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Inorganic mercury converted to more toxic and bio-accumulative monomethylmercury in ocean waters, possibly by microbes

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After two years of testing water samples across the Arctic Ocean, the researchers found that inorganic mercury, released by human activities such as industry and coal burning, undergoes a process called methylation and becomes monomethylmercury. Louis, Holger Hintelmann, Jane L. —Igor Lehnherr. Igor Lehnherr, Vincent L.

Mercury 210
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$12+M awarded to 4 projects seeking to design crops with ability to fix their own nitrogen; no artificial fertilizers

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it needs to be converted into a form that plants can use. The scientists will search Hawaiian volcanoes, American coal seam fires and German fire pits for the elusive heat-lover, in a bid to recover its lost potential. Researchers led by Washington University in St. Louis biologist Himadri B. Louis; and Costas D.

St. Louis 294
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DOE Awards $377 Million in Funding for 46 Energy Frontier Research Centers

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Dramatically increase our fundamental knowledge of the physical structure of biopolymers in plant cell walls to provide a basis for improved methods for converting biomass into fuels. Washington University, St. Discover, understand, and control efficient chemical pathways for the conversion of coal and biomass into chemicals and fuels.

Energy 150
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Iowa State to manage biorefinery projects for new Manufacturing USA Institute

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The so-called autothermal process increases the rate that biomass can be converted to products, allowing construction of smaller and simpler reactors suitable for modular systems. The new process produces sugars that can be fermented to biofuels and a solid fuel suitable as a coal substitute.

Iowa 150