Motorola's Green phone ~~~>> have a look

If recycled paper and plastic products were not enough, Motorola has now launched a cellphone made from recycled plastic water bottles.

Called the MOTO W233 Renew, the mobile phone not only boasts plastic exterior made from recycled material, but also the device is the first "carbon neutral" phone, said the company.

"Through an alliance with Carbonfund.org, Motorola offsets the carbon dioxide required to manufacture, distribute and operate the phone through investments in renewable energy sources and reforestation," All Headlines News quoted Motorola as saying in a press release.

In fact, the box that contains the phone is also made from recycled material, according to the media release.

Another postage-paid box comes inside the package, which is also made from recycled paper, and can be used by customers to mail their old phones back to Motorola for recycling.

With nine hours of talk time, the phone includes other features like ChrystalTalk technology and messaging capabilities.

MOTO W233 Renew will hit the shelves during the first quarter of 2009 at T-Mobile stores.

Motorola unveiled the phone at the 2009 International CES in Las Vegas.

Stanford sets up green energy centre ~~~> lets see!!!

Stanford University is launching a 100 million US dollar energy institute to fund research into batteries, solar cells and other aspects of green energy.

The California University has spawned technologies that led to the formation of companies like Hewlett Packard and Google, and the new institute is expected to boost the ability of Silicon Valley to become a world leader in green energy. The tech region already boasts a 500 million US dollar energy institute at the University of California at Berkeley.

"The biggest renewable resource is the sun," said Lynn Orr, who will direct the new institute, which was officially launched Monday night.

"But we need to lower the cost of converting sunlight into electricity and supplying it through a much improved electric grid. The new centre will allow us to expand significantly our effort to develop new nanostructure materials for solar energy and energy storage and to work on the host of social, market and policy issues involved in the needed transition to energy systems with significant fractions of renewable."

Venture capitalist John Doerr, who launched companies like Apple, Sun and Google, said the institute would help turn Silicon Valley into Solar Valley. Already there were 200 start-ups in the region concentrating on solar energy, he said.

"Batteries are the holy grail of renewable energy and the US isn't even in the battery race," said Doerr. "We are not doing enough research," he said. "The Internet is a trillion-dollar economy and energy is a $6-trillion economy - it could be the largest economic opportunity of the 21st century."

Coral reef recovery in Lakshadeep ~~~>> see the progress....

The year 1998 saw a large scale destruction of coral reefs all over the world. This was due to increased sea surface temperature.
Coral reefs are extremely sensitive to water temperature. Any change beyond 1 degree C for extended periods of time affects the corals.
Coral bleaching

Ten years ago saw a layer of warm water spreading from the south into the tropical water. The warm water conditions persisted for as long as one month in certain places.
The mean maximum summer sea surface temperature increased by 2 degree C. “About 40-50 per cent of corals were lost in most of the reefs,” said Dr. M. Wafar, Senior Scientist at the National Oceanography Institute (NIO), Goa. “80-90 per cent of corals in Lakshadeep were destroyed.” Dr. Wafar has been involved in coral research for nearly 25 years.
Scientists from NIO have recovered coral reef in Kavaratti island, Lakshadeep through coral transplantation.
“The recovery has been quite good. In some places the live coral cover has increased by nearly 50 per cent,” said Dr. Wafar. “The government now wants us to undertake similar initiative in all the islands at Lakshadeep.”
Scientists will soon start growing corals for transplantation work at Agatti and Kadmat islands.
Coral transplantation

Pieces of corals broken naturally or otherwise are tied to slabs and put in shallow water and allowed to grow. The coral are put in reefs once they have grown well.
“We started the pilot exercise in Nov-Dec 2005. We used 100 coral tips, most of them belonging to fast growing coral genera.
“In 2 years’ time the growth was up to 25 cm in the best of the cases,” Dr. Wafar said.
In all 4 fast growing coral species and 4-5 slow growing species were grown and transplanted in the coral reefs in Kavaratti in 2008.
“We grew fast and slow growing coral species to offset a bias in the natural species composition,” he said. “We will do the same now as well.” Since reefs support many fishes, increased coral coverage has a direct positive impact on fish population.

14 % drop in coral growth seen in the Great Barrier Reef

Increased sea surface temperature and acidity of sea water are the most likely causes

The effects of global warming have shown up in a definite way in the Great Barrier Reef of Australia.

A paper in the latest issue of the Science journal notes unprecedented effects of increased CO{-2} on the Great Barrier Reef. Scientists found the rate at which corals were able to build skeletons dropped by 14 per cent during the p eriod of study — 1990 to 2005.

Coral reefs are considered as the rain forests of the ocean as they support great biodiversity. Any drop in growth of the reefs of the Great Barrier Reef is hence worrying.
Unprecedented

What makes the study significant is that scientists studied 328 colonies from 69 reefs, and the duration of study was 15 years. “…This study shows that the effects are probably large-scale in extent and that the observed changes are unprecedented within the past 400 years.”

The growth of coral reefs depends on their ability to build skeletons. Skeletons are built by calcification of calcium carbonate (CaCO{-3}). There are a few things that may affect the calcification process.

Though the scientists note that the precise “causes of decline” in calcification are not known, their study suggests that increased temperature stress and increased acidity of sea water are the most likely causes.

Coral reefs are extremely sensitive to sea surface temperature. Any changes beyond 1 degree C for extended periods of time affect the corals. Increase in sea surface temperature affects and destroys the symbiotic zooxanthellae algae that live on the corals. Any damage to the algae leads to a loss of the symbionts and a rapid whitening of the coral host (thus the term "bleaching").

Mass coral bleaching was not documented in the scientific literature before 1979. 1998 saw a large scale destruction of coral reefs all over the world.
Effect of salinity

Since the oceans act as sinks for carbon dioxide, increased uptake of CO{-2} by ocean water will make them acidic. Supersaturation of tropical sea water with calcium carbonate is crucial for reef calcification process. Hence acidic water will compromise supersaturation.

The pH of the ocean has decreased by 0.1 unit (become acidic) since the beginning of the industrial revolution. And this has affected the calcification process.The researchers studied the Porites corals using X-rays and a technique called gamma densitometry to measure annual growth and skeletal density.

Studying the skeletal density allowed them to calculate the amount of calcification annually. They found that the calcification rate rose 5.4 per cent between 1900 and 1970. It dropped by 14.2 per cent between 1990 and 2005. The drop was mainly due to a growth slowdown from 1.43 cm a year to 1.24 cm.
Long term effects

How the sea surface temperature and lower pH would affect the reefs and marine organisms in the long run cannot be accurately predicted since living organisms and ocean are dynamic.

“We may not see drastic changes in a short period. And how the increased temperature, acidity and reduced skeletal strength due to calcite erosion would affect marine life are not known,” said Dr. M. Wafar, Senior Scientist at the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Goa. “So this only calls for a more cautious approach.”

Magma discovered in its ‘natural habitat’

Magma discovered in its ‘natural habitat’

A crew drilling on the Big Island of Hawaii has discovered magma — never before found in its natural habitat underground — that is the central ingredient in the evolution of planets and the lifeblood of all volcanoes.

Leaf and flower shaped organic solar cells ~~~>> WoW !!!

Japan’s Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) has developed leaf and flower shaped organic solar cells. An AIST employee displays a prototype model at a solar power exhibition.

Dicynodonts, predator dinosaur bones found !!!

Bones of dicynodonts and predator dinosaurs were discovered by palaeontologists in the village Lisowice, Poland. One of the predator dinosaurs is a previously unknown ancestor of Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Primate extinction threat worsening

A gorilla sits in its enclosure at London Zoo. Almost half the world’s primates are facing a worsening threat of extinction because of anthropogenic activities, says an international report