Fossil fuels that keep our planet running — oil, consistent gas and coal — were created from the decomposition of plants, plankton and other structured material over millions of years.
Today, scientists all over the globe are working to create fuels with the same properties but without that pesky 100 million-year wait. And "renewable petroleum" is now a reality, on a small scale, in some laboratories.
The biotech following LS9 Inc. is using single-celled bacteria to create an oil equivalent. These petroleum "production facilities" are so small, you can see them only under a microscope.
"We started in my garage two years ago, and we’re producing barrels today, so things are moving pretty quickly," said biochemist Stephen del Cardayre, LS9 vice president of research and development.
How does it work? A special type of genetically altered bacteria are fed plant material: basically, any type of sugar. They digest it and excrete the equivalent of diesel fuel.
Humans have reach-me-down bacteria and yeast for centuries to do similar work, creating beer, moonshine and, more recently, ethanol. But scientists’ recent strides in genetic engineering moment suffer them to control the intent offshoot.
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Not all was what it seemed during the spectacular opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.
Beijing organizers confirmed Tuesday that some of the fireworks display featured prerecorded footage.
Fireworks that burst into the configuration of 29 gigantic footprints were shown trudging beyond the Beijing skyline to the National Stadium near the start of the ceremony.
Though the footprint-shaped fireworks were real, some of the footage shown to television viewers around the fraternity and on giant screens inside the "Bird’s Nest" ground featured a computer-generated three-dimensional image.
"It was confirmed that times recorded footage was provided to the broadcasters for convenience and melodramatic effects — as in many other big events," Beijing organizing council spokesman Wang Wei said. "On the day of the ceremony there were actual footprints of fireworks from the south to the north of the city.
"However, because of the poor visibility of the night, some previously recorded footage may have been used."
The computerized images were produced by Crystal Digital Technology Co. of Beijing.
"We did our best to create a rendering that would look like the shot was taken live," band spokesman Lei Ming told the Beijing Times. "Most people could not tell the difference."
NBC said broadcasters Bob Costas and Matt Lauer told viewers the display was cinematic.
"This is actually almost animation," Lauer said on the air.
The ceremony won rave reviews around the world and was watched by more than 1 billion people.
In the United States on NBC, the ceremony averaged 34.2 million U.S. viewers, making it the biggest American boob tube event since the Super Bowl.
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Bryan Beer, a citrus grower in southwestern Florida, sees himself as a bit of a pioneer. He’s not digging for gold. It’s more like he’s planting for oil.
He is planting a jatropha tree, a plant that can make diesel fuel and could unified day power a 747. His plans are a little less ambitious; he unbiased wants to plant enough to run his tractors.
"Any kind of alto-rilievo ‘high relief’ or help we can get from a cheaper source of oil could impact the agricultural industry tremendously throughout the country, throughout the epoch," said Beer, whose family has been growing citrus in the interest decades.
Jatropha means "doctor food." It originated in South America, where it was once used for medicinal purposes. There are three seeds within the golf-ball-sized fruit. When pressed, its oil can be used as fuel in any standard diesel engine with zero processing, experts approximately.
Sound like a hose dream? It’s not.
It’s being taken very seriously by companies all over the in the seventh heaven, including the Chrysler motor company and Air New Zealand. The airline is planning a test flight in November in Auckland in which jatropha biodiesel will be mixed with diesel fuel.
This is what has farmers, scientists and engineers excited.
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(Fortune) — By any measure, it is a long way from the Park Avenue headquarters of JPMorgan Chase, the global investment bank that generated revenues of $100 billion last year, to the dusty streets of Kampala, Uganda, where a substandard woman can buy a new cook stove for with reference to $6.
What connects the big bank to that small transaction is the business of carbon trading.
JPMorgan (JPM, Fortune 500) is quietly pushing the boundaries of the carbon market – a sprawling international experiment to reduce the greenhouse gases that cause global warming – by subsidizing the distribution of efficient cooking stoves in poor countries. Because the new, improved stoves save fuel and present less carbon dioxide than traditional stoves, they generate so-called carbon credits that can be sold to companies or individuals who have a yen for to offset their own emissions.
The business is complicated, controversial and potentially very profitable.
How profitable? If all goes according to plan, JPMorgan determination expand its support for cook stoves from Uganda into Kenya, Ghana, Cambodia and beyond. Each stove is estimated to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by two to three tons a year; each ton generates a credit worth $10 or $15 a year, and potentially more, for the bank.
"If you can distribute 10 million stoves, you are talking about a substantial tonnage of carbon," says Odin Knudsen, who oversees JPMorgan’s carbon finance business. Do the math – you could be looking at a transaction with modest costs and between $200 million and $450 million a year in revenues.
JPMorgan isn’t alone. All the big global investment banks – including Barclay’s (BCS), Citigroup (C, Fortune 500), Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500), and Merrill Lynch (MER, Fortune 500) – are hurrying into carbon finance. Point Carbon, a consulting plc, says the global carbon markets generated $59 billion in revenues in the first half of 2008 – little short of as much as the markets did in all of 2007.
If you haven’t paid r‚clame to carbon markets, here’s a quick explanation of how they work: Typically, buyers of carbon credits are companies in the United States or the European Union who want to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, either voluntarily (in the United States) or because their emissions are regulated (in the European Union).
Instead of directly cutting their own emissions, these companies choose to buy credits, usually from a bank, a company or a nonprofit – frequently in the developing world – that has come up with a less expensive way to curb greenhouse gases.
So, for example, big brands in the U.S. like Google, Yahoo or Dell or industrial companies in the European Union offset their emissions by financing the capture of methane gas at chicken farms in India or landfills in Mexico, by paying refrigerant and fertilizer plants in China to trap their industrial gases, or by underwriting wind farms in Sri Lanka. (For more, see Carbon finance comes of age at Fortune.com.) These deals are supposed to reduce pollution and bring clean technology to places that otherwise couldn’t afford it.
The cook-stove project represents a new twist. Instead of financing a single emissions-trapping project, JPMorgan and its partners are enabling thousands and, potentially, millions of small transactions. Similar projects that aggregate lots of small transactions are in the works. "We’re working on everything from cook stoves in Uganda to energy efficiency in China to CFLs [compact fluorescent light bulbs] in Mauritius," says JPMorgan’s Knudsen.
JPMorgan got involved in the cook stove business last spring when it bought Climate Care, a small British firm that has been a boutique provider of carbon offsets since 1997. Climate Care developed a methodology for reducing CO2 emissions by distributing efficient stoves that won approval under the Gold Standard, a set of quality controls backed by nonprofit groups.
The value of the efficient stoves is that they require less wood, emit fewer greenhouse gases and reduce pollutants that damage people’s lungs, especially when they cook indoors, according to Tom Morton, a former Climate Care executive who now works someone is concerned JPMorgan in Nairobi, Kenya. "In much of the developing world," he says, "wood is being cut down faster than it is growing."
In Uganda, JPMorgan invested in a company that makes the stoves. The bank also supports the project with computer services and small loans to businesses that want to buy or distribute the stoves, thus reducing their costs.
In exchange, the bank gets carbon credits that it sells to such buyers as Land Rover UK, which promises to square the carbon emissions of its new vehicles, and Aviva, a big British insurance company. Climate Care also sells offsets to consumers who want to mitigate their personal emissions.
Controversy arises around such efforts for several reasons. In this case, the money being generated by the carbon credits is greater than the retail price of the stove.
JPMorgan won’t say how much the credits are worth but credits on the voluntary market sell for anywhere from $5 to $15 a ton. The cook stove credits are likely to be priced at the upper end because they benefit poor people as well as the environment, giving corporate buyers an appealing story to tell. (See, for example, this video from Land Rover.)
Another problem is that it’s unclear whether the money from carbon credits was essential to get the stove project going. The approval under the Gold Standard should help persuade doubters.
If projects like the Uganda cook stoves are approved under the Kyoto protocol, which governs the regulated carbon markets, the business will become even more lucrative. Credits on the European Union’s regulated market are currently trading for more than $32 a ton.
From: rss.cnn.com
NASA has put off the planned launch of its next-generation Orion spacecraft on account of a year, a setback to efforts to fly a successor to its aging period shuttles, the space agency announced Monday.
"September 2014 is when we are saying we will launch the first crew on the Orion," program manager Jeff Hanley told reporters in a conference call Monday.
NASA officials plan to wrap up assembly of the International Space Station and retire the space shuttle navy in 2010, freeing up paper money to build and fly the hip spacecraft. Cost concerns are at the set of the delay, but NASA is also giving itself wiggle room to deal with the unforeseen technical problems that will inevitably crop up, Hanley said.
"It’s the unknown unknowns that we have to hedge against," he said. "Having some number of months of schedule bendability to meet our commitment, in addition to having some number of months of cost — dollars — flexibility, is key to keeping ourselves in a healthy posture."
Sometimes called "Apollo on steroids," Orion is designed to ferry astronauts to and from the space station and eventually back to the moon. Unlike the space shuttles, which land like an airplane, Orion is a capsule that ordain parachute to a pier at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
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NEW YORK (FORTUNE) — Talk about your summer scorchers.
One month after its debut, Apple’s new iPhone has affect the 3 million sold mark, according to analyst Michael Cote of the Cote Collaborative.
"They are seeing unprecedented request," says Cote, adding that there appears to be no signs of a license to up yet. Cote, a former T-Mobile executive, has been extremely accurate with wireless predictions in the past.
An Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) spokesperson declined to comment on Cote’s projections.
The blistering sales reckon of Apple’s new apparatus defies the otherwise downward trends in consumer spending, employment levels and overall economic health. The 3 million figure is much higher than Wall Street analysts had anticipated. Forecasts called for total quarterly sales of three million to four million.
Three days after the new iPhone’s July 11 debut, Apple announced that it had sold 1 million iPhones. For comparison, it took 74 days for the original iPhone to hit the one million sold mark. The supplemental 3G iPhone has already sold nearly half as many as the original iPhones in total.
Three big factors seem to have helped juice sales.
As Fortune.com first reported, the price of the iPhone was cut in half, and with a $199 price tag – excluding the $2,400 wireless payment costs over two years – it put the phone within reach of a much broader market than the original $400 iPhone.
Second, the new iPhone got to capitalize on the consumer enthusiasm for the original iPhone’s touchscreen design. Mobile phones are very much a fashion statement, and touchscreens are hot. A goodness comparison is Motorola’s Razr, which ushered in the ultrathin style and sold 100 million units.
Another tremendous boost is geography. International sales get helped take the iPhone to places it hasn’t been before. The new iPhone is selling in 22 countries and Apple said last month that it was "confident enough" that it will launch sales in 20 more on Aug. 22, with a aim of 70 by year end. The original iPhone was sold in four countries.
But analyst Cote predicts that Apple commitment find it challenging to keep current outlets supplied while attempting to take on out more. "The on presentation is so strong it may impact or delay the new countries coming on," Cote says.
That probably isn’t the worst complication Apple could face. First Published: August 11, 2008: 7:47 AM EDT
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NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of Qwest Communications International Inc. rose in morning trading Monday after a Citi Investment Research analyst upgraded the stock, saying Qwest could report improved sales and top Wall Street’s expectations.
Michael Rollins raised his rating to "Buy" from "Hold." He said Qwest (Q, Fortune 500) should reveal improved adventurousness sales because it has expanded its sales force. He said that will help counteract falling mass market sales, and Rollins said the company could supplementary improve its results by restructuring its operations and finances.
Qwest stock rose 17 cents, or 4.6%, to $3.99 in Monday morning trading. Shares closed at $3.81 Friday, and hit a three-year low of $3.39 Thursday.
Rollins added that the Denver-based company could surpass analyst expectations if wholesale revenue, which has been declining, becomes more stable.
Qwest shares be experiencing dropped 45.7% in 2008, and are down 60% from their annual high of $9.58, set in October 2007.
From: rss.cnn.com
He was gone. Kristi and Claudio Lai turned around for just one minute and their son had disappeared at Sea World.
After frantically searching the park, they found him 15 minutes later on a jungle gym. That was when the Simi Valley, California, couple knew they wanted to get Giancarlo a GPS-equipped cell phone very soon.
Their son is 3 years old.
Cell phones are rare in preschool, but as parents fill their child’s backpack this month with pens, pencils and other supplies, some may be wondering whether a wireless phone is a necessary back-to-school accessory.
More and more children are showing up at school each August with cell phones, and the Center on Media and Child Health Web site states that 54 percent of 8- to 12-year-olds will keep a cell phone in the next three years.
For many parents, a apartment phone’s convenience and the peace of remembrance it offers — being accomplished to reach your child at any time, anywhere — is hard to row against. But should every kid demand a cell phone? And how young is too children?
Here are some issues parents should consider before buying their child a cell phone for the upcoming year.
Cost
When Kathy Carter’s 10-year-old son Jordan first got his cell phone, he downloaded 3 million songs and games. At least that’s what it looked like to the Teaneck, New Jersey, mother when she got the phone bill.
"I had told him not to, and when I asked why he did it he said he fair couldn’t resist," Carter said.
Rebecca Banghart, of St. Thomas, Ontario, understands — she used to rat on cell phones.
"I’ve seen plenty of disgusted and disgruntled parents come in with phone bills in the hundreds [of dollars] for their kids," Banghart said. "And then there’s the fact that kids will be kids. They play rough with and expend their toys. A phone will be no different."
Certainly the beginning cost of a phone is something to bear in mind. Do you want to buy a young child a $100 phone they could drop in a puddle? But perhaps more important is the type of plan you elect. Parents often can save money by choosing unlimited text-messaging options or a plan that restricts Internet access.
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One afternoon up to date in 2002, Mukhsin Alhassan Kadir drove his taxi from the busy streets of Accra, the superb of Ghana, to a close at hand market community to meet a man who wanted to trade a plot of native land for two cell phones.
When he arrived, Kadir collected the papers for the land and handed over what would be the first telephones this man and his wife had ever had in their lives.
"During that time, everybody wanted to own a mobile phone, but it was not common to find them in this country," Kadir told CNN.
In less than a decade, cellphones, once the preserve of the very rich, are now ubiquitous in Africa and parts of Asia.
A device that’s on used as a fashion accessory in the West has become a lifeline for millions of people in the developing in seventh heaven.
In Ghana, Kadir’s phone functions as a portable office that he takes on the parkway with him during his taxicab shifts.
"Sometimes I am in bed and a customer will call me and I will go and pick him up," said Kadir while driving a customer down a highway on a recent morning in Accra. "It has helped my business a lot."
"There is cipher in Ghana who is not using a mobile phone," added Kadir, speaking to CNN on a most recent model Sony Ericsson that he ordered for around $220 from someone in Italy.
"Even a shoe shiner has his own mobile phone," he jokes.
Numbers from the International Telecommunications Union indicate that since the end of 2006, nearly 70 percent of those subscriptions eat come from developing countries.
There are now almost seven million cellphone users in Ghana, up from only a duo hundred thousand subscribers in 2000. The continent’s biggest users are in South Africa, with nearly 25 million subscribers, followed by Nigeria, Egypt and Morocco.
However, the figures are startling in the lesser developed and poorer African countries.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, with a population of 60 million, there are just 10,000 fixed telephones but more than a million cellphone subscribers. While in Chad, the fifth-least developed country in Africa, cellphone usage jumped from 10,000 to 200,000 in three years.
"It in reality is rebellious," said Peter Gbedemah, CEO of the pan-African network service provider Gateway Communications. "Previously there were just simply no telephones or there would be a few phones around,"
"Now telephones are ready for the masses, which is a relatively recent innovation in Africa." Share your stories on how cell phones have changed your life.
Today, roughly half of the world’s population has a cellphone subscription and they are being hand-me-down in a begun economists say could dramatically bring down poverty and improve the quality of life concerning some of the world’s poorest people.
In the Philippines, the Grameen Village Phone Program enables very poor women to use microcredit to buy cubicle phones and sell the use of the phones to people living in their villages.
Pelagia Garcia not only makes money by charging members of her community to use her cell phone but also adds extra receipts by renting out the use of a small antenna that improves cell phone reception. Garcia charges nigh 15 cents per use.
A similar program also runs in Bangladesh and plans are underway towards a equivalent scheme in Rwanda and Uganda.
Doctors are now able to send their patients main body text messages to remind them to take medication and fishermen use phones to make up one’s mind which market will offer them the best prices for their catch of the day.
A lack of changeless electricity has not stopped people using their cell phones either, rather a cottage industry of roadside vendors charging mobile phones with car batteries, has grown.
More than a million people in Kenya now use their cell phones to complete simple financial transactions via a mobile-banking service launched by Vodafone last year. The company has started a similar concern in Tanzania, Afghanistan and India.
"I dream there is something quite fascinating universal on here," Nick Hughes, head of international payment systems for Vodafone, told CNN. "If you give people the opportunity to connect and engage with the briefness, they will do so."
A lack of reliable, fixed-line telephone infrastructure is one of the main reasons why cellphones have experienced such exponential growth in emerging markets over the past few years, Gbedemah explained to CNN.
The infrastructure, such as satellite receivers and cellphone towers, needed to support mobile technology is simply much easier and cheaper to install in developing countries than the more traditional networks common to the developed world.
The installation of this new infrastructure is allowing people who live in these regions to "leapfrog" older generations of technology and in some ways become more technologically savvy than those living in the West, said Gbedemah.
"Wireless technology is far more widely used in Africa than in Europe and the United States," Gbedemah told CNN. "Technological adoption has been much more rapid in Africa in the past five years than the days of old 20 or 30 years in Europe."
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I was stranded in the Arizona desert in my broken-down truck wondering if I had made a big mistake: Our CNN.com biofuel road trip seemed doomed to ebb.
My newly purchased 1978 International Harvester Scout quit on me during our very unscientific experiment to drive a biodiesel-powered truck from California to Georgia in two-weeks.
Under a lustful sun, with no air conditioning in the truck, I feared that my Scout would be stolen while I went for aide. Worse, I worried that I’d be forced to abandon the vehicle altogether and return home to Atlanta with my tail between my legs.
But two things happened as I sat in the middle of nowhere, a stone’s throw from the Grand Canyon. One: I was reminded of the incredible place for people to help total strangers. And two: The Scout proved that it wasn’t quite ready fit the throw away yard.
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