Not all of the fossil fuel we use goes to power our cars or heat our homes

Tag : jet fuel
Aircraft manufacturer Boeing has teamed up with 10 airlines,including Air France, Continental, and Virgin Atlantic, to form aSustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group. Flightglobal reports that the group will look for ways to make renewable jet fuel, withthe goal of at least partially replacing fossil fuel used inairplanes with biofuel by 2013. Boeing is funding two studies onmaking jet fuel from algae or the plant jatropha, being done at theNatural Resources Defense Council and Yale.
Digitizing Health Records Still a Challenge
Healthcare could be dramatically improved if every doctor a patientever saw had access to all that patient’s health records,which could happen if the records were all digital. But only 15 to18 percent of U.S. doctors use electronic records, partly becauseof the upfront costs of going digital. Technology Review talks to Karen Bell, who’s in charge of promoting digital recordsat the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, about what theproblem is.
Bacteria Can Produce Plastic
Not all of the fossil fuel we use goes to power our cars or heatour homes: Some is used to make plastic. The Discovery Channel tells us that researchers at Genomatica, a company in San Diego, CA, saythey’ve developed bacteria that make an important ingredientof the plastic that’s used in products from Spandex to carbumpers. The company says it can go into production as early asnext year, and that its product will be cheaper even if the cost ofoil drops as low as $50 a barrel.
New Method Produces Stem Cells from Adult Cells
A new method of producing stem cells from adult cells may provide aroute to new therapies without the controversy of stem cellsderived from embryos. New Scientist reports that researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston havebeen able to turn liver cells from an adult mouse into stem cells,which now have the potential to become any cell in the body.Earlier this year, Japanese scientists also turned adult cells intostem cells, but their method used a virus that left behind genesthat could lead to cancer.
Activists Say, Put Debates on the Internet
When the presidential and vice presidential candidates debate, theyshould take advantage of the Internet, say people on both the leftand the right of the political spectrum. A group including liberalactivist Arianna Huffington and the director of NewtGingrich’s organization, American Solutions, signed a lettercalling for the candidates to put footage from the debates on theInternet, and to take “Town Hall” style questionssubmitted online. CNET News reports that the group says that effective use of the Internet ensures“bottom-up democracy.”
Leaders Plan to Wipe Out Malaria in Seven Years
Malaria is one of the world’s greatest public healthproblems, killing more children than any other disease. Now worldleaders, including United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon,say that better science, improved record-keeping, and increasedphilanthropy make them believe they can reduce the number ofmalaria deaths to zero by 2015. The Washington Post reports that donors have given more than $3 billion to the Global MalariaAction Plan.
Tracking System Could Make Social Sites Profitable
Google is applying a system similar to its PageRank system forranking websites to profiles on social networks such as Facebookand MySpace. BusinessWeek says the system looks at how often people post to others’ pagesand measures whether users convince others to read a news story orwatch a video clip. If it works, the system should allowadvertisers to target ads more precisely, allowing the sites tocharge more.
Obama Releases Science Funding Plan
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has released an11-page “plan for science and innovation.” Nature reports that the plan calls for doubling the funding of the NationalInstitutes of Health over 10 years, and spells out science policiesin more specific details than had been released previously.