| Calculating the true cost of a ton of mountaintop coal Sep 11th 2013, 22:48 To meet current US coal demand through surface mining, an area of the Central Appalachians the size of Washington, D.C., would need to be mined every 81 days. A one-year supply of coal would require converting about 310 square miles of the region's mountains into surface mines, according to a new analysis. | | Panda poop microbes could make biofuels of the future Sep 10th 2013, 18:09 Unlikely as it may sound, giant pandas Ya Ya and Le Le in the Memphis Zoo are making contributions toward shifting production of biofuels away from corn and other food crops and toward corn cobs, stalks and other non-food plant material. | |