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(CC Times) A business incubator at a Maryland community college is not only helping a medical researcher with his new business, it is also providing two local students with some hands-on research experience. College students Paul Park and Tae Rho have spent their summer break helping Ji Hoon Lee conduct research to help develop new ways to detect cancer. Working with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, two faculty members from Clemson University’s Department of Environmental Engineering and Earth Science, and John Newby of the Washington County Health System, Lee expects to involve the students in the project for the next three years during their summer and winter breaks...8/18
(Popular Science) A special property of Earth's organic molecules could be caused by supernovae, a new study says — suggesting that life’s building blocks were created not on Earth, but elsewhere in the cosmos...Boyd says it might be possible to run experiments using intense neutrino sources, such as the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, to test this theory. If it’s true, it could mean that Earth’s amino acids did not arise on Earth, but elsewhere in the universe. We are all star stuff, indeed...8/18
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(Today's Medical Advancements) The Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s new accelerator-based Spallation Neutron Source is a facility that provides the most intense pulsed neutron beams in the world for scientific research and industrial development. When ORNL sought to improve the cooling jacket for the aluminum nitride plasma chamber that produces ions for the SNS, it chose Ensinger Inc. extruded TECAPEEK™ made with VICTREX® PEEK™ polymer in place of polycarbonate because of the material’s dimensional stability under pressure, low radio frequency (RF) losses, and its ability to be precisely machined resulting in a new 1-part design solution...8/18
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DOE
(Knoxville News Sentinel) Y-12's Recovery Act war chest for cleanup projects has grown to $245 million. That's about $29 million more than the plant's initial allotment of $216 million, according to contractor spokesman David Keim. While there's more money available for cleanup activities, that hasn't yet translated into new projects...8/18
(The Tennessean) When it comes to nuclear power, there is no such thing as an easy answer. The latest example of this is the proposal by the U.S. Department of Energy to use surplus material from nuclear warheads to help power Tennessee Valley Authority nuclear power plants...8/18
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National
(Wall Street Journal) As their convoy reached the barbed wire at the border crossing out of Iraq on Wednesday, the soldiers whooped and cheered. Then they scrambled out of their stifling hot armored vehicles, unfurled an American flag and posed for group photos...8/19
State & Regional
(The Commercial Appeal) Mayor A C Wharton and his suburban peers are advocating Greater Memphis as a proving ground for electric vehicles and charging stations. They believe the region can win out as one of 15 demonstration communities nationally for an electric vehicle initiative under consideration by Congress...8/18
(Knoxville News Sentinel) A Tennessee Valley Authority spokesman says the TVA's Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant is operating at 45 percent capacity after violating an Alabama Department of Environmental Management permit...8/18
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energy & science policy
(NPR) Renewable energy advocates are looking to geothermal sources to provide electricity to help California meet its goal of generating 33 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2020. But some conventional geothermal sites are, quite literally, running out of steam...8/19
8/18 A daily report on U.S. energy policy
[ORNL users only]
- US defends oil spill calculations
- BOEM opens misconduct hotline
- Sandia gets advanced computing project
- DOE nuclear-waste panels to meet
science & technology
(NY Times) Most research on renewable energy has focused on replacing the electricity that now comes from burning coal and natural gas. But the spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the reliance on Middle East imports and the threat of global warming are reminders that oil is also a pressing worry. A lot of problems could be solved with a renewable replacement for oil-based gasoline and diesel in the fuel tank — either a new liquid fuel or a much better battery...8/18
(USA Today) U.S. astronomers every decade prioritize their goals and the gadgets, spacecraft and telescopes, needed to reach them. In the newly-released National Research Council report, New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics, headed by Stanford's Roger Blandford, astronomers plot the astrophysics agenda from 2012 to 2022...8/17
(Discovery News) Animals have been on Earth for at least 650 million years, suggest recently found primitive sponge fossils from South Australia. This discovery pushes back the fossil record for animals by about 70 million years, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Geoscience...8/17
(National Geographic News) In a dry, windy canyon not far from San Francisco, landfill operator Waste Management and German gas refiner Linde are using technology typically found at massive natural gas fields to turn trash into liquid natural gas...8/16
Other Stories
(Wall Street Journal) A surge of drug violence in Mexico's business capital and richest city has prompted an outcry from business leaders who on Wednesday took out full-page ads asking President Felipe Calderón to send in more soldiers to stem the violence...8/19
(Reuters) The U.S. military will conduct an anti-submarine warfare exercise with South Korea early next month, sending a message to the North that Washington is committed to defending its ally, the Pentagon said on Wednesday...8/18
(Forbes) Government-run, defined-benefit plans are collapsing, and employers have the solution...[Commentary] 8/18
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Last U.S. Combat Brigade Leaves Iraq