green

Bouncing from sugar cane to synthetic rubber

Genomatica said today it has successfully produced butadiene, following the trend of many biofuel and biotech start-ups pushing into industrial chemicals.

The company said that it has made enough butadiene from renewable feedstocks, such as sugar cane, to demonstrate the viability of the process. Genomatica's first chemical process is converting sugar cane into a chemical called BDO, which is used to make automotive plastics, running shoes, and spandex fabric.

Butadiene is used as an ingredient in making latex and synthetic rubber for products such as tires. The prices of butadiene have risen over the past few months, which is … Read more

Enterprises build optimized data centers too

Web giants and mega-size cloud-computing providers garner most of the attention when it comes to highly tuned and optimized data center designs. In April, Facebook shared the specifications for the servers it builds as part of an effort its calling the Open Compute Project. More recently, Facebook engineers have written about testing an extreme multi-core chip design from Tilera. Google has long been known for taking unique approaches to server and data center operations and design, although the company is generally secretive about the specifics.

This sort of hyper-optimization around scale was supposedly going to rapidly drive all computing to … Read more

Comic book heroes then and now

It's amazing to think how many comic book characters--some from decades ago--are still relevant to pop and geek culture today.

Lately, it feels like there's no end in sight to the surge in superhero-movie releases. In our gallery below, we look at the original comic depiction of several larger-than-life beings compared with their most recent movie equivalents. The differences are astounding, and truly indicate how far animation and artistic quality has evolved over the years.

While we didn't feature every comic book character who's had a makeover recently, we think you'll still enjoy our selections consisting of mostly Marvel (Stan Lee) and DC comic stars. The gallery includes Captain America, Thor, Superman, Green Lantern, Iron Man, Tin-Tin, Spider-Man, X-Men, and Batman. Think there's someone we missed that should be on the list? Leave a comment with your suggestions and we may revise the gallery down the line.

On a related note, it's worth sharing that DC Comics plans to reboot all of its franchises beginning this September.

CNET Roadside Assistance 025: A headunit worthy of a Lexus (podcast)

What car stereo should you get when your premium audio system goes kaput? What's a good slow car for a college student who wants to go fast? The Car Tech get to the bottom of these questions on this week's episode of CNET Roadside Assistance.

Subscribe with iTunes (audio) Subscribe with iTunes (video) Subscribe with RSS (audio) Subscribe with RSS (video) EPISODE 025 SHOW NOTES

• LOLcars (photos)

The EV Project still open to Tenn. Leaf customers

Clean transportation-focused company ECOtality says it still has openings for The EV Project.

The EV Project, which is being operated by ECOtality, is what the company calls, the "largest deployment of electric vehicles and charging infrastructure" in the U.S. Only available in Tennessee for now, the Project is a pilot program that will measure how customers who own electric vehicles charge up their cars, where they do so, and other behaviors.

Charging stations are being deployed around several cities in Tennessee, including Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville, and Chattanooga.

To help coax customers into participating in The EV Project, … Read more

Why green-tech start-ups depend on big business

Luke Fishback believed the energy monitoring company he started had some potential. But when General Electric handed him a $100,000 check from its Ecomagination competition earlier this summer and touted his company Plotwatt in the media, he found himself with an express pass to the big leagues.

"We were flying under the radar and then after Ecomagination all of sudden the phones were ringing off the hook--we got a huge influx of customers," said Fishback. "It just put us on the map."

More important than the money is the marketing muscle and technology depth GE could bring to a tiny company like Plotwatt, which has relied largely on word of mouth to find customers.

"GE is one of those companies that could make our service available to a massive number of homes really quickly," said Fishback. "And it's opened lots of doors for scaling in different ways, including raising funds. Investors look at GE as a smart discriminator in this space."

For the thousands of green-tech start-ups out there, big brothers like GE have never been more important. Corporations, once the nemesis of environmentalists, have emerged as vital partners in getting new energy products to market. Whether businesses continue making bets on smaller players will determine how quickly many green technologies, from solar power to plug-in vehicles, become mass-market or remain niche products. … Read more

Window and insulation experts the next plumbers?

Could window and insulation installation specialists be the next plumbers in terms of steady work and good pay?

It's a question triggered by "Opening the Thermal Envelope: Emerging Innovation in Dynamic Windows and Advanced Insulation," a recent report from Lux Research on the green tech construction sector.

Green tech is currently the largest growth sector in the construction industry, according to Lux research.

But the research analyst's latest report focuses on the fact that the emerging technologies involving smart glass and innovative insulation materials are now expected to see the largest growth within green construction.

As … Read more

GE planning full line of LED lightbulbs

General Electric plans to double down on LED home lighting over the next 16 months.

In November, GE plans to start selling a 13-watt LED lightbulb that matches the light emission of a 60-watt incandescent bulb. That option will be followed by 75- and 100-watt-equivalent LED bulbs by fall 2012, the company said. The bulbs can deliver light "for over two decades" if consumers use them for no more than three hours each day, GE claims.

LED lightbulbs are widely considered the next big thing in home lighting. And for good reason. Aside from lasting an extraordinarily long … Read more

Toyota, 3M, Siemens top green brands in survey

Interbrand released a report today ranking the world's most green brands in terms of both perception and performance.

The companies on their list are not just using green initiatives as a way of creating a positive image with consumers. They are also making money from them.

Toyota ranked first, not only due to the financial success of its hybrid-electric Prius and its partnership on the all-electric Tesla. But since 1992 the auto manufacturer has also made large strides reducing energy use, water consumption, waste, and toxic emissions, according to Interbrand.

Among the 50 top green brands, Toyota is followed … Read more

Car Tech Live 225: We shred the 2012 Nissan GT-R (podcast)

A Toyota Rav 4 with the heart of a Tesla; AAA can now bring you a gallon of watts; Toyota turns car windows into the Romper Room mirror; and we drive the, well, yeah, Nissan GT-R. No big deal.

Subscribe with iTunes (audio) Subscribe with iTunes (video) Subscribe with RSS (audio) Subscribe with RSS (video) EPISODE 225 SHOW NOTES

• CNET drives the revised 2012 Nissan GT-R Premium

• Electric RAV 4 finally on the way

• 2012 Nissan Leaf gets a price bump, sold in more states

• CNET ordains the best overall economical green car...

• Toyota's Window to the World is ideal for weird voyeurism… Read more