City of Atlanta launches pilot incentive based Recycling Program
Pilot Recycling Rewards Program Will Help Promote Sustainability by Increasing Recycling Participation in Atlanta
The City of Atlanta announced that a select group of Atlanta residents will soon be rewarded for their curbside recycling efforts. In an effort to encourage proper recycling habits, boost recycling participation, reduce the amount of recyclables being sent to area landfills and save taxpayer money, City officials introduced the pilot rewards program as an opportune way to move towards a greener, cleaner Atlanta.
In order to complement Atlanta’s existing sustainability initiatives, the City of Atlanta has partnered with Rehrig Pacific, a container company and service provider, to bring a unique incentive based pilot recycling program to its residents. As part of this pilot program, Rehrig Pacific has collaborated with key sponsor Coca-Cola Recycling, LLC and rewards partner RecycleBank® to offer Atlanta residents a premiere rewards and loyalty program that incentivizes household recycling. City officials are confident they will see a rise in recycling volumes and a decrease in waste tonnages. In addition to the benefit to the environment, the rewards program will give residents and local businesses a needed economic boost.
The City of Atlanta selected 10,000 households for the incentive based pilot recycling program. The participating households represent a cross section of recyclers throughout the City. The RecycleBank® rewards program will encourage better participation in the curbside recycling program. It will also allow the City to evaluate changes in the amounts of recyclables collected from residents participating in the pilot program.
“Incentive based recycling will help us to meet our recycling and sustainability goals while giving something back to our residents. During today’s recession and economic climate, saving money on groceries, on clothing, or at the pharmacy translates to great value. We have found a way to provide real financial rewards and help the environment at the same time,” said Mayor Shirley Franklin.
Each home in the pilot area will receive a brand new 96-gallon blue cart, retrofitted with an ID tag with the resident’s household address and RecycleBank account number. City trucks have been retrofitted with technology to read the cart ID tag. Upon activating their account with RecycleBank, either online or by phone, the household will begin to earn RecycleBank Points with every pick-up.
Points can be redeemed for rewards, gift cards, groceries, and products at hundreds of local and national RecycleBank Reward Partners. Partners include giant national brands and retailers such as Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Publix, and CVS/pharmacy, as well as local partners like Zoo Atlanta, Radial Café, Rita’s Water Ice, MetroFresh, Edgewood Avenue Pizza, and Six Feet Under.
Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE), housed in Atlanta, is a significant player in making the pilot program a reality for their local neighbors. Through sponsorship dollars, they have enabled the purchase of the 10,000 Rehrig Pacific blue recycling carts needed for the pilot program.
Source: RecycleBank
Royal Caribbean International takes delivery of much anticipated Oasis Of The Seas
World’s Largest and Most Revolutionary Cruise Ship Sets Sail for Home Port of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
After nearly six years in the making, Royal Caribbean International proudly took delivery of its newest and most revolutionary cruise ship, Oasis of the Seas, from STX Europe in Turku, Finland. Kicking off the 12-day countdown until her U.S. debut into Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009, Oasis of the Seas will be departing Turku on Friday, Oct. 30 with Captain William S. Wright at the helm. Her transatlantic crossing will be chronicled on OasisoftheSeas.com as new webisodes are posted daily and via Twitter by following @OasisandAllure. A new feature to OasisoftheSeas.com will allow visitors to view a Google Maps application and follow Oasis of the Seas journey. Richard Fain’s “Chairman’s Blog” on OasisoftheSeas.com and “Adam’s Blog” by President and CEO Adam Goldstein on NationofWhyNot.com also will provide personal updates.
The cruise line that revolutionized the industry with the FlowRider surf simulator, ice-skating rinks, cantilevered whirlpools, rock climbing walls and the Royal Promenade, an entertainment boulevard stretching nearly the length of the ship, is poised to unveil a range of new attractions and engineering marvels onboard Oasis of the Seas. The ultimate expression of Royal Caribbean’s legacy of imagination and innovation, Oasis of the Seas introduces unique industry “firsts” including a neighborhood concept – seven themed areas providing guests with the opportunity to seek out relevant experiences based on their personal style, preference or mood. Within these seven neighborhoods – Central Park, Boardwalk, the Royal Promenade, Pool and Sports Zone, Vitality at Sea Spa and Fitness Center, Entertainment Place and Youth Zone – are extraordinary elements such as the first park at sea, a thrilling zip line that races diagonally nine-decks above an open-air atrium, an original handcrafted carousel, 28 multilevel urban-style loft suites boasting floor-to-ceiling windows, an aquatic amphitheater – called the AquaTheater that serves as a pool by day and a dazzling ocean front theater by night; and an array of epicurean innovations that allow for new culinary experiences each day of a guest’s cruise vacation.
This November, just in time for the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, Oasis of the Seas will be unveiled on ABC’s “Good Morning America” who will be there to welcome her into her home port in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. as well as give viewers an exclusive first glimpse of the ship during a special live broadcast on Friday, Nov. 20.
The official naming ceremony for Oasis of the Seas will take place on November 30 during a one night inaugural celebration-fundraiser to benefit the non-profit Make-A-Wish Foundation, which grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions. Tickets for the once-in-a-lifetime event begin at $750 per person and guests who wish to continue their adventure onboard will receive an exclusive discount price, beginning at $650 per person, on a four-night cruise package sailing to the cruise line’s private beach destination, Labadee, departing the morning following the event on Dec. 1 (rates based on double-occupancy and stateroom package). For reservations to this exclusive event combined with the four-night sailing, contact Cynthia Paez, Royal Caribbean International, at (877) 202-1520, ext. 12751, or cpaez@rccl.com.
Bookings are also available for Oasis of the Seas’ inaugural sailing departing on December 5. The inaugural sailing will include exclusive entertainment and gifts for guests to commemorate the special occasion.
Oasis of the Seas is the largest and most revolutionary cruise ship in the world. An architectural marvel at sea, she spans 16 decks, encompasses 225,282 gross registered tons, carries 5,400 guests at double occupancy, and features 2,700 staterooms. Oasis of the Seas is the first ship to tout the cruise line’s new neighborhood concept of seven distinct themed areas, which includes Central Park, Boardwalk, the Royal Promenade, the Pool and Sports Zone, Vitality at Sea Spa and Fitness Center, Entertainment Place and Youth Zone. The ship will sail from her home port of Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Additional information is available at www.OasisoftheSeas.com.
Source: Royal Caribbean International
A world of carbon capture and storage projects but more rapidly needed
The Global Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Institute released a report which shows that there is growing action being taken to achieve the G8 objective of deploying at least 20 commercial scale CCS projects globally by 2020. Despite this progress the report also showed that due commercial, technical and regulatory hurdles there is the urgent need to rapidly identify and advance a larger and more diverse portfolio of projects to ensure success.
The report titled ‘Strategic Analysis of the Global Status of Carbon Capture and Storage’ shows that the majority of advanced projects are focussed on coal-fired power generation, recognising the need to implement solutions that address the world’s current and future use of coal in a carbon constrained environment.
The study reveals that in order to accelerate the deployment of CCS projects the world must exploit cost advantages that exist in advancing projects in developing countries such as China and India, and industries such as natural gas processing and fertiliser production in which CO2 capture is inherent in their design. The study also confirms that greater efforts towards CCS need to be made within the cement, aluminium, iron and steel industries, given their significant contribution towards CO2 emissions.
Global CCS Institute CEO Nick Otter said “We know that many of the CCS technologies are available today to be applied across a range of industries to help reduce emissions. This report demonstrates the need to not only deploy more projects, more quickly, but to deploy more types of projects, and in more places, so that we can learn how to design the best possible facilities, bring down costs and create a valid business case for CCS.”
The Global CCS Institute – an initiative to accelerate the worldwide commercial deployment of at-scale CCS – commissioned a Worley Parson led consortium to undertake what is the most comprehensive review and analysis of the world’s current CCS projects.
The research was undertaken to advance the understanding of the status of CCS projects, the costs involved, the status of supporting policy initiatives, the research and developments efforts being pursued, and the gaps and barriers to deployment at scale.
Key findings of the report which demonstrate the depth of the action currently being taken include:
– There are 213 active or planned projects with 101 of commercial scale – demonstrating the existence of a significant pipeline of potential projects being investigated around the world.
– There are 62 fully integrated, commercial scale projects each of which demonstrates every stage of the CCS process chain of CO2 capture, transport and storage. Seven of these projects are already operating and 55 are at various stages of progress making them potential candidates for contributing to the G8 objective.
– The leading developers of fully integrated, commercial scale projects include participants in the Europe (37%), USA (24%), Australia (11%) and Canada (10%), with distribution throughout Asia, South America and Africa relatively low.
The report highlights that widespread take-up of CCS is faced with the stark risk of high project failure rates typical with the adoption of new technologies, but that this can be overcome by targeted project support, and appropriate incentives for development.
Recommendations put forward by the report call for governments to partner with industry to address the challenges facing project success. The recommendations suggest urgent action on three major fronts:
– Actively working with the 55 active or planned fully integrated projects to improve their likelihood of success.
– Developing national strategies where absent to provide incentives to innovate or invest in CCS technology.
– Establishing a regulatory framework that assigns a value to carbon, resolves long-term storage liabilities and underwrites critical infrastructure.
“The challenge is great but governments have a unique capacity to take the leadership required to secure the energy that is needed in a carbon constrained world,” said Nick Otter.
“The Global CCS Institute is taking on this challenge every day. We now have in place the most comprehensive database of CCS projects ever created, and with our partners we will use this knowledge to fast track key projects and provide support to allow all project proponents address the barriers facing development,” he said.
The complete report ‘Strategic Analysis of the Global Status of Carbon Capture and Storage’ can be found at www.globalccsinstitute.com.
Economy and public health will benefit if clean car standards are well-designed, Group testifies
EPA Urged to Revise Proposed Zero Emission Rate for Electric Plug-In Vehicles
California’s and the nation’s economy and environment will reap significant benefits – and avoid costly impacts – if proposed federal standards to establish national vehicle greenhouse gas and fuel economy standards for new cars and trucks sold in the United States “are rigorous and well-designed.” That was the testimony by a policy specialist from Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) at the third and final hearing on the proposed rulemaking for the standards held by EPA and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT).
“The fundamental promise of the presidential accord – and the bedrock responsibility for the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Transportation in finalizing the proposed standards – is to achieve profound and lasting progress in national security, climate stability and economic opportunity,” testified Erica Fick, clean energy fellow for Environmental Defense Fund. “Consumers should save an estimated $3,000 over the life of each of these cleaner vehicles. We respectfully request that federal policy-makers finalize rigorous and protective standards to ensure the promise of the president’s compact is realized.”
To establish one well-designed policy, EDF challenged the EPA to reconsider how it approaches accounting for greenhouse gas emissions resulting from generating electricity to power plug-in vehicles.
“The EPA’s proposal to assign a zero greenhouse gas emission rate for the electric portion of plug-in electric vehicles seriously misses the mark,” added Fick. “EPA must ensure that the pollution associated with the upstream electricity generation that powers plug-in vehicles is fully accounted for in the emissions assigned to these vehicles.”
The proposed federal standards – based on California’s clean car law – would apply to new model year 2012 to 2016 vehicles and reduce global warming pollution from transportation nationally by an estimated 21 percent by 2030. Transportation is a major sector of emissions that accounts for about 20 percent of all greenhouse gases nationwide.
The standards would apply to vehicles that are responsible for about 40 percent of all U.S. oil consumption and, if approved, would reduce consumption of oil by 1.8 billion barrels while achieving a five percent annual improvement in fuel efficiency for the nation’s passenger vehicle fleet.
Fick noted that California has more than 30 million registered vehicles that are a major contributor to global warming pollution in the state. California’s coastline spans more than 1,000 miles, and 70 percent of California’s population lives within 60 miles of the coast. Recent analysis predicts a 1.4 meter rise in sea level by 2100 putting 480,000 people at risk. Global warming is likely to make water management more difficult, contentious and expensive by disrupting snowmelt patterns that provide drinking water for over 20 million Californians and irrigation water for California’s $30 billion agricultural industry. Heat waves are projected to become longer, hotter, and more frequent, leading to more heat-related deaths. Hotter and drier weather also will lead to harmful wildfires that threaten lives and property.
When finalized and carried out, the standards will have important societal benefits, Fick testified. They include breaking our nation’s addiction to foreign oil, encouraging domestic clean energy technologies that will lead the way in the 21st century global marketplace, and significantly reducing the global warming pollution that imperils our planet and will harm our economy. Fick said the proposal represents an important step forward in addressing the grim impacts of a changing climate, but she cautioned that to secure these critical benefits, the final standards must be rigorous and well designed by:
– Accounting for Societal Benefits of Protective Action: To maximize benefits, it is essential to fully account for extraordinary and far-reaching protections that result from reducing emissions. The full range of environmental, social, and economic impacts of emissions should be factored in when calculating carbon’s societal costs and co-benefits of the proposed standards – such as health benefits from reductions in smog-forming air pollutants – must be incorporated in economic analysis, which must also account for catastrophic impacts. The final rule must reflect this through appropriate economic assumptions and use of ethical considerations beyond the scope of economic analysis alone.
– Ensuring Fleet Mix Assumptions. Reductions to be realized by these standards are dependent on assumptions about fleet composition in
model years 2012-2016. EDF urges federal policymakers to find ways to ensure fleet mix assumptions reflect real-world fleet composition.
– Preparing for model year 2017 and beyond. The standards apply to model years 2012 through 2016. EDF urges the EPA to begin work as soon as possible to prepare standards for model year 2017 and beyond.
Information about the clean car standards rulemaking can be found at: www.epa.gov/otaq/climate/regulations.htm.
Source: Environmental Defense Fund
Only five States have plans to address the Health Impact of Climate Change, new report finds
Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) released a new report that finds only five states have published a strategic climate change plan that includes a public health response. This includes planning for health challenges and emergencies expected to develop from natural disasters, pollution, and infectious diseases as temperatures and sea levels rise.
The Health Problems Heat Up: Climate Change and the Public’s Health report examines U.S. planning for changing health threats posed by climate change, such as heat-related sickness, respiratory infections, natural disasters, changes to the food supply, and infectious diseases carried by insects.
“The changing environment has serious ramifications for our health,” said Jeff Levi, PhD, Executive Director of TFAH. “In the near future, more extreme weather events, rising temperatures, and worsening air quality mean we’ll see an upswing in climate-related illnesses and injuries. As countries around the world work to address climate change, federal, state, and local governments around the United States need to ramp up activities to protect people from the health harms it poses.”
“States are already overwhelmed by existing public health responsibilities, so we face a serious challenge as we see these new climate change related problems on the horizon. States and communities will need more resources to effectively plan and prepare for them,” Levi continued.
The five states with public health response plans included in their larger climate change plans are California, Maryland, New Hampshire, Virginia, and Washington. Twenty-eight states have published strategic climate change plans that do not include a public health response, and seventeen states and the District of Columbia have not published a strategic climate change plan.
Other key findings from the report include that:
– Only 12 states have established climate change commissions that include a representative from the state’s public health department;
– Twenty-two states and New York City have received grants from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for Environmental
Health Tracking, to track connections between health problems and the environment;
– Thirty-three states have received CDC funds for state asthma control programs; and
– Every state except Alaska has received funds to track diseases spread through mosquitoes and other insects.
According to Health Problems Heat Up, communities across the United States are at risk for negative health effects associated with climate change. Urban communities face natural disasters, such as floods and heat waves. Rural communities may be threatened by food insecurity due to shifts in crop growing conditions, reduced water resources, heat, and storm damage. Coastal and low-lying areas could see an increase in floods, hurricanes, and tropical storms. Mountain regions are at risk of increasing heat and vector-borne diseases due to melting of mountain glaciers and changes in snow melt. And communities around the country could experience new insect-based infectious diseases that used to only be affiliated with high temperature regions.
“The health threats from climate change are very real,” said Phyllis Cuttino, Director of the Pew Environment Group’s U.S. Global Warming Campaign. “That is one more reason the U.S. Congress should enact legislation to address global warming. Passing climate legislation that includes provisions to help states prepare for and respond to the projected health impacts of climate change is a measure in helping to protect the long term health of the American people. The sooner we act on global warming the healthier we’ll all be.”
The report contains a series of policy recommendations, including:
– Congress should provide funding for state and local health departments to conduct needs assessments and strategic planning for public health
considerations of climate change;
– The White House and the federal interagency working group on climate change should take into account the potential health implications of
policies and programs under consideration;
– Congress should increase support for tracking of environmental effects on health and research into health effects of climate change;
– CDC should set national guidelines and measures for core public health functions related to climate change, and in exchange for federal funding for climate change planning and response, CDC should require states and localities to report the findings to both the public and the federal government;
– All state and local health departments should include public health considerations as part of climate change plans, including conducting needs assessments, developing strategic plans, and creating public education campaigns; and
– Special efforts must be made to address the impact of climate change on at-risk and vulnerable communities.
The U.S. Senate is in the process of developing comprehensive climate change legislation. The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed a climate change bill that includes language to direct the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services to create a national strategic action plan to assist health professionals to prepare for and respond to the impact of climate change on public health in the United States and globally. The House bill also includes a Climate Change Health Protection and Promotion Fund to provide the funds needed to develop and carry out the strategic plan.
The full Health Problems Heat Up report, including state-specific information, is available on TFAH’s web site www.healthyamericans.org. The report was supported by The Pew Environment Group, which is the conservation arm of The Pew Charitable Trusts.
Trust for America’s Health is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to saving lives by protecting the health of every community and working to make disease prevention a national priority.
Source: Trust for America’s Health
US still leads the world in innovation, despite economic crisis
America Also Strong on Personal Freedom and Community Life, Finds Legatum Prosperity Index
Finland is the Most Prosperous Nation Overall, While the United States, Ranked 9th, is the Top-Performing Large Nation. Poor Performance on Health Drags the U.S. Down
The third edition of the Legatum Prosperity Index ranks 104 countries (covering 90% of the world’s population), based on a definition of prosperity that combines economic growth together with measures of happiness and quality of life. Finland tops the Index, with the U.S. ranking ninth out of 104 countries in the Index, ahead of large European nations such as Britain, Germany and France, which all still make the top 20. Finland is narrowly ahead of Switzerland, Sweden and Denmark; Zimbabwe ranks last, following Yemen and Sudan.
“From Bobby Kennedy to France’s current President, Nicolas Sarkozy, influential thinkers have lamented that economic growth alone is not sufficient for prosperity,” said Dr. William Inboden, Senior Vice President of the Legatum Institute. “The Legatum Prosperity Index is the world’s only global assessment of both wealth and wellbeing,” he continued. “Among the world’s larger nations, the US is the world leader: it has achieved great prosperity through high levels of innovation and entrepreneurship, robust commitment to personal freedom, and governing institutions that generally foster economic growth. Having a balance with strong families and communities, political and religious liberty, education, and opportunity is also critically important,” concluded Dr. Inboden.
The U.S. scores first globally in the measure of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, a gauge of which countries possess the greatest ability to commercialize ideas and launch new enterprises in the near future. The US has some weaknesses, however, ranking 27th globally on health, and 19th in the world on safety and security.
Key Findings from the 2009 Legatum Prosperity Index:
- The U.S. ranks 1st in the world in Entrepreneurship and Innovation and 2nd in the world in the strength of Democratic Institutions.
- Two other areas of American strength are Education (7th globally), and Social Capital (also 7th globally).
- The U.S. performs worst in the health category, ranking 27th in the world. Dissatisfaction with their overall health is dragging down Americans’ sense of well-being, affecting their determination to get ahead and their faith in their healthcare system.
- Ranking 19th globally, safety and security is another relative weakness of the U.S. Lower scores are driven by the large number of people in the US who feel they live in unsafe places, coupled with a high per capita murder rate relative to other developed nations.
- The U.S. ranks 16th globally on Governance, indicating that Americans believe that there is too much corruption in their government and sometimes doubt the honesty of elections. The United States’ laws and regulations are generally seen to foster economic growth, but government’s negative effects pull down its citizens’ quality of life.
- Northern Europe dominates the top five spots in the Index: Finland (1st), Sweden (3rd), Denmark (4th), and Norway (5th).
The Index identified nine key factors that drive economic growth and personal wellbeing, which are foundations of prosperity. Each of these nine factors is represented in a sub-index and a country’s final Prosperity Index ranking is generated by averaging its scores across all nine sub-indexes, equally weighted. More information on the Prosperity Index, including full country rankings, background on data and methodology, and profiles of each country can be found at http://www.prosperity.com.
Source: Legatum
Winners announced in 2009 Collegiate Inventors competition
Two grand prize winners have innovations related to cell engineering and tools for quadriplegics
A faster tool for cell programming and a new way of allowing quadriplegics to perform simple tasks have won grand prizes of the 2009 Collegiate Inventors Competition, a program of the National Inventors Hall of Fame sponsored by the Abbott Fund, the non-profit foundation of the global health care company Abbott, and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Harris Wang, who invented a new way of cell programming at Harvard Medical School, and Stephen Diebold, who invented the Drop Point tool for quadriplegics while at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, each received a $25,000 prize during the Competition’s culminating ceremony last night at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.
Graduate and undergraduate winners were also announced for their top work. Graduate winner Geoffrey von Maltzahn of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology won for his advances in nanomedicine to increase the effectiveness of cancer drugs, and the undergraduate team of Philip Wagner, Lindsay Holiday, and Dana Leland of Dartmouth College won for their electrocoagulation arsenic filter. As winners, von Maltzahn and the Dartmouth team each received a $15,000 prize from the competition.
All student entries were scrutinized during an initial evaluation process by over 20 experts from industry, government, and academic research who judged the entries on the originality of the idea and the potential value and usefulness of the invention to society. Then, on October 19th, nine chosen finalists presented their inventions to a final panel of seven judges, including five inductees from the National Inventors Hall of Fame and representatives from the USPTO and Abbott.
James West, a final phase judge and an inductee in the National Inventors Hall of Fame for his invention of the electret microphone, said, “Once again, we’re impressed by the outstanding caliber of the student inventions. We encourage college students to celebrate invention as part of their science and technology research, and we’re also looking forward to seeing the impact of their work as they progress. I know that all the judges join me in commending these students.”
The prominent group of judges for this year’s competition includes five National Inventors Hall of Fame inductees: C. Donald Bateman (Ground Proximity Warning System), Robert Bower (self-aligned gate MOSFET), Edith Flanigen (molecular sieves), Rangaswamy Srinivasan (excimer laser surgery), and James West (electret microphone). In addition, the judging panel includes Jeffrey Pan, Associate Director, Scientific Informatics and Automation, Global Pharmaceutical Discovery from Abbott, and Jasemine Chambers, Group Director of Industrial Design from the USPTO.
“Abbott is proud to again be part of this competition that showcases innovation and fosters broader understanding of science,” explained Jeffrey Pan, Associate Director, Scientific Informatics and Automation, Global Pharmaceutical Discovery, Abbott. “Through our support of the competition, Abbott hopes to help inspire today’s science students who may go on to find tomorrow’s cures and treatments for the world’s most serious diseases and health care challenges.”
“The United States Patent and Trademark Office is pleased to be part of this outstanding young inventor recognition program,” USPTO Director David Kappos commented. “Maintaining America’s technological edge is vitally important in today’s world economy. The highly talented and creative collegiate inventors who participated this year renew my confidence that this nation’s innovative tradition will continue to endure. I congratulate all of the 2009 winners and wish them well in their future endeavors.”
The graduate grand prize winner, Harris Wang, 26, is a student in the lab of George Church, a researcher well-known for his attempts to make genetic sequencing faster and cheaper. Church was long interested in creating faster tools for cell programming and discovered that Wang was willing to take on the challenge. Wang knew that cell programming was still a slow and hands-on process. He developed a protocol designed to permit faster cell programming, and then put together hardware and software to automate it. He calls the approach MAGE: Multiplex Automated Genome Engineering.
To demonstrate, Wang engineered a strain of E. coli bacterium that produces lycopene, a red-colored antioxidant. He added the genetic recipe for lycopene to the bacterium’s chromosome. Then he used his MAGE approach to evolve a strain of the bacteria in which production of lycopene was highly efficient. In a more traditional approach, researchers painstakingly isolate, snip apart, reassemble, and reinsert individual genes. Wang believes that his technology will allow bioengineers to produce customized microorganisms much more cheaply and quickly than possible before. Such engineered microorganisms might be used to produce a wide variety of useful compounds, such as antibiotics, biofuels, and chemotherapy drugs. Born in China, Wang grew up in Salt Lake City and is currently working towards his doctorate in biophysics.
Undergraduate grand prize winner Stephen Diebold, 21, from the Chicago suburb of Rolling Meadows, designed an improved pointing stick for use by people with quadriplegia and other disabilities that prevent them from using their arms. Pointing sticks are used to type, operate cell phones, and otherwise manipulate objects. Existing pointing sticks are gripped in the user’s teeth or mounted, helmet-like, on the user’s head. Either approach presents problems: a mouth-held pointer prevents the user from speaking and a head-mounted pointer requires assistance to put on or take off.
Diebold’s Drop Point stick is designed to be donned and doffed with a shrug of the user’s chin. He came up with the approach after spending time with then-law student Jonathan Ko, who has quadriplegia. Diebold said, “I saw that to Jonathan, the pointing stick was his arms and hands, and he had to ask somebody every time he wanted to use his hands — that seemed absurd to me.” By attaching the pointing stick to a cup which is in turn attached to a strap that loops around the user’s neck, the user is able to freely engage the pointer as he wishes. Diebold is currently majoring in industrial design.
Graduate prize winner Geoffrey von Maltzahn, 29, turns what may be a new page in nanomedicine with his method of using a pair of nanoparticles that work together in an innovative way to increase the effectiveness and lower the side effects of existing cancer drugs. Powerful cancer-killing drugs are well-known to science and widely used in clinical medicine, but since these drugs are also highly toxic to healthy cells, targeting drugs specifically to tumors has been a major focus in cancer research. Of late, much of this drug-targeting research has looked at using nanoparticles to carry the drugs to tumors. A major challenge, however, is that cancer cells, and the tumors they may form, have a finite numbers of targets to which nanoparticles can attach — and since a given nanoparticle can carry only a small drug payload, this limits the amount of drug that can be delivered.
In von Maltzahn’s approach, one set of nanoparticles lodge in a tumor’s blood vessels and cause local bleeding. The bleeding prompts clotting factors to be produced, which in turn, attracts a second set of nanoparticles that have been programmed to be attracted to the clotting factors and that deliver a cancer drug. The use of the clotting factors dramatically increases the number of targets for the drug-carrying particles. Raised first in Arlington, Texas and then Fairfax, Virginia, von Maltzahn received degrees from MIT and the University of California, San Diego before beginning his current work on a Ph.D. in medical engineering and physics.
Undergraduate prize winners Philip Wagner, Lindsay Holiday, and Dana Leland tackled the problem of reducing arsenic found in groundwater to safe levels, with a cheap, reliable device made of materials locally available in rural Nepal. The team developed a way of using electrocoagulation — a process employed in the large-scale water treatment plants of many modern cities — in a system radically downsized to fit into three five-gallon buckets. Water to be treated goes into the first bucket where the students induce electrocoagulation by sending a simple electric current through two steel plates in the water. Iron precipitates are released. These iron particles bond aggressively with the arsenic that exists in the water. This newly-reacted water is then poured into a second bucket of clean sand, which has a hole in the bottom and sits over a third empty bucket. The sand collects the iron-arsenic particles and arsenic-free water collects in the bottom bucket. When the team tested the device with water contaminated with 200 parts per billion (ppb) arsenic, the output water contained under 1ppb arsenic — well under the 10 ppb level considered safe for drinking.
Wagner, 22, grew up in Fogelsville, Pennsylvania; Holiday, 24, spent time growing up in both Teec Nos Pos, Arizona in the Navajo Nation and Phoenix; and Leland, 22, is from Baltimore. All three are Spring 2009 engineering graduates of Dartmouth College.
Collegiate Inventors Competition
The Collegiate Inventors Competition, a program of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, encourages college students to be active in science, engineering, mathematics, technology, and creative invention. The Competition specifically recognizes and rewards the innovations, discoveries, and research by college and university students and their advisors for projects leading to inventions that may have the potential of receiving patent protection. Introduced in 1990, the Competition has awarded more than $1 million to nearly 100 students for their innovative work and scientific achievement through the help of its sponsors. For more information on the Competition and past winners, visit www.invent.org/collegiate.
Source: National Inventors Hall of Fame
America’s Premiere High School Science competition announces The Class Of 2009
Semifinalists and Regional Finalists of the Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology Are Named Regional Finals Start November 6, 2009
The Siemens Foundation announced the Semifinalists and Regional Finalists of the Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology, revealing the brightest high school minds in contention for the nation’s most coveted teen science prize.
The nation’s leading original research competition in math, science and technology for high school students, the Siemens Competition is administered annually by the College Board, awarding college scholarships ranging from $1,000 to $100,000 in individual and team categories. The Siemens Competition is a signature program of the Siemens Foundation, the national leader in supporting science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education with contributions surpassing $7 million each year.
A record number of 1,348 projects were received this year for the Siemens Competition, an increase of 12 percent over 2008 figures. The number of students submitting projects increased by 14 percent while more students than ever, 2,151, registered to enter. This year, 318 students were named semifinalists along with 96 students being honored as regional finalists. The combined 414 semifinalists and regional finalists hail from 34 states and the District of Columbia. The 96 regional finalist whiz kids will be called to compete at one of six regional competitions held over three consecutive weekends in November. A complete list of semifinalists and regional finalists is available at www.siemens-foundation.org.
Regional finalists will go head-to-head presenting their research with peers across the nation. Regional Finals begin on November 6, 2009. The events are hosted by six of America’s leading research universities: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (November 6-7); Georgia Institute of Technology (November 6-7); University of Notre Dame (November 13-14); University of Texas at Austin (November 13-14); Carnegie Mellon University (November 20-21) and California Institute of Technology (November 20-21).
Winners of the regional events are invited to compete at the National Finals at New York University in New York City, December 3 – December 7, 2009. Visit www.siemens-foundation.org on December 7, 2009 at 9:30 am EST to view a live webcast of the National Finalist Award Presentation. You can also log into and follow the Siemens Foundation on Twitter (http://twitter.com/SFoundation) for the latest information and announcements throughout this year’s competition.
Source: Siemens Foundation
Report: Same-sex couples face significant disadvantages in retirement
New Study Released During National Save for Retirement Week Documents How Lack of Federal Recognition for Same-Sex Couples Reduces Their Retirement Income and Survivor Benefits
A new study released details the inequalities faced by same-sex couples in employer-sponsored retirement plans. Without legal recognition of their relationships under federal law, the report concludes, lesbians and gay men have less retirement income and are disadvantaged in their ability to pass on savings to their families after their death.
The study, “The Impact of Inequality for Same-Sex Partners in Employer-Sponsored Retirement Plans,” provides the first detailed demographic portrait of older same-sex couples. It was released by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law with funding support from Merrill Lynch in conjunction with National Save for Retirement Week.
“The findings show that, in particular, female same-sex couples have far less retirement income than different-sex married couples,” says study author Naomi Goldberg. Key findings of the report include:
– Female same-sex couples over 65 have almost 20% less income than different-sex married couples.
– Only 50% of female same-sex couples have at least one member eligible for an employer-sponsored retirement plan. That compares to 56% of different-sex married couples and 79% of male same-sex couples.
– Older female and male same-sex couples receive less income from traditional retirement sources–retirement, survivor, and disability pensions–than older different-sex married couples.
– Men in same-sex couples earn less than their heterosexual counterparts, but appear to work for more years.
The study also analyzes the ways in which elderly lesbians and gay men are disadvantaged when their partner or spouse dies. Upon death, unlike married different-sex couples, 401k balances and remaining assets cannot be passed tax-free to the surviving same-sex spouse or partner. In particular, these studies conclude:
– Even in states where same sex couples can marry, private employers can discriminate against same-sex married couples for the purpose of welfare and pension plans because of the reach of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA); thus, same-sex couples typically cannot avail themselves of pension survivor benefits.
– Surviving same-sex spouses or partners are unable to access social security spousal or survivor benefits. As a result, they lose out on an estimated $5,700 each year in benefits.
– Because same-sex surviving spouses cannot have the balance of their dead spouse’s 401k transferred directly to them, they must begin making withdrawals immediately- often resulting in a higher tax rate and missing out on potential earnings and the ability to withdraw when they are really needed.
“The bulk of these inequalities are a direct result of the Defense of Marriage Act, which forces the federal government to treat same-sex couples differently than married couples when it comes to retirement savings or estate taxes after death,” said Goldberg.
“Even without repealing DOMA, Congress could address these inequalities similar to the way it allowed same-sex partners to rollover the balance of their dead spouse’s 401ks in 2006. While not perfect, the Pension Protection Act has at least moved same-sex couples closer to equality in the treatment of their retirement assets.”
The full report is available at http://www.law.ucla.edu/williamsinstitute/home.html.
New survey finds US and 37 other countries demand more aggressive climate change action than Congress or Copenhagen Envision
The first-ever deliberative global survey of citizen opinion, World Wide Views on Global Warming (WWViews) has found that people from diverse backgrounds in the US and worldwide overwhelmingly want faster action, deeper GHG emissions cuts and stronger enforcement than either US climate legislation proposals or Copenhagen treaty conference preparations are currently contemplating. Among the survey’s findings:
– 90% of U. S. participants say it is urgent to reach a tough, new agreement at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December and not punt to subsequent meetings;
– 89% said by 2020 emissions should be cut 25-40% below 1990 levels (the Kerry Boxer Senate bill would cut US emissions 20% below 2005 levels);
– 71% want nations that fail to meet their obligations under a new agreement to be penalized severely or significantly;
– 69% believe the price of fossil fuels should be increased.
These views were echoed across 37 other countries on six continents. Global results showed participants wanted more aggressive action than their delegates to Copenhagen envision, including:
– strict targets for keeping global warming within 2 degrees Celsius (half of participants, especially in countries hardest hit by climate change, want measures to hold temperatures at the current level or even bring them down to pre-industrial levels);
– fairer and more proportionate burden sharing, including 2020 emissions reduction targets for fast- growing economies like India, China and Brazil, and low-income developing countries;
– sanctions against countries that do not live up to their emission reduction commitments;
– strong new international financial mechanisms and institutions to support these goals.
By contrast, in current policy negotiations these goals are either much less ambitious or absent altogether. Preparations for Copenhagen and Congressional debate on climate change legislation are both following a similar pattern of lowering ambitions and expectations, focusing on limited areas of current agreement and incremental steps, and deferring more contentious issues of targets, timetables, funding and enforcement until later.
“We are hearing from climate policymakers that it will take more time to do things right, that we have to meet people where they are instead of imposing radical reforms from above,” said Dr. Richard Sclove, the US advisor to WWViews. “But these results show the people are way ahead of the policymakers. If Congress and Copenhagen delegates want to act in accordance with citizen views, they have to do far more and go far faster, not scale back and slow down.”
WWViews gathered its data from daylong citizen deliberations in Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Los Angeles, and Phoenix, as well as in cities throughout Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and Latin America. It showed citizens of all 38 countries, even low-income ones, are willing to take responsibility for lowering emissions, and to pay to do so. Of the 38 countries, China’s citizens were least inclined to introduce 2020 targets for fast-growing economies, yet even so, 45% support it and 52% support limiting emissions growth.
“Our deliberative method yielded very different results from polls, which purport to show much more diffident attitudes to climate change, and even some skepticism about it. But I’d argue our data is much more accurate ” said Dr. Richard Worthington, WWViews U.S. coordinator. “For one thing, for a dozen countries [the Maldives, Saint Lucia, Uruguay, Norway, Switzerland, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Uganda and Vietnam], our data is the only data, because we worked in places so far excluded from international polling on climate change. For another, we elicited citizen opinion through informed, daylong deliberations, not through knee-jerk answers to carefully circumscribed questions.”
WWViews is the first ever-global “citizen consultation,” using a citizen deliberation methodology distinct from ordinary quantitative surveying or polling. Polls on climate change ask a random sampling of respondents one or two general questions about one’s prior opinion on climate change and what one’s national government should do. WWViews gathered people with diverse backgrounds and views, excluding climate change experts and those representing institutions with vested interests in climate policy. It gave participants balanced expert information in advance, based on the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fourth Assessment Report, then allowed them a day of deliberation together, after which they voted on what delegates assembling from around the world in Copenhagen should do.
Source: World Wide Views on Global Warming