Reuters: The torrential rain that the NorthEast of the United States has experienced has raised questions in the public over whether the extreme weather was caused by global warming. Jason Szep reports that the Atlantic is warming faster than scientists projected even a decade ago. Storms such as the one seen this week from Virginia to New York will become more common. The Insurance Information Institute says that Northeast looked “woefully unprepared” to the risk of floods.
BBC: Energy costs associated with semiconductor silicon chip manufacture could be dramatically cut if a new manufacture process goes into widespread use. Currently silicon dioxide, the basis of silicon chips are made by heating silicon to 1000 C to form silicon dioxide. A team from University College London has found a method that uses low-temperature, ultraviolet lamps to make the compound. The UV technique operates at room temperature. “This finding means that the industry’s energy, and subsequent cost savings, could reduce the prices of electronic devices for consumers and, of course, create a positive environmental impact,” said Professor Ian Boyd of UCL, a member of the team behind the discovery.
USA Today: As the space shuttle prepares for a July 1 launch, NASA’s long term future appears to be spinning out of orbit. Traci Watson takes a closer look at the budget and vision constraints facing NASA with its shuttle, space station, and Moon Mars programs, and how they are squeezing the science program in a rush for funds.
Nature: Miniature fuel cells have long been proposed as an alternative to batteries in powering portable devices. In theory, a fuel cell could power a laptop all day or a phone for a week on just a few cubic centimeters of fuel. At least four major companies, Toshiba, Samsung, Sanyo, and Panasonic are researching the technology but despite their investment says Nature’s Kurt Kleiner, it is still unclear whether a commercial consumer product will actually be developed.
Nature: Violence is common currency in Iraq, but one group is increasingly and persistently singled out — academics. Declan Butler reports on the risks run by researchers as they struggle to pursue their studies.
BBC: A global switch to efficient lighting systems would trim the world’s electricity bill by nearly one-tenth.
The Christian Science Monitor: We think of Earth as a rotating sphere. It would be more accurate to consider it a wobbling top. Like a top spinning on a table, Earth’s spin axis undergoes a complex mix of wobbles. Scientists have tracked the larger loops and dips for over a century. Thanks to the exquisite accuracy of the Global Positioning System (GPS) and a break from Mother Nature, they now have found patterns in which the axis traces small loops over an area no bigger than a sheet of typing paper every few days.
The Chronicle of Higher Education: A Senate Appropriations subcommittee has recommended a bigger increase than President Bush requested for scientific-research spending next year by the U.S. Department of Energy.
New Mexican: Energy Department officials want to quadruple the number of plutonium pits, or triggers, for nuclear bombs that can be made at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
MSNBC: Balky camera could be back on line July 3, agency says