http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Could sustainable architecture address pollution, climate change and resource depletion by helping us build self-sufficient, off-grid, housing from "waste", including vehicle tires and metal drinks containers? That's the question researchers at the University of South Australia hope to answer in the International Journal of Sustainable Design. http://www.physorg.com/news174663218.html Space & Earth Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:20:11 EST news174663218 (AP) -- Residents of a West Bank village with no electricity have been helped out of the darkness by unlikely benefactors - a group of Israelis who installed solar panels and wind turbines to illuminate the Palestinians' makeshift homes. http://www.physorg.com/news174290376.html Technology Fri, 09 Oct 2009 07:10:02 EST news174290376 AES Geo Energy, a Bulgarian unit of US energy giant AES Corporation, launched on Tuesday the largest 156-megawatt wind farm in Bulgaria, the company said. http://www.physorg.com/news174063976.html Technology Tue, 06 Oct 2009 16:20:03 EST news174063976 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new theory based on studies of locations of large landmarks in Britain, such as stone structures, hill forts and earthworks, suggests they were part of a grid used for navigation around 5,000 years ago, which implies people at the time were not as primitive as previously thought. http://www.physorg.com/news172480666.html Other Sciences Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:18:24 EST news172480666 The Frankfurt auto show hummed with talk of electric vehicles Wednesday but experts predict cars will roll on a variety of power sources for a while. http://www.physorg.com/news172328096.html Technology Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:40:13 EST news172328096 (AP) -- Targeting more federal money to support the auto industry, the House on Wednesday approved an expansion of government-led research into making cars and trucks more fuel-efficient. http://www.physorg.com/news172317861.html Technology Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:20:05 EST news172317861 (PhysOrg.com) -- Encouraged by the success of grid computing in Europe, scientists there set out to help their Latin American colleagues develop grid capability. The result today is a thriving trans-Atlantic collaboration. http://www.physorg.com/news171790015.html Technology Thu, 10 Sep 2009 08:27:31 EST news171790015 Europe has turned its early belief and investment in the potential of e-Infrastructures and virtual research into a position of great strength, especially in e-Science and grid technology, such as the GÉANT network dedicated to research and education. http://www.physorg.com/news171547220.html Technology Mon, 07 Sep 2009 13:10:01 EST news171547220 (PhysOrg.com) -- In a first step toward turning highways into energy-generating solar panels, the Sagle, Idaho-based startup Solar Roadways has recently received a $100,000 grant from the US Department of Transportation (DOT). The company will use the money to build a prototype of its Solar Road Panel, made from solar cells and glass, that is meant to replace petroleum-based asphalt on roads and in parking lots. http://www.physorg.com/news171545860.html Technology Mon, 07 Sep 2009 12:38:32 EST news171545860 (PhysOrg.com) -- The U.S. will need to expand and modernize its outdated power transmission grid to incorporate more renewable energy sources, but balkanized ownership and regulation are going to make that process slow and difficult, according to a new Duke University analysis. http://www.physorg.com/news170955192.html Technology Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:34:33 EST news170955192 (PhysOrg.com) -- Solar flares are amongst the most dangerous cosmic phenomena man has ever known. Though they pose no harm to humans, their effect on technology is vast. When they occur, they possess the capability to knock out satellites orbiting earth and bring down power grids that provide electricity to millions of people. In order to avoid catastrophe physicists around the globe are working to accurately forecast these solar flares. http://www.physorg.com/news170535071.html Physics Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:51:47 EST news170535071 Barring the occasional thunderstorm, most Americans take the electric current behind their power buttons for granted, and assume the juice will be there when they're ready to fire up an appliance or favorite tech toy. Little do most know, the strain on our electric grid - which has led to rolling brownouts and the massive 2003 blackout that left 40 million people across the Northeast in the dark - will only intensify in coming years. http://www.physorg.com/news170438265.html Technology Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:10:03 EST news170438265 (AP) -- Ford Motor Co. said Tuesday its future electric cars will "talk" to power grids across the country, part of an effort to drive interest in alternative energy vehicles. http://www.physorg.com/news169837918.html Technology Tue, 18 Aug 2009 18:12:41 EST news169837918 Troubled auto giant General Motors said Tuesday its new electric sedan, the Chevrolet Volt, will be marketed in 2011 as the first mass produced vehicle capable of achieving three-digit fuel savings. http://www.physorg.com/news169212740.html Technology Tue, 11 Aug 2009 12:50:01 EST news169212740 (AP) -- The race to build a "smarter" electrical grid could have a dark side. Security experts are starting to show the dangers of equipping homes and businesses with new meters that enable two-way communication with utilities. http://www.physorg.com/news168270648.html Technology Fri, 31 Jul 2009 14:51:33 EST news168270648 (PhysOrg.com) -- Using solar panels, wind turbines, appliance monitoring, and on-site energy storage, General Electric has a plan to enable homeowners to cut their annual energy consumption (from the electric grid) to zero, in some cases, and at least minimize consumption in others. GE is piloting the technology this year, and hopes to commercialize the system by 2015. http://www.physorg.com/news166965770.html Technology Thu, 16 Jul 2009 12:23:15 EST news166965770 (PhysOrg.com) -- A huge amount of computing power sits idle most of the time, and new technologies enabling the sharing of resources aim to capitalise on that. Now European researchers have developed software to simultaneously run applications on very different IT infrastructures. http://www.physorg.com/news166719520.html Technology Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:10:01 EST news166719520 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have designed a synthetic tree that traps carbon dioxide from the air in an attempt to combat growing emissions. The device looks less like a tree and more like a small building, but it can collect carbon about 1,000 times faster than a real tree. One synthetic tree could absorb one ton of carbon dioxide per day, an amount equivalent to that produced by about 20 cars, on average. After being trapped in a chamber, the carbon would be compressed and stored in liquid form for sequestration. http://www.physorg.com/news166374180.html Technology Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:20:01 EST news166374180 (PhysOrg.com) -- A tiny grid pattern has led materials scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Institute of Solid State Physics in Russia to an unexpected finding -the surprisingly strong and long-range effects of certain electromagnetic nanostructures used in data storage. Their recently reported findings may add new scientific challenges to the design and manufacture of future ultra-high density data storage devices. http://www.physorg.com/news165682221.html Physics Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:50:57 EST news165682221 From searching for cures for disease to monitoring the Earth`s atmosphere, grid computing has become essential to data-intensive research. But accessing limited grid resources is not always a simple task. European researchers are making it easier. http://www.physorg.com/news165240346.html Technology Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:06:47 EST news165240346 Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have discovered that a reduction in mechanical strain at the boundaries of crystal grains can significantly improve the performance of high-temperature superconductors (HTS). Their results* could lead to lower cost and significantly improved performance of superconductors in a wide variety of applications, such as power transmission, power grid reliability and advanced physics research. http://www.physorg.com/news164457791.html Physics Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:10:02 EST news164457791 One of the issues that comes with plug-in autos, whether they are hybrid or straight-up electric, is the ability to charge the battery. It can be difficult to charge batteries on the go, and it can take hours recharge a car battery to useful capacity. However, with increased emphasis placed on the development of cars that rely less on gasoline, it is little surprise that researchers and inventors are working on the problem of charging. Two of the more interesting efforts include roads that can recharge batteries and batteries designed to charge up faster. http://www.physorg.com/news163358855.html Technology Thu, 04 Jun 2009 18:27:56 EST news163358855 (PhysOrg.com) -- In nature, trees pull vast amounts of water from their roots up to their leaves hundreds of feet above the ground through capillary action, but now scientists at the University of Rochester have created a simple slab of metal that lifts liquid using the same principle -but does so at a speed that would make nature envious. http://www.physorg.com/news163160428.html Physics Tue, 02 Jun 2009 11:20:53 EST news163160428 (PhysOrg.com) -- A web browser that can understand technical terms in life sciences and automatically find additional resources and services has been developed by European researchers. It could lead to a new generation of intelligent search engines. http://www.physorg.com/news162052295.html Technology Wed, 20 May 2009 15:32:22 EST news162052295 (PhysOrg.com) -- Carbon nanotubes are at the center of the nanoelectronics research movement, with scientists making great progress toward getting nanotube-based electronic devices into the hands of consumers. But one area of carbon nanotube research where there has been considerably less success is creating repeating, regular patterns onto individual nanotubes, a task necessary for a key goal of nanoelectronics: patterning transistors directly onto nanotube surfaces. http://www.physorg.com/news161950586.html Nanotechnology Tue, 19 May 2009 11:17:36 EST news161950586 Continuing its expansion into lucrative business niches, Cisco Systems on Monday will announce its entrance into the smart grid infrastructure market, which the company estimates will grow to $20 billion a year within the next five years. http://www.physorg.com/news161875257.html Technology Mon, 18 May 2009 14:21:38 EST news161875257 Cloud computing is a hot topic in the technology world these days. Even if you're not a tech-phile, chances are if you've watched a lot of television or skimmed a business magazine, you've heard someone talking about cloud computing as the way of the future. While it's difficult to predict the future, a cloud computing infrastructure project developed at Argonne National Lab, called Nimbus, is demonstrating that cloud computing's potential is being realized now. http://www.physorg.com/news161026777.html Technology Fri, 08 May 2009 18:40:12 EST news161026777 America's power grid today resembles the country's canal system of the 19th Century. A marvel of engineering for its time, the canal system eventually could not keep pace with the growing demands of transcontinental transportation. http://www.physorg.com/news160942405.html Technology Thu, 07 May 2009 19:14:19 EST news160942405 (AP) -- Shrouded in secrecy, the U.S. government's policies on how and when to wage cyber warfare are ill-formed, lack adequate oversight and require a broad public debate, a new report by the National Research Council says. http://www.physorg.com/news160312424.html Technology Thu, 30 Apr 2009 12:14:10 EST news160312424 Electric vehicle owners can plug in their cars and forget about them, knowing they'll get the cheapest electricity available and won't crash the grid - using a new technology called the Smart Charger Controller. Developed at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the controller automatically recharges electric vehicles during times of least cost to the consumer and lower demand for power. Widespread use of these devices could help advance a smart power grid. http://www.physorg.com/news160304599.html Technology Thu, 30 Apr 2009 10:04:56 EST news160304599