News
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Saturday, October 29, 2011An anti-dumping complaint filed by U.S. solar firms against their Chinese counterparts is driven by envy at China's rapid growth in the field and goes against global efforts to fight climate change, a major state-run newspaper said on Sunday.
Seven U.S. solar manufacturers this month asked the Obama administration to impose duties of more than 100 percent on China solar imports,...
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Saturday, October 29, 2011Green groups said on Saturday they would give the Environmental Protection Agency more time to forge the first-ever plan to regulate carbon dioxide from power plants, the country's single biggest source of greenhouse gases.
The Environmental Defense Fund and other green groups that are negotiating with the EPA on the deadline for the plan said they would withhold legal action against the agency until November 30. They, along with New York,...
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Friday, October 28, 2011WASHINGTON - The Obama administration on Thursday identified 17 sites in six Western states as prime candidates for solar energy projects on public lands, continuing a push for solar power despite the high-profile bankruptcy of a solar-panel maker that received a half-billion dollar federal loan.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the latest "Solar Energy Zones" refine and improve on a draft released in December that identified two dozen areas in California, Nevada,...
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Friday, October 28, 2011The University of Arizona's Steward Observatory is competing for two NASA grants to launch a telescope into near-Earth orbit and lift one into the stratosphere by balloon.
NASA will consider funding the multimillion-dollar projects, EXCEDE and GUSSTO, as part of its 2013 Explorer Mission program.
EXCEDE, the Exoplanetary Circumstellar Environments and Disk Explorer, is a space telescope scientists hope will unravel mysteries of planetary system formation.
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Thursday, October 27, 2011Scientists, students and citizens taking part in last weekend's BioBlitz at Saguaro National Park found more than 400 plant and animal species previously unknown to the park.
One of the species - a mosslike plant known as a bryophyte - is potentially new to science as well as the park.
"It was very exciting to add all those species to our park list," said Natalie Luna Rose, spokeswoman for the park.
The newly added entries were among at least 859...
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Wednesday, October 26, 2011The University of Arizona is assembling steel frames for three massive hill slopes inside Biosphere 2 near Oracle - a process scientists say is akin to building three giant ships in a bottle.
The steel parts of the $7 million Landscape Evolution Observatory (LEO), and the trucks that carry them, must squeeze through a 10-by-15-foot opening in the steel-and-glass terrarium that was originally built as an experiment in sustaining life in a sealed-off environment.
When...
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Wednesday, October 26, 2011The UA Foundation and the UA Office of the Vice President for Research are funding faculty members and projects with grant support.
Sixteen up-and-coming University of Arizona junior faculty members and six UA projects that partner with the local community are recent...
Tuesday, October 25, 2011During the 2011 BioBlitz at Saguaro National Park Oct. 21-22, school children and volunteers teamed up with experts to embark on a 24-hour race to discover and tally as many of the park's living creatures as possible in an effort to better understand the ecology and biodiversity of the Sonoran Desert.
Under an afternoon sun that is beating down much too relentlessly for this time of year, our group of eleven is scrambling up a hillside in Saguaro National Park just west of...
Tuesday, October 25, 2011Saguaro National Park, Arizona–How do scientists find scorpions and certain other crawling animals in the dark, when a great many animals big and small are out and about in the desert night? They use a special light which makes the scorpions glow bright green, like the numerals on a watch.
Paul Marek, an entomologist at the University of Arizona, tells us in this video how researchers went out at night during the BioBlitz...
Tuesday, October 25, 2011With one community garden already planted at the UA, a student-led group has begun preparing yet another plot designed to allow students, faculty, staff and also community members to grow their own fruit, vegetables and herbs.
Garden in the Desert, a University of Arizona student-led group, was launched two years ago to create and help build community gardens around campus.
The team has since shaped the foundation for a new community garden, which is located near...