The following questions can be answered by reading the Biofuels article in the attached link.

Read the
article carefully and then answer the questions. Submit your work to the assignment link.

1. The title of the journal from which this article is taken is

d. Science News

2. What is the date of publication of this article? __august 1, 2009

3. Provide a full and correct citation for this article (see the Summary Instructions for an example of
citation formats and the required content).

Ehrenberg, Rachel. "The Biofuel Future". Science News 176.3 (2009): 24-29. Web.
http://www.jstor.org.weblib.lib.umt.edu:8080/stable/pdfplus/40213617.pdf

4. What is the difference, according to the article’s author, between a biofuel and a fossil fuel?

Fossil fuels are from decaying plant matter that is hundred of million years old and running
out. Biofuels are from plant matter that has been grown recently.

5. Name 6 other journal sources from which the author of this article, “The Biofuel Future,” has gotten
information.
Biofuels, Bioproducts & Biorefining
New Phytologist
Nature Biotechnology
Science
Environment, Science and Technology
Could not find a sixth?
6. What is a ‘life cycle analysis’? (Hint: you may have to go to a dictionary to answer this question).
It is a technique to assess each and every impact associated with all the stages of a process
from-cradle-to-grave such as from raw materials through materials processing, manufacture,
distribution, use, repair and maintenance, and disposal or recycling.

7. Biochemical Conversion is the dominant method for breaking down biomass.

8. True or False: There is no more research being done in biofuels; we already know everything we need
to know about them. False

9. David Muth Jr believes that

c. The solution to meeting our demand for bioenergy will include a variety of
different crops each suited to a site-specific location.
10. What is the topic of this article? That is, if you had to summarize the main idea of this article in one
or two sentences, what would it be?
Biofuels looks like the future of energy and the lots of research going on. There
are many innovations and hurdles to overcome on the way to making biofuels a
realizable alternative economically and be environmentally friendly.
11. True or False: Research into algae as a source of fuel is brand new and has only recently been
investigated seriously. False
Locate the following article and answer the questions:
Brownlee, Christen. “Peer Review Under the Microscope” Science News, December 16, 2006, Volume
170, pp. 392-393. [Source: Questions are courtesy of Professor Bayless]
1. This article is about:
a. How the standard peer review process works.
b. Some innovations that people are proposing for the peer review process and publishing science
papers.
c. Both of the above
d. Only one new method that one renegade journal is using to try to change the peer review process.
e. Both ‘a’ and ‘d’ are true.
2. Which Journal(s) are named in the article?
a. Nature
b. Science
c. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
d. All of the above
e. Only ‘a’ and ‘b’
3. Which of these lists the sequence of events for the peer review process from beginning to end?
a. Scientists send research article to journal; editors at journal make first-pass decision on quality and
suitability; editors select researchers who are authorities in the field and ask them to review the
paper; referees privately give their opinions; paper is accepted or author is given suggestions for
improvement and resubmission, or paper is rejected.
b. Scientists send paper to journal along with publication fee and editors decide who gets published
based on the popularity of the topic and outcomes of the research.
c. Scientists send research article to journal; paper is accepted, or given suggestions for improvement
and resubmission, or paper is rejected.
d. Scientists send research article to journal and the journal editors decide on the acceptability,
suitability, and validity of the research and then accept or reject the paper.
4. What is a negative feature or downside of the traditional peer review process?
a. Serving as a referee can take significant amounts of a researcher’s time.
b. The small number of reviewers/referees increases the possibility of missing something.
c. A referee may have biases or grudges that preclude him or her from offering an objective assessment
of the merits of the research.
d. All of the above.
e. Only ‘a’ and ‘b’
5. What is the innovation attempted by the journal?
a. Posting the submitted papers online so anyone can comment on them.
b. Posting the submitted papers online so any interested scientist associated with a research
facility could comment on them at the same time they were being peer reviewed by journal-
selected referees.
c. The journal let editors make decisions about accepting or rejecting based on ‘gut reaction’ …. “Natures
experiment was a gutsy move….”
d. All of the above
e. Only ‘a’ and ‘c’
6. What is the peer review process?
a. A method for weeding out research with results with which we disagree.
b. A method for weeding out research with results that are contrary to the dominant paradigm.
c. An outdated method of review that slows down the process of discovery and scientific enquiry and
subjects research scientists to humiliation and peer pressure.
d. An important part of the scientific process that attempts to ensure that only those
hypotheses that are well tested and verifiable by many are accepted into the scientific
discourse or released to the public to be used in decision-making processes.
e. None of the above.