To the Bloom Box!

A new six-inch-square fuel cell can generate power on the spot, without being connected to the electric grid -- and may be able to power an entire home

"In the world of energy, the Holy Grail is a power source that's inexpensive and clean, with no emissions. Well over 100 start-ups in Silicon Valley are working on it.

"One of them is Bloom Energy. Their invention? A little power plant-in-a-box they want to put literally in your backyard.

"You'll generate your own electricity with the box and it'll be wireless. The idea is to one day replace the big power plants and transmission line grid, the way the laptop moved in on the desktop and cell phones supplanted landlines."

-- 60 Minutes

[Editor's Note: For the month of August, the 13.7 Billion Years "We'll Drink to That" Series presents a fine reason to raise a glass and make a toast. Pro!]

image: Bloom Energy

To Temple Grandin!

An important animal welfare advocate (and famous high-functioning autist) scores big at the Emmy's

Temple Grandin is a bestselling author, doctor of animal science and a professor at Colorado State University. She serves as an animal behavior consultant to the livestock industry. And she is also a person with high-functioning autism (HFA). She is a leader of two movements: animal welfare advocacy and autism advocacy.

Temple Grandin, an HBO film about her life starring Claire Danes, was nominated in 15 Emmy categories, receiving seven awards at last night's 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Made for Television Movie and Best Actress in a Drama for Ms. Danes.

Her interest in animal welfare started when she created designs for curved corrals that were meant to reduce the stress experienced by animals being led to slaughter.

The American Humane Association has called Grandin "one of the world's true animal welfare champions."

[Editor's Note: For the month of August, the 13.7 Billion Years "We'll Drink to That" Series presents a fine reason to raise a glass and make a toast. Minum!]

image: Temple Grandin at TED 2010 (credit: Steve Jurvetson)

To Microhyla Nepenthicola!

The smallest Old World frog has been discovered

"Last week, a pea-sized frog species – thought to be the Old World’s tiniest – was recognized as a species new to science. Dr. Indraneil Das, leader of the research team that found the frogs on the island of Borneo, describes the moment of discovery.

"'We first ran into this frog late at night on September 4, 2004, at Kubah National Park in Sarawak (a state in Malaysian Borneo).'

"'We had just completed our field work at a nearby pond, monitoring the local amphibians breeding there with our students from Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. My colleague from Hamburg, Alex Haas, and I were looking forward to returning to our chalet (and a cooked meal), when we heard an unfamiliar call.'

"'Looking down, we didn’t see much. Only after lying down flat on the ground could we see the tiniest frog imaginable! It took us a good 30 minutes to catch the first of several specimens we were to eventually acquire.'

"'Other researchers before us had collected the species, but they presumably thought they were the young of another species. However, the frogs’ calls convinced us that we were dealing with adults (as only adult frogs make these vocalizations), and after comparison with museum specimens in the United States, Europe, and Asia, the species proved to be new to science.'"

-- Dr. Indraneil Das, Conservation International

[Editor's Note: For the month of August, the 13.7 Billion Years "We'll Drink to That" Series presents a fine reason to raise a glass and make a toast. Minum!]

image: A new species of miniature frog was discovered in Borneo. Microhyla nepenthicola, shown here on the tip of a pencil, is about the size of a pea. (Credit: Prof. Indraneil Das/Institute of Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation)

To Whisky!

Scientists have made a biofuel more powerful than ethanol -- from whisky by-products

"A biofuel made from whisky by-products, which can be used in ordinary cars, has been developed by scientists at Edinburgh Napier University.

"The team focused on the £4bn ($6.2bn, €4.8bn) whisky industry as a resource for developing biobutanol – the next generation of biofuel which they estimate gives 30 per cent more output power than ethanol.

"They were provided with samples of whisky distilling by-products from Diageo’s Glenkinchie Distillery in East Lothian, which makes The Edinburgh Malt. The £260,000 research project was funded by Scottish Enterprise, the government-backed development body."

-- Andrew Bolger, Financial Times

[Editor's Note: For the month of August, the 13.7 Billion Years "We'll Drink to That" Series presents a fine reason to raise a glass and make a toast. Cheers!]

image: tkamenick

To Brazil!

The world's fifth largest country commits oil money to fight climate change

"The Brazilian government plans to invest 200 million reais ($113 million) next year to combat climate change and mitigate the effects of global warming, the Environment Ministry said.

"The ministry’s secretary for climate change and environmental quality, Branca Americano, said the recently created National Fund on Climate Change will be financed with a portion of a special participation tax on gross revenues from oil production."

-- Latin American Herald Tribune

[Editor's Note: For the month of August, the 13.7 Billion Years "We'll Drink to That" Series presents a fine reason to raise a glass and make a toast. A sia saide!]

image: "The Amazon Rainforest appears to have been colored solid with a green crayon in the western portion of this true-color image of northern Brazil captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on July 1, 2002. The Amazon River flows into the scene at the center left edge, a meandering brown line that widens as first the Rio Negro joins it from the north and then the Madeira joins it from the south. The Amazon flows eastward, eventually spilling its brownish, sediment-laden waters out into the Atlantic Ocean. At bottom right and bottom center, deforestation and cultivation are evident by the regular, rectangular shapes that delineate plots. Fire is a common means of clearing land and this type of slash-and-burn agriculture is having a devastating impact on plant and animal communities as well as people who are native to the forests. MODIS has detected numerous fires (red dots) and thick smoke is visible at bottom left. Once an impassable jungle, the Amazon is now crossed by at least a few roads, which make pale green lines across the dense forest. Cross hairs extending outward from the road may be a harbinger of future development. In the false-color image, dense vegetation is deep orange-gold, while areas that have been deforested are paler yellow. Are that appear pale green or blueish green are naturally occurring areas of less dense vegetation. Water is dark blue or black." (credit: Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC - The Amazon, Brazil)

To the Seed Cathedral!

The UK Pavilion at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai celebrates the world's largest collection of wild plant seeds

"The World Expo is that place where every country can shine and show off their creativity and innovations. Most of the countries opted to wow the audiences with high tech innovations. However The UK circumnavigated the obvious and developed an experiential design that encouraged the audience’s curiosity and awareness about the relationship between mankind and the natural world. The UK Pavilion demonstrates the relationship between innovation, nature and science and encourages the audience to wonder whether it could be used to solve the current social, economic and environmental challenges of our cities. The result: A seed cathedral.

"The pavilion was developed by Thomas Heatherwick and the UK creative agency, Troika, who collaborated with the Kew Millennium Seed Bank Partnership. 'The centrepiece of the UK pavilion is a six storey high object formed from some 60,000 slender transparent rods, which extend from the structure and quiver in the breeze. During the day, each of the 7.5m long rods act like fibre-optic filaments, drawing on daylight to illuminate the interior, thereby creating a contemplative awe-inspiring space. At night, light sources at the interior end of each rod allow the whole structure to glow.'

"Inside the Seed Cathedral is a unique visual representation of the UK’s gift to China, a donation of seeds via the Kew Millennium Seed Bank partnership, the largest collection of wild plant seeds in the world."

- Leah Lamb, Planet Green

[Editor's Note: For the month of August, the 13.7 Billion Years "We'll Drink to That" Series presents a fine reason to raise a glass and make a toast. Zivjeli!]

image: Seed Cathedral, UK Pavilion at 2010 World Expo (credit: Leah Lamb)

To the Polarstern Expedition!

The Polarstern expedition has successfully sent an autonomous underwater vehicle below Arctic ice to aid climate research

"The Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association for the first time sent its Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) on an under-ice mission at about 79° North. The four-metre-long, torpedo shaped underwater vehicle was deployed from the research icebreaker Polarstern under heavy pack ice. The vehicle was subsequently recovered by helicopter.

"We are one of the world's first working groups to have successfully carried out such an under-ice mission, a goal we have been working hard to achieve," says Dr. Thomas Soltwedel, the chief scientist of the expedition. "The samples and data obtained will shed a new light on phytoplankton production in the transition area between the permanently ice-covered Arctic Ocean and its ice-free marginal zone. Autonomous underwater vehicles are opening up new possibilities to investigate the ice-covered polar seas -- areas that are of pivotal importance in climate research."

-- reprinted from ScienceDaily

[Editor's Note: For the month of August, the 13.7 Billion Years "We'll Drink to That" Series presents a fine reason to raise a glass and make a toast. Fisehatak!]

image: Taking up of the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) after a successful “under-ice” dive. (Credit: M. Wurst, AWI)

To Life on Mars!

Martian rocks suggest the red planet harbored life about 4 billion years ago

"A new article in press of the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters unveils groundbreaking research on the hydrothermal formation of Clay-Carbonate rocks in the Nili Fossae region of Mars. The findings may provide a link to evidence of living organisms on Mars, roughly 4 billion years ago in the Noachian period.

"The paper 'Hydrothermal formation of Clay-Carbonate alteration assemblages in the Nili Fossae region of Mars,' by Adrian J. Brown et al, suggests that carbonate bearing rocks found in the Nili Fossae region of Mars are made up of hydrothermally altered ultramafic (perhaps komatiitic) rocks. It also shows that the carbonates at Nili Fossae are not pure Mg-carbonate. Moreover, the study explains that talc is present in close proximity to the carbonate locations - rather than previously suggested saponite - and talc-carbonate alteration of high-Mg precursor rocks has taken place.

"Adrian Brown, corresponding author, explains: 'We suggest that the associated hydrothermal activity would have provided sufficient energy for biological activity on early Mars at Nili Fossae. Furthermore, in the article we discuss the potential of the Archean volcanics of the East Pilbara region of Western Australia as an analog for the Nochian Nili Fossae on Mars. They indicate that biomarkers or evidence of living organisms, if produced at Nili, could have been preserved, as they have been in the North Pole Dome region of the Pilbara craton.'"

-- reprinted from Elsevier

[Editor's Note: For the month of August, the 13.7 Billion Years "We'll Drink to That" Series presents a fine reason to raise a glass and make a toast. Topa!]

image: This image of the Centauri-Hellas Montes region was taken by the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) at a portion of a trough in the Nili Fossae region of Mars is shown in enhanced color in this image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona)

To Snow Mold!

A little-known mold could help scientists predict global biogeochemical changes caused by climate change

Found at the edges of month-old melting snowbanks in alpine tundras and subalpine forests, snow mold is a little-known fungi that could help scientists predict changes in global CO2 emissions and snow retreats in the face of global warming. Most of them are zygomytes, a group of molds that includes some common bread molds.

"These fungi may contribute substantially to biogeochemical fluxes beneath the snow and understanding their physiologies could lend important insight into how global biochemical cycles will change as global warming affects both the duration and depth of snow packs over much of the Earth," according to a study led by University of Colorado microbial ecologist Steve Schmidt published in the journal Microbial Ecology.

[Editor's Note: For the month of August, the 13.7 Billion Years "We'll Drink to That" Series presents a fine reason to raise a glass and make a toast. Genatzt!]

image: snow mold (credit: Ken Wilson)

To Belka and Strelka (and Friends)!

Half a century ago today, the Soviet Union sent two dogs into space

Belka and Strelka spent a day in space aboard Korabl-Sputnik-2 (Sputnik 5) on August 19, 1960 before safely returning to Earth.

They were accompanied by a grey rabbit, 42 mice, 2 rats, flies and a number of plants and fungi. All passengers survived. They were the first Earth-born creatures to go into orbit and return alive.

Strelka went on to have six puppies with a male dog named Pushok who participated in many ground-based space experiments, but never made it into space. One of the pups was named Pushinka and was presented to President John F. Kennedy's daughter Caroline by Nikita Khrushchev in 1961. A Cold War romance bloomed between Pushinka and a Kennedy dog named Charlie resulting in the birth of 4 pups that JFK referred to jokingly as pupniks.

Two of their pups, Butterfly and Streaker, were given away to children in the Midwest. The other two puppies, White Tips and Blackie, stayed at the Kennedy home on Squaw Island but were eventually given away to family friends. Pushinka's descendants are still living today. A photo of descendants of some of the Space Dogs is on display at the Zvezda Museum outside Moscow.

An animated Russian feature film called Belka and Strelka - Star Dogs was released in 2010.

-- reprinted from Wikipedia

[Editor's Note: For the month of August, the 13.7 Billion Years "We'll Drink to That" Series presents a fine reason to raise a glass and make a toast. Budem zdorovy!]

image: Image of either Belka or Strelka onboard Sputnik 6, demodulated by CIA electronic intelligence (credit: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration via Sven Grahn website)

To Phobos!

Asaph Hall discovered the Martian moon Phobos today in 1877

Phobos is the larger and closer of the two moons of Mars, the other being Deimos. Both moons were discovered in 1877 by American astronomer Asaph Hall. With a mean radius of 11.1 km (6.9 mi), Phobos is 7.24 times as massive as Deimos. It is named after the Greek god Phobos (which means 'fear'), a son of Ares (Mars).

A small, irregularly shaped object, Phobos orbits about 9,377 km (5,827 mi) from the center of Mars, closer to its primary than any other known planetary moon. Phobos is one of the least-reflective bodies in the solar system, and features a large impact crater, Stickney crater. It orbits so close to the planet that it moves around Mars faster than Mars itself rotates. As a result, from the surface of Mars it appears to rise in the west, move rapidly across the sky (in 4 h 15 min or less) and sets in the east. Phobos's orbital radius is decreasing and it will eventually either impact the surface of Mars or break up into a planetary ring.

-- reprinted from Wikipedia

[Editor's Note: For the month of August, the 13.7 Billion Years "We'll Drink to That" Series presents a fine reason to raise a glass and make a toast. Stin iyia mas!]

image: color image of Phobos, imaged by the Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter in 2008 (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona)

To Pike Place Market!

America's longest continuously-running public farmer's market opened today in 1907 in Seattle

Between 1906 and 1907, the cost of onions increased tenfold. Outraged citizens, fed up with paying price-gouging middlemen too much for their produce, found a hero in Seattle City Councilman Thomas Revelle. Revelle proposed a public street market that would connect farmers directly with consumers. Customers would 'Meet the Producer' directly.

On August 17, 1907, Pike Place Market was born. On that first day, a total of eight farmers brought their wagons to the corner of First Avenue and Pike Street -- and were quickly overwhelmed by an estimated 10,000 eager shoppers. By 11:00 am, they were sold out. Thousands of would-be customers went home empty-handed, but the chaos held promise. By the end of 1907, the first Market building opened, with every space filled.

-- reprinted from Pike Place Market

[Editor's Note: For the month of August, the 13.7 Billion Years "We'll Drink to That" Series presents a fine reason to raise a glass and make a toast. Sanitas bona!]

image: postdlf

To Solar Flares!

Today in 1989, a solar flare created a geomagnetic storm that disabled computer microchips. For three hours, Toronto's stock market came to screeching halt

A solar flare is a large explosion in the Sun's atmosphere that can release as much as 6 × 10²⁵ joules of energy. The term is also used to refer to similar phenomena in other stars, where the term stellar flare applies.

Solar flares affect all layers of the solar atmosphere (photosphere, corona, and chromosphere), heating plasma to tens of millions of kelvins and accelerating electrons, protons, and heavier ions to near the speed of light. They produce radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum at all wavelengths, from radio waves to gamma rays. Most flares occur in active regions around sunspots, where intense magnetic fields penetrate the photosphere to link the corona to the solar interior. Flares are powered by the sudden (timescales of minutes to tens of minutes) release of magnetic energy stored in the corona. If a solar flare is exceptionally powerful, it can cause coronal mass ejections.

X-rays and UV radiation emitted by solar flares can affect Earth's ionosphere and disrupt long-range radio communications. Direct radio emission at decimetric wavelengths may disturb operation of radars and other devices operating at these frequencies.

-- reprinted from Wikipedia

[Editor's Note: For the month of August, the 13.7 Billion Years "We'll Drink to That" Series presents a fine reason to raise a glass and make a toast. Gom bui!]

image: The flare and so called after-flare solar prominence. The solar disk was blocked in PS for a better visual effect. (credit: Mila)

To the "Wow! Signal"

Today in 1977, we received a radio signal from deep space

The "Wow! signal" was a strong narrowband radio signal detected by Dr. Jerry R. Ehman on August 15, 1977, while working on a SETI [Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence] project at the Big Ear radio telescope of Ohio State University. The signal bore expected hallmarks of potential non-terrestrial and non-solar system origin. It lasted for the full 72 second duration that Big Ear observed it, but has not been detected again. Much attention has been focused on it in the media when talking about SETI results.

Amazed at how closely the signal matched the expected signature of an interstellar signal in the antenna used, Ehman circled the signal on the computer printout and wrote the comment "Wow!" on its side. This comment became the name of the signal.

Determining a precise location in the sky was complicated by the fact that the Big Ear telescope used two feed horns to search for signals, each pointing to a slightly different direction in the sky following Earth's rotation; the Wow! signal was detected in one of the horns but not in the other, although the data were processed in such a way that it is impossible to determine in which of the two horns the signal entered…The declination was unambiguously determined...This region of the sky lies in the constellation Sagittarius, roughly 2.5 degrees south of the fifth-magnitude star group Chi Sagittarii.

Interstellar scintillation of a weaker continuous signal -- similar, in effect, to atmospheric twinkling -- could be a possible explanation, although this still would not exclude the possibility of the signal being artificial in its nature. However, even by using the significantly more sensitive Very Large Array, such a signal could not be detected, and the probability that a signal below the Very Large Array level could be detected by the Big Ear radio telescope due to interstellar scintillation is low.[6] Other speculations include a rotating lighthouse-like source, a signal sweeping in frequency, or a one time burst. Some have also suggested it could have come from a moving space vehicle of extraterrestrial origin.

-- reprinted from Wikipedia

[Editor's Note: For the month of August, the 13.7 Billion Years "We'll Drink to That" Series presents a fine reason to raise a glass and make a toast. Viva!]

image: A scan of a color copy of the original computer printout, taken several years after the 1977 arrival of the Wow! signal (credit: The Ohio State University Radio Observatory and the North American AstroPhysical Observatory (NAAPO))

To Shade Coffee!

Shade-coffee farms support native bees who help maintain genetic diversity in tropical forests

"Coffee farms are often embedded within a mosaic of agriculture and forest fragments in the world's most biologically diverse tropical regions. Although shade coffee farms can potentially support native pollinator communities, the degree to which these pollinators facilitate gene flow for native trees is unknown. We examined the role of native bees as vectors of gene flow for a reproductively specialized native tree, Miconia affinis, in a shade coffee and remnant forest landscape mosaic...Pollen was carried twice as far within shade coffee habitat as in nearby forest, and trees growing within shade coffee farms received pollen from a far greater number of sires than trees within remnant forest. The study shows that shade coffee habitats support specialized native pollinators that enhance the fecundity and genetic diversity of remnant native trees."

-- Shalene Jha and Christopher W. Dick, "Native bees mediate long-distance pollen dispersal in a shade coffee landscape mosaic," PNAS

[Editor's Note: For the month of August, the 13.7 Billion Years "We'll Drink to That" Series presents a fine reason to raise a glass and make a toast. Salud!]

image: a Miconia affinis tree growing within a shade-coffee farm in Chiapas, Mexico (credit: Shalene Jha)

To Manyara!

Manyara Ranch Conservancy presents an innovative way for humans and wildlife to together in harmony

"AWF is proud to announce the opening of Manyara Ranch Conservancy, a private conservancy and intimate tented safari camp located on AWF-managed Manyara Ranch in northern Tanzania. A critical conservation landscape that links to Lake Manyara National Park and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Manyara Ranch is a paradigm of mixed-use planning pioneered by AWF. The new camp will help sustain conservation work in and around the ranch and be instrumental in further transforming this conservation landscape into a wildlife destination that will complement neighboring parks and showcase the true wonders of Tanzania's wild areas.

"Manyara Ranch is an innovative attempt at upholding what is right about conservation. The work of the African Wildlife Foundation is optimistic and necessary. Creating areas in which wildlife can continue to co-exist with humans, for the benefit of local communities are central principles of the Conservancy. We generate revenue from visitors that helps pays for patrols, area management and improvements to the habitat. More importantly, the Conservancy generates direct income for local communities and it offers work, salaries, skills training and education. Without these key ingredients, Manyara Ranch might end up as just a cattle ranch and little more. Manyara Ranch is much more than this -- it is a successful cattle ranch and an important wildlife corridor. Just 10 years ago, this dream was close to being lost."

-- African Wildlife Foundation (AWF)

[Editor's Note: For the month of August, the 13.7 Billion Years "We'll Drink to That" Series presents a fine reason to raise a glass and make a toast. Afya!]

image: Manyara Ranch Conservatory

To the Last Quagga!

Today in 1883, the world's last quagga died at Amsterdam's Artis Magistra zoo

The quagga (Equus quagga quagga) is an extinct subspecies of the plains zebra, which was once found in great numbers in South Africa's Cape Province and the southern part of the Orange Free State. It was distinguished from other zebras by having the usual vivid marks on the front part of the body only. In the mid-section, the stripes faded and the dark, inter-stripe spaces became wider, and the rear parts were a plain brown. The name comes from a Khoikhoi word for zebra and is onomatopoeic, being said to resemble the quagga's call. The only quagga to have been photographed alive was a mare at the Zoological Society of London's Zoo in Regent's Park in 1870.

-- reprinted from Wikipedia

[Editor's Note: For the month of August, the 13.7 Billion Years "We'll Drink to That" Series presents a fine reason to raise a glass and make a toast. Proost!]

image: the only quagga ever to be photographed alive, Zoological Society of London Zoo, 1871 (credit: F. York)

To the Monster Rat!

The world's biggest known rat was recently discovered. It lived over 1,000 years ago and weighed more than 13 pounds

Archaeological research in East Timor has unearthed the bones of the biggest rat that ever lived, with a body weight around six kilograms. The cave excavations also yielded a total of 13 species of rodents, 11 of which are new to science. Eight of the rats weighed a kilogram or more.

"East Indonesia is a hot spot for rodent evolution. We want international attention on conservation in the area," CSIRO's Dr Ken Aplin says.

"Rodents make up 40 per cent of mammalian diversity worldwide and are a key element of ecosystems, important for processes like soil maintenance and seed dispersal. Maintaining biodiversity among rats is just as important as protecting whales or birds."

Carbon dating shows that the biggest rat that ever lived survived until around 1000 to 2000 years ago, along with most of the other Timorese rodents found during the excavation. Only one of the smaller species found is known to survive on Timor today.

-- reprinted from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)

[Editor's Note: For the month of August, the 13.7 Billion Years "We'll Drink to That" Series presents a fine reason to raise a glass and make a toast. Saude!]

image: Upper toothrows of Timor’s extinct giant rat (left), the biggest rat that ever lived, compared with the skull of a black rat (right). The black rat (Rattus rattus) is one of the world’s most common rat species. It is also known as the house, roof or ship rat and is found throughout Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and the Americas. A typical adult weighs about 150 grams. The skull of the black rat shown here is 35 mm long. (credit: CSIRO)

To the Dolphin Docs!

Hawaii's first cetacean hospital will help heal sick and wounded dolphins and whales

"Every year in Hawaii more than 20 whales and dolphins strand along our shores. The Hawaii Cetacean Rehabilitation Facility (HCRF) will be the first rehabilitation facility in the Hawaiian Islands able to receive and care for stranded, sick, or injured whales and dolphins. The facility is currently being completed, with an anticipated opening date at the end of this year. The facilities will be based in Hilo on the east side of Hawaii Island but will respond to cetacean strandings in all Hawaiian Island and the greater Pacific region. The facility will greatly rely on trained volunteers from the community and university."

-- Hawaii Cetacean Rehabilitation Facility

[Editor's Note: For the month of August, the 13.7 Billion Years "We'll Drink to That" Series presents a fine reason to raise a glass and make a toast. Okole Maluna!]

image: Hawaii Cetacean Rehabilitation Facility

To Rajasthan!

India's largest state bans plastic bags

"In a major step for environment protection, the Rajasthan Government on Monday announced a complete ban on use of plastic carry-bags all over the State from August 1. A notification declared the entire State a 'plastic carry-bag-free zone.'

"According to an official release here, the prohibition will also apply to manufacture, storage, import, sale and transport of plastic carry-bags. No shopkeeper, retailer, trader, hawker or vendor will be allowed to supply goods to consumers in these carry-bags.

"The ban has been imposed in view of 'both short-term and long-term environmental hazards' posed by the material used in the carry-bags, stated the release. The restriction is expected to check degradation of environment caused by the rampant use of plastic bags.

"The Government has authorised District Collectors and officers of the Rajasthan Pollution Control Board to file complaints under Section 19 of the Environment Protection Act, 1986, to the competent court on violation of the guidelines prescribed in the notification.

"The release said any infringement of the notification would attract prosecution under Section 15 of the Environment Protection Act, which prescribes imprisonment for five years or a fine up to Rs.1 lakh or both. Recurrence of the offence may lead to penalty of Rs.5,000 a day."

-- The Hindu

[Editor's Note: For the month of August, the 13.7 Billion Years "We'll Drink to That" Series presents a fine reason to raise a glass and make a toast. Tulleeho!]

image: Sardar Market vegetable stalls Jodhpur Rajasthan (credit: Matthew Laird Acred)

To CLEAR!

American lawmakers pass a strong oil spill response bill

"The U.S. House of Representatives passed an oil spill response bill that is strong for America's wildlife and wild places.

 The bill known as the Consolidated Land, Energy, and Aquatic Resources (CLEAR) Act can help put into place large-scale restoration projects that will help protect and restore the wildlife populations and habitat impacted by the spill. 

In addition to authorizing $900 million for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), the CLEAR Act will also include the Melancon Gulf restoration fund amendment, which establishes a $1 billion fund for Gulf Coast restoration."

-- National Wildlife Federation

[Editor's Note: For the month of August, the 13.7 Billion Years "We'll Drink to That" Series presents a fine reason to raise a glass and make a toast. Na zdraví!]

image: green sea turtle (credit: Gonçalo Veiga)

To Urine!

A new four-year UK project invetigates urine as an energy source

Researchers at Bristol Robotics Lab (BRL) , a collaborative UWE/University of Bristol research facility, are looking into the use of urine as the 'fuel' for Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs), which use bacterial cultures to break down 'food' to create power. MFCs are a developing technology used to power autonomous robots.

An EPSRC Career Acceleration Fellowship Grant worth £564,561 has been awarded to Dr Ioannis Ieropoulos for a four year project to develop research into how waste could be used by Microbial Fuel Cells to generate energy.

Dr. Ieropoulos explains, 'Over the years we have fed our MFCs with rotten fruit, grass clippings, prawn shells and dead flies in an attempt to investigate different waste materials to use as a 'food source' for the Microbial Fuel Cells. We have focused on finding the best waste materials that create the most energy. Urine is chemically very active, rich in nitrogen and has compounds such as urea, chloride, potassium and bilirubin, which make it very good for the microbial fuel cells. We have already done preliminary tests which show it being a waste material that is very effective. Although it is early days for this research, we hope to work towards producing a prototype portable urinal which would use urine to create power from fuel cells. We envisage that this could be used for example at music festivals and other outdoor events.'

-- University of the West of England

[Editor's Note: For the month of August, the 13.7 Billion Years "We'll Drink to That" Series presents a fine reason to raise a glass and make a toast. Yamas!]

image: Bristol Robotics Lab

To Mycobond!

Mushrooms are the latest eco-friendly packing material

"A new packing material that grows itself is now appearing in shipped products across the country.

"The composite of inedible agricultural waste and mushroom roots is called Mycobond™, and its manufacture requires just one eighth the energy and one tenth the carbon dioxide of traditional foam packing material.

"And unlike most foam substitutes, when no longer useful, it makes great compost in the garden.

"The technology was the brainchild of two former Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute undergraduates, Gavin McIntyre and Eben Bayer, who founded Ecovative Design of Green Island, N.Y., to bring their idea into production."

-- National Science Foundation

[Editor's Note: For the month of August, the 13.7 Billion Years "We'll Drink to That" Series presents a fine reason to raise a glass and make a toast. Kampai!]

image: EcoCradle™ packaging material is composed of agricultural byproducts bound by fungal roots

To Stella McCartney, PETA and the MoD!

The UK Ministry of Defence has approved further testing of faux-fur Guards' caps

"I have some encouraging news to share with you today. I am pleased to update you on our efforts to push the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to end the use of bearskins in ceremonial caps.

"A bear's fur is densest on the ridge of the animal's back, so it can take the whole hide of one bear to make just one cap. The MoD buys bearskins from Canada, where bears are often lured to their death by hunters who place food in areas called 'bait stations.' When the hungry bears smell the food and come to eat, the cowardly hunters shoot at them from their hiding places. Many bears are not killed instantly when they're shot – some bears escape the hunters only to suffer a lingering death from blood loss or starvation.

"Video footage shows mother bears who are shot in front of their petrified young. Wildlife biologists estimate that 70 per cent of orphaned cubs die within 12 months without their mothers to protect and care for them.

"PETA has presented a faux-fur prototype of The Queen's Guards' caps to Peter Luff, Minister for Defence Equipment, Support and Technology, as well as several other MoD officials. Developed by PETA with Stella McCartney's support, the cap has passed water-resistance tests carried out at the MoD's testing facility.

"As a result of our meeting, the MoD has agreed to cooperate with us to develop more refined samples for the department and to perform more practical tests with the regiments that wear the ceremonial caps.

"PETA is determined to stop the killing of bears for The Queen's Guard's headgear, and we're hopeful that this is the beginning of the end for the use of real bearskins in the caps."

-- Ingrid E Newkirk, President, PETA

[Editor's Note: For the month of August, the 13.7 Billion Years "We'll Drink to That" Series presents a fine reason to raise a glass and make a toast. Cheers!]

image: artificial bear fur hat designed by Stella McCartney

To Planck!

The Planck orbiting telescope has sent back its first complete set of images. Now we have a map not just of space, but of time itself, going back to the Big Bang

"Last year, Planck, the European Space Agency's 'time machine,' was launched into space to scan the sky and record images for astronomers to study, potentially revealing the secrets to how the universe formed. Now, the first all-sky image has been delivered, giving us the most detailed microwave map of the sky. It illustrates the oldest light in the universe, originating around 13.7 billion years ago.

"'This is the moment that Planck was conceived for,' says ESA Director of Science and Robotic Exploration, David Southwood. 'We’re not giving the answer. We are opening the door to an Eldorado where scientists can seek the nuggets that will lead to deeper understanding of how our Universe came to be and how it works now. The image itself and its remarkable quality is a tribute to the engineers who built and have operated Planck. Now the scientific harvest must begin.'

Chromoscope.net has an interactive map that allows you to see what the universe looks like across all wavelengths, from gamma ray to radio. You can literally see every part of the universe, zooming in and out and around space."

-- Jaymi Heimbuch, Planet Green

[Editor's Note: For the month of August, the 13.7 Billion Years "We'll Drink to That" Series presents a fine reason to raise a glass and make a toast. Prost!]

image: Planck's view of the whole sky. This image of the microwave sky was synthesized using data spanning the range of light frequencies detected by Planck. These low frequencies, which cannot be seen with the human eye, cover the range of 30 to 857 gigahertz. 

The grainy structure of the cosmic microwave background, with its tiny temperature fluctuations reflecting the density variations from which the cosmic web of our universe originated, is clearly visible in the high-latitude regions of the map. 

A vast portion of the sky, extending well above and below the galactic plane, is dominated by the diffuse emission from gas and dust in our Milky Way galaxy. While the galactic foreground hides the cosmic microwave background signal from our view, it also highlights the extent of our galaxy's large-scale structure. 

Although the two main components of the microwave sky appear to be separable only in certain areas, a foreground removal over the entire sky is possible thanks to sophisticated image analysis techniques, which have been developed by the Planck scientific teams. These techniques rely on the observatory's unique frequency coverage and the unprecedented accuracy of its measurements. 

This image is derived from data collected by Planck during its first all-sky survey, and covers about 12 months of observations. 

(credit: ESA, HFI & LFI consortia (2010))

To Water!

The United Nations: Water is a human right

"Activists around the world are raising a glass today...of clear, cold water...after the UN today declared that access to clean water and sanitation is a human right...thanks to Bolivia -- who first introduced the non-binding measure to the UN General Assembly -- the UN has deemed the right to clean water and sanitation a right that's 'essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights.' In other words, it's the one human right that undergirds all others."

-- Te-Ping Chen, July 28, 2010, Change.org

[Editor's Note: For the month of August, the 13.7 Billion Years "We'll Drink to That" Series presents a fine reason to raise a glass and make a toast. À votre santé!]

image: A girl in kenya collects water from a sand dam, which provides year-round clean water, filtered through sand, at less than half a penny per liter (credit: thisisexcellent)

To Renewables!

Renewable energy is finally breaking into the mainstream

"In 2009, governments stepped up efforts to steer their countries out of recession by transforming industries and creating jobs. This gave a boost to the renewable energy sector. By early 2010, more than 100 countries had some type of policy target and/or promotion policy related to renewable energy; this compares with 55 countries in early 2005. Wind power and solar PV additions reached a record high during 2009, and in both Europe and the United States, renewables accounted for over half of newly installed power capacity in 2009. More than $150 billion was invested in new renewable energy capacity and manufacturing plants -- up from just $30 billion in 2004. For the second year in a row, more money was invested in new renewable energy capacity than in new fossil fuel capacity."

-- Mohamed El-Ashry, Chairman, REN21 Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century, in Renewables 2010 Global Status Report

[Editor's Note: For the month of August, the 13.7 Billion Years "We'll Drink to That" Series presents a fine reason to raise a glass and make a toast. Cheers!]

image: Green Mountain Energy Wind Farm, near Fluvanna, Texas (Leaflet)