Albion
Albion College to celebrate scope’s 130th birthday
ALBION, Mich. (AP) — Albion College hosted a celebration of one of its observatories that afforded attendees, including some in costumes, to peer through a 130-year-old telescope.
Students, faculty and the public got the opportunity Friday night to climb a staircase to the top of the southern Michigan school’s observatory building and peer at the moon through the refracting telescope, the Battle Creek Enquirer reported.
Physics professor Nicolle Zellner said the observatory and telescope were built in 1883 and 1884, making this academic year the 130th anniversary. Zellner said they were built at a time when schools were eager to show off their dedication to math and science.
“A lot of the students who used the telescope at that time went on to become pretty famous astronomers,” Zellner said, “including Forest Ray Moulten, class of 1894, who worked with Thomas Chamberlin to develop theories of solar system formation.”
On Friday, some attendees came in steampunk attire, a cross between Victorian-era fashion sense and science fiction. Steampunk enthusiasts from Lansing and Detroit attended, and members of an Albion class on subcultures were among those in steampunk dress.
The telescope has an 8-inch lens atop at a 10-foot tube. The observatory, which is one of a few in the U.S. still intact from that period, was awarded a Michigan Historical Marker in 1985.
Detroit
Environmental emergency notice updates coming
DETROIT (AP) — Updates by Michigan to an environmental emergency communication system could improve the response to problems in waterways including those along the U.S.-Canadian border, officials said.
Environmental accident information is sent through Michigan’s Pollution Emergency Alerting System. For years, The Detroit News reported, emergency calls have been handled by a call center staffed by private contractors.
In some previous cases, the call-takers were unfamiliar with technical terms used to describe environmental accidents and calls consequently were often prioritized poorly or handled more slowly than was warranted, said Bruce Van Otteren, administrator of Michigan’s alerting system.
In the coming months, a team of trained Michigan Department of Environmental Quality staffers is to begin handling those calls internally. An automatic “smart messaging” system then will forward information to emergency and government officials.
On the Canadian side, officials aren’t currently planning changes.
“I think it’s fair to say we are confident in our role in the notification protocol,” said Kate Jordan, an Ontario Ministry of the Environment spokeswoman.
The system is expected to have an effect in part along the St. Clair River and southern Lake Huron. That area contains several intake pipes that provide drinking water in the U.S. and Canada, and accidents over the past 15 months revived concerns about the safety of water supplies.
Last year, a dredge sinking in U.S. waters north of Port Huron leaked diesel fuel and another loading cargo in Sarnia, Ontario, leaked ethyl benzene into the St. Clair River. A rupture nearly five weeks ago in an underground pipe in Sarnia released diesel fuel into the St. Clair River.
The river is on a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency list for locations that have experienced “environmental degradation.” Spills and accidents as well as and sewage overflows contribute to the situation, as do shipping traffic and development.
Ann Arbor
Ford, University of Michigan open new battery lab
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Ford Motor Co. and the University of Michigan are opening a new battery research and manufacturing lab that they hope will speed the development of batteries for electric and hybrid cars.
The center, on the university’s campus in Ann Arbor, will bring together battery makers, car companies and researchers who will test new batteries for prototype vehicles.
Ted Miller, who manages battery research at Ford, said the lab will be unique in the U.S. He said that labs currently testing new battery chemistries can’t produce them in the amounts or formats needed for automotive research. And battery companies aren’t always sure that what they’re developing could be useful to the automotive industry.
Ford and other automakers all have labs where they test batteries for durability and quality, Miller said. But that’s happening very late in the battery development process. The new lab could ensure that automakers’ input is heard earlier.
Electric cars have been slow sellers, making up less than 1 percent of U.S. auto sales last year. Gas-electric hybrids and plug-in hybrids — which can go further on electricity — sell in larger numbers, but still make up just 3 percent of sales.
