Interview: Energy Innovation

  • European consumers have been quicker to adopt new technologies, like hybrids and efficient diesel cars. Energy Discovery -Innovation Institutes might change that. (Photo by Michael Pereckas, Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Making the shift from fossil fuels to cleaner energy will be a long-term, expensive effort. But, there is the opportunity for jobs, energy independence and reducing the greenhouse gases that cause climate change. This week a report from the Brookings Institution proposes a way to help get us there: Energy Discovery-Innovation Institutes. These institutes would take a big picture view of the change and help researchers and businesses avoid pitfalls and false starts along the way. Lester Graham spoke with a supporter of the idea, Gary Was. He’s the Director the Phoenix Energy Institute at the University of Michigan:

Transcript

Making the shift from fossil fuels to cleaner energy will be a long-term, expensive effort. But, there is the opportunity for jobs, energy independence and reducing the greenhouse gases that cause climate change. This week a report from the Brookings Institution proposes a way to help get us there: Energy Discovery-Innovation Institutes. These institutes would take a big picture view of the change and help researchers and businesses avoid pitfalls and false starts along the way. Lester Graham spoke with a supporter of the idea, Gary Was. He’s the Director the Phoenix Energy Institute at the University of Michigan:

Gary Was: Energy is a very complex topic. It’s a social issue as much as it is a
technological issue. In addition to the technological challenges of coming up with
new energy sources and proving energy efficiency, we also have a lot of social issues
involved as well. The business sector is heavily involved. Economics is a big issue.
Social behavior and social preferences are big factors in our energy use patterns and
our habits.

Lester Graham: Give me an example of that.

Was: Well, one example is plug-in hybrid electrics. There’s a lot of questions to
how these plug-in hybrids are going to function, and whether they’ll be successful. A
lot of that depends upon people’s preferences. The idea of plugging in, when you
can plug in, how long you have to plug in, how complicated or how difficult it is –
can make a big difference. We’ve seen examples of that with diesel. In Europe, half
the cars are diesel powered. We have the same technology here. There are no diesel
powered cars here. It’s a social issue, not a technological issue.

Graham: Steven Chu, the new Energy Secretary, has spent a good deal of his career
in research. What do you expect his reaction will be to your suggestion of tying
together this energy research?

Was: I think it will be quite positive. Dr. Chu has a background both in the
academic setting as well as in the National Laboratories, and I think he appreciates
well the capabilities of each institution. The meat of this whole proposal, and of this
whole concept, is that the National Laboratories alone, or universities alone, or
industry alone – the three principal research institutions in the US – really aren’t
prepared to handle a challenge of this breadth, and depth, and complexity. And that
we need a new paradigm. We need a new way to be able to take basic science,
accelerate it into development, and push it through technology, transfer it to the
private sector. None of these institutions alone can do that really highly successfully.

Graham: What is this going to do require? Is this government money to get this
launched? Is this going to be another scientific layer of bureaucracy when we get
finished? How do you handle this to make sure it’s effective?

Was: One of the problems we have with energy in the country is that, overall,
regardless of these institutes, this institute concept, its terribly underfunded – in terms
of its comparison to the impact on the economy. The energy business is a 1.5 trillion
dollar business in the US. It’s comparable to healthcare. In healthcare, there is
approximately ten times the amount of federal funds going into research than there is
in energy. So in comparison to the impacts on our lives, it’s underfunded by almost
a factor of ten.

Graham: If we’re to invest in these kinds of institutes, and invest in more research
into energy and how we use it, what kind of return might we see on our tax dollars
that we shovel over to you guys?

Was: Well, that’s a very good question. These discovery institutes, these will be
regionally situated, and each one might be on the order of 200 million dollars a year
funding, and so the entire price tag would be maybe 5 billion dollars. So what do
you get for 5 billion dollars? We expect that the transformation will be much more
rapid, it will be with fewer false starts, and left turns, or dead ends, and it will be
much more efficient than we’re able to do right now. Right now, the system is such
that technology advancements tend to sort of diffuse through society in an uncharted
and undirected way. The objective here is to sharpen that diffusion so that we can
pull these technologies out, translate them into useful products much more quickly.

Graham: Gary Was is the director of the Phoenix Energy Institute at the University
of Michigan. Thanks for coming in.

Was: Thanks very much.

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Women Scientists Still Facing Career Barriers

A new report concludes women scientists at universities still face career barriers that most men don’t. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach has the story:

Transcript

A new report concludes women scientists at universities still face career barriers that most men don’t. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach has the story.


A program developed by the National Science Foundation looks at efforts to advance women in scientific careers. Leaders of the program have just published a paper in Science Magazine that concludes women scientists are making some gains on campus, especially in the biological sciences.


University of Wisconsin – Madison professor Jo Handelsman co-authored the report. She says at some universities thogh, many women still face hostile climates, lack of training opportunities, and unconscious bias. Handelsman says both men and women may hold the same biases.


“So a lot of people have assumed that if there’s a woman on the search committee or a woman making decisions, then there isn’t going to be a prejudice against women, and that simply isn’t true.”


Handelsman says one goal is to make academic hiring and tenure committees aware of the issue, so they can ask themselves if they’re holding all candidates to the same standard.


For the GLRC, I’m Chuck Quirmbach.

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Teachers Criticized for Evolution Lessons

  • Some teachers are struggling with teaching evolution because some disagree on religious grounds. (Photo by Elliot Jordan)

Science teachers in high schools and middle schools are on the front lines of the culture wars. Conservative Christians and others are confronting them about teaching evolution in the classroom. At the same time, teachers are learning about the growing body of evidence that supports the theory of evolution. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Julie Grant reports:

Transcript

Science teachers in high schools and middle schools are on the front lines of the culture wars. Conservative Christians and others are confronting them about teaching evolution in the classroom. At the same time, teachers are learning about the growing body of evidence that supports the theory of evolution. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Julie Grant reports:


Some science teachers got a chance to attend a major science conference recently. Researchers from around the world were in Akron, Ohio to present findings and learn about advances in evolutionary biology. The conference was organized by people studying the dramatic transition whales made when they moved from the land to the water.


It’s only been a few years since Ohio even allowed the concept of evolution into the state’s high school academic standards. Those standards are the basis for the state graduation test that students must pass to get a diploma.


Even though it’s part of the state curriculum, many science teachers get the brunt of complaints from students and parents who oppose teaching evolutionary theory.


THOMAS: “I did have a student come to me and literally say, ‘I cannot sit in this classroom and listen to what you’re talking about.’ And I said, ‘Why not?’ And she said, ‘Well, I’m a Christian, I can’t listen to this.’ I said, ‘Well, I’m a Christian too, so where’s the problem?’”


GRABERT: “Well, I’ve had a number whose fathers are ministers come in and tell me how I need to teach the class, and I have to talk about creationism and I just share with them what we have to teach and how the curriculum is.”


STONE: “There’s a point when you just sort of have to tell the kids, This is what you need to know to pass the test to get out of high school. So, sit down, listen, learn the facts you need to know. I’m not saying you have to believe what I say, but this is what the state says you need to know to get out of high school.”


These are teachers from rural, suburban, and city school districts but they are all dealing with this issue. They try to stay up to date on new scientific evidence to defend their classroom lessons. That’s part of the reason they’re at this science conference.


(Sound of lecture)


This day’s activities are geared toward schoolteachers. The world’s top researchers on whale evolution are explaining their latest findings. Ann Sowd teaches honors biology at Hoover High School in North Canton, Ohio.


“It’s important to be at workshops like this so that you can, as a high school teacher, be really accurate with your teachings and understand what the evidence for evolution is and why it’s really- what we do know about how organisms change over time. Because the worst thing that can happen is you’re inaccurate and then someone comes with the opposing argument and you don’t know what you’re talking about.”


The teachers are hearing from scientists from all kinds of disciplines from anatomy, to functional morphology, to geo-chemistry. The scientists are showing how their discoveries and analyses fit together and provide a picture of the evolution of the whale as it moved from land back to the ocean.


But one leading researcher says the schoolteachers need more than just new scientific research to defend their lessons in the classroom. Howard University anatomist Daryl Domning says students who question evolutionary evidence are often looking for answers that lie beyond the realm of science. But Domning says teachers often respond with the latest research and recent fossil discoveries.


“And then they’re amazed that it doesn’t convince them. Because even though they’re raising questions about scientific evidence, they’re really not passionate about the scientific evidence. They’re passionate about ‘what is the meaning of my existence?’ and until you get down to that level and surface those concerns and show that hey, evolution doesn’t mean there’s no meaning to your existence, on the contrary, it can mean all these things, it means there’s more meaning then you thought there was maybe, only then is there a way of breaking through this pattern of talking past each other, which is what we’ve been doing for thirty years here.”


Domning says teachers can help students and parents understand that accepting the evidence of evolutionary theory doesn’t have to undermine religious faith.
He encourages teachers to tell students they can believe both at the same time, to point them to places where they can get more information, and to quickly get back to the science lesson.


For the GLRC, I’m Julie Grant.

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Holy Grail of Great Lakes Shipwrecks Found?

  • For a long time, anything any diver salvaged could be claimed as his or her own. Since the Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987, anything divers find on public land remains public. But a new discovery may bend some rules. (Photo courtesy of NOAA)

A shipwreck hunter believes he might have found what’s been described as the Holy Grail of Great Lakes wrecks. His find has triggered a new debate over who can lay claim to historic shipwrecks and what should happen to them. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Sally Eisele reports:

Transcript

A shipwreck hunter believes he might have found what’s been described as the Holy Grail of Great Lakes wrecks. His find has triggered a new debate over who can lay claim to historic shipwrecks and what should happen to them. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Sally Eisele reports:


Of the thousands of shipwrecks in the Great Lakes, the wreck of the Griffin is probably the most legendary. For a few reasons. She was built by somebody legendary – French explorer Rene-Robert Cavalier Sieur de La Salle, she was the first European ship to sail the Upper Great Lakes… and she was the first to sink. Actually, she sank on her maiden voyage in 1769, not exactly one of La Salle’s bigger success stories. But the mystery she left behind is pretty big – and it has pretty well flummoxed Great Lakes historians for hundreds of years. Shipwreck scholar Steven Herald is the director of the Manistee County Historical Museum.


“The Griffin loaded its first and only freight cargo downbound at Green Bay, and there has never been a reliable report of anyone who has seen the vessel since. It left Green Bay and disappeared totally.”


Did she run aground? Sink to the bottom of Lake Michigan? No one knows, But Steven Libert, a long-time shipwreck hunter, thinks he might have found a clue. What he’s excited about appears to be a long, wooden pole sticking out of the sand in about 80 feet of water in northwestern Lake Michigan. It doesn’t look like much. But Rick Robol, the attorney for Libert’s company Great Lakes Exploration, says tests indicate it could date back to the 17th century. And it could be part of a ship.


“Great Lakes Exploration does not know at this point what is there. And it does not know whether in fact it is the Griffin or not. Certainly if it were the Griffin, it would be a very substantial find.”


Great Lakes Exploration has filed suit in federal court seeking salvage rights to the site. But the site is in Michigan waters and the state has filed a motion to have the case dismissed. State archaeologist John Halsey says whatever there is should belong to the public, not a private company.


“They have the money to go out and look, they have the money to go out and find, but what they don’t have is the permission to bring stuff up. That’s where the rubber meets the road.”


The state argues the Federal Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987 gives any state title to historic wrecks in its waters. Before its passage, pretty much anybody in a rubber suit could salvage shipwrecks. And they did – the evidence is rusting out in garages across the country. The federal law sought to protect these historic sites – which, in the cold fresh water of the Great Lakes, are often well-preserved time capsules. But Wisconsin shipwreck researcher, Brendon Baillod, says a number of cases have already shown the law is full of technical loopholes if you have the money and time to challenge it.


“We have a lot of wrecks that are open game legally. It really is up to the judge who gets the case before them.”


If Great Lakes Exploration does clear the legal hurdles, the next question will be academic. What should happen to their findings? Attorney Rick Robol says it all depends on what’s there.


“Really, shipwrecks have to be dealt with on a case by case basis. There are some shipwrecks that may best remain in situ, that is, on site, and there are other that should be recovered. It’s impossible to determine what’s best for a particular wreck without first scientifically studying it.”


At this stage, it’s anybody’s guess as to whether the site contains the remains of a ship or just a pile of very old scrapwood. But preservationists such as historian Steven Herald, argue anything of historical value should really just be left there.


“I’m a great one for leaving it where it is and studying it in as much detail as possible. The easiest way to preserve it is to keep it there.”


One thing is certain, any excavation would likely involve many years and millions of dollars. Oh, and there’s another possibility too, if in fact the Griffin is found. Technically, the vessel still belongs to France, which was in charge around here after all at the time of La Salle’s adventures.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Sally Eisele.

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