EurekAlert

(Technische Universitaet Muenchen) Four young researchers from the Technische Universitaet Muenchen have won support to commercialize their approach to monitoring stresses on wind turbine rotor blades.

(University of Delaware) As the ice-capped Arctic Ocean warms, ship traffic will increase at the top of the world. And if the sea ice continues to decline, a new route connecting international trading partners may emerge -- but not without significant repercussions to climate, according to a US and Canadian research team that includes a University of Delaware scientist.

(Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Weather systems in the Southern and Northern hemispheres will respond differently to global warming, according to an MIT atmospheric scientist's analysis that suggests the warming of the planet will affect the availability of energy to fuel extratropical storms, or large-scale weather systems that occur at Earth's middle latitudes.

(Rice University) Rice University has created a Green Carbon Center to bring the benefits offered by oil, gas, coal, wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and other energy sources together in a way that will not only help ensure the world's energy future but also provide a means to recycle carbon dioxide into useful products.

(National Science Foundation) Popular Mechanics has recognized three NSF-funded projects with innovation Breakthrough Awards: an artificial retina returning sight to those who have lost it; a system that uses "controlled rocking" and energy-dissipating fuses to help buildings withstand earthquakes; and an inexpensive medical microscope built for cell-phones that allows doctors in rural vill

(National Science Foundation) How do humans and their environment interact, and how can we develop an understanding of these processes to adapt to a planet undergoing far-reaching climate and other environmental changes?To answer these and related questions, the National Science Foundation has awarded 14 grants to scientists, engineers and educators across the country to study coupled natur

(University of Maryland) Offshore wind power offers Maryland a feasible way to help meet its renewable energy goals, but presents significant hurdles, concludes a new study by the University of Maryland Center for Integrative Environmental Research. "Offshore wind is not a slam dunk for Maryland, but the potential remains very strong," says University of Maryland researcher Matthias Ruth.

(National Academy of Sciences) The sixth annual conference of the African Science Academy Development Initiative will be hosted by the Academy of Science of South Africa on Nov. 8-10 in Somerset West, South Africa. The conference will focus on strategies for improving access to energy in sub-Saharan Africa and encouraging the use of clean and affordable forms of energy.

(National Science Foundation) As Earth's climate warms, species are expected to shift their geographical ranges away from the equator or to higher elevations. While scientists have documented such shifts for many plants and animals, the ranges of others seem stable.

(University of New Hampshire) Scientists from the University of New Hampshire's Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space have been awarded an $827,492 contract from the National Science Foundation to lead a multidisciplinary, multi-institutional project that will assess the impacts of climate- and human-driven changes in hydrology on agricultural production and land use in Centra