'Poop to power' program turns pig manure into sustainable energy

The nearly 9,000 hogs at Loyd Ray Farms in Yadkin County, N.C., produce 400,000 gallons of manure every week. Since the waste had too high a nitrogen content to be used as fertilizer, owner Loyd Bryant used to pump that waste ...

Researchers hope to shed light on dark lightning radiation

Scientists now know that thunderstorms, working as powerful natural terrestrial particle accelerators, produce intense flashes of ionizing radiation called "dark lightning." To further their understanding of this phenomena, ...

What will we find next inside the Large Hadron Collider?

The Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest scientific experiment, is due to restart this month after two years of downtime for maintenance and upgrading. There's no doubt that having played its role in the discovery of ...

Feeling the heat: 30 tons of fine control for fusion plasmas

A major upgrade to the DIII-D tokamak fusion reactor operated by General Atomics in San Diego will enable it to develop fusion plasmas that can burn indefinitely. Researchers installed a movable, 30-ton particle-beam heating ...

Celtic Renewables aims to process next-gen biofuel

(Phys.org)—A distillery agreement between two companies in Scotland is to turn whiskey byproducts into fuel. Those who look forward to a bright future of biofuels that are easier on the environment will be interested in ...

Chemicals and biofuel from wood biomass

(PhysOrg.com) -- A method developed at Aalto University in Finland makes it possible to use microbes to produce butanol suitable for biofuel and other industrial chemicals from wood biomass. Butanol is particularly suited ...

Multimedia stories show how engineers shape the future

The National Science Foundation (NSF) today released a special report featuring the work of a creative group of researchers--engineers who are investigating new phenomena, devising new capabilities, and designing new technologies. ...

A solar booster shot for natural gas power plants

Natural gas power plants can use about 20 percent less fuel when the sun is shining by injecting solar energy into natural gas with a new system being developed by the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. ...

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