New battery design could help solar and wind power the grid

Apr. 24, 2013 ? Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University have designed a low-cost, long-life battery that could enable solar and wind energy to become major suppliers to the electrical grid.

"For solar and wind power to be used in a significant way, we need a battery made of economical materials that are easy to scale and still efficient," said Yi Cui, a Stanford associate professor of materials science and engineering and a member of the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, a SLAC/Stanford joint institute. "We believe our new battery may be the best yet designed to regulate the natural fluctuations of these alternative energies."

Cui and colleagues report their research results, some of the earliest supported by the DOE's new Joint Center for Energy Storage Research battery hub, in the May issue of Energy & Environmental Science.

Currently the electrical grid cannot tolerate large and sudden power fluctuations caused by wide swings in sunlight and wind. As solar and wind's combined contributions to an electrical grid approach 20 percent, energy storage systems must be available to smooth out the peaks and valleys of this "intermittent" power -- storing excess energy and discharging when input drops.

Among the most promising batteries for intermittent grid storage today are "flow" batteries, because it's relatively simple to scale their tanks, pumps and pipes to the sizes needed to handle large capacities of energy. The new flow battery developed by Cui's group has a simplified, less expensive design that presents a potentially viable solution for large-scale production.

Today's flow batteries pump two different liquids through an interaction chamber where dissolved molecules undergo chemical reactions that store or give up energy. The chamber contains a membrane that only allows ions not involved in reactions to pass between the liquids while keeping the active ions physically separated. This battery design has two major drawbacks: the high cost of liquids containing rare materials such as vanadium -- especially in the huge quantities needed for grid storage -- and the membrane, which is also very expensive and requires frequent maintenance.

The new Stanford/SLAC battery design uses only one stream of molecules and does not need a membrane at all. Its molecules mostly consist of the relatively inexpensive elements lithium and sulfur, which interact with a piece of lithium metal coated with a barrier that permits electrons to pass without degrading the metal. When discharging, the molecules, called lithium polysulfides, absorb lithium ions; when charging, they lose them back into the liquid. The entire molecular stream is dissolved in an organic solvent, which doesn't have the corrosion issues of water-based flow batteries.

"In initial lab tests, the new battery also retained excellent energy-storage performance through more than 2,000 charges and discharges, equivalent to more than 5.5 years of daily cycles," Cui said.

To demonstrate their concept, the researchers created a miniature system using simple glassware. Adding a lithium polysulfide solution to the flask immediately produces electricity that lights an LED.

A utility version of the new battery would be scaled up to store many megawatt-hours of energy.

In the future, Cui's group plans to make a laboratory-scale system to optimize its energy storage process and identify potential engineering issues, and to start discussions with potential hosts for a full-scale field-demonstration unit.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Yuan Yang, Guangyuan Zheng, Yi Cui. A membrane-free lithium/polysulfide semi-liquid battery for large-scale energy storage. Energy & Environmental Science, 2013; DOI: 10.1039/C3EE00072A

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/dKbtCcUUT2g/130424140603.htm

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New imaging technology could reveal cellular secrets

Apr. 25, 2013 ? Researchers have married two biological imaging technologies, creating a new way to learn how good cells go bad.

"Let's say you have a large population of cells," said Corey Neu, an assistant professor in Purdue University's Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering. "Just one of them might metastasize or proliferate, forming a cancerous tumor. We need to understand what it is that gives rise to that one bad cell."

Such an advance makes it possible to simultaneously study the mechanical and biochemical behavior of cells, which could provide new insights into disease processes, said biomedical engineering postdoctoral fellow Charilaos "Harris" Mousoulis.

Being able to study a cell's internal workings in fine detail would likely yield insights into the physical and biochemical responses to its environment. The technology, which combines an atomic force microscope and nuclear magnetic resonance system, could help researchers study individual cancer cells, for example, to uncover mechanisms leading up to cancer metastasis for research and diagnostics.

The prototype's capabilities were demonstrated by taking nuclear magnetic resonance spectra of hydrogen atoms in water. Findings represent a proof of concept of the technology and are detailed in a research paper that appeared online April 11 in the journal Applied Physics Letters. The paper was co-authored by Mousoulis' research scientist Teimour Maleki, Babak Ziaie, a professor of electrical and computer engineering; and Neu.

"You could detect many different types of chemical elements, but in this case hydrogen is nice to detect because it's abundant," Neu said. "You could detect carbon, nitrogen and other elements to get more detailed information about specific biochemistry inside a cell."

An atomic force microscope (AFM) uses a tiny vibrating probe called a cantilever to yield information about materials and surfaces on the scale of nanometers, or billionths of a meter. Because the instrument enables scientists to "see" objects far smaller than possible using light microscopes, it could be ideal for studying molecules, cell membranes and other biological structures.

However, the AFM does not provide information about the biological and chemical properties of cells. So the researchers fabricated a metal microcoil on the AFM cantilever. An electrical current is passed though the coil, causing it to exchange electromagnetic radiation with protons in molecules within the cell and inducing another current in the coil, which is detected.

The Purdue researchers perform "mechanobiology" studies to learn how forces exerted on cells influence their behavior. In work focusing on osteoarthritis, their research includes the study of cartilage cells from the knee to learn how they interact with the complex matrix of structures and biochemistry between cells.

Future research might include studying cells in "microfluidic chambers" to test how they respond to specific drugs and environmental changes.

A U.S. patent application has been filed for the concept. The research has been funded by Purdue's Showalter Trust Fund and the National Institutes of Health.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Purdue University. The original article was written by Emil Venere.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Charilaos Mousoulis, Teimour Maleki, Babak Ziaie, Corey P. Neu. Atomic force microscopy-coupled microcoils for cellular-scale nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Applied Physics Letters, 2013; 102 (14): 143702 DOI: 10.1063/1.4801318

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/ayYzbNTiLZE/130425160208.htm

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Escaped psychiatric patient attacks rabbi in Paris

PARIS (AP) ? An escapee from a psychiatric institution slashed a rabbi and his son with a box-cutter on Tuesday, prompting witnesses to tackle and subdue the attacker after a chase through a Paris synagogue, officials said.

The rabbi, who is in his late 40s, was recovering from surgery for a neck injury and his 18-year-old son sustained lesser injuries in the attack north of a touristic shopping area near Paris' gilded Opera Garnier, according to police and judicial officials and Richard Prasquier, who heads CRIF, France's largest umbrella organization of Jewish groups.

The assailant was of Iranian origin, and an official investigation was underway to determine a possible motive, Prasquier said. The attacker, now in police custody, had escaped from a psychiatric hospital near southeastern Lyon last week, said a police official on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre, a spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutor's office, said the two victims had been wearing Jewish skullcaps, and the attacker was detained after a chase through the synagogue. The Simon Wiesenthal Center, which monitors anti-Semitic incidents worldwide, said in a statement that the assailant screamed "Allah-u-Akbar" ? or "God is great" ? during the attack.

France is home to the largest Jewish community in Western Europe, at some 500,000 people, which has faced sporadic bouts of anti-Semitism over the years. In one of the country's most wrenching episodes in recent years, three Jewish schoolchildren and a rabbi were shot and killed by a radical Islamic militant in March last year in the southwestern city of Toulouse.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/escaped-psychiatric-patient-attacks-rabbi-paris-143515618.html

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Four Telling Facts About Netflix, Which Is ~$3 ... - Business Insider

Netflix added three million subscribers?two million at home and one million outside the US?in the first three months of 2013, returning the subscription video service to profitability and sending its stock up?nearly 25%?in after-hours trading. Here?s a look at Netflix subscriptions over the past seven quarters:

There are several ways to look at Netflix?s recent success. Here are four of them, all superlative.

Netflix has more American subscribers than HBO

After several strong quarters of growth, Netflix now has 29.2 million people in the US subscribed to its $8-a-month streaming plan, which is, for the first time, greater than HBO?s domestic subscription base of 28.7 million. HBO?s figure dates to the end of 2012, but it?s unlikely to have grown much in the first three months of 2013, owing as much to the cable TV industry?s stagnation as its own trouble signing up new subscribers. (Outside the US, the situation is much different: HBO has a huge lead over Netflix.)

The comparison between Netflix and HBO isn?t perfect, but they increasingly appear to be on similar trajectories. Both started by offering only movies that had long been out of theaters, then ventured into original programming?HBO?in 1997 with?Oz?and Netflix earlier this year with?House of Cards. Meanwhile, all of HBO?s customers buy it as an add-on to existing cable TV subscriptions, but HBO Go now offers all of the network?s programming over the internet, like Netflix. At the moment, it?s just a free perk for existing subscribers, but executives at HBO parent Time Warner have been?hinting at a future?when HBO Go is sold directly to consumers.

?The goal is to become HBO faster than HBO can become us,? Ted Sarandos, Netflix?s chief content officer,?put it recently.

Netflix is the most watched ?cable network? in the US

Of course, Netflix isn?t a cable network, but it competes for attention with television fare beyond just HBO. And in that context, Netflix commands more attention?87 minutes per US household per day?than any American cable network, according to an estimate?pulled together earlier this month by BTIG analyst Rich Greenfield?(registration required).

That?s just slightly more than the Disney Channel, which is not a coincidence: Netflix has a large of catalog of children?s programming, and some of its most loyal subscribers are parents who use Netflix as a babysitting tool. Later this year, Netflix will debut an?original show about a speedy snail, which should appeal to children and another core Netflix demographic: stoners.

The watching time data is important because Netflix depends on loyalty to retain subscribers, and the more people use it, the more valuable they are likely to find the service. Both Netflix and HBO have had trouble with churn, or people dropping their subscriptions, because people see them as luxury expenses that can be easily trimmed when budgets get tight. HBO uses HBO Go as a carrot to keep subscribers; Netflix has tried to add more and better programming. Both strategies seem to be working.

Netflix is America?s biggest bandwidth hog, by far

As TV and the internet converge, it?s increasingly important to look at what content is dominating those pipes. For now, it?s Netflix. And it?s not even close.

During peak periods of internet use in the US, Netflix constitutes 33% of all downstream traffic, which means content that goes into the device instead of out,?according to broadband network provider Sandvine?(pdf). That?s more than Google?s YouTube (14.8%), BitTorrent (5.9%), Apple?s iTunes (3.9%), Amazon Video (1.8%), and Facebook (1.5%), among others. Netflix isn?t as dominant in mobile internet use, where it has just 2.7% to YouTube?s 31%, but that?s the next battleground.

Bandwidth is a good metric to watch because it arguably measures the depth of attention commanded by these big media companies. Facebook obviously controls a large share of internet use, but the content it serves isn?t as rich, or bandwidth-heavy, as YouTube or Netflix. In theory, the richer media should ultimately translate into more revenue.

Netflix is the S&P?s best performing stock of the year

If its after-hours surge holds up when the markets open again tomorrow, Netflix will be the?top performing stock?in the S&P 500 this year, up 134%. It?s already the best S&P stock?since the market?s previous peak?in 2007.

Netflix stock tanked in the middle of 2011 after a?poorly handled price hike, then stubbornly refused to recover as investors fretted about the increasing costs of content. Those costs continue to rise, but Netflix has been able to show strong subscriber growth and convince investors that it has a strategy. This, despite companies like Hulu and Amazon?increasingly competing with Netflix?for existing and original content.

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Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/four-telling-facts-about-netflix-which-is-3-billion-more-valuable-today-than-it-was-yesterday-2013-4

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Readers share their photos as floods hammer Midwest

By Vicenta DeVries

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.?The flooding has closed roads, collected debris, damaged foundations of homes and business, caused sewer and sanitation problems and contaminated drinking water.... more?

By Vicenta DeVries

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.?The flooding has closed roads, collected debris, damaged foundations of homes and business, caused sewer and sanitation problems and contaminated drinking water. By Tuesday, the flooding reached its peak ?hit over the weekend?and has started to move out to the outer lakes and rivers. But the water is still above the flood levels, which is also above the flood walls within the city.

The problems are far from over. Michigan has begun the clean-up process to help those affected. I have seen volunteers sacking bags of sand to help divert the flow of water from many homes and businesses. This shows how Michigan people help each other during calamities and a disaster arises. less?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lightbox/midwest-flooding-in-photos-first-hand-accounts-slideshow/

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Iran's wooing of Africa yields scant results as sanctions bite

By David Lewis

DAKAR (Reuters) - Before Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad started a visit to Niger last week, there was talk that the poor West African state might add Iran to its list of buyers for the uranium mined in its remote desert north.

Such a deal would have alarmed world powers seeking to have Iran curb its shadowy nuclear program. But the outcome of Ahmadinejad's trip was far less spectacular: an agreement on visas for diplomats and another on health cooperation.

Ahmadinejad's final African tour before he steps down this year illustrated how Iran's campaign to court the fast-growing continent has yielded remarkably little in the way of trade and votes at the United Nations against sanctions targeting its disputed nuclear activity over the past seven years.

"There is a general sense that Iran's influence in Africa is on the wane," said Manoah Esipisu, a Johannesburg-based Africa analyst. "Iran means trouble with Washington and its allies, and there is little appetite for that."

With an economic growth rate forecast above 5 percent this year despite a global slowdown, Africa is now attracting investment from around the world, meaning the continent can afford to be choosier about its friends.

Burgeoning oil production from countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Chad and Equatorial Guinea also means Tehran's chief economic bargaining chip is of less value.

South Africa, sub-Saharan Africa's largest economy, had relied on Iran for a quarter of its oil imports but gave in to Western moves last year to embargo Iranian oil exports, turning elsewhere to secure its crude.

Kenya, an important Western ally in the fight against militant Islam in East Africa, also backtracked within days on a deal to import 4 million tons of Iranian oil last year after its allies expressed disapproval.

South African Deputy Foreign Minister Ebrahim Ebrahim said he had told Tehran frankly that his country could no longer purchase Iranian oil to avoid running into Western sanctions.

"I told them the United States is an important export market ... We don't want a situation that will damage our economy," said Ebrahim, who returned from Tehran last week.

"While we may appreciate and sympathize with them, there are certain realities that we need to take into consideration."

Many developing states in principle back Iran's insistence on the right to enrich uranium for what it says will be civilian nuclear energy only. But they also feel Iran should heed U.N. demands for transparency in its nuclear work to help defuse fears that it is trying to develop the means to make atom bombs.

TRADE DOWN, NO VOTES AT UNITED NATIONS

Last week's visit to Benin, Niger and Ghana was Ahmadinejad's fifth to the continent since he took office in 2005. Before the trip, he described relations with Africa as "of paramount importance to Tehran".

But Tehran's lobbying for votes at the U.N. Security Council has fallen on deaf ears. African nations have voted in favor of all four sanctions resolutions passed between 2006 and 2010 as a result of Iran's nuclear program.

IMF data also suggests that Iran's trade with Africa - a fraction of other emerging powers' - has been hurt by sanctions. Its exports to sub-Saharan Africa peaked at $3.9 billion in 2011 only to slump last year to $1.8 billion.

Senegal exemplifies Iran's chequered record. A deal signed under the previous government of President Abdoulaye Wade led to a factory churning out yellow, Iranian-designed vehicles.

But promises of a Iranian-built refinery to help ease Senegal's chronic fuel shortage never materialized.

Then the seizure of a secret Iranian arms shipment in Nigeria in 2010 en route for Gambia prompted Dakar to break off relations with Tehran as it feared the arms would have found their way across the border into the hands of separatist rebels.

The link between Iran and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which was ties in West Africa, causes particular concern.

"It's important these countries are aware of the connections Iran has," said one Western diplomat, noting Tehran was using its chairmanship of the Non-Aligned Movement to court African nations. "You can track a lot of things going on back to Iran ... which means we need to be alert to what is going on."

Iranian warships visited Sudan last year after Khartoum accused Israel of bombing a weapons factory there. Israel has not commented on that accusation but has accused Sudan of smuggling weapons to Iranian-allied Palestinian group Hamas.

In Niamey, the Nigerien capital, Ahmadinejad called on Muslim states to resist Western efforts to divide them.

"The enemy doesn't want to see nations, especially Muslim ones, have good ties. They are always plotting ... but there is no doubt that the will of the people will triumph," he said.

But, with France a significant donor and security ally for Niger, Nigerien Foreign Minister Mohamed Bazoum was quick to stress that any exchange with Iran would have to meet international laws.

Jack Rosen, president of the American Jewish Congress and an adviser to several African leaders, said he was previously alarmed that Iranian activities on the continent were not being taken seriously enough but now feels the tide has turned.

"Iran and Ahmadinejad have become more pariah-like than they were a few years ago and African leaders understand where their long-term bread is buttered," he said.

(Additional reporting by Pascal Fletcher and Peroshni Govender in Pretoria, Louis Charbonneau at the United Nations, Abdoulaye Massalatchi in Niamey; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Mark Heinrich)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/irans-wooing-africa-yields-scant-results-sanctions-bite-144209350--finance.html

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Residential lawns efflux more carbon dioxide than corn fields, study finds

Apr. 23, 2013 ? More carbon dioxide is released from residential lawns than corn fields according to a new study. And much of the difference can likely be attributed to soil temperature. The data, from researchers at Elizabethtown College, suggest that urban heat islands may be working at smaller scales than previously thought.

These findings provide a better understanding of the changes that occur when agricultural lands undergo development and urbanization to support growing urban populations.

David Bowne, assistant professor of biology, led the study to look at the amount of carbon dioxide being released from residential lawns versus corn fields in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. His co-author, Erin Johnson, was an undergraduate at the time of the study and did the work as part of her senior honors thesis. Their findings were published online today in Soil Science Society of America Journal.

For Bowne, the study allowed him to look beyond the obvious impact of losing agricultural fields to development -- the loss of food that was once produced on the land.

"That is a legitimate concern, but I wanted to look more at how this change could potentially impact the carbon cycle with the understanding that the carbon cycle has implications for global climate change," explains Bowne.

To begin to understand how the carbon cycle was changing, Bowne and Johnson measured carbon dioxide efflux, soil temperature, and soil moisture under the two different land uses. They found that both carbon dioxide efflux and soil temperature were higher in residential lawns than in corn fields. Additionally, temperature had the most influence on the levels of carbon dioxide efflux, followed by the type of land use.

Higher temperatures leading to increased carbon dioxide efflux was not a surprise for Bowne and Johnson as this relationship has been documented before. "As you increase temperature," Bowne explains, "you increase biological activity -- be it microbial, plant, fungal, or animal." That increased activity, then, leads to more respiration and higher levels of carbon dioxide leaving the soils.

What was unexpected, however, was that the higher temperatures found in residential lawns suggested urban heat islands working at small scales. Urban heat islands are well documented phenomena in which development leads to large areas of dark-colored surfaces such as roofs, buildings, and parking lots. The dark color means more heat is absorbed leading to an increase in temperature in the neighboring areas. Urban areas, then, are warmer than the surrounding countryside.

The interesting part of Bowne's study is that the urban heat islands in the areas he was looking seem to operate on much smaller scales than he previously thought. While heat islands are usually studied on large scales -- such as comparing a large city and its surrounding rural areas -- fewer studies have been done to work out how development may affect temperatures on small scales.

"Within a developed area, within a city or town, you could have local increases in soil temperature because of the amount of development within a really small area," says Bowne.

His research suggests that temperatures may vary even across short distances due to the influence of development. One source cited in his paper says that development within even 175 meters of a location can cause an increase in temperature. Bowne is planning further experiments to test soil temperatures over a range of development setups and sizes.

The other factor that Bowne will test in the future is the sequestration of carbon. Along with the carbon dioxide efflux data in the current study, information about carbon sequestration would give a bigger picture of carbon cycling. That picture could then help researchers determine how various land uses as well as management practices such as no-till agriculture or leaving grass clippings on lawns can change the carbon cycling.

"If we go from one land use to another land use, how does that impact carbon cycling which in turn can affect climate change? Our current study touches on one component of that cycle, and more research is needed to address this huge topic," says Bowne.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Soil Science Society of America (SSSA).

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. David R. Bowne, Erin R. Johnson. Comparison of Soil Carbon Dioxide Efflux between Residential Lawns and Corn Fields. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 2013; 0 (0): 0 DOI: 10.2136/sssaj2012.0346N

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/lDxyqrGcYCA/130423110711.htm

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