Shop Talk: Short Items on Science, Plants, and Power

Going underground: Drury University will install geothermal heating and cooling as part of a renovation of an 1881 chapel. Geothermal will cost $100,000 but is expected to save money over time. The entire renovation will cost $1.3-million.

Big money on big science: Cornell University is constructing a new $140-million science building. The building will be almost 200,000 square feet.

Welcome to the jungle: California State University at Northridge is planning a subtropical rain forest to sequester carbon from its fuel-cell plant.

Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em: Purdue University will begin burning switch grass, a fast-growing plant, for power. The switch grass will be burned in the same facility where the university burns coal.