Detroit automakers have asked the Bush administration for hundreds of millions of dollars to help develop hybrid cars. They say they need government support to complete research and development into lithium-ion battery technology, a crucial component in bringing the cars to the market. ( Washington Post)
School cafeterias are looks radically different ans food actvists and school reformers are changing lunch menus. The food student intake is becoming as important ar reading, writing, and arithmatic. Many kids aren't turning their
noses up at the new offerings. In fact, according to a survey of food
service directors, french fries are decreasing in popularity and
interest in carrots is skyrocketing.( Seattle P-I)
School Lunch Reform
Creating something valuable out of discarded single use products is a basic tenant of the environmental movement. A new system for converting trash into ethanol and methanol could help reduce the amount of waste piling up in landfills while displacing a large fraction of the fossil fuels used to power vehicles in the United States. ( Technology Review)
While preserving and restoring forests is unquestionably good for the natural environment, new scientific studies are concluding that preservation and restoration of forests outside the tropics will do little or nothing to help slow climate change. And some projects intended to slow the heating of the planet may be accelerating it instead. ( NY Times)
Corn, one of America's oldest crops, is now being used for everything from antifreeze to fibers to forks. Replacing items once made from fossil fuels. In research labs around the US, scientists are testing a new crop of resins and polymers derived from corn. ( Philly Inquirer)
Pass the goat curry please. Recently a number of natural compounds--such as resveratrol from red wine and omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil--have begun to receive close scrutiny for thier healing properties. Turmeric, an orange-yellow powder from an Asian plant, Curcuma longa, has joined this list. No longer is it just an ingredient in vindaloos and tandooris that, since ancient times, has flavored food and prevented spoilage. ( Scientific American)
Scanning the night sky for flying saucers might be futile. But planet earth could have been colonzied by meteor free- riding space microbes billions of years ago. Experiments by an international team of researchers back a
controversial theory that life flourished on Earth after primitive
organisms arrived aboard a meteorite, itself gouged from Mars by a
giant impact. ( Guardian Unlimited)
Charles Cockell Astrobiology
Giraffe's are the supermodels of the African savannah, pouty- lipped creatures with super-long legs and inordinate amounts of sex appeal. Unfortunately, being easy on the eyes isn't enough to ensure their long-term survival outside of game preserves and animal parks. ( CS Monitor)
George Bush is preparing to make a historic shift in his position on
global warming when he makes his State of the Union speech later this
month, say senior Downing Street officials. (Guardian Unlimited)
Sir Nicholas Stern G8 Summit
