I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
The biotech company that received $100 million to grow genetically-engineered, fuel-producing algae near Columbus, N.M. is “one of the best-positioned companies” to make oil-producing “super algae” a competitive energy source, according to The New York Times.
Sapphire Energy, based in San Diego, Calif., was awarded $100 million in federal stimulus money and loan guarantees last year to build the 300-acre demonstration project. Sapphire has secured another $100 million from private investors, including Bill Gates.
That has given the company an edge over less well-funded competitors, the Times reported.
Sapphire has inserted genes into its algae that alter the hydrocarbons algae normally produce, making it more like petroleum from which jet fuel and bio-diesel can be manufactured. The company has also inserted the Roundup Ready gene, which will allow their algae to survive spraying of ponds with the pesticide Roundup to control any invasion of the crop by wild algae.
Critics question the promise of algae as a fuel source, because much of the sunlight energy captured by wild algae is wasted as heat, according to plant scientist Richard Sayre of the Donald Danforth Plant science Center in St. Louis, Missouri.
