News – Page 26

UCI ranks sixth on Sierra Club’s list of greenest U.S. campuses

Written on August 16, 2010.

Alternative transportation options cited for its designation as a ‘Cool School’ Laura Rico, University Communications Irvine, Calif., Aug. 16, 2010 – Let’s hear it for ZotWheels, Zipcars and Zimrides. Partly on the strength of these alternative transportation options, UC Irvine ranked sixth among 900 colleges and universities nationwide considered for the Sierra Club’s fourth annual Cool Schools list of the greenest institutions. “Incentives for alternative...

Scientist: Huge Greenland iceberg a sign of warming

Written on August 13, 2010.

Pat Brennan, The Orange County Register When a massive ice island broke off Greenland last week, it looked quite familiar to UC Irvine climate researcher Eric Rignot. Rignot, who has attracted global attention for research showing rapid melting of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica in response to global warming, was heading to Greenland from Europe this week for more climate research. Rignot, also a senior research scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, will be taking...

Sunshine and tap water? Finding a fuel for the future

Written on August 6, 2010.

Susan Carpenter, Brand X Daily “When I was a kid, they told us in the 21st century we’d have cars that fly. I don’t have a car that flies, but this is good enough for me.” –Jack Cusick, Clarity driver Imagine a world where all it took to power a car was sunshine and tap water. That isn’t a pipe dream but, rather, the reality of emerging technology that someday could turn your house into a personal, zero-emission gas station. It’s called a...

June Gloom Stretches into Gray Sky July

Written on August 4, 2010.

Kirsten Amavisca, Chris Bashaw and Sarah Guidas, San Clemente Times It’s a tongue-in-cheek phrase that communicates the irony of what outsiders think Southern California is like, contrasted to what locals know to be reality. With overcast skies and record-breaking average temperatures dipping lower than normal, weather officials have since confirmed last July as being one of Southern California’s coldest in decades, if not a century. But although the rhyme describes the ironic weather of...

UCI, others net $122 million for solar fuels research

Written on July 29, 2010.

The team of California universities will form an Energy Innovation Hub. KRISTEN SCHOTT, OC Metro A team of California universities – including UC Irvine – has garnered a $122 million, five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to form a consortium to find new ways to generate fuels from sunlight. The Fuels from Sunlight Energy Innovation Hub will be led by the California Institute of Technology, in partnership with UCI, UC Santa Barbara, UC...

Hottest decade, warming ‘unmistakable’

Written on July 28, 2010.

Pat Brennan, science, environment editor, The Orange County Register The past decade is the warmest ever recorded, and the powerful signals of global warming — from sea ice to glaciers, temperatures to sea level — are “unmistakable,” according to a new report from the nation’s climate agency. The 2009 State of the Climate report, released Wednesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, says measurements of 10 different indicators shows the planet has...

AirUCI gets teachers pumped up about chemistry

Written on July 22, 2010.

AirUCI summer workshop aims to inspire seventh- to 12th-grade science teachers so they can inspire their own students. Mickey Laux, Ph.D. ’96, a chemistry professor at Orange Coast College,is so good at teaching he makes even the inner workings of a quadrupolemass spectrometer sound interesting. To demonstrate how a positivelycharged ion moves inside the spectrometer’s positively and negativelycharged rods, for instance, he draws on his best “Titanic” imitation,frantically steering the doomed...

UCI among California universities receiving up to $122 million to create fuels from sunlight

Written on July 22, 2010.

UCI is among California universities receiving up to $122 million to create fuels from sunlight. Janet Wilson, University Communications U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman today (July 22) awarded up to $122 million over five years to a team of top California scientists to establish an Energy Innovation Hub aimed at pioneeringrevolutionary methods to generate fuels directly from sunlight. “This is a major science win for California,” said John Hemminger, dean of UC Irvine’s...

$122 million to turn sunlight into fuel

Written on July 22, 2010.

Pat Brennan, The Orange County Register A group of California universities that includes UC Irvine landed a $122 million grant Thursday to attempt a scientific breakthrough: converting sunlight directly into fuel. The five-year project, to be funded by the Department of Energy and led by Caltech, will seek to create an artificial way to perform a task that leaves perform naturally — combining sunlight, water and carbon dioxide to create an energy source. The...

Solar fuels research gets major funding

Written on July 22, 2010.

UCI among California universities receiving up to $122 million to create fuels from sunlight By Janet Wilson, University Communications U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman today (July 22) awarded up to $122 million over five years to a team of top California scientists to establish an Energy Innovation Hub aimed at pioneering revolutionary methods to generate fuels directly from sunlight. “This is a major science win for California,” said John Hemminger, dean of UC Irvine’s...