We get dozens, perhaps hundreds, of books here every week at The Chronicle, but who could resist a book with a title like Global Catastrophes and Trends: The Next Fifty Years? The book, published last year by MIT Press, lives up to its title in many ways and more. A data-saturated assessment of the major challenges the world will face in our time, the book addresses every possible problem on the horizon, from unlikely “fatal discontinuities,” like a major asteroid, to more probable challenges like water shortages, soil erosion, political instability, and major wars.

Vaclav Smil, a professor at the University of Manitoba, challenges conventional wisdom throughout the book. Perhaps you’ve heard that China will be the ascendant superpower in the 21st century? Think again, Mr. Smil...

Amid the recent focus on local foods at colleges and generally in society, there appears this article, which says that changing one’s diet may be a greener option than getting food locally.

In part one of a two-part series in World Watch magazine — the publication of the Worldwatch Institute — Sarah DeWeerdt asks, “Is local food better?” The answer: “Yes, probably — but not in the way many people think.”

Local food isn’t necessarily greener, Ms. DeWeerdt writes, but “if you’re a consumer interested in greener food, the local food economy is currently a good place to find it.” A farmer who sells to local customers might be more willing to incorporate sustainable practices to meet those customers’ demands.

“For local food advocates like Sage Van Wing, that interaction between producer and consumer, between farmer and eater, is...

Tight budgets have prodded the University of Tennessee system to consider selling Sequoyah Place, a Georgian-style manse known lately as home to short-tenured presidents and expensive improvements, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported today.

John D. Petersen, departing president of the four-campus system, moves out of the residence next month, after almost five years at the helm. His two immediate predecessors both left the post amid scandals after putting more than $1.3-million in upgrades into the house, which has been home to presidents and chancellors since 1960.

The 11,000-square-foot home played a role in the downfall of John W. Shumaker, whose one-year stint as president ended in 2003, after an uproar over his spending, including $493,000 on the house. Notable expenses included a $97,000...

Georgia Tech hopes the Marcus Nanotechnology Building will help make Atlanta the hub of new high-tech industry. (Photos courtesy of Georgia Tech)

Tomorrow the Georgia Institute of Technology will dedicate the Marcus Nanotechnology Building, a project that officials say is one of the most expensive in the institution’s history.

Georgia Tech hopes that theundefined$90-million, 190,000-square-foot complex will attract companies to Atlanta, making the city and Georgia Tech a nanotechnology hub. (News releases about the building compare nanotechnology in Atlanta to technology in Silicon Valley.) The building reportedly has one of the largest clean rooms in the country. See a video of the building here.

The Marcus Foundation—the philanthropic organization supported by Bernie Marcus, the Home Depot founder—gave $15-million toward ...

People have stepped forward to volunteer for guest-blogging spots on Buildings & Grounds, but we have room for more. Our past bloggers have written about topics as diverse as campus landscapes, religious architecture, parking, carbon offsets, and ugly vending machines. ...

The U. of Utah breaks ground today on an energy-efficient lab. (Lord, Aeck & Sargent images)

The University of Utah is marking Earth Day with a groundbreaking for a 200,000-square-foot, $130-million interdisciplinary research facility that will be built to meet gold-level standards in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program.

The James L. Sorenson Molecular Biotechnology Building, designed by Lord, Aeck & Sargent, will use 40 percent less energy than a comparable building designed just to satisfy laboratory code requirements. The new building will feature elements seen in many LEED-certified structures: natural lighting, rainwater harvesting and bioswales, local materials, fly-ash concrete, and low-toxin finishes. The sandstone cladding is meant to recall regional Native American structures. Research in the building will include projects in engineering,...

Ann Lui, the arts-and-entertainment editor for The Cornell Daily Sun (and, apparently, an architecture student), has written a provocative op-ed article that is getting some attention in the blogosphere. She says that the architecture profession is uncomfortable with race, and she focuses on the decision to hire David Adjaye, the Ghanaian architect, to design the Smithsonian’s new National Museum of African American History and Culture.

“Before Adjaye’s win, some minority architects criticized the panel for the fact that most of the final firms were predominantly white” — a controversy, she writes, that “remained mostly in the blogosphere.”

“Why the silence? Why is it OK to talk about what age-old African architecture influenced the new Museum (‘Yoruban’ columns) but it’s not OK to...

Longwood U. was among the winners of this year’s Chill Out competition, sponsored by the National Wildlife Federation.

The National Wildlife Federation has announced its annual Chill Out awards, which recognize various institutions for their efforts to reduce energy use and emissions. The Massachusetts Maritime Academy won the grand prize for various sustainability initiatives, including incorporating sustainability into the curriculum and setting up renewable-energy generators, like the academy’s wind turbine.

Other winners include the chancellor’s office of the California State University system, for its support for solar power in the CSU system; California State University at Northridge, for its 1-megawatt fuel-cell power plant, which covers a fifth of the university’s power needs; Humboldt State University, for subsidizing an unlimited-ride ...

The Providence Journal reports that the University of Rhode Island is considering building a high-tech research park on land now occupied by a 100-year-old forest, much to the dismay of botanists, biologists, and other university researchers.

The forest, called the North Woods, is a living laboratory for university professors, who bring more than 1,200 students into the woods every year to teach courses like forest management. In the past century, the North Woods has survived hurricanes and avoided loggers’ axes, which is unusual in the area, the story says.

But it may not survive the university’s ambition. University administrators say that the forest land is an ideal location for the research park because of its proximity to other university institutes and colleges. “The only...

This week’s Chronicle features an article about space utilization that should be of interest to … well, just about everyone. Space utilization is consistently a hot topic among architects and planners who work at colleges and universities (indeed, space is the focus of this month’s guest blogger, Ann K. Newman).

In the article, two planners from Sasaki Associates estimate that space per student on campuses has tripled since the 1970s. The campus arms race is a driving factor in this growth. “The mind-set that many institutions have had is that each institution needs to be complete onto itself, with one of every shiny toy that it can get, which means that there is often duplication of facilities on a regional basis,” says Gregory Janks, one of the planners....