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ORNL Spallation Neutron Source achieves 1.55MW record power to enable more discoveries

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The accelerator’s higher power provides more neutrons for researchers who use the facility to study and improve a wide range of materials for more efficient solar panels, longer lasting batteries and stronger, lighter materials for transportation. megawatts, which improves on the facility’s original design capability.

Power 459
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Duke study finds China’s synthetic natural gas plants will have heavy environmental toll; 2x vehicle GHG if used for fuel

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Coal-powered synthetic natural gas (SNG) plants being planned in China would produce seven times more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional natural gas plants, and use up to 100 times the water as shale gas production, according to a new study by Duke University researchers published in the journal Nature Climate Change. —Robert B.

Gas 220
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Berkeley study finds renewable portfolio standards insufficient to meet 2030 GHG emission targets; new policy required

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The least expensive way for the Western US to reduce greenhouse gas emissions enough to help prevent the worst consequences of global warming is to replace coal with renewable and other sources of energy that may include nuclear power, according to a new study by University of California, Berkeley, researchers. —Daniel Kammen.

Renewable 231
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Inside the Universe Machine: The Webb Space Telescope’s Trailblazing Optics

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Its mission is to study the infrared universe, and that requires shielding the telescope and its sensors from both the heat of sunlight and the infrared glow of Earth. So for JWST to observe distant astronomical objects, it must avoid recording extraneous mid-infrared noise from all the various sources inside the solar system. “I

Universal 109
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A Brief History of the World’s First Planetarium

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The use of models to show the movements of the planets and stars goes back centuries, starting with mechanical orreries that used clockwork mechanisms to depict our solar system. ZEISS Archive At first, Bauersfeld focused on projecting just the sun, moon, and planets of our solar system. My hometown of Richmond, Va.,

Saturn 140
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Generating Power on Earth From the Coldness of Deep Space

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But we have demonstrated that by directly using power generated by the cold universe, we can chill water to cool buildings by as much as 5 ºC during the day without electricity and light the night without wires or batteries. As the technology improves, we see it enabling solar panels that work at night as well as day, powering remote sensors.

Power 145
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The Tiny Star Explosions Powering Moore’s Law

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Supernova explosions, the catastrophic self-destruction of certain types of worn-out stars, are intimately tied to life on Earth because they are the birthplaces of heavy elements across the universe. Most of the iron in our blood and the sulfur in our amino acids originated in stars that detonated billions of years ago.

Power 141