Sanchez completes Texas shale divestment
Houston (UPI) Oct 15, 2015 -
U.S. shale company Sanchez Energy said it closed on the sale of midstream assets located in the western section of the Eagle Ford basin in southern Texas.
Sanchez said it received about $345 million in cash for its midstream, or transportation, assets in the western section of the shale basin. The company in early October announced it entered into a joint venture with Targa Resources Pa ...
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China billionaires overtake US: survey
Shanghai (AFP) Oct 15, 2015 -
The number of billionaires in China has overtaken that of the United States for the first time, an annual survey said Thursday, calling it a "turning point" for the super-wealthy.
Communist-ruled China now has 596 billionaires, up a "staggering" 242 over the last year, Shanghai-based luxury magazine publisher Hurun Report said, surpassing the 537 Americans.
"The world used to look to Ame ...
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Boeing showcases lightest metal ever
Malibu, Calif. (UPI) Oct 15, 2015 -
Microlattice is 99.99 percent air. But it's not air, it's a metal - the "lightest metal ever made," according to aerospace giant Boeing. It's so light, it takes several seconds for a sizable chunk of the metal to fall to the ground, floating like a feather.
The metal, first described in 2011 scientific paper, is the product of HRL Laboratories, a collaboration between engineers at Boei ...
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Nuclear waste ship leaves France for Australia
Cherbourg, France (AFP) Oct 15, 2015 -
A ship carrying 25 tonnes of nuclear waste left France for Australia on Thursday despite protests from environmental campaigners who said they were concerned about "deficiencies" in the vessel.
The BBC Shanghai left the northern French port of Cherbourg after getting approval from local officials who carried out an inspection on Wednesday and is due to reach Australia on November 27.
Gre ...
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Australia approves India-backed Adani mine despite fears for reef
Sydney (AFP) Oct 15, 2015 -
Australia Thursday approved a controversial Indian-backed project to build one of the world's biggest coal mines despite conservationists' fears it threatens the Great Barrier Reef and vulnerable species while worsening global climate change.
The Aus$16.5 billion (US$12.1 billion) project in Galilee Basin in Queensland state has attracted fierce criticism from environmentalists who say the d ...
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Quantum coherent-like state observed in a biological protein for the first time
Washington DC (SPX) Oct 15, 2015 -
If you take certain atoms and make them almost as cold as they possibly can be, the atoms will fuse into a collective low-energy quantum state called a Bose-Einstein condensate. In 1968 physicist Herbert Frohlich predicted that a similar process at a much higher temperature could concentrate all of the vibrational energy in a biological protein into its lowest-frequency vibrational mode. Now sci ...
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Latest experiment at Large Hadron Collider reports first results
Boston MA (SPX) Oct 15, 2015 -
After a two-year hiatus, the Large Hadron Collider, the largest and most powerful particle accelerator in the world, began its second run of experiments in June, smashing together subatomic particles at 13 teraelectronvolts (TeV) - the highest energy ever achieved in a laboratory. Physicists hope that such high-energy collisions may produce completely new particles, and potentially simulate the ...
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Analysis shows greenhouse gas emissions similar for shale, crude oil
Lemont IL (SPX) Oct 16, 2015 -
The U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory this week released a pair of studies on the efficiency of shale oil production excavation. The reports show that shale oil production generates greenhouse gas emissions at levels similar to traditional crude oil production.
The research, which was conducted in collaboration with Stanford University and the University of California ...
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New UT study highlights environmental, economic shortcomings of federal biofuel laws
Knoxville TN (SPX) Oct 16, 2015 -
The federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and its overreliance on corn ethanol has created additional environmental problems in its 10-year history, resulting in unmet targets for cutting air pollution, water contamination and soil erosion, concludes a new study released by University of Tennessee researchers.
In fact, the authors - Drs. Daniel G. De La Torre Ugarte and Burton C. English o ...
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French love affair with diesel set to end
Paris (AFP) Oct 15, 2015 -
France's long love affair with diesel is set to draw to a close after the government announced a rise in the price of the fuel just weeks ahead of a major climate conference in Paris.
The country's environment minister also said that energy giant Engie, which is partly owned by the state, was going to stop investing in the development of coal-fired power plants, the biggest source of man-mad ...
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Japan restarts second reactor despite opposition
Tokyo (AFP) Oct 15, 2015 -
Japan on Thursday restarted a second nuclear reactor after a shutdown triggered by the 2011 Fukushima crisis, as the government pushes to return to a cheaper energy source despite widespread public opposition.
Utility Kyushu Electric Power said it restarted the number-two reactor at Sendai, about 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) southwest of Tokyo at 10:30 am (0130 GMT).
The same power plant ...
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Tesla cars can now almost drive themselves
San Francisco (AFP) Oct 15, 2015 -
High-end electric vehicle maker Tesla is taking a major step toward self-driving cars by installing new autopilot software Thursday in North America to automatically change lanes, manage speed and even hit the brakes.
Self-driving capabilities - previously limited to cars tested by technology titans such as Google - hit the streets "overnight" with the latest Tesla Version 7.0 software, th ...
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VW to recall 8.5 mn vehicles in Europe as Italian police raid offices
Frankfurt (AFP) Oct 15, 2015 -
Volkswagen said Thursday it will recall a total of 8.5 million diesel vehicles Europe-wide as police raided the carmaker's office in Italy and those of its sports car unit Lamborghini over a global pollution-cheating scandal.
The massive recall in all 28 of the EU's member states would begin in January 2016 while for countries outside the bloc, the company is still examining which vehicles w ...
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New crystal captures carbon from humid gas
Stockholm, Sweden (SPX) Oct 16, 2015 -
A new material with micropores might be a way to fight climate change. Scientists have created crystals that capture carbon dioxide much more efficiently than previously known materials, even in the presence of water.
One way to mitigate climate change could be to capture carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air. So far this has been difficult, since the presence of water prevents the adsorption ...
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