Near-zero-energy buildings blessing to owners, environment
...approach to space heating, cooling, water heating, lighting and major appliances," Christian said. "We're also looking at a number of other advanced technologies and we are integrating sensors so the homeowners can monitor their energy usage and savings." In July, workers completed a fourth Habitat fo...... explain the potential dangers of artificial night lighting in "Ecological light pollution." Possible pitfall... more research on the effects of artificial night lighting on organisms and ecosystems....Conserving hydrocarbons would save $438 billion
...chemicals, paper and lumber, household appliances, lighting and metals, the analysis showed. Their report on "U.S. Energy Conservation and Efficiency: Benefits and Costs" is in the latest issue of the journal Environment, Development, and Sustainability (Vol. #6, Issue 3-4). American taxpayers could save an...Human health, astronomy, and environmental concerns merge at Dark-Sky meeting
...n, protection of observatory environments, outdoor lighting codes, lighting fixtures and energy savings. More detailed information about the meeting, the meeting program, graph...Mantis shrimp fluoresce to enhance signaling in the dim ocean depths
... the fluorescing mantis shrimp using an underwater lighting and video system he developed and markets through ...escence last year while diving with his underwater lighting and photography system. While he and a crew were videotaping the nighttime fluorescent world off the...Carnegie Mellon dorm honored as first green residence hall
...residence hall, completed this spring, also sports lighting activated by motion sensors to reduce energy consumption and 18-inch exterior walls for improved insulation. The Carnegie Mellon residence hall also will be part of a tour late next week by members of the 2003 U.S. Green Building Coun...Pollutant-eating microbe could speed gasworks cleanup
... manufacture of gas from coal for homes and street lighting left a toxic legacy in the ground. The National Science Foundation-funded research is reported in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ( PNAS early edition, Oct. 27, 2003) by researchers working at the NSF Microbi...Jefferson and Brigham and Women's researchers find blue light important for setting biological clock
..." he says. "Broad changes in general architectural lighting may take years, but the groundwork has been laid." In theory, he says, "If a clinician wants to use light therapeutically, the blue wavelengths may be more effective. If you wanted built-in illumination that would enhance circadian regulation, you mi...In men chronically exposed to magnetic fields, no disruptions of melatonin exists
...encountered in most activities of daily life, from lighting to heating and other routine household applications of electricity. Past experimental studies of rats exposed to electric or magnetic fields have found a diminution in melatonin secretion. The importance of the length of magnetic field exposure in t...Researchers find a new way to potentially thwart anthrax
...hat it is time to turn on other functions, such as lighting up or releasing deadly toxins. Such a system allows bacteria to reserve their energy until they gather in a big group, when they can perform some functions more effectively. Many researchers are avidly studying quorum-sensing systems in other p...Body clocks keep migrating monarchs on course, Science study shows
... the laboratory that was close to the fall outdoor lighting cycle (light from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.) migrant butterflies exposed to outdoor sun oriented to the southwest, toward Mexico. Butterflies housed under an earlier cycle (light from 1:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.) flew to the southeast. When the butterflies w...R&D yields numerous applications for conductive polymers
...onstance. Applications in anticorrosion coatings, lighting displays, plastic batteries, electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding, antistatic textiles, and welding materials have already been targeted and are being developed. The mechanical flexibility and tunable optical properties of some of these polym...Teasing apart the molecules of life
...ogical systems on a molecule by molecule basis, by lighting up parts of the molecule in particular circumstances. The combination of the two methods applied to a single molecule has been impossible up until now because the light from the lasers used in conventional optical traps is too bright to allow single ...Turning off building lights reduces bird window-kill by 83%
...he number of dead birds by up to 88%, depending on lighting conditions and window location. For all the days c...manufacturers and public officials to reduce night lighting problems and window kill. Day Light conditions Dead Birds Reduction per window night All Windows...Cultured sea fans to be re-seeded in Florida keys national marine sanctuary
...ure and alkalinity, while providing just the right lighting and a steady supply of clean, fresh, and fast-moving seawater. Once we figured that out, we collected our cuttings, a total of 80 four-inch by four-inch samples of sea fans from near the damaged reef, and attached them successfully to an artificial......one infected with TB also contracts HIV. "Its like lighting a fire," Blower said. "You get HIV and boom! Suddenly your TB is killing you." "An immune system weakened by HIV can no longer fight TB infection," said co-author Dr. Peter Small, associate professor of infectious diseases at Stanford University. "Th...Both shape and size matter in tiny world of nanoparticles
...oparticles could be used as new diagnostic labels, lighting up when target DNA of anthrax or HIV, for example is present. By developing nanoprisms made of different materials and with varying shapes and sizes, a large number of multicolor diagnostic labels could become available. Once the technology is opti...Bacterial communities found to follow water
...aboratory setting and were tested under controlled lighting conditions, using microprobes to measure the relation of bacterial movement to water content in the soil surface. Test results showed clearly that the bacteria tracked the water. These migrations are really population migrations that occur in millime...In gene therapy first, scientists restore vision to dogs born blind
...ere able to navigate through a maze, even when the lighting was dim. "The dogs bumped into objects on the left side, but would always avoid the objects on the right," Hauswirth said. Officials from the Foundation Fighting Blindness, which supported the study with grant funds, said the success in reversing b......scade of events to a match striking over and over, lighting and re-lighting a fuse in the affected part of the brain. The fuse goes out and re-ignites more and more frequently, until finally it ignites the energy that leads to clinical seizures.In some of the study patients, the process lasted up to seven hou...