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Reporting on the Middle East, Science, and Education for September 22, 2008 - כ"ב אלול תשס"ח
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By Rachel Neiman, Israel 21C, September 22, 2008
It is a real-life nightmare scenario that makes any horror movie pale by comparison. The honeybees are in trouble and, by extension, so is the human race. Last winter, over 36 percent of the US bee colonies collapsed, affecting honey production, but more significantly, affecting the one-third of all food production that requires pollination - from fruits and nuts, to the dairy and beef cows that feed on alfalfa.
Now, an Israeli-US company Beeologics is taking rapid measures to bring to market a proprietary anti-viral agent that promises to alleviate the effects of the virus strongly associated with Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), with full-scale FDA trials commencing next month.
So far 60,000 hives are committed and Beeologics aims to have 100,000 hives enlisted in the trial which will run in several locations in the US from October to February. The season is critical, Eyal Ben-Chanoch, CEO of Beeologics, tells ISRAEL21c, because the bee keeping industry cycle follows the seasons of the bees which strengthen in spring, and summer and naturally weaken during fall and winter.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Climate Change, Health Sciences, Middle East Report, Recent Posts, Science and Technology on September 22, 2008 - כ"ב אלול תשס"ח at 9:53 am
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By Avi Bar-Eli, The Marker Correspondent, August 28, 2008
Israel’s first solar power station is up and running. Moshe Tenne built the plant on his Negev farm for NIS 1.3 million, and he estimates he will sell NIS 220,000 of electricity a year to the national power grid.
The state incentives to produce solar power took effect on July 1; they allow home and industrial customers to install solar power panels and receive NIS 2.01 per kilowatt hour for the electricity they produce compared with the NIS 0.50 per kilowatt hour they pay the Israel Electric Corporation.
The new agreement is for photovoltaic cell array technology, and the power produced is intended for the producer’s use, while any extra power may be sold to the IEC. The state limits household power plants to 15 kilowatts, and business customers to 50 kilowatts.
Tenne inaugurated his 50-kilowatt solar array this week. It will provide two-thirds of the needs of his central Negev farm, located on the region’s so-called Wine Route. The Tenne family established its farm three years ago, and makes its living from a sophisticated dairy barn with 70 cows producing about 800,000 liters of milk a year.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Alternative Energy, Business and Commerce, Middle East Report, Science and Technology, Solar Energy on August 27, 2008 - כ"ו אב תשס"ח at 9:10 pm
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Funding will help 639 small businesses and farmers save energy, improve operations
USDA Press Release, August 27, 2008
BISMARCK, North Dakota, August 27, 2008 -Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer today announced that 639 individuals and businesses in 43 states and the Virgin Islands have been selected to receive $35 million in grants and loan guarantees for renewable energy systems or to improve energy efficiency in farm and business operations.
"America is a world leader in renewable energy and energy efficiency," Schafer said. "These projects are good for business, good for the economy, good for jobs, and they help secure more self sufficient energy resources for our country."
The grants and loan guarantees are being awarded through USDA Rural Development’s Section 9006 Renewable Energy Systems and Energy Efficiency Improvements program. The program provides financial assistance to agricultural producers and rural small businesses to support renewable energy projects across a wide range of technologies encompassing biomass (including anaerobic digesters), geothermal, hydrogen, solar and wind energy. It also provides support for energy efficiency improvements, helping recipients reduce energy consumption and improve operations. Of the $35 million announced today, $27.5 million are grants and $7.4 million are guaranteed loans.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Alternative Energy, Business and Commerce, Recent Posts, Science and Technology on August 27, 2008 - כ"ו אב תשס"ח at 8:57 pm
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By Karin Kloosterman, Israel 21C, August 18, 2008
Spellcheckers on computer software did to language what calculators have done to math, unless you are one of the 15 percent of Americans who suffer from dyslexia. While Microsoft Word’s spellchecker can tell you how to spell your words properly, it can’t handle the complex language problems that dyslexics face on a daily basis.
"The problem they have is connecting the sounds of letters to the symbols of the written language," says Yael Karov, the CEO of Ginger Software who co-founded the Israeli company with her husband Avner Zangvil. They aim to give dyslexics software that can reduce spelling errors and improve their learning and communication skills dramatically.
Based in Tel Aviv, the company employs 15 and come October its software will be ready for Americans. Currently undergoing a Beta test, Ginger is available online for a free trial, or as a download, and will seamlessly connect to Microsoft Word as an add-on. After typing sentences, a screen will show users correct alternatives. They will also get an option to hear their sentences aloud.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Education Report, Recent Posts, Science and Technology, Special Education on August 19, 2008 - י"ח אב תשס"ח at 6:35 pm
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By Karin Kloosterman, Israel 21C, July 24, 2008
As soon as the summer is over and the fall begins, people in the northern United States start winterizing their vehicles. With more than 250 million cars on the road, and winter tires needed for many, it’s frightening to imagine where all those old tires go.
Most people do not realize that old tires are a health, safety and environmental hazard. Disease-carrying mosquitoes nest in them, and if they catch fire, they can burn for weeks, releasing toxic fumes into the air, and chemicals into our groundwater.
An Israeli company based in the Ukraine, has found a safe and environmentally friendly way to dispose of old tires: the pollution-free process consumes no energy and produces attractive byproducts, such as gas for your car.
Using an electromagnetic field and depriving the system of oxygen, Coral Group applies its “soft pyrolysis” method to break down old tires into basic components. Pyrolysis is a process that decomposes organic materials in the total absence of oxygen. And in Coral’s method, attractive end products are created. They include kerosene (jet fuel), benzene (automobile fuel), diesel, oil and black carbon.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Alternative Energy, Business and Commerce, Climate Change, Middle East Report, Science and Technology on July 27, 2008 - כ"ד תמוז תשס"ח at 5:01 am
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By NAOMI SCHWARZ, The Christian Science Monitor, July 17, 2008
Dap Dior, Senegal - D’dieme Faye’s muscular arms pump energetically as she pounds millet for her family’s lunch with an over-sized mortar and pestle.
In the past, Ms. Faye would have cooked a rich dish of rice, fish, and vegetables. But food prices are going up around the world, and West Africa has been one of the hardest-hit regions. The price of rice, alone, has doubled here in the past year.
“Life is too expensive,” she says, “too expensive.”
Her husband, Mamadou Diouf, says he hopes a new irrigation project in his village, Dap Dior, will be the answer to his family’s food problems. Villagers plan to use the project, developed by the Israeli Embassy in partnership with local and international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), to drastically increase their local production.
Traditionally, farmers in Mr. Diouf’s village wait for the rainy season to plant seeds. In a semi-arid place like Senegal, the rainy season only lasts three months. And if, like last year, the rainy season falls short, entire crops can fail.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Air & Water, Middle East Report, Science and Technology on July 18, 2008 - ט"ו תמוז תשס"ח at 11:42 am
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By David Shamah, Israel21C, July 01, 2008
Zvi Schreiber’s G.ho.st (the Global Hosted Operating System, pronounced “ghost”) provides users with a virtual operating system, where they can store files, write and save documents, surf the Web, and even send instant messages to their friends. And he does it with a staff made up of residents of both Israel and the Palestinian Authority - who have to meet and collaborate virtually, through video chats and on-line conferences.
But all that virtual-ness is having a real impact on the lives of people in Israel and the PA, who for perhaps the first time are able to collaborate on high-tech projects, just like people in “normal” places, such as Silicon Valley.
In fact, the 30-strong staff at the Ramallah offices of G.ho.st, even have stock options in the company. “I’m not aware of any other company in the PA that gives out options to its employees,” Schreiber tells ISRAEL21c.
Those stock options are just one innovation Schreiber has introduced with G.ho.st, which provides users with a uniform desktop and interface for individual users from any computer, anywhere in the world.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Business and Commerce, Middle East Report, Science and Technology on July 1, 2008 - כ"ח סיון תשס"ח at 12:33 pm
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See Also: Miracle in Israel’s Desert
By Rhys Blakely The Times, May 22, 2008
The desert of Rajasthan in the north of India is to be planted with a million olive trees grown in Israel in an effort to transform the landscape and the fortunes of its struggling farmers.
The countries are finalising a three-year plan on agriculture that will introduce several crops associated with the Middle East and Mediterranean to India. It is hoped that the sub-continent — more famous today for its mangoes and spices — will become an exporter of olive oil by 2011.
Lior Weintrub, a spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Delhi, said: “The symbolism is significant: an olive tree in the Middle East … well, it means a lot.”
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Middle East Report, Science and Technology on May 23, 2008 - י"ח אייר תשס"ח at 10:06 am
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By Ofri Ilani, Haaretz Correspondent, May 20, 2008
Photosynthesis is nearly the sole source of energy for the creatures inhabiting our planet, include the two-legged variety. For billions of years, since the appearance of the first vegetable cell, plants and bacteria have converted sunlight into energy-rich compounds. That is how all petroleum and coal reserves were created. Unfortunately, about 200 years of post-Industrial Revolution activity has wiped out most of these, and today’s vegetation cannot take up the slack.
Photovoltaic cells made of silicon can convert solar energy to electricity, but due to their extremely high price, it costs four times more to generate power this way than with coal or petroleum. Now, researchers from Tel Aviv University (TAU) claim to have created a prototype of a photovoltaic cell by genetically engineering proteins that produce energy using photosynthesis. If successful, this would enable energy production on a commercial scale through the construction of “artificial leaves.” The cells would even appear green, because of the wavelength of the light that they collect.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Alternative Energy, Biomass fuels, Middle East Report, Recent Posts, Science and Technology, Solar Energy on May 20, 2008 - ט"ו אייר תשס"ח at 10:10 pm
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Reprinted from Science Daily, April 28, 2008
ScienceDaily (Apr. 28, 2008) — Imagine a technology that would not only provide a green and renewable source of electrical energy, but could also help scrub the atmosphere of excessive carbon dioxide resulting from the burning of fossil fuels. That’s the promise of artificial versions of photosynthesis, the process by which green plants have been converting solar energy into electrochemical energy for millions of years. To get there, however, scientists need a far better understanding of how Nature does it, starting with the harvesting of sunlight and the transporting of this energy to electrochemical reaction centers.
Graham Fleming, a physical chemist who holds joint appointments with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) at Berkeley, is the leader of an ongoing effort to discover how plants are able to transfer energy through a network of pigment-protein complexes with nearly 100-percent efficiency. In previous studies, he and his research group used a laser-based technique they developed called two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy to track the flow of excitation energy through both time and space. Now, for the first time, they’ve been able to connect that flow to energy-transferring functions by providing direct experimental links between atomic and electronic structures in pigment-protein complexes.
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Alternative Energy, Evolutionary Biology, Recent Posts, Science and Technology on April 28, 2008 - כ"ג ניסן תשס"ח at 3:07 pm
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