North Platte Researchers Seek to Decrease Chemical Drift

NORTH PLATTE, NE (NET Radio) -  For many in Nebraska, wind is merely an occasional nuisance. But for farmers, it can have an impact on their livelihood.

Wind can dry out crops or erode topsoil, and it can also interfere with the chemicals of farming.

Nebraska Science Olympiad Tests High School Students' Mental, Not Physical, Skills

LINCOLN, NE (NET Radio) - Class is over at North Star High School in Lincoln, Nebraska - and Olympic contenders are filing into Room 209.

But these would-be Olympians aren't athletes.

"Did you get the lasers?" asks science teacher James Blake.

Fighting Fire With Fire -- And Science.

An out-of-control wildfire in Colorado that’s already killed two people and destroyed more than 20 buildings has renewed the debate over the use of intentionally set fires.

Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper issued a temporary statewide ban on all prescribed burns until officials investigate how this fire was allowed to spread outside the planned acreage southwest of Denver.

Prescribed burns, while used routinely in recent years, continue to be a source of controversy when accidents or poorly conducted exercises result in property damage or loss of life.

The tragedy came during the height of controlled burn season in Nebraska, a time of year when columns of smoke on the horizon are a common sight across the state. The practice has been aggressively promoted by agriculture and conservation advocates as an effective way to cleanse the land of old grasses, plants and trees that can take over valuable acreage from crops or livestock.

Over the past two decades, plans for controlled burns have been developed using a blend of new science and knowledge handed down by farmers and Native Americans, who have used the practice for more than a century.

Last week, a dozen ecologists and firefighters from all over the country had the chance to put the art and science of fire into practice during a two-week long clinic in Nebraska hosted by The Nature Conservancy. The Conservancy, a non-profit group emphasizing the preservation of environmentally-important land and bodies of water, promotes the use of fire when appropriate to help eco-systems.

Latest Discovery by UNL Researchers Points to Evolving Technology

LINCOLN, NE (NET Radio) - It would be fair to say UNL assistant professor, physicist and researcher Christian Binek has spent a lot of time in his lab. For the past several years, he has worked almost exclusively in the field of something called "spintronics."

"Roughly speaking," Binek said, "it is the attempt to use a property of the electrons, which is not used so far in conventional electronic circuitry, and that is the spin of an electron."

Energy Academy Looks to Turn Interest In Science Into Careers

NEBRASKA CITY, NE (NET RADIO) - It's a loud place. But much cleaner than you might expect for a coal plant. This Nebraska City station, just south of the community, is ten stories of pipes, boilers and a huge air ventilation system. Large enough, it seems, that a small car could fit inside the air ducts. As operations superintendent of the Omaha Public Power District facility, Roger Grable already knows the place well.

"The facility is very complex," he said, "and it can take days, actually, to do this full tour if we really wanted to."