Story Ideas for Media 1/19/11

Research

Researchers: Ohio in Prime Position to Fill Green Energy Gaps. Ohio should look to its roots in manufacturing – and its expertise in developing new technologies – to spur the state's job growth in the green economy, according to a new Ohio State University policy brief.
“Making Green Jobs Work for Ohio,” was written by research assistant Amanda Weinstein and Mark Partridge, Swank Professor of Urban Policy in the Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics. It examines the state's alternative energy policies and green job subsidies and makes recommendations for policy-makers to consider.
Weinstein and Partridge recommend that Ohio shift its green energy programs from playing “follow the leader” in developing wind and solar energy farms – developments in which many other states are leaps and bounds ahead of the Buckeye state – and instead focus on filling crucial gaps in the green energy system: developing new storage and transmission technologies to put green energy to use. SEE: http://aede.osu.edu/programs/Swank/

In deep galaxy surveys, astronomers get a boost – from gravity. Astronomers who survey galaxies in the distant universe are getting some unexpected help from gravity, according to a new study.
In a presentation at the American Astronomical Society meeting and a related paper in the current issue of the journal Nature, researchers say that as many as 20 percent of the most distant galaxies currently detected appear brighter than they actually are, because of an effect called “strong gravitational lensing.”
The discovery could change astronomers’ notions of how galaxies formed in the early universe.
Haojing Yan, co-author of the study and postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Cosmology and Astro-Particle Physics at Ohio State University, said that astronomers have long known about strong gravitational lensing, but thought it only happens rarely, and wouldn’t have any real impact on galaxy surveys. CONTACT: Pam Frost Gorder, (614) 292-9475. SEE: http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/deeplens.htm

Events

Ohio State Social Work Students Volunteer to Count the Homeless – Jan. 25. Ted Williams put homelessness back in the news, but how many homeless people really live in Columbus? On Tuesday, January 25, from 3:30 a.m. – 7 a.m., students and graduates from Ohio State’s College of Social Work will volunteer to walk the streets and visit the shelters of Columbus to count the homeless as part of the annual HUD-required Point in Time Count, held during the last week of January. For more information or to talk with a student about why they’re participating, CONTACT: Frankie Jones-Harris, jones-harris.1@osu.edu,(614) 292-3540, or (614) 330-2206.

The person listed as the CONTACT will have the most current information about the story. Call on our media relations staff for help with any Ohio State story: Liz Cook, (614) 292-7276 or cook.17@osu.edu; Shelly Hoffman, (614) 247-4748 or hoffman.511@osu.edu; Jim Lynch, (614) 247-4110 or lynch.270@osu.edu; or Amy Murray, (614) 292-8385 or murray-goedde.1@osu.edu