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Environment
The Limits of Carbon Pricing: Can High Prices Alone Cut Emissions?
U-M Professor Andy Hoffman writes in his latest Perspectives blog posting that "we place too much faith in pricing as a singular mechanism for solving environmental problems in this country. The most vivid example is the call to create a price for carbon as the solution to the climate change problem. As the logic goes; if we set a price for carbon high enough, innovators will create new gadgets that emit fewer greenhouse gases, investors will invest in them, companies will adopt them and consumers will buy them. But, not so fast. We are not like some sort of mice chasing a piece of cheese whenever it is placed in front of us. Unlike mice, we are not so singular in focus. We actually care who is placing the cheese and we may even ignore the cheese if it is not placed in the right way." This first appeared on the Newsweek.com “Green Business” blog on November 18, 2009. [Read more...]
U-M joins the launch of new web site: ScienceWorksForUs.org
The University of Michigan and other leading public and private research universities today announced the launch of ScienceWorksForUS, an initiative that will highlight the scientific research and related activities that have been made possible by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), also known as the stimulus. The centerpiece of the initiative is a Web site that highlights Recovery Act-sponsored research in all 50 states, telling the stories of the research and the researchers contributing to America's recovery. The web site went live today at www.ScienceWorksForUS.org.
Homicide rates correlate with traffic death rates
States with high homicide rates also tend to have higher rates of traffic deaths than other states, says a University of Michigan researcher. In a new study in the current issue of the journal Traffic Injury Prevention, Michael Sivak of the U-M Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) found that the homicide rate per 100,000 was 5.7 for the 25 states with the highest traffic fatality rates, but only 4.8 for the 25 states with the lowest traffic fatality rates and the District of Columbia. Excluding Washington, D.C., the homicide rate for the 25 states with the lowest traffic fatality rates was 3.8. "While it is important to note that this result should not be interpreted as implying that a significant fraction of traffic fatalities are homicides, it does suggest that the same aggressive tendencies that contribute to homicides also demonstrate themselves, to a certain degree, in interpersonal behaviors on the road," said Sivak. [Read more...]
U-M has received more than $200M in stimulus funds through October 2009
In data assembled by the U-M's Division of Research Development and Administration, the U-M has received funding for 342 projects through October, 2009 under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The total dollar value of these projects is $206.4M. To date, the five largest grants support solar energy research, diabetes research, an ongoing study of health and retirement issues in the U.S., the creation of a database to support genetic research in the behavioral and health sciences, and a study of pulmonary fibrosis. [Download table of project awards by U-M schools, colleges and other major units...]
A world without ice
U-M geophysics professor Henry Pollack explains how scientists know that CO2 is at its highest level in 800,000 years, and what it means for the planet. [Read more...]
Electric cars offer new opportunities for entrepreneurs
Inc. magazine features entrepreneurs working in the growing electric car sector. Ann Marie Sastry, a U-M professor in the College of Engineering and a founder of Michigan battery maker Sakti3, is one of the entrepreneurs featured. [Read more...]
Deal of the Year - University of Michigan’s North Campus Research Complex
Pfizer departure paved the way for major university expansion
The 2008 departure of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer from its 174-acre campus in northern Ann Arbor was the single biggest blow to the region's economy in decades. But Pfizer's exodus, which displaced more than 2,100 workers, paves the way for the University of Michigan's biggest expansion in five decades. U-M, which acquired the site in June for $108 million, plans to hire 2,000 to 3,000 workers to populate the 2 million square feet of facilities over the next 10 years. The acquisition of the ex-Pfizer site, renamed the North Campus Research Complex, is AnnArbor.com Business Review's "Deal of the Year" for 2009. [Read more...]
Professor co-authors new book on conservation, food sovereignty
Ivette Perfecto, a professor at the U-M School of Natural Resources and Environment, has co-written a new book that offers a radical departure from traditional theories related to biodiversity and food sovereignty in tropical regions of the world. In Nature's Matrix: Linking Agriculture, Conservation and Food Sovereignty (Earthscan, Ltd, 2009), Professor Perfecto and her co-authors say that such goals cannot be achieved without embracing rural social movements and local peasant farmers. This new approach to the conservation of biodiversity is based on advances in ecology science and modern political realities found in rural areas, particularly tropical regions. [Read more...]
Muddy Waters
In the Fall 2009 issue of LSA Magazine, three experts from the College of Literature, Science & the Arts weigh in on the greatest threats facing the Great Lakes, and what can be done about the damage humans have inflicted (and continue to inflict) on the world's largest freshwater resource. [Read more...]