Skyrocketing oil prices and concerns about security of supply are encouraging many researchers to consider the potential advantage of plant-derived biofuels. Moving from fossil fuels to biofuels is still facing questions about its practicality. Moreover, is it possible to avoid contamination in biofuels?

Right now, many countries are using several plants, including miscanthus, switchgrass, hemp, corn, poplar, willow, and sugarcane to produce biofuels. As a solution to all these problems, researchers are looking for crops other than these, which are already been cultivated for commercial purpose.

In this category, Willow, Hemp and switchgrass, which are already being used in various industries such as rope making, basket making, etc., are likely to be the future target for biofuels. As an advantage, these crops do not compete with food crops.

But, various views, doubts and complexities leaves us in a dilemma. International Water Management Institute, which led a five-year global study on water involving more than 700 researchers, found that if China and India pursue their current biofuel plans, they would face water scarcity by 2030.

Goran Berndes, a researcher at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, expressed the problem in following words: “If you need less land, you cannot be sure you need less water.”

Nestle, the world’s largest food company is happily ready to lobby biofuel crops but, showed concerns about the growing prices of food crops.

To avoid such a calamity researchers are all set to harness second generation biofuel plants to avoid energy crisis as well as rising conflict about food crops which asks a genuine question that, whether is it more important to feed our cars than starving people.

There is some great news for all environment lovers. The nuclear fusion project has been given the go ahead, and hopefully, it will not be long before the team of physicists led by Mike Dunne of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxford, UK, will be able to successfully reproduce the power of the sun on earth.

Amazing is it not? To think how far science has progressed, and that now we will be able to replicate the sun’s energy! Nuclear fusion is the answer for the energy crisis which is looming ahead of us.

What is nuclear fusion? It is a nuclear reaction, in which, two light nuclei (like hydrogen) combine to form heavier nuclei (such as helium). Excess binding energy is released during this process, and it is this energy which scientists hope to harness fruitfully.

Nuclear fusion is not as easy as it seems, because, a considerable energy barrier must be overcome before fusion can occur. The energy barrier is produced because two naked nuclei always repel each other due to the presence of electrostatic force between their positively charged protons.

Do you know it is for the last 50 years that research is undergoing for the production of fusion power? It has definitely not been easy. Hydrogen bombs have been the most successful fusion reactions produced till date.

Well, one fervently hopes that scientists will soon be able to produce fusion power, and thus lessen our dependence on the fossil fuels.

When the world is getting serious with its global warming and greenhouse gas emissions issues, more and more energy producers are shifting to alternative or renewal resources to produce power.

But, it does not seem sufficient to just resort to alternative energy to stay in the ‘competitive paradigm shifting.’ To berge ahead, the companies are pushing hard to create something different, atleast enough to make a headline.

Perhaps, cuing with these lines, the German engineering giant Siemens has planned to build a wind farm. True, wind farms are no more a new concept, but they are planning to erect the ‘world’s first floating wind turbine!’

Alexandra Bech Gjoerv, the head of the energy division at Norsk Hydro — the Norwegian firm spearheading the project – said,

It’s attractive to have windmills out at sea. We can produce a lot of energy, out of sight.

Explaining the advantage of having a floating wind turbine, Walt Patterson, an energy expert at the Chatham House think-tank in London, said,

It’s a logical step. Floating turbines will be easier to make because you can do most of the fabrication on land and then float it out to sea.

But, the questing of keeping the turbines secure in the North Sea, where waves can reach 30m in height, arises. To face the waves, three cables will be loosely anchoring the base of the turbines to the seabed, a technology similar to that used for offshore oil platforms. But, this is with much greener credentials.

The prototype is initially expected to generate about five megawatts of electricity, which can supply at least 1,000 homes. And once successful, a small offshore windpark could be built by 2014, which would consist of about 200 turbines.

The floating wind turbine is expected to be up and running in under two years. Hope this would help environmental campaigners chill down with their claims that turbines are an eyesore for tourists – endangering the tourism industry.

What Sustainable Development Indicators are doing is turning the generic concept of sustainability into action and Zurich-based SAM Group within the Dow Jones and STOXX classifications is currently providing a standardized set of indicators for this purpose.

Continuing their assessments based on companies’ economic, environmental, and social performance, to measure and monitor sustainable development, this year Dow Jones sustainability indexes has ranked Norsk Hydro, a Norwegian aluminum company as overall best performer.

Norsk Hydro’s claimed the top position as it did a great job in risk management and compliance systems citing an example for innovative techniques for better energy use with lower emissions.

While BMW, for the third consecutive year grasped the top rating in automotive index for variety of achievements, including its efficiency enhancements and its steady work on developing hybrid technologies.

On the other side as strong candidate in the social dimension, human capital development, corporate citizenship/philanthropy, social reporting, animal testing and bioethics, Novo Nordisk ranked as best-in-class in healthcare – one of 18 global super sectors in Dow Jones Sustainability indexes.

Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes are the first global indexes tracking the financial performance of the leading sustainability-driven companies worldwide since 1999 and analyzes almost 2500 companies rating them based on economic, environmental, and social performance every year. This year, 42 companies have entered the index while 33 will loose the eligibility, thus dropping off the list.

For the last few years sustainability indicators, indices and reporting systems gained growing popularity in both the public and private sectors and mainly intended to effect actual policy and practices to put the concept of sustainable development into action.

Lifeforce will reportedly draw 480-millilitre of blood from a healthy individual interested in this service. The white blood cells will be extracted from this sample to be stored at 196 degree Celsius temperature.

Del DelaRonde, co-founder of the company in Newport, UK, said that the stored sample would contain a complete range of white blood cells of an individual, which can be later generated when necessary. The process of regeneration will be conducted by exposing the stored sample to natural growth stimulators like interleukin-2.

The newly generated white blood cells can be then re-infused to a person’s body to render extra strength to the immune system and help it in fighting a fatal disease. The process would be similar to ‘adoptive therapies’ conducted on cancer patients.

According to Del DelaRonde, as quoted in New Science -

Whole new armies of white blood cells could be grown in the lab and re-infused into the patient. In the case of HIV, which progressively destroys immune cells, the process could be repeated perhaps once a year, by multiplying up and re-storing fractions of the samples

However, the system has one drawback. It might not be possible to regenerate all types of white blood cells. Some types of white blood cell, such as macrophages, have been seen as not to survive freezing conditions.

The cost of this service would be 88 dollars initially and a monthly fees of 25 dollars.
The service seems promising from the point of view that it is apparently creating a ‘back-up’ for the immune system of a human body, providing extra support to the body in time of need.

How would it be if the viruses causing HIV and hepatitis C could be zapped out from the blood stream of an infected patient? No, this is no another Hollywood creation of medical wizard, but efforts of a team of scientists, who knows no word synonym to ‘impossible.’

A team of researchers have come up with a new challenge with the use of lasers. Yes, they have meticulously used ‘laser’ to blast viruses out of blood!

The new innovative technique uses a low-power laser beam with a pulse lasting just fractions of a second to rid isolated blood of dangerous pathogens – it eventually brings challenges in disinfecting blood for transfusions, and perhaps HIV and hepatitis C s well.

Blood transfusion always leaves the one receiving it with the risk of developing the infection, as the prevailing techniques, which use UV irradiation and radioisotopes, can leave a trail of blood components mutated or damaged, or both.

Johns Hopkins University student Shaw-Wei David Tsen says,

Our laser repeatedly sends a rapid pulse of light and then relaxes, allowing the solution surrounding the virus to cool off. This significantly reduces heat damage to normal blood components.

I had to repeat the experiment several times to convince myself that the laser worked this well.

So, once proved successful, the new laser technique can eventually replace the ultrasound techniques by penetrating energy-absorbing water surrounding the viruses, followed by vibrating the pathogen directly.

National Tuscan Archipelago Park, which is already popular among tourists is ready to become the first National park completely free from oil.

Mario Tozzi, the chief of the Tuscan Archipelago National Park, is preparing to put a proposal to vote in front of inhabitants of the Island to ensure the end of dependency on fossil fuels. Absence of fossil fuels will liberate the island from pollutants mainly responsible for environmental crisis such as global warming and increase in greenhouse gases.

This proposal also includes generation of electricity by renewable sources, switch from gas to biofuels, and increase in recycling of the islands’ rubbish and improve the management of water resources.

Minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, the leader of Italy’s Green Party readily accepted this wonderful proposal without much of thinking.

If everything happened according to the proposal, Elba will make environmental history by being first Park going totally oil free.

With a hope to enhance the beauty of this Italian gem, Tozzi said, “It would be the first oil-free national park in Europe, perhaps the first in the world.”

The archipelago, which is of historical significance in the Mediterranean for thousands of years, is made up of Elba, the largest of the islands, - Pianosa, Capraia, Montecristo, Giglio, Gorgona and Giannutri.

This step seems promising and ready to let you experience the tranquil beauty which nature holds for everyone without asking much in return. All we need to learn is that nature has enough beauty to amaze us and need not to be altered artificially.

Wind is a great source of renewable energy if harnessed properly. We have already told you about some turbines that can be used as a chimney and also a DIY Vertical Axis Wind Turbine. All these designs have one thing in common that is the propeller of the long blades that swing with the force of wind and hence generate power.

These propellers though are good for humans but not so good for avian life. Birds often get caught in these blades and die. Mariah Power wants to keep this avian life safe without sacrificing the need for renewable energy with their new invention dubbed the Windspire.

Windspire is a propeller-free design that rises 30 feet into the air and is just 2 feet wide. The design is quiet and also completely safe for birds. This propeller-free 1KW Windspire promises to produce 1,900 KW Hours annually if winds average 12 mph. Mariah Power has also claimed that the installation is as easy as it can be and the design does not require frequent maintenance.

This amazing turbine will be available this fall at a price of about $4K.

Mt Etna started erupting late Tuesday, throwing volcanic dust and ash into the atmosphere and the surroundings without endangering life.

Europe’s largest active volcano Mt Etna on the east coast of Italy in Sicily is in an almost constant state of eruption for almost half a million year, which can be extremely dangerous at times but peaceful most of the time. On Tuesday, Etna started spewing volcanic ash into the surroundings, down the mountain, threatening life but without causing danger. Unlike explosive eruptions, Tuesday’s eruption only ignited the darkness, making visible the entire landscape.

Violent and extremely hazardous eruptions have taken place earlier causing mammoth damage to man and property. Etna is used to explosive and effusive eruptions alternately threatening people living on its slopes and in the surrounding areas. Amidst the dangers it poses, its fertile volcanic soils support agriculture, particularly vineyards and orchards flourish across its lower slopes and the Plain of Catania to the south.

Volcanoes usually occur on plate boundaries. The entire Pacific rim associates itself with volcanoes. Etna, Stromboli, Vesuvious form a chain of volcanoes in the Mediterranean with a devastating history.
Etna’s eruptive history is itself a maze of explosions and peaceful spewing, making it one of the most active volcanoes on earth.

In the midst of a growing concern about pollution ahead of the 2008 Olympics, China is coming down heavily on the drug industry after focusing on polluted rivers in July. China’s environmental watchdog has closed down or suspended 649 firms and given dozens of others a deadline to improve their waste disposal or face shutdown.

The last standards for Industrial water wastes and emissions in China were set in 1990’s, with no explicit rules or necessities for pharmaceutical companies. In March, the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) published a list of 6,066 seriously polluting companies, out of which 117 were pharmaceutical firms.

Zhang Buyong, of the Guangzhou-based South Medicine Economic Research Institution, was quoted as saying:

Due to fierce competition, and to minimize costs, drug companies tend not to prioritize waste control and environmental protection.

Polluters along two of China’s main rivers have defied a decade-old clean-up effort, leaving much of the water unfit to touch, let alone drink, and a risk to a sixth of the population, state media said last week.

Half the checkpoints along the Huai River and its tributaries in central and eastern China showed pollution of ‘Grade 5′ or worse the top of the dial in key toxins, meaning that the water was unfit for human contact and may not be fit even for irrigation, national legislators were told.

As it is China’s pharmaceutical industry, replete with firms that churn out copycat drugs, often in violation of patents, and unproven or fake medicine, remains in desperate need of reform. I wonder how willing these industries would be in trying to turn more environmentally savvy.

Ethiopian authorities have come up with cruel plans to kill thousands of stray dogs ahead of the Coptic millennium celebrations next week. They are to be fed meat laced with strychnine, a cheap and powerful poison often used to kill rats that causes a painful death. The reason sited for the killings is the eradication of rabies.

Kassahun Addis in a column in this week’s edition of the Sub-Saharan Informer, a weekly newspaper is quoted to have said:

Dogicide is an act that should be condemned in the strongest words possible, and a cause worth fighting for,

Ethiopia follows the Coptic calendar, which is about seven years behind the more common Gregorian. Among the celebrations scheduled is a concert by the U.S. pop group Black Eyed Peas in a $20 million hall being built for the occasion. The celebrations are expected to draw tourists from around the world.

Things seem to be really stirring in the country in preparation for the celebrations: a week ago, a government-funded private organization said it would move thousands of homeless people from the capital to the countryside ahead of the celebration, promising to help them with food, shelter and medicine.

Then the Great Ethiopia Run, a 10-kilometer (6.2-mile) race organized by distance legend Haile Gebrselassie that has drawn 30,000 runners, was postponed because of unspecified security concerns ahead of next month’s millennium celebrations. The race, scheduled for Sept. 9, was moved to November.

Instead of the barbaric death sentence, these dogs need treatment and vaccination. The authorities should sterilize street dogs and only those with rabies or chronic conditions should be killed but through more painlessly means.