Study urges coastal wind farms
WASHINGTON, April 3 (UPI) -- Wind farms placed off U.S. coastlines could contribute significantly to meeting the nation's energy needs, says an Interior Department study.
Turbines off the Atlantic Coast potentially could produce 1,000 gigawatts of electricity, enough to meet 25 percent of the nation's electrical demands, the study says.
Turbines located off the Pacific Coast also hold great potential but would need to be placed in much deeper water than the Atlantic, posing more engineering challenges, the study said.
The study is part of the Obama administration's plan to chart a course for offshore energy development, the Chicago Tribune reported Friday.
Harnessing wind in relatively shallow waters, which is the most technically feasible for offshore turbines, could produce at least one-fifth of the power needed for most coastal states, said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.
The study includes no new estimates of potential oil and gas reserves offshore, the Tribune reported.
Chicago water killing marine life
CHICAGO, April 3 (UPI) -- Polluted water from Chicago has helped create a dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, where excess algae suffocates marine life, says a U.S. Geological Survey study.
Chicago was named the top offender in the study of the causes of nitrogen and phosphorus pollution in the 8,000 square-foot dead zone, Chi-TownDailyNews.org reported Friday.
The study released Thursday examined sources for 150 watersheds in the Mississippi River Basin.
Chicago's Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, or MWRD, ranked first in discharging water tainted with phosphorous and nitrogen, which accumulate through the use of fertilizer and detergent, the study says.
Chicago's rank, however, can be misleading, said Albert Ettinger, a lawyer with the Environmental Law & Policy Center.
"You can be number one and still only be 5 percent of the issue," Ettinger said, explaining that much nitrogen and phosphorous found in the Mississippi River comes from farmland across the Midwest.
Still, Chicago could do more to clean up its water before discharging it, Ettinger said. The MWRD said it is formulating a response to the study.
Chocolate helps brain function
LONDON, April 3 (UPI) -- People who binge on chocolate could find mentally challenging tasks less exhausting, says a study presented to the British Psychology Society.
That's because compounds found in chocolate called flavanols increase the flow of blood to the brain, said David Kennedy, director of the brain, performance and nutrition research center at Northumbria University.
"For things that are difficult to do, mentally demanding things that maybe crop up in your work, it could help," said Kennedy, co-author of the study presented to the society at its annual conference in Brighton.
Kennedy's team asked 30 volunteers to count backwards in groups of three from a random number between 800 and 999, The Daily Telegraph reported Friday. The volunteers performed calculations more quickly, after drinking hot cocoa containing 500 mg of flavanol, Kennedy said.
The study noted some bars of chocolate available for sale to the public contain as much as 100 mg of flavanol, and dark chocolate contains more of the chemical than milk chocolate.
Robot scientist acts without human aid
CAMBRIDGE, England, April 3 (UPI) -- A robot scientist acting without human help has made its first real, albeit modest, discoveries, say researchers at the University of Cambridge.
Named Adam, the robot is the creation of researchers at Cambridge and the United Kingdom's Aberystwyth University, New Scientist reported Friday.
Without human assistance, Adam formulated and tested 20 hypotheses about gene coding for 13 enzymes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, also known as brewer's yeast, said Ross King, a biologist at Aberystwyth who leads the project.
"It's certainly a contribution to knowledge. It would be publishable," King said, noting Adam has enough equipment to fill a small lab, including four computers that act as a brain and robotic arms, cameras, liquid handlers and incubators.
Adam, and a robot-in-the-making called Eve, will help free human scientists from routine and time-consuming scientific chores and some day may even be capable of ground-breaking independent research, King said.
