Sceptics about electric cars cite many arguments why they are impractical or not a good idea. Plug in America examines twelve of them, and shows why they are untrue. These include: "EVs don’t have enough range"; "They are good for short city trips only; "They only replace the tailpipe with a smokestack"; "The charging infrastructure must be built before people will adopt them; "The grid will crash if millions of plug-ins charge at once"; and "There isn’t enough lithium in the world to make all the new batteries."
(Care2.com) | For further info...

Much of the objection to the use of wind and solar power generation is that it is erratic in its supply, rising and falling according to the available wind or sun. Batteries are one method of storage, but are expensive and impractical at large scales. Storing the energy in hydrogen is another option, but up to now usually required the use of platinum, which is also too expensive for large-scale application. However, a new, cheap method for making hydrogen and releasing energy from it has been developed at Joseph Fourier University in Grenoble, France, which doesn't require the use of platinum, potentially offering a single device both for converting energy into hydrogen and for converting that into electricity when needed. The next step is to optimise the process, so it can compete in its efficiency with platinum-based cells.
(New Scientist) | For further info...

With the camera of the new iPhone 3GS (but not, alas, of the previous generations), and the app Cyclops you can now to scan barcodes (UPC or EAN) and retrieve information on the item from Amazon – complete with a link to the product's page.
(Source: Macintouch.com) | Cost: Free | Requires: iPhone 3GS only | For further info...

Following Stanford University's lead, Yale University too has now begun offering select courses as free downloads from iTunes U, in areas such as Engineering and Technology, Humanities, Science, Arts and Architecture, Business & Management, etc.
(Source: iLounge) | Cost: Free | For further info...

Scientist Garardine Botte of Ohio University has developed an electrolyzer that can extract hydrogen from urine for use in fuel cells. Because hydrogen is less tightly bound to the nitrogen in urea (NH2)2CO, only 0.37volts are needed to oxidize urea – less than a third needed to split water. According to Botte, the technology can be easily scaled up to power a hybrid or electric car, with power for the extraction aided perhaps by a solar panel on the car roof.
(Source: New Scientist) | Cost: | For further info...

A sixteen-year-old has hit on a solution that has eluded scientists for years: how to make ordinary plastic biodegradable.
Observing that ordinary plastic does degrade, but takes a thousand years to do so, Daniel Burd, from Waterloo Ontario, reasoned that he might speed up the process by selectively breeding the microbes responsible to break down plastic much more quickly. By immersing ground plastic in a yeast solution that encourages microbial growth, and then isolating the most productive organisms and interbreeding them, he managed to bring about a 43% degradation in six weeks – an unheard-of achievement.
The process holds promise of solving the growing problem of plastic pollution of the environment, and won its inventor first prize in the Canadian Science Fair last month.
(Source: Mother Nature Network) | For further info...

For the most succinct – and scariest – depiction of the current state of the planet and how we must change how we live to allow it to survive, see The Story of Stuff – and pass it on.
(Source: Sustainable Enterprise Fieldbook) | For further info...

The winner of the FT Climate Change Challenge this month is the “Kyoto Box”, made of two cardboard boxes, silver foil, transparent plastic and some black paint to make a solar cooker. Sunlight passes through the lid and into the inner cardboard box, painted black to absorb the heat. Silver foil on the outer box prevents that energy from escaping so that the inner box gets hot enough to boil 10 litres of water in a couple of hours.
The Kyoto Box is aimed at the three billion people who use firewood to cook and has the potential to deliver huge environmental and social benefits. “We’re saving lives and saving trees, “ says Kenya-based entrepreneur Jon Bøhmer. “I doubt if there is any other technology that can make so much impact for so little money.”
He will use the $75,000 prize money to conduct field trials. Continued…

Some species of algae have been found to contain domoic acid – a powerful neurotoxin,. Researchers at the University of Santa Cruz in California have found that, when consumed in sufficient quantities, it can affect sea lions, birds and humans. In people, it can cause headaches and memory loss, and even death.
Algae blooms are promoted by fertilisers leaching into coastal waters from agricultural and sewage runoff.
The toxin remains even when the algae dies off and sinks with it to the bottom, instead of being dissolved in seawater. This would explain the dead zones at lower depths in a growing number of marine areas. "[It is also] the missing link to explain why domoic acid also shows up in benthic organisms like crabs, shellfish and flatfish," says Raphael Kudela, one of the study’s authors.
(Source: New Scientist) | For further info...

In 1989, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez went aground on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound in Alaskan waters, dumping 45 million litres of crude oil which affected 1,800 kilometres of coastline in an ecologically sensitive area.

Twenty years on, the Living Oceans Society has released an interactive online animation that combines science and imagery to show how an oil spill today would spread, and examines how salmon, whale and shellfish habitat would be affected over a course of days. The animation is designed to raise awareness of the impact of shipping accidents should the moratorium on oil tanker shipping be lifted. Continued…

A report by Natural England and the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (Cabe) says that urban areas could be transformed into healthier, wealthier and much more pleasant places if green infrastructure received even a fraction of the investment allotted "grey" areas.
Indeed, switching public spending from "grey" projects building roads and expanding airports , to "green" schemes creating parks and allotments, would save billions of pounds, improve health, cut climate emissions and create jobs, say official advisers to the government. Continued…

A study by The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, based in Washington, D.C., of 28 bath products for children, infants and babies found that 17 of them – 61% – tested positive for not-so-positive cancer-causing chemicals, such as formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane.
Continued…

Tips for making your own own floor, window and tile cleaners, can be found on the site www.creativehomemaking.com and www.thriftyfun.com. Some are geared towards saving money – e.g. substituting bubble bath for the more expensive liquid hand soap – others allow you to avoid using and storing toxic chemicals in your home. Continued…