This week in Grist Magazine:

Making moonshine and molasses [VIDEO]

Posted 102 minutes ago

By Daniel Klein The Perennial Plate gang stops in at a North Carolina farm to learn about a rare variety of heirloom corn and sample some moonshine. [more]

This will be the greenest Super Bowl ever

Posted 17 hours ago

By Jess Zimmerman I know football fans feel pretty strongly about doing things exactly the same way every time, lest their switch in underwear or beer brand or whatever be the butterfly's wing that leads to their favorite team tanking. So I have some bad news for you guys: there will be some changes this year. But take heart. Even if this makes your team lose, it's in the name of making Super Bowl XLVI the greenest one yet. It's still going to use a gargantuan amount of energy, of course, … [more]

10-year-old discovers new energy-storing molecule by accident

Posted 19 hours ago

By Jess Zimmerman Fifth-grader Clara Lazen was just messing around with a molecule modeling kit in class, trying to construct a stable molecule that followed basic chemistry rules. What she ended up with was a completely novel molecular structure, and a coauthor credit in the resulting journal article. Man, what were YOU discovering when you were 10? Masturbation and Faith No More? What's extra-rad about Lazen's discovery is that the molecule, if it can be synthesized, has the potential to store … [more]

Antarctica's about to lose a New York City-sized chunk

Posted 19 hours ago

By Jess Zimmerman Normally when icebergs split off from glaciers, it's called "calving," but I think it would be fair to say that Antarctica's Pine Island Glacier is about to have a cow. Pine Island Glacier, which is the continent's fastest-melting glacier and unusually well-situated to contribute to sea level rise, is getting set to shed a chunk of ice larger than all five boroughs of New York City combined. Snaking across the floating tongue of the Pine Island Glacier in West … [more]

Roseanne Barr wants to be the Green Party nominee for president

Posted 19 hours ago

By Jess Zimmerman Roseanne Barr already told Jay Leno she planned to run for president, but back then she was going to start her own party. Now, though, she's seriously seeking Green Party nomination for the 2012 presidential run. The (presumably recycled) paperwork is in, and given that I have zero idea who the heck else is running, she might actually have a chance? The actress-comedian said in a statement that she's a longtime supporter of the party and looks forward to working with people who … [more]

Al rodente: Could squirrel meat come back into vogue?

Posted 22 hours ago

By Heather Smith Squirrel is like the drive-through cheeseburger of the forest — albeit a cheeseburger that needs to be gutted first. [more]

'Smart paint' warns you when stuff's about to break, so you can fix it

Posted 22 hours ago

By Jess Zimmerman Someday we'll fix infrastructure and the environment in the same way that Arizona suburbanites fix their lawns: By slapping on a coat of paint. Science has already made great strides on carbon-eating paint, and the kind of paint that can make windows into solar panels. And now researchers at at Glasgow's University of Strathclyde have developed paint that can detect underlying structural problems in bridges, mines, and turbines, allowing engineers to head disaster off at the pa … [more]

How the Sierra Club and the natural gas industry broke up

Posted 22 hours ago

By Sarah Laskow Yesterday, TIME published the news that the Sierra Club had taken more than $25 million dollars from the natural gas industry — specifically, from employees and subsidiaries of Chesapeake Energy, one of the largest natural gas companies around. The donations came at a time when the environmental movement was rallying behind natural gas as a "bridge fuel" — an energy source cleaner than coal that could lead to a renewable energy future. But in 2010, the Sierra ClubR … [more]

Lexicon of Sustainability: Cage free vs. pasture raised

Posted 22 hours ago

By Lexicon of Sustainability What do you really know about the eggs you're buying? Are they "cage free" or do they come from birds raised on pasture? The latest installment in the Lexicon series focuses on this complex protein source. [more]

Critical List: Sierra Club took natural gas money; solar panels made from grass clippings

Posted 22 hours ago

By Sarah Laskow The Sierra Club's executive director, Michael Brune, revealed that from 2007 to 2010 the environmental group took more than $26 million of donations from people and companies connected to the natural gas industry. The Obama administration is moving forward with offshore wind development. Warming oceans are encouraging the growth of coral … for now. An MIT scientist used grass clippings to help power a new solar panel. It's not very efficient though. On bear bile farms in China, … [more]