News

As politicians debate the significance of climate change evidence, the world and its habitats are changing. Several species face extinction by 2050 due to various consequences of human activities, and scientists have spent a great deal of time and research on finding and perfecting intervention techniques to prevent total extinction of some species. One of those techniques, "facilitated adaptation" was the focus of a commentary recently published in the science journal Nature.

The New Mexico Chemistry Symposium is an annual meeting of chemists at New Mexico Tech in Socorro, New Mexico. This year's theme is Energize New Mexico. The event includes talks by notable scientists around this theme, including the Keynote Address by Srikanath Nayaran of the University of Southern California: Opportunities and Challenges in Electrical Energy Storage for Renewables Integration.

The presence of uranium in groundwater is an issue of great public interest in New Mexico. For many areas in the northeast quadrant of the state, the uranium in underground aquifers has made it unusable for animals or humans. It’s not completely clear how much of the problem should be blamed on natural processes and how much has been caused by uranium mining through the later part of the 20th century.

The New Mexico Academy of Science (NMAS) and NM EPSCoR invite anyone to submit abstracts on Impacts of Climate Change on Water in New Mexico and Sustainable Energy Development in New Mexico for presentation at the 2013 Joint Annual Meeting of NMAS and EPSCoR in Albuquerque, NM, on November 9, 2013! The 2013 Joint Annual Meeting of NMAS and NM EPSCoR is an open forum for sharing the results of research and teaching on “Impacts of Climate Change on Water in New Mexico” and “Sustainable Energy Development in New Mexico”.

Dr. Peter Lammers, a project lead on the NM EPSCoR bioalgal energy component, and his team at New Mexico State University (NMSU) were recently awarded a $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to continue research on algae-based fuel. The project, entitled "Realization of Algae Potential" or REAP, will last 2.5 years and will focus on improving the yields and stability of algal biomass and cultivation systems.