A couple of weeks ago, scientists from the J. Craig Venters Institute (JCVI) announced that they had created the first organism with a synthetic genome. President of the institute Craig Venters sees this as the first major step towards creating synthetic organisms that will produce anything from cheap medicines to advanced biofuels.

This synthetic organism, a bacterium, contained a complete genome that had been created by combining thousands and thousands of Mycoplasma mycoides gene base sequences in several stages. (more…)

During the course of most conversations about electric vehicles (EVs), the phrase “range anxiety” eventually shows up. Many observers believe that EVs’ range of 100 miles or less will keep some consumers on the sidelines, but some studies reveal that fear might be overstated.

For example, take this recent article from NEBusiness in the UK:

“The trial found that so-called ‘range anxiety’ meant drivers were over-cautious when planning journeys. The maximum journey length was 17.8km, just 25 percent of the average range of the vehicles, which was 72.4km. This range anxiety also meant that 93 percent of journeys were begun with the battery charged above 50 percent, and people also begin to modify their driving style when the battery’s state of charge approached 50 percent.”

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Jonathan Hiskes recent Grist post is an excellent exploration of a schism in the environmental community over the long awaited American Power Act i.e. the Kerry/Lieberman and one time Graham bill. Earlier in May, I took a day off from my day job, put on my private citizen hat and joined the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in Washington, DC for a day of lobbying in support of the bill. (more…)

There are many earth cycles. One is a cycling between warmer and colder periods which are commonly called ice ages. The causes of these cycles are complex and are related to how much sun radiation we get as well as some slight variation in the sun itself. Scientists have recently found a possible source of a huge carbon dioxide burp that happened some 18,000 years ago and which helped to end the last ice age. (more…)