Santa Fe Institute researchers look for life's lower limits

Santa Fe Institute researchers look for life's lower limits Santa Fe NM (SPX) Feb 07, 2017 - When energy and nutrients abound, a bacterium will repair itself while synthesizing new parts to create a twin and then split, all as quickly as conditions allow. But if resources shrink, so does growth rate. The cell responds by shunting its dwindling supplies from replication to repair, shutting down processes until it's running a skeleton crew to survive. Below a crucial level, it's all over. ... more

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Rescuers battle to reach Afghan avalanche victims

Rescuers battle to reach Afghan avalanche victims Kabul (AFP) Feb 6, 2017 - Rescuers are battling to reach survivors of avalanches in Afghanistan's remote and mountainous north, as the official nationwide death toll neared 120 and fears grew for dozens still believed trapped under the snow. Aid is being delivered by helicopter to the worst-hit province of Nuristan, where at least 64 people have been killed including 53 in one devastated village, provincial governor ... more

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Ski resort brings winter cheer to Iraq displaced

Ski resort brings winter cheer to Iraq displaced Korek Resort, Iraq (AFP) Feb 6, 2017 - In the fledgling ski resort of Korek in war-torn Iraq, the only battles are snow fights between visitors who often leave their traumatic memories at the foot of the slopes. That's what Fawaz Behnam and many of the children and adults frolicking in knee-deep powder around him like about the idyllic tourist spot. He and his family were in Mosul when the Islamic State group seized the city ... more

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Killing off rivals makes for happy families, bacteria study finds

Killing off rivals makes for happy families, bacteria study finds Edinburgh, UK (SPX) Feb 07, 2017 - A grisly method by which bacteria dispatch their distant relatives also creates conditions in which the attackers can thrive, research has found. Families of bacteria cells are known to kill adjacent, unrelated cells by injecting them with toxins - now researchers have found that cells which compete in this way are able to flourish. Their approach creates surviving pockets of closely relat ... more

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Wetlands play vital role in carbon storage, study finds

Wetlands play vital role in carbon storage, study finds Gambier OH (SPX) Feb 07, 2017 - Human activity and development are correlated with reduced carbon storage in wetland soils, a new study published in Nature Communications shows. The study, the first conducted using soil samples from wetlands on a national scale, sheds light on the important role that wetlands play in storing carbon in soil, keeping carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. The study was authored by Kenyon Co ... more

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Six cosmic catastrophes that could wipe out life on Earth

Six cosmic catastrophes that could wipe out life on Earth Nottingham, UK (SPX) Feb 03, 2017 - If you ask yourself what the biggest threat to human existence is you'd probably think of nuclear war, global warming or a large-scale pandemic disease. But assuming we can overcome such challenges, are we really safe? Living on our blue little planet seems safe until you are aware of what lurks in space. The following cosmic disasters are just a few ways humanity could be severely endangered or ... more

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North American activity pulls oil prices lower

North American activity pulls oil prices lower New York (UPI) Feb 6, 2017 - Number-crunching on the managed decline agreement from OPEC and a rise in North American drilling put pressure on oil prices early Monday. Oilfield services company Baker Hughes reported a rise in North American exploration and production activity, a metric gauged by rig counts. A recovery in crude oil prices since the middle of last year has brought operators back to expensive basins i ... more

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Russia predicts oil price ceiling at $60 per barrel

Russia predicts oil price ceiling at $60 per barrel Moscow (UPI) Feb 6, 2017 - Oil prices might not break through a ceiling of $60 per barrel before 2019 and continue to present risks to Russia's economy, the Finance Ministry said. The Central Bank of Russia last week pointed to slow growth for 2017 in defense of a decision to keep its key rate unchanged at 10 percent. That came even as the bank's board of directors said economic recovery last year was better than ... more

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More gas from North Sea for Statoil

More gas from North Sea for Statoil Stavanger, Norway (UPI) Feb 3, 2017 - Norwegian energy company Statoil said Friday it found more gas in part of a field it discovered two years ago in the North Sea. Statoil said it made the discovery in what it calls Valemon West, part of the larger fragmented Valemon gas field in the North Sea. The discovery was made in an area not previously known to hold hydrocarbons. Gunnar Nakken, a vice president for regional ... more

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Russian researchers developed high-pressure natural gas operating turbine-generator

Russian researchers developed high-pressure natural gas operating turbine-generator Saint-Petersburg, Russia (SPX) Feb 07, 2017 - Scientists of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University (SPbPU) developed turbo expander electric generator operating on high-pressure natural gas. Natural gas being compressed at the power station releases a large amount of thermal energy into the environment. Widespread usage of this type of energy, called derived, may become a huge step towards sustainable energy. The focus ... more

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Campus natural gas power plants pose no radon risks

Campus natural gas power plants pose no radon risks University Park PA (SPX) Feb 07, 2017 - When Penn State decided to convert its two power plants from their historic use of coal as a source of energy to natural gas, there was concern about radon emissions. Although radon is known to exist in natural gas, now Penn State research indicates that it does not escape from these two power plants in harmful amounts. By converting the West Campus Steam Plant on the University Park Campu ... more

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Low-cost imaging system detects natural gas leaks in real time

Low-cost imaging system detects natural gas leaks in real time Washington DC (SPX) Feb 07, 2017 - Researchers have developed an infrared imaging system that could one day offer low-cost, real-time detection of methane gas leaks in pipelines and at oil and gas facilities. Leaks of methane, the primary component of natural gas, can be costly and dangerous while also contributing to climate change as a greenhouse gas. "Despite methane gas being invisible to the eye, we have developed a me ... more

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Top tech companies argue against Trump travel ban

Top tech companies argue against Trump travel ban Washington (AFP) Feb 6, 2017 - Dozens of top tech companies - including Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter - have filed a joint legal brief arguing against President Donald Trump's travel ban. The brief was filed late Sunday with the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in support of an ongoing lawsuit against the ban. It charged that the ban "inflicts significant harm on American business, innovati ... more

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Germanium outperforms silicon in energy efficient transistors with n- und p- conduction

Germanium outperforms silicon in energy efficient transistors with n- und p- conduction Dresden, Germany (SPX) Feb 07, 2017 - A team of scientists from the Nanoelectronic Materials Laboratory (NaMLab gGmbH) and the Cluster of Excellence Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden (cfaed) at the Dresden University of Technology have demonstrated the world-wide first transistor based on germanium that can be programmed between electron- (n) and hole- (p) conduction. Transistors based on germanium can be operated at lo ... more

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Flipping the switch on ammonia production

Flipping the switch on ammonia production Salt Lake City UT (SPX) Feb 07, 2017 - Nearly a century ago, German chemist Fritz Haber won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for a process to generate ammonia from hydrogen and nitrogen gases. The process, still in use today, ushered in a revolution in agriculture, but now consumes around one percent of the world's energy to achieve the high pressures and temperatures that drive the chemical reactions to produce ammonia. Today, Uni ... more

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Building a better microbial fuel cell - using paper

Building a better microbial fuel cell - using paper Rochester NY (SPX) Feb 07, 2017 - The concept behind microbial fuel cells, which rely on bacteria to generate an electrical current, is more than a century old. But turning that concept into a usable tool has been a long process. Microbial fuel cells, or MFCs, are more promising today than ever, but before their adoption can become widespread, they need to be both cheaper and more efficient. Researchers at the University o ... more

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Building a better microbial fuel cell - using paper

Building a better microbial fuel cell - using paper Rochester NY (SPX) Feb 07, 2017 - The concept behind microbial fuel cells, which rely on bacteria to generate an electrical current, is more than a century old. But turning that concept into a usable tool has been a long process. Microbial fuel cells, or MFCs, are more promising today than ever, but before their adoption can become widespread, they need to be both cheaper and more efficient. Researchers at the University o ... more

Flipping the switch on ammonia production Salt Lake City UT (SPX) Feb 07, 2017 - Nearly a century ago, German chemist Fritz Haber won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for a process to generate ammonia from hydrogen and nitrogen gases. The process, still in use today, ushered in a revolution in agriculture, but now consumes around one percent of the world's energy to achieve the high pressures and temperatures that drive the chemical reactions to produce ammonia. Today, Uni ... more

Germanium outperforms silicon in energy efficient transistors with n- und p- conduction Dresden, Germany (SPX) Feb 07, 2017 - A team of scientists from the Nanoelectronic Materials Laboratory (NaMLab gGmbH) and the Cluster of Excellence Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden (cfaed) at the Dresden University of Technology have demonstrated the world-wide first transistor based on germanium that can be programmed between electron- (n) and hole- (p) conduction. Transistors based on germanium can be operated at lo ... more

Top tech companies argue against Trump travel ban Washington (AFP) Feb 6, 2017 - Dozens of top tech companies - including Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter - have filed a joint legal brief arguing against President Donald Trump's travel ban. The brief was filed late Sunday with the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in support of an ongoing lawsuit against the ban. It charged that the ban "inflicts significant harm on American business, innovati ... more

Low-cost imaging system detects natural gas leaks in real time Washington DC (SPX) Feb 07, 2017 - Researchers have developed an infrared imaging system that could one day offer low-cost, real-time detection of methane gas leaks in pipelines and at oil and gas facilities. Leaks of methane, the primary component of natural gas, can be costly and dangerous while also contributing to climate change as a greenhouse gas. "Despite methane gas being invisible to the eye, we have developed a me ... more

Campus natural gas power plants pose no radon risks University Park PA (SPX) Feb 07, 2017 - When Penn State decided to convert its two power plants from their historic use of coal as a source of energy to natural gas, there was concern about radon emissions. Although radon is known to exist in natural gas, now Penn State research indicates that it does not escape from these two power plants in harmful amounts. By converting the West Campus Steam Plant on the University Park Campu ... more

Russian researchers developed high-pressure natural gas operating turbine-generator Saint-Petersburg, Russia (SPX) Feb 07, 2017 - Scientists of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University (SPbPU) developed turbo expander electric generator operating on high-pressure natural gas. Natural gas being compressed at the power station releases a large amount of thermal energy into the environment. Widespread usage of this type of energy, called derived, may become a huge step towards sustainable energy. The focus ... more

More gas from North Sea for Statoil Stavanger, Norway (UPI) Feb 3, 2017 - Norwegian energy company Statoil said Friday it found more gas in part of a field it discovered two years ago in the North Sea. Statoil said it made the discovery in what it calls Valemon West, part of the larger fragmented Valemon gas field in the North Sea. The discovery was made in an area not previously known to hold hydrocarbons. Gunnar Nakken, a vice president for regional ... more

Russia predicts oil price ceiling at $60 per barrel Moscow (UPI) Feb 6, 2017 - Oil prices might not break through a ceiling of $60 per barrel before 2019 and continue to present risks to Russia's economy, the Finance Ministry said. The Central Bank of Russia last week pointed to slow growth for 2017 in defense of a decision to keep its key rate unchanged at 10 percent. That came even as the bank's board of directors said economic recovery last year was better than ... more

North American activity pulls oil prices lower New York (UPI) Feb 6, 2017 - Number-crunching on the managed decline agreement from OPEC and a rise in North American drilling put pressure on oil prices early Monday. Oilfield services company Baker Hughes reported a rise in North American exploration and production activity, a metric gauged by rig counts. A recovery in crude oil prices since the middle of last year has brought operators back to expensive basins i ... more