
Forget offshore oil drilling. NASA’s working on a project that would generate clean, renewable offshore energy, by growing algae in floating plastic bags. These floating algae farms would take in wastewater from treatment plants. For algae, wastewater is like the nectar of the gods: The ammonia and phosphates act as a fertilizer. So the algae […]
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Critical List: Warmest March on record for 25 states; LEGO hermit crab shell
A round-up of the news of the day.
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Watch Stephen Colbert yell at a plant
Stephen Colbert understands the Republican candidates’ aversion to big words, logic, facts, and critical thinking. That’s why he wants to applaud how good they are at being as dumb as possible as fast as possible without stopping for any reason. Here, he highlights some notable moments where the candidates simplify climate and energy policy issues […]
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This lamp absorbs 150 times more CO2 than a tree
It's still in the "so crazy it just might work" stage, but microalgae-powered lamps could absorb a ton of carbon from the air every year.
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Algae whiz: Growing protein with fewer resources
Scientists say feeding livestock algae-based protein could save resources and make the meat industry less of a climate disaster, all while absorbing carbon. Could it be too good to be true?
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The man whose algae could take over the world
If life is really a disaster movie in which humanity is wiped off the face of the earth, J. Craig Venter will probably be the hubristic genius who gets us there. The man sequenced the human genome in like three years, and now he's focused on the genetic possibilities of algae. The goal is to program those little cells to produce biofuels.
Here's his pitch, as told to Scientific American:Everybody is looking for a naturally occurring alga that is going to be a miracle cell to save the world, and after a century of looking, people still haven’t found it. We hope we’re different. The [genetic] tools give us a new approach to being able to rewrite the genetic code and get cells to do what we want them to do.
Eek! Mutant algae!
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Airlines race to be first to fly with biofuel
One day, maybe, planes will be able fly on electricity alone, but until then, the best chance they have to get off gasoline is to switch over to biofuels. And that's actually happening! Over the summer, two biofueled flights made it across the Atlantic, and now Alaska Airlines is pushing an ambitious commercial biofuel flight […]