Category Archives: Formats

When Evidence Melts Away

1 November 2014 LL

On a recent visit to Crystal Ice Cave in Idaho, climate and cave researchers had to wade through frigid, knee-deep water to reach the ice formations that give the cave its name. Cavers are good-humored about the hardships of underground exploration, but this water was chilling for more than one reason: it was carrying away some of the very clues they had come to study. Continue reading When Evidence Melts Away →

News, Science Magazine

European Union’s pairing plan for science proves popular

31 October 2014 LL

A program designed to boost investments in the scientific infrastructure of Europe’s lagging regions by pairing them with elite institutes elsewhere on the continent has proved unexpectedly popular. The European Commission has received 169 scientific business plans for the scheme, dubbed Teaming, and may be able to advance only 16% of the proposals to the next round of the competition. The commission will start reviewing the proposals in Brussels next week.

“We were delighted,” says commission spokesman Michael Jennings. “The response exceeded our expectations.” It also triggered an automatic 20% boost to the evaluation budget, according to an internal commission document obtained by ScienceInsider. Continue reading European Union’s pairing plan for science proves popular →

Photos

Photo samples

Gallery 31 October 2014 LL

Here is a selection of my published photos:

Formula E drivers race in London, UK. First published by IEEE Spectrum.

El Chevo, a farmer turned hydroelectric plant operator in northern Nicaragua. First published by IEEE Spectrum.

Engineers visit the Mongstad carbon capture plant in Norway. First published by IEEE Spectrum Magazine.

A reforestation project near Madrid, Spain, in 2013. First published by Deutsche Welle.

Researchers in a near-sea-level cave in Mallorca, Spain, give a lecture in 2012. First published by Science News.

Researchers carry atmospheric sensors to the bridge deck of the B.I.O. Hespérides during the Malaspina Expedition in 2011. First published by Nature.

The B.I.O. Hespérides, with Cape Town and Table Mountain behind, during the Malaspina Expedition in 2011. First published by Nature.

Ice stalagmites in Mammuthole, Dachstein Massif. First published in EARTH Magazine.

A researcher makes measurements on the Eyjafjallajökull volcano, Iceland, in 2010. First published by The Financial Times Weekend Magazine.

Cameron Hummels in the Columbia University observatory in New York, 2009. First published by Science Careers.

Thomas Helleday in his laboratory in Oxford, UK, in 2009. First published by Science Careers.

Wind in the Vallée Blanche. First published by Cambridge Mountaineering.

Here are photos that demonstrate more of my range (and various mountain ranges…):

An abandoned herder’s hut in the Picos de Europa, Asturias, Spain, in 2014.

A family on its porch in Mombasa, Kenya, in 2012.

A giraffe grazes in Nairobi National Park, Kenya, in 2012.

The roof of a near-sea-level cave in Mallorca, Spain, in 2012.

Spanish Navy sailors during a ceremony onboard the B.I.O. Hespérides during the Malaspina Expedition in 2011.

Researchers visit the lava flow of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano, Iceland, in 2010.

Cambridge mountaineers pause in the Picos de Europa, Asturias, Spain in 2010. First published by Cambridge Mountaineering.

Cambridge mountaineers hike up a basin above the Vegarredonda hut in the Picos de Europa, Asturias, Spain in 2010. First published by Cambridge Mountaineering.

Adilet Imambekov waits for fellow Harvard mountaineers at the top of Odell’s Gully, Mount Washington, New Hampshire in 2003.

And these stories all feature photos of mine: here.

IEEE Spectrum, Mexico City, News

Power Production Decentralizes in Mexico

23 October 2014 LL

Over the last twenty years, Mexico’s electricity sector has shifted from being almost 100 percent state-owned and centralized to about one quarter privately generated. This summer, the Mexican government signed into law energy and electricity grid reforms that will accelerate the decentralization of its electricity production (See “Mexico Opens Its Grid to Competition.”). By the end of this year, a new agency should have a regulatory map available for power producers large and small, said Edgar López, renewable energies director at Mexico’s Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) at a conference in Mexico City last month. Continue reading Power Production Decentralizes in Mexico →

Lucas Laursen

Category Archives: Formats

When Evidence Melts Away

European Union’s pairing plan for science proves popular

Photo samples

Power Production Decentralizes in Mexico

Journalist covering global development by way of science and technology.