Technology for Environment
Published November 6, 2010 | 
[youtube="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9T1yugTsKk"]
Energy’s Glass Tile Roof
Published October 29, 2010 | Now you can heat your home with SolTech Energy’s beautiful glass roof tiles. Swedish company SolTech offers a gorgeous glass solar-thermal roof tiles which are able to heat your home by using a simple system to store energy from the sun. This is great solutions for clean solar power, awarded “Hottest New Material 2010” for their unique home heating system contained within roofing tiles made out of ordinary transparent glass. The attractive house-warming tiles (somewhat ironically) give roofs a beautiful, icy appearance quite unlike anything else we’ve ever seen before.
All tests show that the system has a natural aversion to snow, what with the shiny tile surface and heat reflected from an absorption fabric below the tile. The tiles are UV resistant and last longer than conventional clay or concrete roof tiles.
New Zealand earthquake
Published September 3, 2010 | Reported that a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck the Christchurch, New Zealand area at approximately 4:35 AM, September 4, 2010, local time. No casualties have been reported as of this writing but an unknown amount of damage has been incurred.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center declined to issue a Tsunami watch or warning.
Christchurch has a population of roughly 342,000 people.
Kevin O’Hanlon, from Mairehau in Christchurch, said: “Just unbelievable. I was awake to go to work and then just heard this massive noise and, boom, it was like the house got hit. It just started shaking. I’ve never felt anything like it,” the newspaper reported.
Global warming
Published August 7, 2010 | What do you think about global warming?
[polldaddy poll="3587235"]
To back a “new future”
Published June 15, 2010 | US President Barack Obama has called on his party and supporters to back a “new future” of clean energy, BBC reports. He said his government was responding to the largest environmental disaster in US history.
Visiting areas affected by the BP oil spill, he said the full resources of government were being used, with 17,500 National Guard soldiers available. BP’s US head, Lamar McKay, is to return to Congress shortly for further questioning. Oil has been spewing into the Gulf of Mexico since a drilling rig it leased exploded and sank in April.
Katla
Published May 30, 2010 | “A report from the University College London (UCL) institute for risk and disaster reduction has outlined that “An eruption in the short term is a strong possibility’. In its initial research paper it said: ‘Analysis of the seismic energy released around Katla over the last decade or so is interpreted as providing evidence of a rising … intrusive magma body on the western flank of the volcano.’ Seismic readings of the volcano indicate the tremors around the area have increased substantially. Four earthquakes were detected near Katla during a 12-hour period on May 21st, more than at any other time since the Eyjafjallajokull volcanic eruptions first occurred in March. Three earthquakes at the Katla Volcano were reported by the Disaster and Emergency website Hisz.rsoe.hu on Sunday evening. The tremors may have been due to ice movements within Mýrdalsjökull glacier or magma movement under the volcano. The last earthquake to take place at the volcano was recorded yesterday morning.”
Solar Panels
Published May 7, 2010 | Reported that scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have successfully coated paper with a solar cell, part of a suite of research projects aimed at energy breakthroughs. Susan Hockfield, MIT’s president, and Paolo Scaroni, CEO of Italian oil company Eni, on Tuesday officially dedicated the Eni-MIT Solar Frontiers Research Center.
Eni invested $5 million into the center, which is also receiving a $2 million National Science Foundation grant, said Vladimir Bulovic, the center’s director. The printed solar cells, which Bulovic showed at a press conference Tuesday, are still in the research phase and are years from being commercialized.
The paper solar cells are one of many avenues being pursued around nanoscale materials at the Eni-MIT Solar Frontiers Center. Layers of these materials could essentially be sprayed using different manufacturing techniques to make a thin-film solar cell on a plastic, paper, or metal foils.
Silicon, the predominant material for solar cells, is durable and is made from abundant materials. Many companies sell or are developing thin-film solar cells, which are less efficient but are cheaper to manufacture.
During a tour, Bulovic showed one of the center’s labs, where researchers use a laser to blast light at nanomaterials for picoseconds. A picosecond is one trillionth of a second. The laser provides data on how the light excites electrons in the material, which will provide clues as to whether it will make a good solar cell material, he explained.
Iceland volcano eruption March 2010
Published April 18, 2010 | [youtube="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwdOH9GayVw"]
Despite scientists have become much better at predicting volcano’s eruptions it continue to pose a terrifying threats. What is volcano, why?
About 550 volcanoes have erupted on Earth’s surface since recorded history; about 60 are active each year. Far more have erupted unobserved on the ocean floor. Most volcanoes exist at the boundaries of Earth’s crustal plates, such as the famous Ring of Fire that surrounds the Pacific Ocean plate. Fifty volcanoes have erupted in the United States since recorded history, and the United States ranks third, behind Indonesia and Japan, in the number of historically active volcanoes.
A volcano is active if it erupts lava, releases gas or shows seismic activity. It is dormant if it hasn’t erupted for a long time but could again one day. An extinct volcano will never erupt again.
The explosiveness of a volcanic eruption depends on how easily magma can flow and the amount of gas trapped in it. Large amounts of water and carbon dioxide are dissolved in magma. They behave like gas in fizzy drinks. After opening the bottle the gas expands, forming bubbles that escape. This also happens when magma rises quickly through the crust – gas bubbles form and expand up to 1000 times their original size.
Recent Earthquakes – Last 8-30 Days
Published March 4, 2010 | 
Magnitude 8.8 OFFSHORE MAULE, CHILE February 27, 2010
•Magnitude 7.0 RYUKYU ISLANDS, JAPAN February 26, 2010
•Magnitude 6.9 CHINA-RUSSIA-NORTH KOREA BORDER REGION February 18, 2010
•Magnitude 5.9 OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA February 04, 2010
•Magnitude 7.0 HAITI REGION January 12, 2010
via http://www.usgs.gov/ – Science for a Changing word is very informative site, focused on biology, geography, geology, geospatial information, and water etc.
Chile Rocked 8.8-Magnitude
Published February 27, 2010 | 
According APN a massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck Chile early Saturday, killing at least 78 people, collapsing buildings and setting off a tsunami.
A huge wave reached a populated area in the Robinson Crusoe Islands, 410 miles (660 kilometers) off the Chilean coast, said President Michele Bachelet. There were no immediate reports of major damage there, she added.
Bachelet said the death toll was at 78 and rising, but officials had no information on the number of people injured. She declared a “state of catastrophe” in central Chile.
“We have had a huge earthquake, with some aftershocks,” Bachelet said from an emergency response center. She urged Chileans not to panic.
“Despite this, the system is functioning. People should remain calm. We’re doing everything we can with all the forces we have. Any information we will share immediately,” she said.
Powerful aftershocks rattled Chile’s coast — 19 of them magnitude 5 or greater and one reaching magnitude 6.9 — the U.S. Geological Survey reported.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center called for “urgent action to protect lives and property” in Hawaii, which is among 53 nations and territories subject to tsunami warnings.
Largest earthquake 2010
Magnitude 8.8 OFFSHORE MAULE, CHILE February 27, 2010
•Magnitude 7.0 RYUKYU ISLANDS, JAPAN February 26, 2010
•Magnitude 6.9 CHINA-RUSSIA-NORTH KOREA BORDER REGION February 18, 2010
•Magnitude 3.8 ILLINOIS February 10, 2010
•Magnitude 5.9 OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA February 04, 2010
•Magnitude 6.2 BOUGAINVILLE REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA February 01, 2010
•Magnitude 5.9 HAITI REGION January 20, 2010
•Magnitude 4.0 OKLAHOMA January 15, 2010
•Magnitude 7.0 HAITI REGION January 12, 2010
•Magnitude 6.5 OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA January 10, 2010
•Magnitude 4.1 SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, CALIFORNIA January 07, 2010
•Magnitude 6.8 SOLOMON ISLANDS January 05, 2010
•Magnitude 7.1 SOLOMON ISLANDS January 03, 2010
•Magnitude 6.6 SOLOMON ISLANDS January 03, 2010