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Desert Farming Experiment Yields First Results | Science/AAAS | News - 0 views

  • A project to “green” desert areas with an innovative mix of technologies—producing food, biofuel, clean water, energy, and salt
  • A pilot plant built by the Sahara Forest Project (SFP) produced 75 kilograms of vegetables per square meter in three crops annually, comparable to commercial farms in Europe, while consuming only sunlight and seawate
  • The heart of the SFP concept is a specially designed greenhouse. At one end, salt water is trickled over a gridlike curtain so that the prevailing wind blows the resulting cool, moist air over the plants inside
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  • This cooling effect allowed the
  • facility to grow three crops per year, even in the scorching summer
  • At the other end of the greenhouse is a network of pipes with cold seawater running through them
  • Some of the moisture in the air condenses on the pipes and is collected, providing a source of fresh water
  • One of the surprising side effects of such a seawater greenhouse, seen during early experiments, is that cool moist air leaking out of it encourages other plants to grow spontaneously outside
  • Qatar plant took advantage of that effect to grow crops around the greenhouse, including barley and salad rocket (arugula), as well as useful desert plants
  • The pilot plant accentuated this exterior cooling with more “evaporative hedges” that reduced air temperatures by up to 10°C.
  • The third key element of the SFP facility is a concentrated solar power plant
  • This uses mirrors in the shape of a parabolic trough to heat a fluid flowing through a pipe at its focus. The heated fluid then boils water, and the steam drives a turbine to generate power
  • the plant has electricity to run its control systems and pumps and can use any excess to desalinate water for irrigating the plants
  • The fact that this small greenhouse produced such good yields,
  • suggests that a commercial plant—with possibly four crops a year—could do even better
Mars Base

ScienceShot: There's Cow in Your Smog - ScienceNOW - 0 views

  • people typically blame Southern California's smog on automobiles, a new study suggests that cows may be just as responsible, if not more so
  • large fraction of the region's smog, especially the particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, is ammonium nitrate
  • particles form in the atmosphere when ammonia, which is generated by cars with certain types of catalytic converters and by bacteria that consume cattle waste, reacts with nitrogen oxides that are produced in large quantities in automobile emissions
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  • Data gathered during low-altitude flights in and around the Los Angeles basin in May 2010 suggest that the region's 9.9 million autos generate about 62 metric tons of ammonia each day
  • ammonia emissions from dairy farms in the eastern portion of the basin—home to about 298,000 cattle—range between 33 and 176 metric tons per day
  • Ammonia emissions from the dairy farms are concentrated, boosting atmospheric levels of the gas to more than 100 times background levels, so efforts to curb the farms' emissions (perhaps by feeding the animals different diets) might reduce smog more than those targeting cars.
Mars Base

Neil Armstrong, 1st man on the moon, dies at 82 - 0 views

  • "I am, and ever will be, a white socks, pocket protector, nerdy engineer," he said in February 2000 in one of his rare public appearances. "And I take a substantial amount of pride in the accomplishments of my profession."
  • At the time of the flight's 40th anniversary, Armstrong again was low-key, telling a gathering that the space race was "the ultimate peaceful competition: USA versus U.S.S.R. It did allow both sides to take the high road, with the objectives of science and learning and exploration."
  • In all, 12 American astronauts walked on the moon between 1969 and the last moon mission in 1972
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  • Armstrong was born Aug. 5, 1930, on a farm in Ohio
  • He was licensed to fly at 16, before he got his driver's license
  • enrolled in Purdue University to study aeronautical engineering but was called to duty with the U.S. Navy in 1949 and flew 78 combat missions in Korea
  • He became a test pilot with what evolved into the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, flying more than 200 kinds of aircraft from gliders to jets.
  • accepted into NASA's second astronaut class in 1962
  • backup commander for the historic Apollo 8 mission at Christmastime in 1968
  • In Wapakoneta, media and souvenir frenzy was swirling around the home of Armstrong's parents
  • People were pulling grass out of their front yard."
  • Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins were given ticker tape parades in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles and later made a 22-nation world tour. A homecoming in Wapakoneta drew 50,000 people to the city of 9,000.
  • In 1970, Armstrong was appointed deputy associate administrator for aeronautics at NASA but left the following year to teach aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati.
  • remained there until 1979 and during that time bought a farm, where he raised cattle and corn. He stayed out of public view, accepting few requests for interviews or speeches.
  • "I can honestly say—and it's a big surprise to me—that I have never had a dream about being on the moon," he said
  • His family's statement
  • "Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink.
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