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GAINESVILLE, Fla. — University of Florida faculty, staff, and students are preparing to reduce pollution for the second consecutive year with the One Less Car challenge.

Starting this week through Nov. 20, the challenge asks participants to give alternative transportation a try on One Less Car Day, Oct. 23, and throughout the fall semester. Participants can start or join teams and log both the miles they commute every day and the mode of transportation they use to commute with the new, easy-to-use online software. Points are awarded for each trip traveled by alternative transportation, including walking, biking, busing and carpooling. This year, the challenge encourages last year’s participants to “invite a friend,” and participants can earn bonus points through referrals. Each person will receive a button indicating the mode of transportation he or she has pledged to take.

“I hope this year’s One Less Car Challenge will encourage new members of the campus community to try alternative transportation, and that we will top the great success of last year,” said Anna Prizzia, director of the UF Office of Sustainability.

Teams and individuals compete to earn prizes for “most participation” and “most active team” by logging their commutes every day to earn points. Final prizes will be awarded in early December for the winning teams and individuals. Mini-challenges will also reward teams and individuals for accomplishments throughout the semester.

In last year’s competition, nearly 1,800 Gators used alternative transportation in more than 28,000 commutes. This accomplishment helped to prevent almost 45 tons of carbon dioxide emissions from entering the atmosphere.

The One Less Car challenge also includes an alternative transportation fair from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday on the Reitz Student Union North Lawn. Organizations that support alternative transportation will provide information, services and demonstrations. Student groups will offer advice and demonstrations to novice and experienced cyclists. Gainesville’s Regional Transit System staff will offer opportunities for participants to become familiar with routes, services and the Gator Locator GPS tracking system. Those interested in learning more about carpooling opportunities will be able to see live demonstrations of the GreenRide ride matching service. Zipcar, the car-sharing program on campus, will be on display.

Registration for the One Less Car challenge is ongoing. Members of the UF community can find out more information, sign up for the challenge, and join a team online at http://sustainable.ufl.edu/onelesscar.

For more information, contact Andrea Grossman at ufandi@ufl.edu.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Society of Professional Journalists has named its University of Florida student chapter the Outstanding Campus Chapter of the Year.

SPJ will present the honor Friday at its annual convention in Indianapolis during the Mark of Excellence Awards Luncheon to chapter President April Dudash, a journalism senior at UF’s College of Journalism and Communications.

“Since our SPJ chapter is part of a prestigious journalism college at a larger university, we automatically deal with a talented pool of students every semester,” Dudash said. “Our goal is to provide UF students with as many opportunities as possible to grow as journalists.”

The chapter offers monthly programs on such topics as the First Amendment and journalism ethics. It also invites professionals to speak to students about their experience and the state of the industry.

“Our SPJ chapter is more than a sum of its parts,” said its adviser, Mike Foley, master lecturer in the college and former executive editor of the St. Petersburg Times. “The chapter leaders, especially April, are engaged, enthusiastic and welcoming. They understand and help others understand the worth of this organization. And they never forget its commitment and dedication to the craft and mission of good journalism.”

UF beat out 11 other regional winners, including the University of Missouri and the University of Texas, Austin. In an SPJ news release, Neil Ralston, the organization’s vice president for campus chapter affairs, called the UF chapter a “model with a lot of quality programming, involvement at the regional and national levels, and some stunning success in recruitment and retention.”

The college is a national leader in the professional education of future journalists and other communication practitioners.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Rising housing prices, stock market gains and the lack of any new setbacks in the national economy boosted Florida’s consumer confidence three points to 70 this month, according to a new University of Florida survey.

“We had anticipated an increase in consumer confidence in August based on what appeared to be an unjustifiable two-point drop in July following what was already a two-point decline the previous month,” said Chris McCarty, survey director of UF’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research. “While the economic environment is by no means bright, the decline in July seemed unsustainable given the lack of any very bad economic news and some encouraging signs in Florida’s housing market and the stock market.”

Three of the five components in the index rose, one fell and one stayed the same. Perceptions of personal finances now compared with a year ago remained unchanged at 43, still only four points above its all-time low of 39. Perceptions of U.S. economic conditions over the next year jumped 10 points to 73; perceptions of U.S. economic conditions over the next five years rose eight points to 80; and perceptions of personal finances a year from now increased five points to 84. The only component to drop was perceptions of whether it is a good time to buy big-ticket items, which fell five points to 72.

“We are not out of this recession yet, particularly here in Florida, but things are not nearly as bad as they were a year ago,” he said.

Home sales have picked up both nationally and in Florida, and falling prices suggest a bottoming out of the housing slump, McCarty said. The latest report from the Florida Association of Realtors shows median prices for existing single-family homes flat from last month and still up for the year, he said.

If foreclosures continue, they could depress home prices, McCarty said. The Mortgage Bankers Association has reported that 23 percent of Florida mortgages in the second quarter of 2009 were either in foreclosure or late on payments, he said.

The hardest hit area for foreclosures is along the southwest coast, including Fort Myers, Sarasota and Punta Gorda, all of which are disproportionately dependent on retirees, McCarty said. A slowing of the retiree housing market is a big factor in Florida’s population decline last year for the first time since 1946, which the Bureau reported last week, he said.

One area that has shown no signs of improvement is employment, McCarty said. “Employment remains an enormous problem for Florida,” he said.

The latest information from the Agency for Workforce Innovation shows Florida’s unemployment rate of 10.67 percent in July remained unchanged from the previous month, McCarty said. This number, which does not take into account those who have given up looking for work, is likely to increase through the end of 2009 and into 2010, he said.

“We expect consumer confidence to stay mired in the upper 60s and low 70s as the recovery develops,” McCarty said. “Unfortunately, while Florida housing is showing signs of improving, the overall state economy in the long run will likely lag other parts of the country given the prospects for a turnaround in employment.

“As the country moves into recovery over the next year, real estate, construction spending and tourism — all of which have been major sectors in Florida economy’s over the past two decades — will certainly stabilize, but not grow as they had,” he said. “Florida needs a new approach.”

The research center conducts the Florida Consumer Attitude Survey monthly. Respondents are 18 or older and live in households telephoned randomly. The preliminary index for August was conducted from 425 responses. The index is benchmarked to 1966, so a value of 100 represents the same level of confidence for that year.

With the fall semester under way, the University of Florida wants to ensure that students, faculty and staff have the latest and most accurate information regarding the Novel H1N1 flu virus.

First and foremost, prevention is one of the most effective ways to deal with Novel H1N1, also known as swine flu. Basic good hygiene includes the following:

• Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.
• Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hand cleaners are also effective.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth as this spreads germs.
• Limit contact with others if you are sick

Students, faculty and staff are urged to follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s newest guidelines released August 7. Those guidelines recommend that people with H1N1 or influenza-like illness remain at home until at least 24 hours after they are free of fever (100° F [37.8°C]), or signs of a fever without the use of fever-reducing medications. Students, faculty and staff should consider having their own digital thermometer to monitor their temperature.

Most people are expected to recover without needing medical care. If you have severe illness or you are at high risk for flu complications, contact your health care provider or seek medical care.

Colleges and departments have been asked to make plans to deal with student and employee absences that may occur, and faculty members are encouraged to be flexible with students who miss class.

An H1N1 vaccine is expected to be available later this fall, and UF’s Student Health Care Center will be working closely with public health officials to provide vaccinations to eligible students and employees.

In the meantime, remember that the H1N1 situation is subject to change as the flu season progresses. Please keep up with the latest recommendations and news about H1N1. The university’s Environmental Health and Safety office is maintaining a Web site with the latest information about H1N1 at http://www.ehs.ufl.edu/h1n1.

For more information, check the following Web sites:

• The CDC’s Swine Influenza Page — http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/
• The CDC’s tips for Preventing the Flu at http://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/habits.htm

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The American Chemical Society named University of Florida professor Kenneth M. Merz recipient of its prestigious Award for Computers in Chemical and Pharmaceutical Research.

Merz, a faculty member in the chemistry department and member of the Quantum Theory Project, was honored in recognition of his use of quantum mechanics to study chemical, biological and pharmaceutical problems. Merz is one of 24 people who have won the award, including the Nobel Prize winner John Pople.

Quantum mechanical models provide a more realistic representation for the study of chemical, biological and pharmaceutical processes. Current models used in chemical biology provide an incomplete picture, in that only nuclei are explicitly represented. Quantum mechanics-based techniques allow for individual electrons to be mapped in relation to the nuclei, creating a more accurate picture of a molecule and its interactions with the environment.

“This is a cutting-edge, next-generation tool,” said Merz. “It will lead to a greater understanding of all of these processes.”

The award has special meaning for Merz. His doctoral degree adviser, Michael Dewar, won the award in 1994. A year later, his postdoctorate adviser, Peter Kollman, received the award. Merz will receive his award at the annual society meeting in March 2010.

The Quantum Theory Project, a joint institute of the departments of chemistry and physics, is one of the world’s largest research centers for theory, modeling, and computation of complex novel molecular and materials systems.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida has joined with the 11 other Southeastern Conference institutions in launching the SEC Academic Network, a Web site designed to promote academic and research endeavors of SEC universities that is being established by the SEC in partnership with ESPN and the member universities.

UF President Bernie Machen announced the initiative at Wednesday’s University of Florida Joint Civic Club Luncheon, where he and Athletic Director Jeremy Foley spoke about its benefits.

“This truly keeps the ‘student’ in ‘student-athlete,’ and I know Jeremy Foley is as excited about it as I am,” Machen said.

The Academic Network, developed with technology and coordination from ESPN Digital Media and Origin Digital, features content from every institution ranging from research, innovation and economic development to community partnerships, civic engagement and service.

Visitors to UF’s page will find videos demonstrating research highlights, including a massive hurricane simulator, air-cooled shoulder pads for football players, a robotic car and, of course, Gatorade.

“The commitment to highlight the accomplishments of SEC member institution academic programs was a key component of our new television agreements,” SEC Commissioner Mike Slive said. “We are grateful to ESPN bringing the expertise and tools they use in sports media to our institutions in support of academic pursuits.”

The Web site, www.secacademicnetwork.com was launched last week.

“This network will provide our 12 institutions with the ability to create and distribute academic and other nonathletic programming throughout the world on a regular and full time basis,” Slive said.

On the Web site, each institution has its own page that includes videos categorized by topic. Alumni, fans and students worldwide now have the ability in one place to learn more about SEC academics through video features that are posted by the league institutions.

The Academic Network is a component of the SEC’s 15-year television package with ESPN, which is the most comprehensive in the history of intercollegiate athletics. Also part of ESPN’s commitment to SEC academic programs is the production of an annual Campus Connection telecast at each SEC institution, in which students take part in the production; telecasts of two programs annually dedicated to the academic accomplishments of SEC student-athletes; a weekly academic feature segment on ESPNU’s SEC show; and selection of one undergraduate student from every SEC institution to participate in ESPN’s summer internship program.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Southern Jewel, the latest grape variety issued by the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, is high-yielding, disease resistant and produces fruit in big bunches.

IFAS developmental biology professor Dennis Gray, who led the team that created the new muscadine variety, says the new grape has been in the works since 1994.

It is Gray’s second grape cultivar release. The first was “Delicious,” also issued this year. Southern Jewel is the 19th grape cultivar created by UF researchers.

In this month’s issue of the journal HortScience, Gray describes Southern Jewel as having “an excellent taste and a crunchy texture with a palatable skin, making it well-suited for fresh fruit consumption.”

Southern Jewel, created with traditional plant-breeding techniques, was grown and compared with other muscadine varieties at the Mid-Florida Research and Education Center in Apopka, starting in 2002.

Its ability to produce fruit in bunches made it stand out, Gray said.

“Muscadines typically make very small clusters, maybe just four or five berries,” he said. “This one can make more than 12, sometimes 16 berries on a cluster.”

That allows growers to harvest the grapes by cutting the stem of the cluster rather than picking individual berries, he said. Researchers don’t yet know how much of an advantage that might be, he added.

Southern Jewel is an open release by UF, which means any grower should eventually be able to grow the plant once nursery owners have enough established plants to sell.

A few plants may already be available through some nurseries, he said. Interested growers should check the Florida Grape Growers Association Web site at www.fgga.org for information or check with larger nurseries for more information.

During the trials, Gray said researchers used minimal disease control treatments — just one spray per year with copper sulfate — to determine their disease resistance.

Muscadines are typically resistant to Pierce’s disease, which plagues many grape varieties grown in Florida, but they can be susceptible to bitter rot or ripe rot, which cause the berries to decompose. Southern Jewel was resistant to all three diseases.

“You can have the most beautiful plant in the world, but if it won’t survive outside, it’s worthless,” he said.

Jacob Paulk, who owns Paulk Vineyards in South Georgia and has been growing grapes since the 1970s when he planted the crop to replace tobacco, said the prospect of clusters that can be cut at the stem is an intriguing one.

Most of his muscadines now must be hand harvested, put onto a conveyor belt and sent into a packing shed, where workers grade and sort them by hand before packing them in small containers. Eliminating that step could mean less expensive grapes for consumers, he said.

A variety that could go from the stem to stores “would be a novel thing for us,” he said.

Be a “Global Gator” by studying in another country and seeing the places you’ve only read about. Explore the Colosseum in Rome. Smell the lavender in Provence. Stroll the medina in Fez. Eat tapas with the locals in Seville. The world is your textbook when you study abroad.

The University of Florida International Center will host the fall 2009 Study Abroad Fair on Sept. 23, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the Reitz Union Colonnade. With more than 50 study-abroad program representatives expected, students will have an opportunity to explore the many options for becoming “Global Gators.”

UF faculty members who lead study-abroad programs and former study-abroad students will be available to share their international experiences. The Study Abroad Fair also will feature other universities and institutions that sponsor UF-approved study-abroad programs and internships. The Study Abroad Services staff will explain the application process and help students begin the steps to find the right study-abroad program. A representative from Student Financial Affairs also will be on hand to answer questions about the many forms of financial aid available to students studying abroad.

Study-abroad programs can count toward degree requirements such as General Education. Summer study abroad counts towards the 9-hour residency requirement. Students considering study abroad must apply to the International Center, 170 HUB. The deadline for study abroad during summer 2010 is March 5.

This past year, more than 2,200 students studied abroad. For more information, visit www.abroad.ufic.ufl.edu.

The University of Florida is joining with 11 other Southeastern Conference institutions to launch the SEC Academic Network, a website designed to promote academic endeavors of SEC universities, using ESPN360.com technology.

With a new school year and a new football season about to kick off, UF President Bernie Machen and Gator Head Coach Urban Meyer headlined the annual Joint Civic Club Luncheon.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — An investigation by a major scientific group headed by a University of Florida professor has advanced understanding of the early evolution of the universe.

An analysis of data from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory Scientific Collaboration, or LIGO, and the Virgo Collaboration has set the most stringent limits yet on the amount of gravitational waves that could have come from the Big Bang in the gravitational wave frequency band where LIGO can observe. In doing so, scientists have put new constraints on the details of how the universe looked in its earliest moments.

“Gravitational waves are the only way to directly probe the universe at the moment of its birth; they’re absolutely unique in that regard,” said David Reitze, a UF professor of physics and the spokesperson for the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. “We simply can’t get this information from any other type of astronomy. This is what makes this result in particular, and gravitational-wave astronomy in general, so exciting.”

The research is set to appear in the Aug. 20 issue of the journal Nature. Seventeen UF faculty members, postdoctoral associates and graduate students join the paper’s authors.

Much like it produced the cosmic microwave background, the Big Bang is believed to have created a flood of gravitational waves — ripples in the fabric of space and time — that carry information about the universe as it was immediately after the Big Bang. These waves would be observed as the “stochastic background,” analogous to a superposition of many waves of different sizes and directions on the surface of a pond. The amplitude of this background is directly related to the parameters that govern the behavior of the infant universe.

Earlier measurements of the cosmic microwave background have placed the most stringent upper limits of the stochastic gravitational wave background at very large distance scales and low frequencies. The new measurements by LIGO directly probe the gravitational wave background in the first minute of its existence, at time scales much shorter than accessible by the cosmic microwave background.

The research also constrains models of cosmic strings, objects that are proposed to have been left over from the beginning of the universe and subsequently stretched to enormous lengths by the universe’s expansion. These strings, some cosmologists say, can form loops that produce gravitational waves as they oscillate, decay and eventually disappear.

Gravitational waves carry with them information about their violent origins and about the nature of gravity that cannot be obtained by conventional astronomical tools. The existence of the waves was predicted by Albert Einstein in 1916 in his general theory of relativity. The LIGO and GEO instruments have been actively searching for the waves since 2002; the Virgo interferometer joined the search in 2007.

The UF LIGO research group built one of the most important and complex parts of the gravitational wave detector, the input optics, said David Tanner, a UF professor of physics. The input optics takes light from the laser, shapes the beam into an ideal form, and directs it to the interferometer at the heart of the gravitational wave detector. UF scientists are working to design and build a second version of the input optics for a major upgrade to LIGO scheduled to go on line in three to four years.

“UF also plays important role in analysis of LIGO data, including searches for sharp bursts of gravitational waves, and for the stochastic background of gravitational waves … the subject of the just published paper,” Tanner wrote in an e-mail.

The authors of the new paper report that the stochastic background of gravitational waves has not yet been discovered. But the nondiscovery of the background described in the Nature paper already offers its own brand of insight into the universe’s earliest history.

The analysis used data collected from the LIGO interferometers in Hanford, Wash., and Livingston, La. Each of the L-shaped interferometers uses a laser split into two beams that travel back and forth down long interferometer arms. The two beams are used to monitor the difference between the two interferometer arm lengths.

“Since we have not observed the stochastic background, some of these early-universe models that predict a relatively large stochastic background have been ruled out,” said Vuk Mandic, assistant professor at the University of Minnesota and the head of the group that performed the analysis. “We now know a bit more about parameters that describe the evolution of the universe when it was less than one minute old.”

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — As many as one in five alcohol-consuming customers in bars is underage, and underage patrons tend to stay later at night, according to a new University of Florida study.

The study is significant because it underscores the dangers of underage drinking, both to participants and to the wider public.

“That there are a fair number of underage people in the bars who are intoxicated may have implications for their future involvement with alcohol,” said Dennis Thombs, a professor in UF’s department of behavioral science and community health who led the research. “It is helping to set a pattern of chronic bar drinking for the college years and possibly beyond.”

Additionally, a study published in Journal of Studies on Alcohol found underage drinking costs Florida residents $3.7 billion in 2005, including work loss, medical care, and pain and suffering.

The new study, published in the June issue of the Journal of American College Health, is unusual in that it obtained breath samples and interview data from bar-goers as they were leaving rather than relying on self-report surveys that ask sober students to recall their alcohol use in the past two weeks or 30 days, said Thombs, who led the research.

The later it was at night, the younger the customers were who left the bar, so that by the time the drinking establishments closed at 2 a.m. the median age of the exiting patrons was 19 years old, he said. In addition, for each successive hour the bars were open a greater share of patrons intended to drive and their breath-alcohol levels increased as the evening wore on, Thombs said.

So many bar-drinking customers are underage because they can get away with it, Thombs said. “It’s no big secret that the management of drinking establishments in campus communities is not very thorough in checking I.D.’s,” he said.

The attraction of taking a risk that is illegal and making the most of it may explain why such a large proportion of underage customers stay late at bars and drink more, Thombs said.

“From a developmental perspective, college students are away from home and parental supervision for the first time, there are likely to be some who take advantage of their new options to party and have fun,” he said. “As students get older, it’s less exciting for them. They’ve done that before.”

The researchers collected information on 305 men and 164 women — 92 percent of whom were college students — outside bars in the midtown bar district in Gainesville on four nights in July and August 2007 between 10 p.m. and 2:30 a.m. Participants were interviewed as they left the bars and walked out onto the sidewalks. Then they blew into a hand-held breath-testing device to determine their blood-alcohol levels. In addition, they filled out a 15-item survey about their drug use that night and during the past 30 days. One in five who reported drinking that night in a bar acknowledged being under the legal drinking age of 21, Thombs said.

More than half of the participants were highly intoxicated upon leaving the bar, Thombs said. Fifty-five percent of the men and 59 percent of the women had blood-alcohol levels of 0.08 — the alcohol level at which a person is considered to be legally impaired — or higher, he said.

Between 10 and 11 p.m. 7.4 percent of those interviewed between those times intended to drive off within the hour, compared with 18.8 percent between 11 p.m. and 12 a.m., and 27.2 percent between 12 and 1 a.m., and 38.6 percent between 1 and 2 a.m. After the bars closed, the percentage dropped to 7.9 percent.

From 10 p.m. until 2 a.m., customers’ median breath levels rose from 0.05 to 0.09, he said.

“As the night goes on it becomes clear that bar patrons intending to drive become more and more intoxicated, underscoring concerns that a great deal of high-risk driving takes place late at night in campus communities,” he said.

A number of measures could be taken to reduce the incidence of intoxicated bar patrons who drive, including setting earlier last-call times for serving alcohol, eliminating drink specials late at night and increasing safe ride services, he said.

While one quarter of customers who drank alcohol reported intending to drive after leaving the establishment, the proportion rose to nearly one half of those who used both alcohol and marijuana, said Thombs, who works in UF’s College of Public Health and Health Professions.

For the first time since World War II, more people are leaving Florida than moving into the Sunshine State, but that exodus may not last long. Here’s UF researcher David Denslow.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida’s economic slump has pulled down the state’s population, which declined for the first time since military personnel left the state after the end of World War II, according to the latest preliminary population estimates from the University of Florida.

The loss of more than 58,000 residents is connected directly to Florida’s change from an employment-producing to a job-loss state, said Stan Smith, director of UF’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research, who led the research.

“The population decline is really a reflection of how severe the national recession has been,” Smith said. “Traditionally, Florida’s growth has been spurred by both a booming economy and a booming housing market, and both have seen substantial losses over the last couple of years.”

During the year leading up to April 2009, the Sunshine State is estimated to have lost 58,294 residents, with its total population falling from 18,807,219 to 18,748,925, Smith said. Compounding the problem is the housing market meltdown, which made it difficult for people who otherwise would want to move to Florida to sell their homes or get a loan to buy a house, he said.

The population loss — the first since 1946 — is spread across Florida because the factors that contributed to the decline exist statewide rather than regionally, Smith said.

“About half of the counties lost population and half gained, and both the losers and the gainers are spread throughout the state,” he said.

Broward County recorded the state’s largest population decline, losing an estimated 13,904 residents in the last year, followed by Lee County, 8,601, and Palm Beach, 8,033, Smith said. Because these are sizeable counties, the declines were not particularly large on a percentage basis compared with other counties, he said.

The biggest percentage losses were found in less populated Union and Suwannee counties in North Florida, Smith said. “In small counties, even a relatively small numerical population change can lead to a fairly substantial percentage change,” he said.

The county with the largest population gain was Alachua, adding 3,844 residents between 2008 and 2009 to give it a total of 256,232 residents, Smith said. The large number of students and university employees adds stability to population trends in Alachua County, he said.

Lake County was close behind, adding 3,614 residents to grow from a population of 288,379 to 291,993, Smith said. “Lake County is home to The Villages, which is a large and rapidly growing retirement community. I think that is part of the explanation why they continued to grow even as other counties were declining,” he said.

Florida has been such a high-growth state that a population decline is much more noticeable than in states that have been declining in the past or growing very slowly, Smith said. “This reflects a very abrupt change from three or four years ago, when Florida was experiencing some of its largest population increases ever,” he said.

Up and down years are not unusual for Florida, Smith said. In the early 1970s, for example, there were several years when the state’s population grew by more than 400,000 a year, but a severe economic recession in the mid-1970s reduced growth to less than 200,000 a year, he said.

“What is different now is that we’re seeing an actual decline in the population and not just a slowdown in the growth rate,” he said.

Although there are signs that the nation is pulling out of the recession and various indicators show that economic growth may be at hand, Smith said he does not believe Florida’s population growth will rebound any time soon. “Growth will be fairly slow for the next year or so but will increase early in the next decade,” he said.

But Smith said he doesn’t foresee long periods of growth as high as those in the past. “Florida has grown by approximately 3 million a decade since 1970. I don’t think growth will be that great in the future but it will still be pretty strong compared with most other states,” he said.

The Bataan nuclear power plant in the Philippines cost 2.3 billion dollars, yet has not powered so much as a light bulb. But authorities are now studying a plan to bring the rusted white elephant to life. Duration: 01:57.

Doctor calls isotope shortage a crisis

Live! From Las Vegas, NV: Interview with Energy Secretary Steven Chu (Bloomberg News)

Nuclear Dinner

Nuclear power is a sticking point in the debate over energy security in the US. Uranium mines and mills have begun re-opening to provide access to a key resource needed for nuclear power generation. But many worry about pollution and sickness that accompanied the last Uranium boom in the Southwest.