What a great nation and an innovative people we are!
Great Scientific and Green breakthroughs in 2007:
1. In November, Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University and molecular biologist James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin reported that they had reprogrammed regular skin cells to behave just like embryonic stem cells
2. In September physiologist and scientific maverick J. Craig Venter published his entire "diploid" genetic sequence, or all the DNA in both sets of chromosomes inherited from each of his parents — the first such genome ever published of a single person.
3. Astronomers from University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Texas reported the largest and brightest stellar explosion, or supernova, ever observed. It was the first time scientists saw the death of a star as large as SN 2006gy, which was approximately 100 to 200 times the size of the sun
4. Scientists announced in the journal Nature this May that they had discovered 700 new species of organisms — including carnivorous sponges and giant sea spiders — some 2,300 ft. to 19,700 ft. (700 m to 6,000 m) down in the Weddell Sea off Antarctica.
5. Building a human heart valve: Dr. Anthony Atala's lab at Wake Forest University, using your own stem cells.
6. U.S. Climate Action Partnership. Launched in January, USCAP brought together corporate heavyweights like General Motors and General Electric with environmental groups like the Nature Conservancy. Together, they're out to lobby the government to do something unusual: increase regulations.
7. Wal-Mart launches Supply Chain Leadership Coalition, in which some of the biggest companies in the world — including Procter & Gamble and Unilever — banded together to press suppliers to report their greenhouse-gas emissions and be more open about their efforts to combat climate change.
8. Headed by a Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur, the geeks at CalCars can help you take a standard Toyota Prius hybrid — which currently gets nearly 50 mpg — and tweak it so that it runs almost entirely on the electric engine, powered via a standard 120-volt outlet.
9. General Motors' E-Flex system is smart. Introduced early this year on its concept electric car, the Chevrolet Volt, the E-Flex platform can be adapted to run on an electric battery, a hydrogen fuel cell, ethanol or standard gasoline. That gives GM the flexibility to adapt to what lies ahead.
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