eBay to Power Data Center With Renewable Energy, Can Cutting Carbon Fuel Growth?: KQED Science News Roundup

EBay to Power Data Center with Renewable Energy: Scientific American(Reuters) - EBay Inc said it plans to build a data center powered by startup Bloom Energy's renewable energy fuel cells, a more environmentally-friendly alternative to drawing power from the mostly coal-based electric grid. The U.S.

Can Cutting Carbon Fuel Growth?Can Cutting Carbon Fuel Growth? The perennial debate returns, this time at a symposium on the Low Carbon Fuel Standard Do environmental regulations boost innovation and job creation, or do they just make the state a more expensive place in which to live and do business?

Social media in health care create risks, benefitsOn Twitter, 10,000 people are listening to Jen Gunter. Sexual health, shoes and "The Hunger Games" are the subjects of just a few of the 36,500 tweets crafted by the obstetrician-gynecologist at Kaiser Permanente in San Francisco.

Gov. Jerry Brown scraps idea to soften environmental scrutiny on high-speed rail - San Jose Mercury NewsThe Brown administration on Wednesday abandoned its plan to ease environmental scrutiny of the $69 billion bullet train, backing off quickly after strong opposition from environmentalists threatened the project altogether.

Study: Living with dogs may help guard against respiratory virusdevinf/Flickr New research indicates that living with dogs may provide protection against a harmful respiratory virus. Dog owners and parents, take a deep breath. Get your children to take a deep breath. And most importantly, shake some carpets, fluff your pillows and get your infants to take a deep breath - or lick the floor.

Searing questions on massive solar experiment in Mojave DesertIVANPAH VALLEY, Calif. - At what temperature might a songbird vaporize? Will the glare from five square miles of mirrors create a distraction for highway drivers? Can plumes of superheated air create enough turbulence to flip a small airplane? What happens if one of the Air Force's heat-seeking missiles confuses a solar power plant with a military training target?

Project tracks tiny germ that's killing mighty oaksThe most comprehensive map ever put together detailing the spread of the pathogen known as sudden oak death shows the tree-killing microbe moving down from the forested hills into residential areas all over the Bay Area.

Tiny human liver grown inside mouse's head - health - 21 June 2012 - New ScientistIt may be small, but is it perfectly formed? A tiny human liver, just 5 millimetres in size, has been grown inside a mouse. It remains to be seen whether the organ can replicate all liver functions - and if it will be possible to scale up the tiny structure to useable dimensions.