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News tagged with wood

Human ancestors used fire one million years ago, archaeologist find

An international team led by the University of Toronto and Hebrew University has identified the earliest known evidence of the use of fire by human ancestors. Microscopic traces of wood ash, alongside animal ...

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Apr 02, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (43) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Time, place and how wood is used are factors in carbon emissions from deforestation

A new study from the University of California, Davis, provides a deeper understanding of the complex global impacts of deforestation on greenhouse gas emissions.

Space & Earth / Environment

created May 13, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Supercritical water could lead to biomass-to-fuel conversion on a large scale

(PhysOrg.com) -- Converting agricultural waste into vehicle fuel has so far been an enticing yet elusive endeavor, at least on the industrial scale. But recently the Georgia-based company Renmatix has taken ...

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Oct 03, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (10) | comments 8 | with audio podcast weblog

Researchers produce cheap sugars for sustainable biofuel production

Iowa State University's Robert C. Brown keeps a small vial of brown, sweet-smelling liquid on his office table.

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Sep 29, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

Trusting Tiger Woods: How do facial cues affect preference and trust?

People respond to facial cues and this affects their level of trust, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research that looks at the way consumers react to morphed photo images.

Other Sciences / Social Sciences

created May 16, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

'Mini-cellulose' molecule unlocks biofuel chemistry

A team of chemical engineers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has discovered a small molecule that behaves the same as cellulose when it is converted to biofuel. Studying this 'mini-cellulose' molecule reveals for ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Feb 16, 2012 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Scientists save energy by lubricating wood

(PhysOrg.com) -- A little bit of lubrication could make a big energy saving when manufacturing sustainable biofuels and bio-chemicals from timber, according to research published in the journal Green Chemistry this month. ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Mar 09, 2012 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (14) | comments 15 | with audio podcast

Virdia gets $100 million to start cellulose ethanol plant

(PhysOrg.com) -- Despite calls for finding alternatives to using corn to make biofuel, the United States currently has no such commercial biomass-to-sugar processing plants able to do so. That may soon change ...

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Mar 09, 2012 | popularity 3 / 5 (2) | comments 8 | with audio podcast report

New biofuels processing method for mobile facilities

Chemical engineers at Purdue University have developed a new method to process agricultural waste and other biomass into biofuels, and they are proposing the creation of mobile processing plants that would ...

Technology / Engineering

created Jul 07, 2010 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (8) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

First-of-a-kind tension wood study broadens biofuels research

Taking a cue from Mother Nature, researchers at the Department of Energy's BioEnergy Science Center have undertaken a first-of-its-kind study of a naturally occurring phenomenon in trees to spur the development ...

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Oct 25, 2011 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Scientists identify oldest wood specimens

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers studying two fossilized plants, one from New Brunswick, Canada, the other from France have been identified as being 397 and 407 million years old respectively. Both are believed ...

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Aug 12, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (11) | comments 10 | with audio podcast report

Unlocking wood's energy

Deftly using a pair of tweezers, Scott Geib pulls apart the insides of a yellowish, wormlike critter - the larva of a tree-devouring pest called the Asian long-horned beetle. Something in the insect's gut allows it to make ...

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Mar 01, 2009 | popularity 3.9 / 5 (9) | comments 5

First renewable energy exchange opens in Amsterdam

Dutch-Belgian energy market provider APX-Endex launched a "biomass exchange" Thursday specialising in trading wood pellets as a source of renewable energy, a venture it said was a world first.

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Nov 03, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 2

Secrets Of Stradivarius' unique violin sound revealed, prof says

For centuries, violin makers have tried and failed to reproduce the pristine sound of Stradivarius and Guarneri violins, but after 33 years of work put into the project, a Texas A&M University professor is ...

Chemistry /

created Jan 22, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (11) | comments 5

Biomass as a source of raw materials

For the protection of the environment, and because of the limited amount of fossil fuels available, renewable resources, such as specially cultivated plants, wood scraps, and other plant waste, are becoming the focus of considerable ...

Chemistry / Other

created May 12, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (5) | comments 4

Wood

Wood is an organic material; in the strict sense it is produced as secondary xylem in the stems of trees (and other woody plants). In a living tree it conducts water and nutrients to the leaves and other growing tissues, and has a support function, enabling woody plants to reach large sizes or to stand up for themselves. However, wood may also refer to other plant materials with comparable properties, and to material engineered from wood, or wood chips or fiber.

People have used wood for millennia for many purposes, primarily as a fuel or as a construction material for making houses, tools, weapons, furniture, packaging, artworks, and paper. Wood can be dated by carbon dating and in some species by dendrochronology to make inferences about when a wooden object was created. The year-to-year variation in tree-ring widths and isotopic abundances gives clues to the prevailing climate at that time.

For more information about Wood, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.