UPI NewsTrack Science and Technology News

Electric cars in China bigger polluters

KNOXVILLE, Tenn., Feb. 13 (UPI) -- Electric cars in China are having an impact on pollution more harmful to health than gasoline vehicles, U.S. researchers say.

Researchers at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, analyzed the emissions and environmental health impacts of five vehicle technologies in 34 major Chinese cities.

While electric cars have been seen as environmentally friendly, the researchers determined they are in fact responsible for more overall harmful particulate matter pollution than gasoline cars, a university release reported Monday.

The reason, they said, is because for electric vehicles, combustion emissions occur where electricity is generated rather than where the vehicle is used, and in China 85 percent of electricity production is from fossil fuels with about 90 percent of that from coal.

"An implicit assumption has been that air quality and health impacts are lower for electric vehicles than for conventional vehicles," civil and environmental engineering professor Chris Cherry said. "Our findings challenge that by comparing what is emitted by vehicle use to what people are actually exposed to."

The researchers say they discovered the power generated in China to operate electric vehicles emits polluting particles at a much higher rate than gasoline vehicles do.

In terms of air pollution impacts, electric cars are more harmful to public health per mile traveled in China than conventional vehicles, they said.

"The study emphasizes that electric vehicles are attractive if they are powered by a clean energy source," Cherry said. "In China and elsewhere, it is important to focus on deploying electric vehicles in cities with cleaner electricity generation and focusing on improving emissions controls in higher polluting power sectors."

EU anti-piracy act under fire

BRUSSELS, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- The president of the European Parliament has joined in the criticism of Europe's controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.

"I don't find it good in its current form," Martin Schulz said in an interview with German television.

His comments came after protests against the agreement in various countries, including Germany, Poland and Britain.

The balance between copyright protection and the individual rights of Internet users "is only very inadequately anchored in this agreement," Schulz said.

The agreement has been compared to the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act in the United States that was derailed by intense Internet protests.

The Parliament is set to debate the agreement, signed by 22 EU member states so far, in June.

Germany has delayed its signing of the agreement, calling for "further discussion."

Schulz's comments are a signal the agreement is in "real political trouble," Loz Kaye, leader of the Pirate Party UK, said.

"It's becoming clear that European citizens are very concerned about this agreement," he told the BBC. "It's hard to find anyone who is standing up for it right now."

Cosmos mysteries to be studied

CHICAGO, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- The University of Chicago says $17 million in funding from the National Science Foundation will help it research three basic cosmological puzzles.

The university's Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics will use the funding to delve into the mysteries of dark energy, dark matter and cosmic inflation, a release from the school said Monday.

These are the three pillars of modern cosmological theory, "and none of them can be explained with physics that we know," institute director Michael Turner says. "They're all pointing to new physics."

Cosmic inflation proposes the universe expanded extremely rapidly in a tiny fraction of a second after the Big Bang, an expansion would explain some important questions Big Bang theory alone has been unable to answer, researchers said.

Dark matter, cosmologists say they suspect, may be a new form of matter consisting of something other than quarks, neutrons or protons.

Dark energy is thought to create something termed repulsive gravity, causing the expansion of the universe to accelerate, researchers said.

"People don't even get the term 'repulsive gravity' because the defining feature of gravity is that it's attractive," Turner says. "What do you mean, repulsive gravity? Do you mean the theory is repulsive?" he jokes.

The NSF funding will allow the Kavli institute to create a Physics Frontiers Center to study these cosmological conundrums, the university said.

Samsung announces Galaxy Tab 2 release

RIDGFIELD PARK, N.J., Feb. 13 (UPI) -- Samsung says its Galaxy Tab 2 tablet computer will be available in March and will debut with the latest 4.0 version of Google's Android operating system.

The OS, going by the name "Ice Cream Sandwich," is being emphasized by Samsung as the main attraction of the 7-inch tablet, with "improved Android OS features" and strong multimedia and communication capabilities, eweek.com reported Monday.

The tablet will be available in both 3G and WiFi versions, containing a 1GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM.

The Tab 2will allow users stream multimedia content to PCs, other Samsung smart devices or third-party Web storage.

It will also offer the ability to place a call "as easily as a phone," and can manage multiparty video calls, Samsung said.

Tablets are growing in importance in the electronics segments, analysts said.

A Jan. 31 report from research firm Canalys, which folds tablet sales into PC shipment totals, said tablet sales helped the global PC market to grow 16 percent during the fourth quarter of 2011.

If tablets were removed from those figures, the report said, the market would have instead declined year-over-year by 0.4 percent.

While prices for the Galaxy Tab haven't officially been announced, experts estimate the WiFi model will sell for $450 and the 3G for $556.