·:[ Environmental News Bits ]:·
• • • • •

Read the full story at News.com.

Solar power hasn’t swept the nation but it must and will, said members of utilities, clean-tech start-ups, venture capital firms, and academia at the Big Solar conference here Wednesday.

California will literally live up to its “Golden State” nickname and shine as a model for the rest of the country thanks to progressive lawmakers, Silicon Valley dealmakers, and innovators at state and university labs, according to the event’s many optimists.

Read the full story from Oceanus.

They are 10,000 times thinner than a strand of human hair, yet stronger than steel, more durable than diamonds, and able to conduct heat and electricity with efficiency that rivals copper wires and silicon chips.

Ever since their discovery in the early 1990s, carbon nanotubes have been hailed as a new “wonder material.” They are tiny building blocks with mammoth potential to make fibers, films, filaments, wires, and circuits for a wide spectrum of industrial applications—from reinforced concrete, tear-resistant clothes, and stronger, lighter tennis rackets and bicycle parts to revolutionary electronics at the core of numerous multibillion-dollar industries in the 21st century. In a headlong rush to capitalize, the nanotube industry is projected to more than double every year.

Read the full story at Science Daily.

A recent study shows that mercury releases from products in the U.S. declined dramatically between 1990 and 2005, but that they continue to be a significant source of environmental contamination. Mercury released from products contributes nearly one-third of total mercury emissions to the air in the U.S. The findings offer a new view into the relative magnitudes of the different sources of mercury release.