Surge of Students Seeking Science Studies

Is it the impending doom of global warming? The popularity of President Obama? The advent of environmentalism? The enormity of the global economic crisis? More likely, experts say, it’s a confluence of all these events that has prompted what they call a “surge” of students toward “clean energy” careers. The rush of our best and brightest into science and engineering studies is being compared to the late 1950s, when the Russian Sputnik satellite prompted a similar swelling of those ranks, according to the Los Angeles Times (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-energy-students29-2009mar29,3,2984851.story).

No doubt many of these students would have opted for lucrative business school degrees and Wall Street jobs just a few years ago. But the Obama administration is banking on the idea that federal aid included in the stimulus package will help stoke the interest in innovative clean energy concepts. The package includes $20 billion to support basic science research, according to the Times.

While this doesn’t precisely translate into a boost for smallcap stocks, it does prompt a look at some innovative small companies in various clean energy fields. Two unique solar energy companies are Marlboro, MA-based Evergreen Solar (Nasdaq:ESLR, http://www.evergreensolar.com), a pure solar play known for its “string ribbon” technology using thin strips of multi-crystalline silicon that is cut into wafers that make up solar panels. Or Littleton, CO-based Ascent Solar Technologies (Nasdaq: ASTI, http://www.ascentsolar.com), a maker of thin film, flexible solar modules.

An interesting battery maker is New Castle, PA-based Axion Power International* (EBB: AXPW, http://www.axionpower.com), which has developed an advanced version of the traditional lead acid battery the company believes can play an important role in the burgeoning electric and hybrid car markets. Details on Axion’s PbC battery technology was recently covered in The Economist (http://www.economist.com/science/tq/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13174459). Another smallcap is Tampa, FLA-based UTEK Corp.* (Amex: UTK, http://www.utekcorp.com), a consulting firm that tracks innovations around the globe for a variety of high-profile clients and a leader in the modern “open innovation” movement.

*client of Allen & Caron, publisher of this blog

Monster Jellyfish Latest Evidence of Climate Change

Various reports of huge swarms of very large jellyfish (one British report calls them “fridge-sized” and says they may weigh 450 pounds) have been cited over the last several months as evidence of climate change.   Lewis Page, writing in The Register,  says that “Particularly aggressive specimens are said to be capable of causing serious damage to ships, and have even managed to knacker nuclear power plants.”  http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/15/jellyfish_gone_wild/

Jellyfish (actually Pacific sea nettle) from Wikimedia Commons site at http://io9.com

Most frightening for swimmers, these slimy monsters can inflict deadly stings with their enormously long tentacles.  I was hit by one in the Gulf of Mexico years back and hospitalized in Galveston.  But perhaps equally problematic, they can depopulate regions of fish, interfere with shipping, clog harbors and even small seas,  foul engines and have even attacked the intake valves at nuclear power plants.

io9 (http://io9.com/5109354/the-jellyfish-are-coming) calls them “giant jelly armies,” but however you see them, they are creating Dead Zones in the world’s seas, and using those as spawning areas.  They are apparently most serious in the Sea of Japan, the Black Sea, and the waters around Australia. 

The National Science Foundation’s take on this is itself called “Jellyfish Gone Wild,” http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/jellyfish/index.jsp, and includes the metaphysical poet’s view: “Ask not for whom the jellyfish’s bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”