ASU paleoanthropologist Don Johanson, the discoverer of the 3.2 million year old hominid known popularly as Lucy, will be on NPR's Science Friday tomorrow (March 6).
Johanson is a professor in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences' School of Human Evolution and Social Change and founding director of the Institute of Human Origins. His latest book, Lucy’s Legacy: The Quest for Human Origins, is being released this month by the Harmony Books imprint of Random House, Inc.
[this post was taken in part from an ASU news release]
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Making "Grand Canyon State" the official nickname
Here's the entire text of Arizona House Bill 2019, which was approved in committee today:
"Section 1. Title 41, chapter 4.1, article 5, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended by adding section 41-860.01, to read:
41-860.01. State nickname
"The Grand Canyon state" is the OFFICIAL state nickname."Monday, March 2, 2009
UA astronomer plans giant space shade for the Earth
UA astronomer Roger Angel is scheduled to be on Ways to Save the Planet on the Discovery Channel at 7pm on Sunday (at least that's the British schedule) to describe his plan to launch trillions of mirrors [right, design of one of the glass mirrors] into space to create a 100,000 square mile sun shade to counter global warming.
If that sounds implausible, listen to some of the other details. The mirrors would be fired into space by a cannon with a barrel over 3,000 feet across. The cannon would be 100 times more powerful than conventional weapons. The mirrors would be in orbit a million miles above the Earth. Cost? Just $350 trillion.
Dr.Angel got preliminary funding to pursue the idea rom NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts in 2006
Minerals for solar panels
The announcement from Tempe-based First Solar last week that they broke the $1 per watt cost for solar photovoltaic panels based on cadmium-tellurium (CdTe), has drawn global attention [right, First Solar FS Series 2 PV Module]. The standard silicon-based solar panels run about 3 times that cost.
Jake, who blogs at Pure Pedantry, looks at what the growing demand for solar panels made from 'exotic' materials means for the solar industry.
He references a new University of Calif./Lawrence Berkeley National Lab study that concludes that CdTe works for meeting a small amount of global energy demand but the economics change when solar makes up 20-30% of the mix. At the higher level, more common/easier to produce minerals will be more successful even though they are not as efficient as the rarer but more costly minerals.
Iron pyrite, copper sulfide, and copper oxide are attractive options according to a report in
Popular Mechanics.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Proposed cement plant near Seligman draws opposition
A year and a half after announcing plans for a 1.9 million ton per year cement plant northwest of Seligman, opposition is coming from environmental groups worried about air quality in the Grand Canyon region.
Cement giant Cemex says the Seligman Crossing plant is on the BNSF rail line, adjacent to high calcium limestone deposits, and strategically located between growth centers in Flagstaff and Kingman and close enough to supply Phoenix area building needs.
Arizona has been a net importer of cement in recent years. [right, location map of Seligman Crossing. Credit, Cemex USA]
Sterlite cuts offer for Asarco by 45%
News from Reuters India is that Sterlite Industries has reduced it's offer for the bankrupt Asarco from $2.6 billion last year to somewhere in the $1.4-1.5 billion range, a drop of 43-47%. In addition, half of the price would be paid in installments over 5 years.
If the companies agree, the deal could be signed within a couple weeks.
Chasing the stimulus dollars for Arizona science
The editorial in today's Arizona Republic exhorts state leaders to aggressively seek federal economic stimulus money, especially in science areas. The paper said, "Arizona must be a contender. We need to be more visible, more focused and more plugged in."
This follows on a Battelle report released last week that Arizona was falling behind comparable states in science and technology areas, that are recognized as key contributors to economic growth.
The editorial noted how poorly science is faring in Arizona due to budget cuts: "The 2009 midyear budget fix and the proposed cuts for 2010 include scorched-earth funding that sends bad signals about Arizona's priorities. The universities took debilitating hits. Science Foundation Arizona, our own forward-looking public-private partnership, lost all its state money
The funding possibilities are enormous. And many play to Arizona's potential, from $4.5 billion for smart-grid technology to $19 billion to accelerate health information technology."
There is no funding for science in the Arizona specific stimulus funds, but many of us expect to compete for grants or seek funds under existing federal programs at the national level.
This follows on a Battelle report released last week that Arizona was falling behind comparable states in science and technology areas, that are recognized as key contributors to economic growth.
The editorial noted how poorly science is faring in Arizona due to budget cuts: "The 2009 midyear budget fix and the proposed cuts for 2010 include scorched-earth funding that sends bad signals about Arizona's priorities. The universities took debilitating hits. Science Foundation Arizona, our own forward-looking public-private partnership, lost all its state money
The funding possibilities are enormous. And many play to Arizona's potential, from $4.5 billion for smart-grid technology to $19 billion to accelerate health information technology."
There is no funding for science in the Arizona specific stimulus funds, but many of us expect to compete for grants or seek funds under existing federal programs at the national level.
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