1. CALERA'S GREEN CEMENT DEMO PLANT OPENS

Calera's technology, like that of many green chemistry companies, works more like Jell-O setting. By employing catalysis instead of heat, it reduces the energy cost per ton of cement. And in this process, CO2 is an input, not an output. So, instead of producing a ton of carbon dioxide per ton of cement made — as is the case with old-school Portland cement — half a ton of carbon dioxide can be sequestered.

 2. PROJECT BETTER PLACE FINDS HOMES

Green technologies are dime a dozen, but a business model that could allow an entirely new, green infrastructure to be built is a rare thing.

Doing just that is the centerpiece of Sun Microsystems' SAP veteran Shai Agassi's vision for Project Better Place, a scheme that would distribute charging and swappable battery stations throughout smallish geographies like Israel, Hawaii and San Francisco. So far, there's very little steel in the ground, but in early December, the company's first charging location opened in Tel Aviv, Israel. Agassi's plan is one of several projects — like new biofuels rail terminals — that could create fundamentally new energy ecosystems.

3. SOLAR CELL PRODUCTION GETS BIG, GIGA(WATT)BIG

Every clean tech advocate's dream is a power-generating technology that could compete head-to-head with coal, the cheapest fossil fuel, on price alone. Nanosolar, one of a new generation of companies building solar panels out of cheap plastics, could be the first company to get there. Early this year, the company officially opened its one-gigawatt production facility, which is many times the size of most previous solar facilities.

Nanosolar, in other words, has found a process that can scale: it works as well in production as it does in the lab. That's the main reason that the company has picked up half-a-billion dollars in funding from investors like MDV's Erik Straser.

4. OBAMA PICKS A GREEN TECH EXPERT TO HEAD DOE

President-elect Barack Obama ran on the promise of green jobs and an economic stimulus package that would provide support for scientific innovation. Then, Obama picked Steven Chu, a Nobel-prize winning physicist, to head the Department of Energy. Chu had been focused on turning Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory into an alternative-energy powerhouse. The green tech community rejoiced that one of their own would be in the White House.

That's because green tech is going to need some help. With the world economy falling into recession, the price of oil has dropped, even though there are serious concerns about the long-term oil supply. When energy prices drop, clean tech investments don't seem quite as attractive, and the renascent industry could be in trouble. It's happened before, after all.

5. SOLAR THERMAL PLANTS RETURN TO THE DESERTS

When most people think of harnessing the sun's power, they imagine a solar photovoltatic panel, which directly converts light from the sun into electricity. But an older technology emerged as a leading city-scale power technology in 2008: solar thermal. Companies like Ausra, BrightSource, eSolar, Solel, and a host of others are using sunlight-reflecting mirrors to turn liquids into steam, which can drive a turbine in the same way that coal-fired power plants make electricity. 

Two companies, BrightSource and Ausra, debuted their pilot plants. They mark the first serious solar thermal experimentation in the United States since the 1980s. BrightSource's Israeli demo plant is shown above. (Image: BrightSource)

6. PICKENS PLAN PUSHES POWER PLAYS INTO AMERICAN MAINSTREAM

Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens might be a lot of things, but environmentalist he is not. That's why his support for a nationwide network of wind farms generated so much excitement. While his solution for transportation, natural gas vehicles, may not pan out, his Pickens Plan is the most visible alternative energy plan out there and it began to channel support from outside coastal cities for finding new sources of energy.

Of course, no one said Pickens is stupid. If his plan was adopted and major investments in transmission infrastructure were made, his wind energy investments would stand to benefit.

7. THE CATALYST THAT COULD ENABLE SOLAR

In July, MIT chemist Daniel Nocera announced that he'd created a catalyst that could drop the cost of extracting the hydrogen and oxygen from water.

Combined with cheap photovoltaic solar panels (like Nanosolar's), the system could lead to inexpensive, simple systems that use water to store the energy from sunlight. In the process, the scientists may have cleared the major roadblock on the long road to fossil fuel independence: Reducing the on-again, off-again nature of many renewable power sources.

"You've made your house into a fuel station," Daniel Nocera, a chemistry professor at MIT told Wired.com. "I've gotten rid of all the goddamn grids."

8. GREEN TECH LEGISLATION GETS REAL

On the federal and state levels, several historic actions put the teeth into green tech bills passed over the last few years. A review committee of the EPA effectively froze coal plant construction, a boon to alternative energy (though earlier this month the EPA ignored the committee's ruling and it is unclear how the issue will be settled). In California, the state unveiled and approved its plan to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, which could be a model for a nationwide system. Combined with the green-energy tax credits in the $700-billion bailout bill, the government did more for green tech in 2008 than in whole decades in the past.

9. NEW MATERIALS CAGE CARBON

Carbon capture and sequestration has a seductively simple appeal: We generate carbon dioxide emissions by burning geology — coal and oil — so to fix the problem, we should simply capture it and inject it back into the ground.

It turns out, however, that it's not quite so simple. Aside from finding the right kind of empty spaces in the earth's crust and the risks that the CO2 might leak, the biggest problem with the scheme is finding a material that could selectively snatch the molecule out of the hot mess of gases going up the flues of fossil fuel plants.

10. THE ISLAND OF THE SOLAR

With money flowing like milk and honey in the land of solar technology, all sorts of schemers and dreamers came streaming into the area. One Swiss researcher, Thomas Hinderling, wants to build solar islands several miles across that he claims can produce hundreds of megawatts of relatively inexpensive power. Though most clean tech advocates question the workability of the scheme, earlier this year, Hinderling's company Centre Suisse d'Electronique et de Microtechnique received $5 million from the Ras al Khaimah emirate of the United Arab Emirates to start construction on a prototype facility, shown above, in that country. (Image: Centre Suisse d'Electronique et de Microtechnique)

What is a Netbook?

A netbook (a portmanteau of Internet and notebook) is a class of laptop computer designed for wireless communication and access to the Internet

Primarily designed for web browsing and e-mailing, netbooks rely heavily on the Internet for remote access to web-based applications" and are targeted increasingly at cloud computing users who require a less powerful client computer Netbooks typically run either Linux or Windows XP operating systemsrather than more resource-intensive operating systems like Windows Vista.The devices range in size from below 5 incheto over 13, typically weigh 2 to 3 pounds (~1 kg) and are often significantly cheaper than general purpose laptops.

In vitro fertilisation

In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a process by which egg cells are fertilised by sperm outside of the womb, in vitro. IVF is a major treatment in infertility when other methods of assisted reproductive technology have failed. The process involves hormonally controlling the ovulatory process, removing ova (eggs) from the woman's ovaries and letting sperm fertilise them in a fluid medium. The fertilised egg (zygote) is then transferred to the patient's uterus with the intent to establish a successful pregnancy. The first test tube baby, Louise Brown, was born in 1978.

Who might benefit?

IVF might help where there is a known infertility problem with one or both partners, for example if the female partner has blocked or damaged fallopian tubes, or there is a mild problem with the male partner’s sperm. It is also used where no cause has been found for an inability to conceive, especially in couples that have been trying for more than three years.

How it's done

You'll usually be given fertility drugs to stimulate your ovaries to develop several mature eggs for fertilisation. (In a normal menstrual cycle you usually release only one egg a month.) You can choose not to take these drugs, but your odds of getting pregnant will be better with additional eggs (NCCWCH 2004: 102-3).

How long will the treatment last?

One cycle of IVF takes four to six weeks to complete. You and your partner can expect to spend about half a day at your clinic for the egg retrieval and fertilisation procedures. You'll go back two to three days later for the embryos to be transferred to your uterus.

 DOST has five sectoral planning councils responsible for: formulating policies, plans, programs, projects and strategies for S&T development; for programming and allocating funds; for monitoring of research and development projects; and for generating external funds.

Philippine Council for Aquatic and Marine Research and Development (PCAMRD)

The PCAMRD is the sectoral council of the Department Of Science and Technology (DOST) tasked in the formulation of strategies, policies, plans, programs and projects for science and technology development; Programming and allocation of the government's internal and external funds for Research and Development; Monitoring and Evaluation of Research Development projects; and Generation of external funds.

Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD)

PCARRD is one of the five sectoral councils of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). It serves as the main arm of DOST in planning, evaluating, monitoring, and coordinating the national research and development (R&D) programs in agriculture, forestry, environment, and natural resources sectors.

Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD)

PCHRD is one of the five sectoral councils of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). The lead council that creates and sustains an enabling environment for health research in the country.

Philippine Council for Industry and Energy Research and Development (PCIERD)

The PCIERD is one of the sectoral planning councils of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). It is mandated to serve as the central agency in the planning, monitoring and promotion of scientific and technological research for applications in the industry, energy, utilities and infrastructure sectors.

Philippine Council for Advanced and Science Technology Research and Development (PCASTRD)

PCASTRD is one of the five sectoral councils of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) tasked to develop, integrate and coordinate the national research systems for advanced science and technology (S&T) and related fields.

Seven Research and Development institutes of DOST (Brief Function and Description

The Division of Social Sciences maintains its status as one of the biggest Division of the NRCP. It has 323 regular and associate members under seven sections that constitute areas of research expertise. The sections are: Sociology, Social Work and Demography Public Administration and Political Science Education and Communication Psychology and Philosophy Linguistics and Anthropology History and Geography Economics

Two Advisory Bodies of DOST (Brief Function and Description)

Two bodies pursue mandated functions of assistance, recognition, advisory and establishment of international linkages. These are:

National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST)

To recognize outstanding achievements in science and technology as well as provide meaningful incentives to those engaged in scientific and technological researches

National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP)

NRCP is mandated in promotion and support of fundamental or basic research for the continuing improvement of the research capability of individual or group scientists; foster linkages with local and international scientific organizations for enhanced cooperation in the development and sharing of scientific information; provide advice on problems and issues of national interest; and promotion of scientific and technological culture to all sectors of society.

Who is the Secretary of the Department of Science and Technology?

Octuplet BabSeven Service Institutes of Doing 'Amazingly Well'

The mother who gave birth to eight babies is expected to be able to touch them tonight for the first time since delivery, the Los Angeles Times reports. The newborns are kicking and "doing amazingly well," said a doctor who helped in Monday's delivery. The six boys and two girls are all in incubators, but none of them need breathing tubes any more, and they all began feeding today. Mom is fine, too, and is expected to be discharged in a week.

"We're very fortunate that the patient was extremely strong," said another doctor. 
Source: Los Angeles Times