A NASA-led study has found that the use of biofuels to power jet engines can reduce particle emission levels by 50 percent to 70 percent.

The Alternative Fuel Effects on Contrails and Cruise Emissions Study includes findings from a cooperative international research program that involved agencies from Germany and Canada, NASA said Thursday.

ACCESS examined the effects of alternative fuels on engine performance, emissions and aircraft-generated contrails using data collected from flight tests in 2013 and 2014 near NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center.

“The observed particle reductions we’ve measured during ACCESS should directly translate into reduced ice crystal concentrations in contrails, which in turn should help minimize their impact on Earth’s environment,” said Bruce Anderson, an ACCESS project scientist at NASA’s Langley Research Center.

Researchers found that contrails form long-lasting clouds and have a bigger impact on the Earth’s atmosphere than all aviation-related carbon dioxide emissions.

During the tests, NASA flew its DC-8 aircraft powered by a 50-50 blend of aviation fuel and a renewable alternative fuel while research aircraft trailed the DC-8 to measure emissions and monitored contrail formation.

NASA plans to conduct additional studies to explore the potential advantages of using biofuels in aircraft.

The Senate on Wednesday confirmed former Sen. Dan Coats as director of national intelligence with an 85-12 vote, The Hill newspaper reported Wednesday.

Coats, an inductee into Executive Mosaic‘s Wash100 for 2017, will oversee 16 agencies that make up the U.S. intelligence community as DNI, Jordain Carney wrote.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Virginia) said Coats vowed to support the Senate’s investigation into Russia’s alleged cyber intrusion in the 2016 presidential election.

Coats previously served as a senator from Indiana and as a member of the Senate Armed Services and Intelligence committees.

He is also a former member of the House from Indiana’s 4th district and U.S. ambassador to Germany.

A team of Naval Research Laboratory chemists has produced and patented a transparent thermoplastic elastomer armor designed to offer the same ballistic properties of bullet-resistant glass at a reduced weight.

NRL said Wednesday its research chemists used various techniques to develop a new material that could recreate ballistic properties of polyurea and polyisobutylene coatings lighter than traditional bullet-resistant glasses.

The thermoplastic elastomers have been physically converted through a reversible solidification process that alsow works to repair armored surface damage.

“Heating the material above the softening point, around 100 degrees Celsius, melts the small crystallites, enabling the fracture surfaces to meld together and reform via diffusion,” said Mike Roland, senior scientist at NRL’s soft matter physics division.

Roland added the dissipative properties of the elastomer can offer multi-hit protection against projectile strikes.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology will spearhead a federal program that aims to study wind behavior in a push to cut the risk of loss of life and property damage from windstorms.

NIST said Tuesday the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program covers three long-term strategic goals along with 14 key objectives and seven research priorities that will help facilitate the implementation of the strategies.

“This plan maps out a pathway to better understand, assess the impact from, and protect against windstorms,” said Marc Levitan, acting NWIRP director at NIST.

NIST will collaborate with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and National Science Foundation to coordinate research, development, implementation, education and outreach activities related to the windstorm impact reduction effort.

The Federal Highway Administration, Department of Housing and Urban Development, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Energy Department will also support efforts to understand windstorm processes and hazards, educate ground-level winds impact communities and increase community resilience to windstorms.

NIST on Tuesday released a public notice in the Federal Register to seek feedback from organizations and individuals on the draft NWIRP strategic plan.

The agency will gather public comments until May 15.

The General Services Administration‘s 18F organization has unveiled an open source library of web design guidelines and code intended for government designers and developers.

Will Sullivan, an 18F product lead, wrote in a blog entry posted Monday that the first version of the U.S. Web Design Standards includes code and guidelines for forms, typography, buttons, alerts and others.

He said the resource is free and 18F’s team can work with federal agencies to create custom features or conduct training on standards implementation.

Agencies have used 18F’s standards on more than 100 sites and services that reach nearly 20 million users per month, according to Sullivan.

He added that 18F currently works on a product roadmap and looks to expand the platform with mobile performance-optimized components as well as mapping and data visualization tools.