UMass and the Environment
Proposed hydrogen storage model may offer green fuel possibilities
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(11/03/09)
Ice fields on Africa’s Mount Kilimanjaro are rapidly shrinking and thinning,
according to a research team including geoscientist Douglas Hardy and colleagues
at Ohio State University. They reported in an online early edition of Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences that “new aerial photo analysis shows
that 26 percent of the area covered by ice in 2000 is now ice-free and
whereas 79 percent of the area covered with ice in 1912 was ice-free in
2000, 85 percent now is.”(More)
Proposed hydrogen storage model may offer green fuel possibilities
(10/30/09) Hydrogen fuel, because its only byproduct is steam, should be the ultimate in green alternatives to fossil fuels, but it hasn’t delivered on its promise yet because of one enormous stumbling block, storage. Now a campus team of chemical engineers has developed a computational model that shows that carbon nanotubes may offer a surprising solution. (More)
Grand Canyon ‘Trail of Time’Developed by Geoscientist
(10/30/09) Most of the 5 million annual visitors to the Grand Canyon leave with plenty of photographs of the 2-billion-year-old northern Arizona landmark, but with little knowledge of its geologic history. Geosciences professor Mike Williams is aiming to change that by creating a walkable trail that teaches visitors about the vastness of geologic time. (More)
Stoffel is campus’s new sustainability coordinator
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(9/29/09) Last year, Josh Stoffel was leading efforts to train a small group of students to promote recycling and energy conservation in the campus’s residence halls. But starting in June, Stoffel became the campus’s first sustainability coordinator, expanding his responsibilities to include a range of green initiatives and the development of an institutional climate action plan. (More)
2,000-year Study Shows Dramatic Arctic Climate Reversal
(9/11/09) A new reconstruction of Arctic climate compiled from temperature indicators over the past 2,000 years shows persuasive evidence that until about 1950, the Arctic had been naturally cooling over the previous 1,900 years. This trend reversed about 50 years ago, according to a research team that includes Raymond Bradley, director of the Climate System Research Center. (More)
George Huber receives national recognition again for green energy biofuels research
(8/20/09) Chemical engineer George Huber, whose quick, single-step process for turning sawdust, plant stalks and other cellulosic waste into green gasoline was featured in a recent cover story in Scientific American magazine, has again received high-profile, national recognition for biofuels research, this time in the National Science Foundation’s online magazine, Science Nation.(More)
Discovery of an ethanol-producing microbe boosts green energy potential
(7/14/09) Professor Susan Leschine and her fellow researchers weren’t looking for a clean alternative to fossil fuels, one that can be produced carbon-neutrally, boost rural economies, and bring the nation closer to energy independence, all without consuming the food sources that other biofuels do. But then her team stumbled on the Q Microbe, a tiny bug amazingly efficient at converting cellulose—non-food plant matter—into engine-firing ethanol. For Leschine, a professor of microbiology at UMass Amherst, it was a “eureka moment.” (More)
Researchers develop new microbe strain to produce more electricity
(7/28/09) In their most recent experiments with Geobacter, the sediment-loving microbe whose hairlike filaments help it to produce electric current from mud and wastewater, microbiologist Derek Lovley and colleagues supervised the evolution of a new strain that dramatically increases power output per cell and overall bulk power. It also works with a thinner biofilm than earlier strains, cutting the time to reach electricity-producing concentrations on the electrode. (More)
Institute provides umbrella organization for biofuels research
(7/17/09) A consortium of biofuels researchers is poised to make a profound difference in the production of renewable fuel, nicknamed “grassoline,” with an award of $170,000 in seed money from President Jack Wilson’s Science and Technology Initiatives Fund. (More)
Nüsslein, researchers catalog and study soils in Amazon rainforest
(7/13/09) The Amazon rainforest may be the largest reservoir of soil microbes on Earth, yet researchers acknowledge that many of these organisms are almost unknown to science, according to associate professor of Microbiology Klaus Nüsslein. What is clear, he adds, is that the area is under great threat from modern agricultural practices and now is the time to identify, collect and preserve microbe-rich soils before it’s too late. (More)
Researchers creating new tool for watershed protection planning
(7/8/09) A new land-use modeling tool being developed by associate professor of Natural Resources Conservation Timothy Randhir and doctoral candidate Deborah Shriver could help Western Massachusetts communities plan new buildings, streets and other improvements while protecting drinking water quality, loss of biodiversity and damaged wildlife habitat. (More)
Campus chosen for multimillion dollar Energy Frontier Research Center
(5/6/09)UMass Amherst has been chosen to host a new multimillion-dollar Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) to pursue advanced scientific research as part of a federal science initiative announced by President Obama. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) plans to award each center at least $2 million per year for five years, with the campus potentially receiving up to $16 million over five years. The federal agency emphasized that full funding details have not been completely finalized. (More)
Calabrese receives Marie Curie Prize
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(5/1/09)Edward Calabrese, a professor in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences, has been awarded the Marie Curie Prize for “outstanding achievements in research on the effects of low and very low doses of ionizing radiation on human health and biotopes.” At an international conference held this week on campus, André Maïsseu, president of the Paris-based World Council of Nuclear Workers, announced that Calabrese is the council’s 2009 Curie Prize winner. Maïsseu saluted Calabrese during the annual meeting of the International Dose-Response Society, of which Calabrese, an environmental toxicologist, is a founder and current director. Maïsseu said the prize recognizes an entire body of research that has improved scientific knowledge of low-dose ionizing radiation effects on human beings and biological communities. A formal award ceremony will be held in Rio de Janeiro, in September. (More)
Radar engineers joining largest national tornado-chasing experiment
(5/01/09) AMHERST, Mass. – As part of the largest, most ambitious attempt ever launched to figure out how tornadoes form and how to predict them more accurately, campus engineers are readying two special mobile Doppler radar systems for deployment to the Great Plains. (More)
Stein Patents self-powered, wireless anemometer
(5/01/09) AMHERST, Mass. – For Bill Stein, a senior research fellow at the Renewable Energy Research Laboratory in the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department, wind is more than a 9-to-5 job.On his own time, Stein has developed and patented a self-powered and wireless anemometer to measure wind speed. (More)
UMass Amherst Chemical Engineering Team Gets $1.9 Million to Make Fuel Precursors from Corn Waste
(4/13/09) AMHERST, Mass. – The Department of Defense has awarded $1.9-million in funding to a biofuel research team led by chemical engineer George Huber at the University of Massachusetts Amherst so he and colleagues can turn wood and corn waste products into fuel precursors. (More)
Making the World a Little Safer for Pets and Children, UMass Amherst Chemists Develop Test for Arsenic in Soil
(3/31/09) AMHERST, Mass. – If you have a cat or dog who likes to hide under the deck or children who play on equipment made with pressure-treated wood, you’ll be glad to hear that analytical chemist Julian Tyson and colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently developed the first-ever accurate test for arsenic compounds in soil, promising a significantly improved environmental and health impact assessment. The method holds some promise for detecting naturally occurring high arsenic levels in Asian rice, as well.(More)
Falling Temperatures 34 Million Years Ago Indicates Greenhouse Gases Controlled Global Climate Change and Ice Volume
(2/26/09) Current climate models do not match the level of polar warmth before the greenhouse-to-icehouse transition took place 34 million years ago, according to new findings by climate researchers Robert DeConto and R. Mark Leckie of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, with colleagues at Yale and elsewhere. This suggests that models we now use to predict climate change might be underestimating future polar warming.(More)
Stalagmites in Northeast Brazilian Caves Confirm 9,000-Year Model of Diminishing Rainfall Developed by UMass Amherst Geoscientists
(2/24/09) Until recently, researchers studying climate history in Brazil’s dry Nordeste region expected it to have wet and dry periods similar to the rest of South America. But over the past 9,000 years, the region has shown just the opposite, drought when rain was expected, and vice versa. Geoscientists from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the University of Sao Paolo, Brazil, with others, report this week that they’ve identified the cause as a surprising air circulation pattern. (More)
New Ocean-Tracking Receiver Will Sharpen Forecasting of Floods, Droughts
(02/11/09) For weather forecasters trying to stay ahead of the next tropical cyclone, deadly heat wave or drought, knowing the ocean water temperature, circulation patterns and current shifts can be critical factors to success. Now, campus scientists and their counterparts at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, are designing and building the next generation of orbiting tracker for NASA that will supply such data with unparalleled precision. (More)
Grad Student Uses EPA Fellowship to Study Drugs in Water Supply
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(02/11/09) Environmental Engineering graduate student Kirsten Studer is using a fellowship from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to study the potentially harmful “disinfection byproducts” of estrogen in the public drinking water supply. The danger posed by low levels of pharmaceuticals in drinking water became a major news story last spring after the Associated Press found that “a vast array of pharmaceuticals – including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones – have been found in the drinking water of at least 41 million Americans.” (More)