Extracting ancient DNA
Eggstracting ancient DNA
Published Date: 11 March 2010
Scientists have successfully extracted ancient DNA from fossil eggshells for the first time, as reported this week in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The discovery has the potential to provide exciting new insights into the characteristics of some of the heaviest birds to have ever existed, including the Madagascan elephant bird and the New Zealand Moa – both now extinct.
While the idea that we could resurrect extinct creatures using fossilised DNA may be more science fiction that science fact, ancient DNA can nonetheless tell us a huge amount about a species’ diet and the kind of environmental conditions they lived in. Recent studies have shown that DNA can be successfully extracted from ancient feathers, hair and nails, but up to now, nobody has ever extracted DNA from fossil eggshell.
The research team, led by Charlotte Oskam at Murdoch University in Australia, focused on the fossilised eggs of giant birds because their great size and thickness means that they are more likely to be preserved than other species’ eggshells. It was previously thought that many Australian locations in particular had the wrong sort of climate for preserving ancient DNA, but the authors state that “bird eggshell has the potential for long-term DNA preservation in a number of often hostile environments that have not traditionally been conducive to long-term DNA survival”.
Eggshell acts as a natural barrier to water and oxygen which means that it’s excellent at preserving biomolecules, including DNA. Furthermore, the authors of the study speculate that the anti-microbial properties of present-day eggshell may persist in its fossilised form, which greatly reduces the problem of bacterial DNA contaminating that of the species being studied. The team now hope that future research will centre on refining the experimental procedures so that DNA can be extracted from eggshells in the most efficient way possible, as well being as undisruptive as possible to precious fossil specimens.
http://royalsociety.org/Eggstracting-ancient-DNA/
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fractal1 – fractal patterns in quantum world – physics world – feb 2010
Fractal patterns spotted in the quantum realm
Feb 9, 2010 7 comments
Quantum repetition Fractal patterns enter the quantum world
From thunderous mountain landscapes viewed from above to the erratic trajectories of Brownian motion, fractal patterns exist at many scales in nature. Physicists believe that fractals also exist in the quantum world, and now a group of researchers in the US has shown that this is indeed the case. This image shows the fractal pattern that results when the waves associated with electrons start to interfere with each other.
[ . . . ]
Ali Yazdani at Princeton University in the US and his colleagues have revealed that these patterns also exist at the scale of individual atoms in a solid. And the key to this effect is a sudden transition where a material changes from a metal to an insulator. At this transition, the waves associated with individual electrons go from being extended across the whole system to being localized at lattice sites.
(from)
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/41659
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Electrical signals transmitted via spin waves
Mar 12, 2010
Physicists in Japan have for the first time been able to transmit an electrical signal over a distance of one millimetre through an insulator using spin waves. The technique, which involves converting an electrical current into a spin signal and then back again, could be used in “spintronic” devices that exploit both the spin and charge of the electron. Such devices are of great interest because they could be smaller and more energy efficient than conventional electronic circuits.
(article provides a very interesting explanation – worth reading)
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/41964
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Technology update
Mar 12, 2010
Plasmonic nanostructures enhance light fields
Small individual nanoparticles made of noble metals can strongly enhance electromagnetic fields – a phenomenon that is useful in many areas of science and technology, such as non-linear optics, optical manipulation of nano-objects and chemical and biological sensing. Researchers at the universities of Manchester and Exeter in the UK have now developed a two-tier composite plasmonic nanostructure consisting of two disks of different sizes, one on top of the other, that enhances these fields even further.
(etc.)
http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/tech/41973
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The heart of the Solar Roadway™ is the
Solar Road Panel™
The Solar Roadway™ is a series of structurally-engineered solar panels that are driven upon. The idea is to replace all current petroleum-based asphalt roads, parking lots, and driveways with Solar Road Panels™ that collect and store solar energy to be used by our homes and businesses. This renewable energy replaces the need for the current fossil fuels used for the generation of electricity. This, in turn, cuts greenhouse gases literally in half.
Each individual panel consists of three basic layers:
Road Surface Layer – translucent and high-strength, it is rough enough to provide great traction, yet still passes sunlight through to the solar collector cells. It is capable of handling today’s heaviest loads under the worst of conditions. Weatherproof, it protects the electronics layer beneath it.
Electronics Layer - Contains a large array of cells, the bulk of which will contain solar collecting cells with LEDs for “painting” the road surface. These cells also contain the “Super” or “Ultra” caps that store the sun’s energy for later use. Since each Solar Road Panel™ manages its own electricity generation, storage, and distribution, they can heat themselves in northern climates to eliminate snow and ice accumulation. No more snow/ice removal and no more school/business closings due to inclement weather. The on-board microprocessor controls lighting, communications, monitoring, etc. With a communications device every 12 feet, the Solar Roadway™ is an intelligent highway system.
Base Plate Layer – While the electronics layer collects and stores the energy from the sun, it is the base plate layer that distributes power (collected from the electronics layer) and data signals (phone, TV, internet, etc.) “downline” to all homes and businesses connected to the Solar Roadway™. The power and data signals are passed through each of the four sides of the base plate layer. Weatherproof, it protects the electronics layer above it.
Overview
When multiple Solar Road Panels™ are interconnected, the intelligent Solar Roadway™ is formed. These panels replace current driveways, parking lots, and all road systems, be they interstate highways, state routes, downtown streets, residential streets, or even plain dirt or gravel country roads. Panels can also be used in amusement parks, raceways, bike paths, parking garage rooftops, remote military locations, etc. Any home or business connected to the Solar Roadway™ (via a Solar Road Panel™ driveway or parking lot) receives the power and data signals that the Solar Roadway™ provides. The Solar Roadway™ becomes an intelligent, self-healing, decentralized (secure) power grid.
(etc.)
He has high hopes for his series of electric roads — in fact, he believes that they may very well hold the key to solving global warming. Going off of an estimate made by Caltech solar energy expert Nate Lewis — who estimated that covering 1.7% of the U.S.’ land surface with 10%-efficient solar energy converters would supply our current energy demand — Brusaw theorized that paving the country’s interstate highway system (which incidentally covers close to 1.7% of the nation’s land surface) with glass panels that could collect and distribute solar energy would accomplish that goal. The solar cells would create enough energy to light the road at night, heat it in the winter and power buildings — each mile could supply as many as 500 homes, according to Brusaw.
His system of roadways — which would consist of three superimposed layers — would contain a revised version of the nation’s electric grid (complete with a distributed network of independent power sources) and a network of fiber optic cables for television and communication. In addition, a “smart” system would be able to reduce gridlock by reconfiguring travel lanes, warn drivers of impending construction, accidents or adverse weather events and even protect wildlife by keeping them off the road.
He estimates that the cost of producing a single 12′ X 12′ Solar Roadway panel could reach about $5,000 — and that about 4.84 billion would be required to make his scheme work. As promising as his grand plan may sound, he’s still in the very early phases of his project and will need to overcome many more challenges — not the least of which is developing the enabling technologies for the roadways — before he can even come close to making it all happen. Still, it certainly sounds like a worthy endeavor that could, time and technology permitting, help make a large dent in global warming.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/08/solar_roadways.php
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Solar-Roadways/41869107125
Solar Roadways Just returned from Arizona. Had meetings re: considering Tucson as one of the possible locations for a manufacturing facility… beautiful place.
Solar Roadways We had a wonderful 3 days with Mark Dixon of Yert. He got lots of footage of our prototype and interviews with us. What a great guy- it was great to spend time with him. We now await his pics and videos to post…..
March 3 at 8:40pm (from Solar Roadways Facebook page)http://www.facebook.com/pages/Solar-Roadways/41869107125
· Solar panel roads to power our homes |
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| Nov 1, 2009 Idaho-based Solar Roadways founder Scott Brusaw is excited that his company has a received a USD$100000 US Department of Transportation (DOT … www.gizmag.com/solar-panel-roads/12780/ – Related videos |
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Rubber trailing edge flaps could result in quieter, more productive wind farms- EVOLUTE – the near-waterless toilet
Zep’lin flying boat ponders the future of electric vehicles
It’s 2010 – finally my jet pack is here!
from gixmag
http://www.gizmag.com/solar-panel-roads/12780/
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Google to build largest US Corporate Solar Installation
Thin film panel production breakthrough to reduce solar electricity costs
World’s largest solar panels go into production
U.K. team researches thinner, cheaper solar cells
Four time World Solar Challenge winner unveils new car – the Nuna5
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http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2010/thermopower-waves-0308
PRESS RELEASE: “MIT researchers discover new way of producing electricity”
(from comments)
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Thermopower waves
A reaction wave travels across a centimeter-long bundle of carbon nanotubes in 100 ms, consuming the energetic fuel with which they are coated. The reaction is initiated by a pulse of heat at the right side, in this case a small butane flame.
A team of scientists at MIT have discovered a previously unknown phenomenon that can cause powerful waves of energy to shoot through minuscule wires known as carbon nanotubes. The discovery could lead to a new way of producing electricity, the researchers say.
The phenomenon, described as thermopower waves, “opens up a new area of energy research, which is rare,” says Michael Strano, MIT’s Charles and Hilda Roddey Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering, who was the senior author of a paper describing the new findings that appeared in Nature Materials on March 7. The lead author was Wonjoon Choi, a doctoral student in mechanical engineering.
Like a collection of flotsam propelled along the surface by waves traveling across the ocean, it turns out that a thermal wave — a moving pulse of heat — traveling along a microscopic wire can drive electrons along, creating an electrical current.
The key ingredient in the recipe is carbon nanotubes — submicroscopic hollow tubes made of a chicken-wire-like lattice of carbon atoms. These tubes, just a few billionths of a meter (nanometers) in diameter, are part of a family of novel carbon molecules, including buckyballs and graphene sheets, that have been the subject of intensive worldwide research over the last two decades.
A previously unknown phenomenon
In the new experiments, each of these electrically and thermally conductive nanotubes was coated with a layer of a reactive fuel that can produce heat by decomposing. This fuel was then ignited at one end of the nanotube using either a laser beam or a high-voltage spark, and the result was a fast-moving thermal wave traveling along the length of the carbon nanotube like a flame speeding along the length of a lit fuse. Heat from the fuel goes into the nanotube, where it travels thousands of times faster than in the fuel itself. As the heat feeds back to the fuel coating, a thermal wave is created that is guided along the nanotube. With a temperature of 3,000 kelvins, this ring of heat speeds along the tube 10,000 times faster than the normal spread of this chemical reaction. The heating produced by that combustion, it turns out, also pushes electrons along the tube, creating a substantial electrical current.
Combustion waves — like this pulse of heat hurtling along a wire — “have been studied mathematically for more than 100 years,” Strano says, but he was the first to predict that such waves could be guided by a nanotube or nanowire and that this wave of heat could push an electrical current along that wire.
In the group’s initial experiments, Strano says, when they wired up the carbon nanotubes with their fuel coating in order to study the reaction, “lo and behold, we were really surprised by the size of the resulting voltage peak” that propagated along the wire.
After further development, the system now puts out energy, in proportion to its weight, about 100 times greater than an equivalent weight of lithium-ion battery.
The amount of power released, he says, is much greater than that predicted by thermoelectric calculations. While many semiconductor materials can produce an electric potential when heated, through something called the Seebeck effect, that effect is very weak in carbon. “There’s something else happening here,” he says. “We call it electron entrainment, since part of the current appears to scale with wave velocity.”
The thermal wave, he explains, appears to be entraining the electrical charge carriers (either electrons or electron holes) just as an ocean wave can pick up and carry a collection of debris along the surface. This important property is responsible for the high power produced by the system, Strano says.
Exploring possible applications
Because this is such a new discovery, he says, it’s hard to predict exactly what the practical applications will be. But he suggests that one possible application would be in enabling new kinds of ultra-small electronic devices — for example, devices the size of grains of rice, perhaps with sensors or treatment devices that could be injected into the body. Or it could lead to “environmental sensors that could be scattered like dust in the air,” he says.
In theory, he says, such devices could maintain their power indefinitely until used, unlike batteries whose charges leak away gradually as they sit unused. And while the individual nanowires are tiny, Strano suggests that they could be made in large arrays to supply significant amounts of power for larger devices.
The researchers also plan to pursue another aspect of their theory: that by using different kinds of reactive materials for the coating, the wave front could oscillate, thus producing an alternating current. That would open up a variety of possibilities, Strano says, because alternating current is the basis for radio waves such as cell phone transmissions, but present energy-storage systems all produce direct current. “Our theory predicted these oscillations before we began to observe them in our data,” he says.
Also, the present versions of the system have low efficiency, because a great deal of power is being given off as heat and light. The team plans to work on improving that efficiency.
Ray Baughman, director of the Nanotech Institute at the University of Texas at Dallas, who was not involved in this work, calls the research “stellar.”
The work, Baughman says, “started with a seminal initial idea, which some might find crazy, and provided exciting experimental results, the discovery of new phenomena, deep theoretical understanding, and prospects for applications.” Because it uncovered a previously unknown phenomenon, he says, it could open up “an exciting new area of investigation.”
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2010/thermopower-waves-0308
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A carbon nanotube (shown in illustration) can produce a very rapid wave of power when it is coated by a layer of fuel and ignited, so that heat travels along the tube.
Graphic: Christine Daniloff
March 8, 2010
Big power from tiny wires
New discovery shows carbon nanotubes can produce powerful waves that could be harnessed for new energy systems.
David L. Chandler, MIT News Office
(from above)
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Batteries made from this new thermopower technology would be completely nontoxic, Strano said.
"The materials we use to make these thermopower waves are organic. They're not grown naturally, but they're made of carbon. In other words, you could essentially incinerate them, or they would degrade over time, there's no heavy metal residue," Strano said.
There's another potential benefit in using a so-called thermopower battery: energy savings.
"Most people don't realize a battery sitting unused in your laptop is leaking its power away," Strano said. "If you take all the laptop batteries that are produced in one year, in the off state, they're leaking an amount of power during that year that we could store in a small nuclear reactor ... and that's power that's essentially lost and dissipated just from laptop batteries."
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/03/12/mit.research.electricity/index.html?hpt=T2
MIT researchers discover new energy source
By Shelby Lin Erdman, CNN// <![CDATA[
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http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/02/04/eco.micro.energy/index.html#cnnSTCText
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// "Research shows that a successful incentive mechanism set at the right level, like the FIT scheme, could deliver up to six percent of the UK domestic electricity demand," Jemma Robinson, Renewable Energy Association, told CNN.
When Germany introduced a similar FIT scheme 10 years ago -- but with targets of ten percent -- it started a green energy revolution in the country, turning it into a European leader in renewables.
(Hydrogen fuel at home - portable systems that use electrolysis to separate H2O to fill hydrogen cell batteries)
Called the Clean Energy Cashback, or feed-in tariff (FIT), the aim is to provide an above-market bonus that will encourage individuals and groups to invest in solar panels, wind turbines and other forms of green power.
It's the first national scheme of its kind in the UK, although FIT plans have been operating in other EU countries and at regional levels in the U.S.
Paul King, chief executive of the UK Green Building Council told CNN that the announcement will help make small scale renewables a more attractive and viable option, for householders, communities and businesses. King also believes that it will also support an emerging green industry and generate high quality jobs.
(etc.)
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/02/04/eco.micro.energy/index.html#cnnSTCText
Incentives to going 'off grid' bring power to the people
By Matt Ford, for CNN// <![CDATA[
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Three strong earthquakes strike Chile in quick succession
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Santiago, Chile (CNN) — Three strong earthquakes rocked Chile on Thursday, causing significant damage in at least one city, the country’s newly inaugurated president said Thursday.
A 6.9-magnitude earthquake hit at 11:39 a.m. local time (9:39 a.m. ET), followed by a 6.7-magnitude quake 16 minutes later, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. A third, measured at magnitude 6.0, came 27 minutes later.
( . . . )
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/03/11/chile.earthquake/index.html?hpt=T2
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Cotton that conducts electricity created
Published: March. 10, 2010 at 3:25 PM
ITHACA, N.Y., March 10 (UPI) — U.S. scientists say they have developed cotton threads that can conduct electricity as well as a metal wire, yet remain light and flexible enough to wear.
[ . . . ]
The scientists say that’s not science fiction — it’s cotton in 2010.
Using nanotechnology developed at Cornell in collaboration with universities at Bologna and Cagliari, Italy, Hinestroza and his colleagues developed a technique to permanently coat cotton fibers with electrically conductive nanoparticles.
[ etc. ]
A solar-powered dress using the newly developed technology will be featured Saturday during the annual Cornell Design League Fashion Show at the Ithaca, N.Y., university.
http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/projects/split_h2o.html
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Female WWII aviators honored with gold medal
The Associated Press - Kimberly Hefling – 1 hour ago
WASHINGTON – They flew planes during World War II but weren’t considered “real” military pilots. No flags were draped over their coffins when they died on duty.
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States Develop National Set of Standards, Hope to Improve U.S. Education
Proposals for Standard Curriculum Released, But Will Local PTA’s Resist?
By BRADLEY BLACKBURN
March 10, 2010
State governors and education official’s proposed new national standards for K-12 education today, a step President Obama believes is a key to improving the quality of the nation’s schools. The voluntary guidelines, dubbed the “common core state standards” call on states to teach specific topics in each grade level, consolidating present guidelines which vary wildly from state to state.
[ . . . ]
“What’s different about these standards is that we’ve taken time to look at the evidence that’s out there about college and career readiness and align the expectations for all students,” said Chris Minnich, director of standards for the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), that developed the guidelines with the National Governors Association (NGA).
The CCSSO and the NGA have posted hundreds of pages of draft standards to a Web site, www.corestandards.org, where they are inviting educators, students, and members of the public to give feedback before they issue a final document, which they expect to publish in the spring of this year.
[ . . .]
The Governors Association and the CCSSO are both state-run organizations, and they set out last year to create core standards. Forty-eight states agreed to participate, with Alaska and Texas sitting out. The authors looked at high-performing states and nations like Finland and Singapore to help write the guidelines.
[ etc.]
Susan Fuhrman, President of Columbia University Teachers College in New York City, believes the guidelines will be a big help to teachers.
“What teachers want most of all are clear expectations of what they should teach,” Fuhrman said. “Right now, the clearest guideline they have is the state-issued test. They don’t have a curriculum to follow in most places.”
Fuhrman said that once national standards are in place, textbooks, teacher training, and other educational tools will be developed to support teachers.
“Our whole system will be much more coherent, much more like the countries that consistently outperform us,” she said.
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http://www.upi.com/Science_News/
DNA barcoding tracks small insects
MINNEAPOLIS, March 10 (UPI) — A U.S.-led team of scientists says it has determined a technique called DNA barcoding provides a much faster way to study the spread and diet of insects.
DNA barcoding involves the identification of species from a short DNA sequence. Using that technique, researchers including University of Minnesota Associate Professor George Weiblen said they studied populations of numerous moth and butterfly species across Papua New Guinea.
Scientists chemically turn CO2 into CO
ANN ARBOR, Mich., March 10 (UPI) — U.S. and British scientists say they’ve developed a technique that chemically turns carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide using visible light, such as sunlight.
RWE and Renault team up for EV project
ESSEN, Germany, March 10 (UPI) — German utility RWE, French car maker Renault have teamed up to test electric mobility in Germany.
New, tough material is created
MANCHESTER, England, March 10 (UPI) — British scientists say they have combined chalk and polystyrene to produce a tough new material that could make other materials more durable.
China climate chief critical of U.S.
BEIJING, March 10 (UPI) — China’s chief climate official called for the United States, as the world’s most developed nation, to do more to tackle climate change.
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LED lights may be the future of broadband
BERLIN, March 10 (UPI) — German scientists say they’ve created a data connection that uses light produced by lamps to encode a wireless broadband signal.
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New, tough material is created
Published: March. 10, 2010 at 1:07 PM
MANCHESTER, England, March 10 (UPI) — British scientists say they have combined chalk and polystyrene to produce a tough new material that could make other materials more durable.
The team of scientists from the Universities of Manchester and Leeds said their technique could be used to make ceramics with high resistance to cracking — which could, in turn, be used in crack-resistant building materials and bone replacements.
“The mechanical properties of (sea) shells can rival those of man-made ceramics, which are engineered at high temperatures and pressures. Their construction helps to distribute stress over the structure and control the spread of cracks,” said Stephen Eichhorn of the University of Manchester.
“Calcium carbonate” is the main ingredient of chalk, which is very brittle and breaks easily when force is applied.
“But shells are strong and resistant to fracturing, and this is because the calcium carbonate is combined with proteins which bind the crystals together, like bricks in a wall, to make the material stronger and sometimes tougher. We have replicated nature’s addition of proteins using polystyrene to create a strong shell-like structure with similar properties to those seen in nature.”
Although further study and testing is needed, he said the research “offers a straightforward method of engineering new and tough chalk-based composite materials with a wide range of useful applications.”
The study appears in the journal Advanced Materials.
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2010/03/10/New-tough-material-is-created/UPI-53801268244422/
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http://www.yikebike.com/site/design
Weight: 10kg (22 lbs)
Frame: Carbon fibre composite
Price: £2,995 or €3,495
Drive: Electric brushless DC motor
Brakes: Electric anti-skid, regenerative
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The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is responsible for monitoring our Nation’s 170 active volcanoes (red triangles) for signs of unrest and for issuing timely warnings of hazardous activity to government officials and the public. This responsibility is carried out by scientists at the five volcano observatories operated by the USGS Volcano Hazards Program and also by State and university cooperators.
http://www.usgs.gov/hazards/volcanoes/
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The most often cited trespass against Monsanto is patent-infringement involving its seeds. It might sound innocuous enough — not unlike the recording industry’s pursuit of file sharing internet downloaders — but this is actually very serious business, and too many farmers have been ruined in the process.
More on McAllister’s supposed “crime”:
…If a farmer wants to recycle seeds from a previous crop and plant the seeds in a new crop, a process known as “seed cleaning,” he or she can be sued by Monsanto for patent infringement. The corporation insists that farmers purchase all new seeds for each crop, and, legally, Monsanto is allowed to get away with this.
Furthermore, if you’re a neighboring farmer and Monsanto seeds are naturally blown or scattered onto your farm, Monsanto can sue you, too. After all, you could be stealing their property. In this case, seeds.
Unfortunately for everybody, McAllister wasn’t involved in any of this. Monsanto simply made an example of him, as Cesca’s full story here explains, citing another serious case of harassment uncovered by Vanity Fair. Oh, and it gets worse:
From here, McAllister’s story gets really creepy. He alleges that between September, 2000 and June, 2001, Monsanto essentially stalked him. “They started following me, my family, my employees, my customers, and were interrogating people the about my business, telling them I was going to jail and they would too if they didn’t cooperate.” McAllister claims that investigators broke into his house, tapped his phones and “tailed his vehicles.”
Monsanto is being investigated by the Justice Department for anti-trust violations, since it controls 90% of the GMO market, but this isn’t enough if it can behave like an Ag Darth Vader. We need serious…what?…REGULATION–that thing that protects the interests of the greater good over a single company’s monstrous profits and tactics.
[etc.]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrea-chalupa/monsanto-watch-targeting_b_492417.html
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Bloomberg
Monsanto 7-State Probe Threatens Profit From 93% Soybean Share
March 10, 2010, 1:22 AM EST
More From Businessweek
By Alison Fitzgerald
March 10 (Bloomberg) — At least seven U.S. state attorneys general are investigating whether Monsanto Co., the world’s largest seed producer, has abused its market power to lock out competitors and raise prices.
Iowa and Illinois, whose antitrust probes Monsanto disclosed previously, have joined with Ohio, Texas, Virginia and two other states in a working group coordinating the inquiries, according to investigators, farmers and seed dealers. They declined to identify the sixth and seventh states.
The state investigations add to pressure on Monsanto over allegations of abusive competitive tactics. The U.S. Justice Department is probing the company’s marketing practices, and DuPont Co. has accused its rival in licensing litigation of anti-competitive actions. At stake are the costs to farmers who produce $80.3 billion a year in corn and soybeans, used in products ranging from Coca-Cola to cattle feed to ethanol.
(etc.)
Monsanto rose to dominance via its genetically engineered Roundup Ready seed line, which was in 93 percent of the soybeans and 82 percent of the corn produced in the U.S. last year. The gene Monsanto adds to the seeds allows crops to withstand use of its Roundup weed killer.
Cal Dalton, a farmer in Pardeeville, Wisconsin, said he switched to a competitor last year when Monsanto sought a $30 price increase, to $210 a bag, for its “triple stack” corn seed, a line that resists glyphosate, rootworm, and corn borers. Monsanto still earned a royalty on the purchase because the seeds he bought carried the Roundup Ready trait, he said.
The list price for Monsanto’s “Yieldgard VT Triple” brand of triple-stack corn seed rose to about $277.50 a bag this year from $201.83 in 2008, based on seed prices per acre provided by Powers, the spokeswoman. She declined to discuss prices or royalties individual customers pay.
( . . . )
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Pi Day and Pi Approximation Day are two holidays held to celebrate the mathematical constant π (pi) (in the mm/dd date notation: 3/14); since 3, 1 and 4 are the first three digits of π. March 14 is also the birthday of Albert Einstein and the two events are sometimes celebrated together.
Pi Approximation Day is observed on July 22, because of Archimedes‘ popular approximation of π being 22/7. However, this may be considered misleading, as all cited dates are “approximation days” (as π is an irrational number) and 22/7 is actually a closer approximation of π than 3.14. Typically, March 14 is more popular for countries using the month/day format (22/7 being an impossible date in this format), and the 22nd of July is more popular for countries using the day/month format (since 3/14 and 31/4 are impossible dates in this format).
There are a large variety of ways of celebrating Pi Day and most of them include eating pie and discussing the relevance of π. The first Pi Day celebration was held at the San Francisco Exploratorium in 1988, with staff and public marching around one of its circular spaces, then consuming fruit pies. The museum has since added pizza pies to its Pi Day menu.[1] The founder of Pi Day was Larry Shaw,[2] a now-retired physicist at the Exploratorium who still helps out with the celebrations.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology often mails its acceptance letters to be delivered to prospective students on Pi Day.[3]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi_Day
- December 21, 1:13 p.m.: The 355th day of the year (December 20 in leap years), celebrated at 1:13 for the Chinese approximation 355/113.
On Pi Day 2004, Daniel Tammet recited 22,514 decimal digits of π.[4]
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On Pi Day, one number ‘reeks of mystery’
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- Pi Day falls on March 14, which is also Albert Einstein’s birthday
- The true “randomness” of pi’s digits — 3.14 and so on — has never been proven
- The U.S. House passed a resolution supporting Pi Day in March 2009
(CNN) — The sound of meditation for some people is full of deep breaths or gentle humming. For Marc Umile, it’s “3.14159265358979…”
Whether in the shower, driving to work, or walking down the street, he’ll mentally rattle off digits of pi to pass the time. Holding 10th place in the world for pi memorization — he typed out 15,314 digits from memory in 2007 — Umile meditates through one of the most beloved and mysterious numbers in all of mathematics.
Pi, the ratio of circumference to diameter of a circle, has captivated imaginations for thousands of years — perhaps even since the first person tried to draw a perfect circle on the ground or wondered how to construct something round like a wheel. Approximately 3.14, the number has its own holiday on March 14 — 3-14, get it? — which also happens to be Albert Einstein’s birthday.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/03/12/pi.day.math/index.html?hpt=Sbin
(also from above )
Geometry: Half the circumference of a circle with a radius of 1 is exactly pi
Record for calculation: 2.7 trillion digits (by Fabrice Bellard, December 2009)
Record for memorization: 67,890 digits (by Chao Lu, 2005)
How random? There are no occurences of the sequence 123456 in the first million digits of pi
Source: “The Joy of Pi,” Pi World Ranking List
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http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/03/12/pi.digits/index.html
Pi is an irrational number that is commonly abbreviated as 3.14. Pi Day is celebrated on March 14
Editor’s note: In honor of Pi Day on Sunday, we offer this expanded look at pi, the irrational number representing the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. Some people actually memorize big chunks of this. Read our Pi Day story here.
(CNN) — 3.141592653589793238462643383279 . . .
(to 10,000 places)
Source: The WolframAlpha computational engine
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/03/12/pi.digits/index.html
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By Megan SullivanAS home to Albert Einstein for more than 20 years, Princeton overflows with legend and lore about the famous theoretical physicist, Nobel Prize winner and humanitarian. After accepting a position at the newly created Institute for Advanced Study in 1932, Einstein lived in Princeton until his death in 1955.
When Princeton resident Mimi Omiecinski needed a new idea to boost business at her Princeton Tour Company, she began researching Einstein as a tour topic and talking to Princeton merchants of a certain age who had crossed paths with the local genius.
After Googling Einstein’s March 14 birthday, however, she came across multiple entries about the mathematical constant pi. Since 3, 1 and 4 are the first three digits of pi, math enthusiasts around the world celebrate Pi Day March 14 in a myriad of ways: eating pie, throwing pie, pi recitations, pi puns.
”How could I get luckier?” Ms. Omiecinski asks. She combined her ideas and launched a Princeton Pi Day and Einstein birthday celebration, which will be held in town March 14. Princeton Merchants Association, Princeton Public Library and Palmer Square came on board to help bring Ms. Omiecinski’s idea to fruition.
(from)
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Einstein’s Masterpiece on Display
Einstein’s Original Manuscript on Display
Put your questions to Einstein, 131
| Electricity is “created” when certain chemicals react together. We use chemically- made electricity to power many machines from flashlights to a watch or sometimes a car. Yes, there are cars that run on electricity! The devices that store electricity are called batteries. Electricity can also be used to produce chemical changes.
Water is a simple chemical made from two gases — hydrogen and oxygen. Every molecule of water has two atoms of hydrogen for every atom of oxygen. H2O is the chemical formula for a molecule of water. If an electrical current is passed through water between electrodes (the positive and minus poles of a battery), the water is split into its two parts: oxygen and hydrogen. This process is called electrolysis and is used in industry in many ways, such as making metals like aluminum. If one of the electrodes is a metal, it will become covered or plated with any metal in the solution. This is how objects are silverplated. You can use electricity to split hydrogen gas out of the water similar to the process called electrolysis. Try This!
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 Sharpen each pencil at both ends.
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 Dissolve about a teaspoon of salt into the warm water and let sit for a while. The salt helps conduct the electricity better in the water.
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Cut the cardboard to fit over glass.
Push the two pencils into the cardboard, about an inch apart.
Using one piece of the electrical wire, connect one end on the positive side of the battery and the other to the black graphite (the “lead” of the pencil) at the top of the sharpened pencil. Do the same for the negative side connecting it to the second pencil top.
Place the other two ends of the pencil into the salted water.
As the electricity from the battery passes through and between the electrodes (the pencils), the water splits into hydrogen and chlorine gas, which collect as very tiny bubbles around each pencil tip.
// < Designed to fit in a garage, the charger can refuel a fuel cell electric vehicle eight hours overnight with around 0.5kilograms of hydrogen. Photo from Businesswire. Fuel cell electric vehicles can now use Honda’s solar hydrogen charging station prototype to recharge for the daily commute, approximately 10,000 miles per year. Designed to fit in a garage, the charger can refuel a fuel cell electric vehicle eight hours overnight with around 0.5 kilograms of hydrogen. Conventional solar hydrogen chargers required both an electrolyzer, a device that gathers hydrogen molecules from water, and a separate compressor unit to create high pressure hydrogen. The compressor is said to be the most expensive component in the device and also reduces system efficiency. For its new charging station, Honda re-engineered the electrolyzer to eliminate the compressor and drive down costs and size while improving system efficiency by more than 25 percent. Users can refill their vehicle overnight using less expensive off-peak electrical power, eliminating the need for hydrogen storage. During daytime peak power times, the smart grid-compatible charging station can export the electricity produced from its 6-kilowatt solar panels to the grid. The array utilizes thin-film solar cells produced by Honda Soltec Company, a subsidiary of Honda. In addition, the new charging station complements Honda’s FCX Clarity electric vehicles. With fast public charging stations for longer trips and the prototype’s nighttime slow charging for homes, the fuel cell vehicle will be more flexible on the road. The solar hydrogen station is housed at Honda R&D Americas Inc. in Los Angeles. – Oliver M. Bayani |
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