Articles on or after 4/18/2024: |
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| Climate Crocks,Huffington Post,DeSmogBlog,Skeptical Science,VOX -Environment,PHYS.ORG - Earth,PHYS.ORG - Technology |
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'Green muscle memory' and climate education promote behavior change: Report - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · A new report, released in time for global attention for Earth Day on April 22, highlights the impact of climate education on promoting behavior change in the next generation.
Despite people's deep connection to their local environment—whether it's blackouts in Toronto caused by raccoons, communities gearing up for a total solar eclipse lasting only minutes, chasing northern lights or hundreds of Manitoba kids excited about ice fishing—there remains inertia in climate action.
Sparking global momentum and energy in young people can go a long way to addressing climate change now and in the near future, says Bryce Coon, author of the report and Earth Day's ... Read more ...
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'Human-induced' climate change behind deadly Sahel heat wave: Study - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · The West African nations of Mali and Burkina Faso experienced an exceptional heat wave from April 1 until April 5, with soaring temperatures above 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) triggering many deaths.
Observations and climate models used by researchers at the WWA showed that "heat waves with the magnitude observed in March and April 2024 in the region would have been impossible to occur without the global warming of 1.2C to date", which scientists attribute to human-induced climate change.
While periods of high temperatures are common in the Sahel at this time of year, the report said that the April heat wave would have been 1.4C cooler "if humans had not ... Read more ...
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'So hot you can't breathe': Extreme heat hits the Philippines - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · Extreme heat scorched the Philippines on Wednesday, forcing schools in some areas to suspend in-person classes and prompting warnings for people to limit the amount of time spent outdoors.
The months of March, April and May are typically the hottest and driest in the archipelago nation, but conditions this year have been exacerbated by the El Niño weather phenomenon.
"It's so hot you can't breathe," said Erlin Tumaron, 60, who works at a seaside resort in Cavite province, south of Manila, where the heat index reached 47 degrees Celsius (117 degrees Fahrenheit) on Tuesday.
"It's surprising our pools are still empty. You would expect people to come and take a swim, ... Read more ...
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'Sunny day flooding' increases fecal contamination of coastal waters - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · "Historically we see the highest levels of fecal bacteria contamination in coastal waterways after it rains, because the rain washes contaminants into the waterways," says Natalie Nelson, corresponding author of a paper on the study and an associate professor of biological and agricultural engineering at North Carolina State University.
"Due to sea level rise, we're seeing an increase in flooding in coastal areas at high tide—even when there isn't any rainfall. We wanted to see whether sunny day floods were associated with increases in fecal bacteria contamination in waterways."
For the study, researchers collected water samples every day for two summer months at ... Read more ...
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2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #16 - Skeptical Science (Apr 21) |
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Apr 21 · Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic publication:
Here we use recent empirical findings from more than 1,600 regions worldwide over the past 40 years to project sub-national damages from temperature and precipitation, including daily variability and extremes7,8. Using an empirical approach that provides a robust lower bound on the persistence of impacts on economic growth, we find that the world economy is committed to an income reduction of 19% within the next 26 years independent of future emission choices (relative to a baseline without climate impacts, likely range of 11–29% accounting for physical climate ... Read more ...
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A comprehensive monitoring and evaluation of disaster risk due to linkage of residual coal pillars and rock strata - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · In extreme cases, such instability can trigger disasters like mine earthquakes and widespread collapse of goaf areas, potentially leading to casualties. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out monitoring and evaluation research on the risk of instability and disaster caused by the linkage of residual coal pillars and rock strata.
The challenge of instability linkage between residual coal pillars and rock strata is complex, as it not only involves the interaction between these pillars and strata but also engenders a cascade of linkage disasters. Present research efforts mostly lack a holistic assessment of the instability and disaster risks arising from the interaction between ... Read more ...
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A flexible and efficient DC power converter for sustainable-energy microgrids - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · Electric power comes in two kinds, AC (alternating current) and DC (direct current). Famously, the question over which kind should be used for national power grids, the "Current War" of the late 19th century, got settled in favor of AC and most power plants today produce this kind. However, solar power, batteries and in particular those in electric vehicles, and computers all depend on DC, making lossy AC-to-DC conversion necessary.
An alternative to this is the establishment of DC microgrids that integrate various renewable DC energy sources and storage devices and deliver energy directly to data centers and other DC appliances. This eliminates the need for AC-to-DC ... Read more ...
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A hydrocarbon molecule as supplier and energy storage solution for solar energy - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · This could pave the way for entirely new organic solar modules. The fundamentals for conversion and storage using the molecule have now been published in the journal Nature Chemistry.
Hopes remain high that solar energy will be a major driver of the energy transformation. However, as sunlight is a highly volatile source of energy, a solution must be found for storing energy efficiently.
"Until now, we have transferred electricity from solar modules that is not consumed immediately into a battery, where it can be used as and when required," explains Prof. Dr. Julien Bachmann, Chair of Chemistry of Thin Film Materials (CTFM) at FAU. "By repeatedly changing between chemical ... Read more ...
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A new electrochemical approach could reduce ocean acidity and remove carbon in the process - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · Only 45 percent of carbon dioxide emissions remain in the atmosphere; the remainder is absorbed through two cycles: 1) the biological carbon cycle stores CO2 in plant matter and soils, and 2) the aqueous carbon cycle absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere into the oceans. Each of these cycles accounts for 25 percent and 30 percent of emitted CO2, respectively.
CO2 that dissolves in the oceans reacts to form chemicals that increase the acidity of the oceans. The dissolution of minerals from rocks along coastlines act to counterbalance this acidity, in a process called geological weathering, but the extreme increase in the rate and volume of CO2 emissions, especially over the last 60 ... Read more ...
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A third of China's urban population at risk of city sinking, new satellite data shows - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · Land subsidence is overlooked as a hazard in cities, according to scientists from the University of East Anglia (UEA) and Virginia Tech. Writing in the journal Science, Prof Robert Nicholls of the Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research at UEA and Prof Manoochehr Shirzaei of Virginia Tech and United Nations University for Water, Environment and Health, Ontario, highlight the importance of a new research paper analyzing satellite data that accurately and consistently maps land movement across China.
While they say in their comment article that consistently measuring subsidence is a great achievement, they argue it is only the start of finding solutions. Predicting future ... Read more ...
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Accelerated marine carbon cycling forced by tectonic degassing over the Miocene Climate Optimum - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · In a recent publication in Science Bulletin, a multidisciplinary team of authors from Tongji University, the Second Institute of Oceanography (Ministry of Natural Resources), the Institute of Earth Environment (Chinese Academy of Sciences), and Utrecht University reports for the first time that massive carbon inputs from volcanism and seafloor spreading have impacted the orbital phase relationships between carbon cycle and climate change.
Past changes in climate and carbon cycle have been documented by the stable isotope composition of benthic foraminiferal oxygen and carbon, as they are proxies for climate-cryosphere and carbon transfers between the ocean and other ... Read more ...
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Aerogel-based phase change materials improve thermal management, reduce microwave emissions in electronic devices - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · Chinese scientists from Beijing Normal University have been working on building shielding for electronic devices using multifunctional composite phase change materials (PCMs) to address these performance issues.
PCMs are man-made materials built by combining different types of elements, allowing the creation of a new material with very specific purpose driven characteristics. In this case, the researchers are looking to improve thermal management, solar-thermal conversion and microwave absorption in the electronic devices.
Using engineering inspired by biological systems, they built a neural network-inspired aerogel that increases the efficiency of thermal management and ... Read more ...
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AI for Earth: How NASA's artificial intelligence and open science efforts combat climate change - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · In 2023, NASA teamed up with IBM Research to create an AI geospatial foundation model. Trained on vast amounts of NASA's widely used Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 (HLS) data, the model provides a base for a variety of AI-powered studies to tackle environmental challenges. In keeping with open science principles, the model is freely available for anyone to access.
Foundation models serve as a baseline from which scientists can develop a diverse set of applications, enabling powerful and efficient solutions. "Foundation models only know what things are represented in the data," explained Manil Maskey, the data science lead at NASA's Office of the Chief Science Data Officer ... Read more ...
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AI weather forecasts can capture destructive path of major storms, new study shows - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · Professor Andrew Charlton-Perez, who led the study, said, "AI is transforming weather forecasting before our eyes. Two years ago, modern machine learning techniques were rarely being applied to make weather forecasts. Now we have multiple models that can produce 10-day global forecasts in minutes.
"There is a great deal we can learn about AI weather forecasts by stress-testing them on extreme events like Storm Ciarán. We can identify their strengths and weaknesses and guide the development of even better AI forecasting technology to help protect people and property. This is an exciting and important time for weather forecasting."
Promise and pitfalls
To ... Read more ...
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Airborne interferometric radar altimeter shows potential for submesoscale sea surface height anomaly measurements - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · Their study was published in Remote Sensing on April 12.
To date, humanity has not been able to observe two-dimensional (2D) oceanic processes at the 0.1–10 km submesoscale in the spatial domain using remote sensing. The SSHA signal at this scale is small and exceeds the resolution limits of the satellite altimeters used to date.
However, oceanic processes at this scale play a critical role in the study of ocean energy transfer, cascading, and dissipation, and are crucial for research on ocean energy balance, nutrient transport, and global climate change studies.
In this study, the researchers provided a detailed analysis of the SSHA and its wavenumber ... Read more ...
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Amazon sold a chemical that led to 15 deaths: Who is responsible? - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · In December 2020, 15-year-old Tyler Schmidt took a deadly chemical to a wooded area near his home in Camas, Clark County, Washington.
His body was found two days later. The chemical was determined to be his cause of death.
That year, four more individuals died the same way. In 2021 and 2022, 10 more died after ingesting the same chemical.
All 15 individuals purchased the chemical - a substance that can be used as a food preservative or in medical lab settings in a low purity form - from Amazon. It was sold there with 99% purity.
The families of those 15 people have sued Amazon in six separate cases since 2022 - including one filed last month - alleging the ... Read more ...
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Amazonia's fire crises: Emergency fire bans insufficient, strategic action needed before next burning season - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · Dr. Manoela Machado, a postdoctoral researcher at the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford and also at the Woodwell Climate Research Center, and the lead author of the study, said, "Emergency fire bans are not a standalone solution for the fire crises; they can be effective when strategically implemented and rigorously enforced during critical periods to prevent ignitions, but to solve the crises, we need measures that address the motivations behind different types of fires and, most crucially, focus on stopping deforestation."
The Amazon plays an essential role in regulating global climate patterns, supporting biodiversity, and sustaining local and ... Read more ...
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An ultralow-concentration electrolyte for lithium-ion batteries - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · Lithium salts make batteries powerful but expensive. An ultralow-concentration electrolyte based on the lithium salt LiDFOB may be a more economical and more sustainable alternative. Cells using these electrolytes and conventional electrodes have been demonstrated to have high performance, as reported by a research team in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition. In addition, the electrolyte could facilitate both production and recycling of the batteries.
Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) provide power to smartphones and tablets, drive electric vehicles, and store electricity at power plants. The main components of most LIBs are lithium cobalt oxide (LCO) cathodes, ... Read more ...
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At a glance - The difference between weather and climate - Skeptical Science (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a "bump" for our ask. This week features "The difference between weather and climate". More will follow in the upcoming weeks. Please follow the Further Reading link at the bottom to read the full rebuttal and to join the discussion in the comment thread there.
How do you go about weather forecasting by yourself? Study the computer models. With experience, you will become familiar with the ... Read more ...
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Australia's Great Barrier Reef struggles to survive - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 20) |
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Apr 20 · Australia's famed Great Barrier Reef is suffering one of the most severe coral bleaching events on record, leaving scientists fearful for its survival as the impact of climate change worsens.
For 33 years marine biologist Anne Hoggett has lived and worked on Lizard Island, a small slice of tropical paradise off Australia's northeast tip.
She affectionately dubs it "Blizzard Island". The only relief from the wind and teeming showers is in the powder blue waters, where sea turtles and tiger sharks rove along the Great Barrier Reef.
As Hoggett snorkels, schools of fish swim gracefully, feeding on the coral or darting between it. Some are as small as her little finger, ... Read more ...
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Baby white sharks prefer being closer to shore, scientists find - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · Now, marine scientists have shown for the first time that juvenile great white sharks select warm and shallow waters to aggregate within one kilometer from the shore. These results, published in Frontiers in Marine Science, are important for conservation of great white sharks—especially as ocean temperatures increase due to climate change—and for protecting the public from negative shark encounters.
Baby great white sharks ("pups") don't receive any maternal care after birth. In the studied population off Padaro Beach near Santa Barbara in central California, pups and juveniles gather in "nurseries," unaccompanied by adults.
"This is one of the largest and ... Read more ...
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Beyond higher temperatures: Preparing for national security risks posed by climate change - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · But also at stake is the security of the United States and other nations. What if people become desperate for food? What if long-dormant microbes come to life due to thawing permafrost? What if water and electricity become scarce?
These are the sorts of questions that researchers at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) are asking as they take part in a series of national forums. Scientists have raised these questions and more at recent gatherings of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), the American Meteorological Society, and the U.S. military.
This week, as the world celebrates Earth Day, more than a dozen PNNL scientists and others ... Read more ...
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Biden Thwarts Trump And Blocks Mining Road, Oil Drilling In Alaska - Huffington Post (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · President Joe Biden’s administration on Friday safeguarded millions of acres in Alaska from fossil fuel drilling and mining - the latest in a frenzy of environmental actions in recent weeks that have drawn praise from green groups and condemnation from industry and Republican lawmakers.
The Interior Department finalized a rule that bars oil and gas development across more than 13 million acres of the National Petroleum Reserve on Alaska’s North Slope. Established in 1923, the 23 million-acre reserve is the largest tract of federal land in the country and home to vast oil and gas deposits.
Interior also moved to block construction of the Ambler Road, a proposed 211-mile ... Read more ...
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Can bismuth prevent oil leaks and save Norwegians billions? - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · Over the next 25 years, as the world shifts away from fossil fuels, the oil and gas wells that have sustained the fossil fuel age will have to be plugged.
No big deal, you might think, drilling those wells was the hard part. Plugging them should be no problem. But think again.
The Norwegian Continental Shelf, as an example, is punctured by more than 2,000 wells. Harald Linga, center director for SWIPA, a Center for Research Based Innovation based at SINTEF, Scandinavia's largest independent research institute, estimates that plugging them using today's technology will cost upwards of NOK 800 billion - that's USD 73 billion.
And while oil companies are responsible ... Read more ...
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Climate change expected to increase wildfire danger - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · There is likely to be a significant increase in the danger of wildfires through the 21st century. Indeed, the expectation is that by 2100 the danger will be high even in regions where it is very low today. Those are the findings of a study by Julia Miller, a Ph.D. student in the SLF's Hydrology & Climate Impacts in Mountain Regions research group, published in Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences.
Forecasts show that the potential danger will continue to increase, but from 2040 onwards it will exceed the natural range of climate fluctuations and so will be attributed to climate change from then on. Taking the example of the Bavarian Alpine Foreland, this means that the ... Read more ...
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Climate change is disrupting our sense of home - VOX -Environment (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · Climate change is personal. It is not abstract. The warming climate impacts our economies, influences our politics and culture, threatens the food we eat and the water we drink; it even affects our love lives.
As climate change accelerates and extreme heat and climate disasters displace more people around the world, the crisis is increasingly disrupting our fundamental sense of where we belong and what we consider home.
We saw that last summer, in Maui, Hawaii, when the deadliest wildfire in the US in more than a century leveled the historic town of Lahaina, killed more than 100 people, and displaced thousands of residents from their homes.
In the immediate wake of ... Read more ...
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Climate change will increase value of residential rooftop solar panels across US, study finds - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · Climate change will increase the future value of residential rooftop solar panels across the United States by up to 19% by the end of the century, according to a new University of Michigan-led study.
The study defines the value of solar, or VOS, as household-level financial benefits from electricity bill savings plus revenues from selling excess electricity to the grid - minus the initial installation costs.
For many U.S. households, increased earnings from residential rooftop solar could total up to hundreds of dollars annually by the end of the century, say the authors of the study, which is scheduled for publication April 19 in the journal Nature Climate ... Read more ...
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Climate impacts set to cut 2050 global GDP by nearly a fifth - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 20) |
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Apr 20 · Climate change caused by CO2 emissions already in the atmosphere will shrink global GDP in 2050 by about $38 trillion, or almost a fifth, no matter how aggressively humanity cuts carbon pollution, researchers said Wednesday.
But slashing greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible remains crucial to avoid even more devastating economic impacts after mid-century, they reported in the journal Nature.
Economic fallout from climate change, the study shows, could increase tens of trillions of dollars per year by 2100 if the planet were to warm significantly beyond two degrees Celsius above mid-19th century levels.
Earth's average surface temperature has already ... Read more ...
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Coal train pollution increases health risks and disparities, research warns - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · The study, published in the journal Environmental Research, focuses on the San Francisco Bay Area and is the first health impact assessment of coal train pollution in the world.
It found that coal train pollution has significant health effects that disproportionately impact communities of color and people who are young, old, or have low incomes.
While centered on East Bay neighborhoods, the study carries implications for communities worldwide living alongside passing coal trains. At least 80 countries use coal power, which generates about 40% of the world's electricity.
"These trains run all over the world, exposing the poorest populations who often live close to ... Read more ...
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Cosmic rays streamed through Earth's atmosphere 41,000 years ago: New findings on the Laschamps excursion - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · Earth's magnetic field protects us from the dangerous radiation of space, but it is not as permanent as we might believe. Scientists at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly present new information about an 'excursion' 41,000 years ago where our planet's magnetic field waned, and harmful space rays bombarded the planet.
Earth's magnetic field cocoons our planet from the onslaught of cosmic radiation streaming through space while also shielding us from charged particles hurled outward by the sun. But the geomagnetic field is not stationary. Not only does magnetic north wobble, straying from true north (a geographically defined location), but occasionally, it flips. ... Read more ...
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Czechs 3D-print Eiffel Tower from ocean waste for Olympics - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · A Czech company is 3D-printing a giant Eiffel Tower model for a local Olympics event, using recycled ocean waste as the primary material.
The 14-meter-high (46-foot) model will be installed at an Olympic festival in the north of the Czech Republic, where the public can try different Olympic sports during the Paris Games in July and August.
Jan Hrebabecky, the owner of the 3DDen printing farm, uses printing filament made from ocean waste.
"The material for the Eiffel Tower comes from the shores of Thailand," he told AFP.
"It has excellent mechanic and chemical qualities, great UV resistance, and it is practically immortal."
Collected by Thai fishermen, ... Read more ...
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Data-driven music: Converting climate measurements into music - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · A geo-environmental scientist from Japan has composed a string quartet using sonified climate data. The 6-minute-long composition - titled "String Quartet No. 1 "Polar Energy Budget" - is based on over 30 years of satellite-collected climate data from the Arctic and Antarctic and aims to garner attention on how climate is driven by the input and output of energy at the poles.
The backstory about how the composition was put together is published April 18 in the journal iScience as part of a collection "Exploring the Art-Science Connection."
"I strongly hope that this manuscript marks a significant turning point, transitioning from an era where only scientists handle data ... Read more ...
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Denmark launches its biggest offshore wind farm tender - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · The Danish Energy Agency on Monday launched its biggest tender for the construction of offshore wind farms, aimed at producing six gigawatts by 2030 - more than double Denmark's current capacity.
Offshore wind is one of the major sources of green energy that Europe is counting on to decarbonize electricity production and reach its 2050 target of net zero carbon production, but it remains far off the pace needed to hit its targets.
Denmark's offshore wind parks currently generate 2.7 gigawatts of electricity, with another one GW due in 2027.
The tender covers six sites in four zones in Danish waters: North Sea I, Kattegat, Kriegers Flak II and Hesselo.
"We are ... Read more ...
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Earth Day 2024: Four effective strategies to reduce household food waste - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · 1.3 billion tons of food is enough to feed more than 3 billion people.
Food waste contributes to nearly 8% to 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions. That level of emissions is on the scale of what a large country would produce—just under total emission estimates of the United States and China—posing serious contributions to climate change.
The greatest contributors to food waste are high-income countries, where the average consumer wastes between 95–115 kilograms of food per year. In Canada, approximately 60% of food produced is lost or wasted per year, costing an estimated $49.5 billion. This figure constitutes about half the annual food purchase costs ... Read more ...
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Ecosystems are deeply interconnected - environmental research, policy and management should be too - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · We have a lot to learn still, but as we show in our research, using current ecological knowledge more effectively could deliver substantial environmental gains.
Our work focuses on improving links between research and ecosystem management to identify key trigger points for action in a framework that joins land, freshwater and sea ecosystems.
Specifically, we investigate solutions to environmental and societal problems that stem from the disparities between scientific research, policy and management responses to environmental issues.
We need managers and policy makers to consider ecological tipping points and how they can cascade though ecosystems from land into ... Read more ...
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EGU2024 - An intense week of joining sessions virtually - Skeptical Science (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · Note: this blog post has been put together over the course of the week I followed the happenings at the conference virtually. Should recordings of the Great Debates and possibly Union Symposia mentioned below, be released sometime after the conference ends, I'll include links to the ones I participated in.
This year's General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) started on Monday April 15 both on premise in Vienna and online as a fully hybrid conference. This year, I decided to join virtually for the whole week, picking and chosing sessions I was interested in. At the time of publication this blog post was still an evolving compilation - a kind of personal diary - ... Read more ...
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El Nino not climate change driving southern Africa drought: Study - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · A drought that pushed millions of people into hunger across southern Africa has been driven mostly by the El Niño weather pattern - not climate change, scientists said on Thursday.
Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi have declared a national disaster over the severe dry spell that started in January and has devastated the agricultural sector, decimating crops and pastures.
Appealing for almost $900 million in aid this week, Zambia's President Hakainde Hichilema linked the lack of rains to climate change.
But scientists at the World Weather Attribution (WWA) research group found global warming had little to do with it.
"Over the past year, attribution studies have ... Read more ...
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Energy-smart bricks keep waste out of landfill - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · RMIT University engineers collaborated with Visy—Australia's largest recycling company—to make bricks with a minimum of 15% waste glass and 20% combusted solid waste (ash), as substitutes for clay.
Test results indicate that using these bricks in the construction of a single-story building could reduce household energy bills by up to 5% compared to regular bricks, due to improved insulation.
Replacing clay with waste materials in the brick production helped reduce the firing temperature by up to 20% compared with standard brick mixtures, offering potential cost savings to manufacturers.
Team leader Associate Professor Dilan Robert said about 1.4 ... Read more ...
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Estimating emissions potential of decommissioned gas wells from shale samples - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · The findings, published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, revealed that methane begins diffusing from the shale formation after a well is decommissioned and that this represents a notable source of methane emissions—comparable to the most significant emissions during drilling and operation of the well.
"Natural gas is an important energy resource that has helped the U.S. lower its carbon dioxide emissions, but we also understand methane can be a potential hazard," said Shimin Liu, professor of energy and mineral engineering at Penn State and a co-author of the study. "What this work does is give us a proactive way to understand what's going on in the ... Read more ...
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Europe suffered record number of 'extreme heat stress' days in 2023: Monitors - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · Europe endured a record number of "extreme heat stress" days in 2023, two leading climate monitors said Monday, underscoring the threat of increasingly deadly summers across the continent.
In a year of contrasting extremes, Europe witnessed scorching heat waves but also catastrophic flooding, withering droughts, violent storms and its largest wildfire.
These disasters inflicted billions of dollars in damages and impacted more than two million people, the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service and the UN's World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in a new joint report.
The consequences for health were particularly acute, with heat singled out by these agencies ... Read more ...
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Feedback loop that is melting ice shelves in West Antarctica revealed - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · The study, titled "Antarctic Slope Undercurrent and onshore heat transport driven by ice shelf melting" and published in Science Advances, sheds new light on the mechanisms driving the melting of ice shelves beneath the surface of the ocean, which have been unclear until now.
The West Antarctic Ice Sheet has been losing mass in recent decades, contributing to global sea level rise. If it were to melt entirely, global sea levels would rise by around five meters.
It's known that Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW), a water mass that is up to 4°C above local freezing temperatures, is flowing beneath the ice shelves in West Antarctica and melting them from below. Since so much ... Read more ...
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Floating solar's potential to support sustainable development - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · A study, published in Nature Energy, is among the first to explore the floating photovoltaics (FPV) at the continental scale, finding that FPV installed at existing major reservoirs could produce 20–100% of the electricity expected from Africa's planned hydropower dams. Using a state-of-the-art energy planning model covering the continent's entire energy system, the researchers found that FPV is cost-competitive with other renewables and thus a key part of Africa's future energy mix.
"Floating solar is fast becoming cost-competitive with land-based solar, and our results suggest it could conceivably avoid the need to build many of the dams planned for hydropower across ... Read more ...
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From the coast to the deep sea, changing oxygen levels affect marine life in different ways - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · Marine species respond to ocean deoxygenation (the decrease of oxygen levels in seawater) differently depending on where they live. With seas under threat from climate change and pollution, both of which contribute to deoxygenation, some marine species are at greater risk than others.
As a marine ecologist, I research how changes in oxygen availability affect marine animals' resistance to climate change. My studies show that coastal marine species exposed to the daily variability of oxygen are more resistant to spikes in deoxygenation than creatures living in the deep that are adapted to consistent oxygen levels.
By the coast
For coastal creatures like cuttlefish, ... Read more ...
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Future hurricanes could compromise New England forests' ability to store and sequester carbon - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · Nature-based climate solutions can help mitigate climate change, especially in forested regions capable of storing and sequestering vast amounts of carbon. New research published in Global Change Biology indicates that a single hurricane in New England, one of the most heavily forested regions in the United States, can down 4.6–9.4% of the total above-ground forest carbon, an amount much greater than the carbon sequestered annually by New England's forests.
The work revealed that emissions from hurricanes are not instantaneous - it takes approximately 19 years for downed carbon to become a net emission, and 100 years for 90% of the downed carbon to be emitted.
Models ... Read more ...
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Garbage could replace a quarter of petroleum-based jet fuel every year - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · One way to reduce emissions? Reuse society's waste and turn it into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). In a new paper, a team of researchers from the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) found that if waste-to-fuel refineries were built today near major travel hubs, the United States could produce 3–5 billion gallons of SAF from waste every year. Those gallons could replace 15–25% of the nation's annual supply of jet fuel.
"We've identified places in the United States where large airports are close enough to major waste-producing centers where you could build these SAF refineries right now," said Timothy Seiple, a computational ... Read more ...
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Ghost particle on the scales: Research offers more precise determination of neutrino mass - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · What is the mass of a neutrino at rest? This is one of the big unanswered questions in physics. Neutrinos play a central role in nature. A team led by Klaus Blaum, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, has now made an important contribution in "weighing" neutrinos as part of the international ECHo collaboration. Their findings are published in Nature Physics.
Using a Penning trap, it has measured the change in mass of a holmium-163 isotope with extreme precision when its nucleus captures an electron and turns into dysprosium-163. From this, it was able to determine the Q value 50 times more accurately than before. Using a more precise Q-value, ... Read more ...
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Green cement production is scaling up - and it could cut the carbon footprint of construction - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · If you were to pour that amount of concrete to make a paving slab ten centimeters thick, it would cover all of England and about half of Wales. In the US, the same amount would cover the state of New York.
But concrete production releases carbon dioxide (CO₂), one of the greenhouse gases that drives climate change. About 90% of emissions associated with concrete come from the production of Portland cement—this fine gray powder, the part that binds concrete ingredients together, was named after its resemblence to stone from the Isle of Portland, Dorset. Portland cement accounts for 7%–8% of the world's direct CO₂ emissions.
Production of a more ... Read more ...
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Harnessing solar energy for high-efficiency NH3 production - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · Led by Professor Sung-Yeon Jang and Professor Ji-Wook Jang from the School of Energy and Chemical Engineering at UNIST, in collaboration with Professor Thomas F. Jaramillo from Stanford University, the team has developed an eco-friendly perovskite-based photoelectrode system for NH3 production that has surpassed the commercialization standard of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) by an impressive 1.7 times, setting a new world record in ammonia production efficiency.
The work is published in the journal Nature Catalysis.
The system operates on the principle of reducing nitrate (NO3-) in water to produce NH3 using solar energy. This method not only offers a more ... Read more ...
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Harvesting vibrational energy from 'colored noise' - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · The most efficient types of harvester are tri-stable energy harvesters, which can convert even low-frequency random vibrations into alternating current (AC) and thence into direct current (DC).
Tingting Zhang and Yanfei Jin from Beijing Institute of Technology in China have now investigated how the properties of these systems can be altered to optimize the power output; their findings are published in the European Physical Journal B.
Tri-stable energy harvesters are examples of non-linear energy harvesters, which can use a wider bandwidth of vibrations than the earlier, linear ones. They convert mechanical energy from random vibrations in the environment directly into AC ... Read more ...
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Here's why experts don't think cloud seeding played a role in Dubai's downpour - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · Cloud seeding, although decades old, is still controversial in the weather community, mostly because it has been hard to prove that it does very much. No one reports the type of flooding that on Tuesday doused the UAE, which often deploys the technology in an attempt to squeeze every drop of moisture from a sky that usually gives less than 4 or 5 inches (10 to 13 centimeters) of rain a year.
"It's most certainly not cloud seeding," said private meteorologist Ryan Maue, former chief scientist at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "If that occurred with cloud seeding, they'd have water all the time. You can't create rain out of thin air per se and get 6 ... Read more ...
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High air pollution in Denmark may impact children's academic performance - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · Pollution from traffic, farming and wood stoves may have a negative effect on children's cognitive development, according to a new study published in Environment International on Danish students' performance in the lower secondary school leaving examination.
You probably don't think about it, but in most parts of the country the air we breathe is anything but clean.
In most parts of Denmark air pollution is double the recommended WHO level, with the highest levels found in heavily trafficked cities and southern Denmark, which is affected by polluted air blowing in from the south.
And polluted air can affect our health, previous research has shown. In fact, air ... Read more ...
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Highest-level rainstorm warning issued in south China's Guangdong - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · More than 100,000 people have been evacuated due to heavy rain and fatal floods in southern China, with the government issuing its highest-level rainstorm warning for the affected area on Tuesday.
Torrential rains have lashed Guangdong in recent days, swelling rivers and raising fears of severe flooding that state media said could be of the sort only "seen around once a century".
On Tuesday, the megacity of Shenzhen was among the areas listed as experiencing "heavy to very heavy downpours", the city's meteorological observatory said, adding the risk of flash floods was "very high".
Images from Qingyuan - a city in northern Guangdong that is part of the low-lying ... Read more ...
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Honda to build major EV plant in Canada: govt source - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · Japanese auto giant Honda will open an electric vehicle plant in eastern Canada, a Canadian government source familiar with the multibillion-dollar project told AFP on Monday.
The federal government as well as the province of Ontario, where the plant will be built, will both provide some financial incentives for the deal, according to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The official announcement is due Thursday, though Ontario premier Doug Ford hinted at the deal on Monday.
"This week, we've landed a new deal. It will be the largest deal in Canadian history. It'll be double the size of Volkswagen," he said, referring to a battery plant announced last ... Read more ...
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How creating less-gassy cows could help fight climate change - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · The food system, including grazing animals such as cows, generates major sources of methane mainly due to cattle digestion, manure decomposition and land use for grazing.
To look for solutions, researchers from the Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute analyzed 27 academic publications and identified dozens of potential strategies to reduce methane emissions from Australia's beef and dairy sectors. "Meta-Analysis and Ranking of the Most Effective Methane Reduction Strategies for Australia's Beef and Dairy Sector" was published in Climate.
Study lead Merideth Kelliher said the fastest way to lower methane emissions would be to convert farmland into wetlands ... Read more ...
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How light can vaporize water without the need for heat - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · And yet, it turns out, we've been missing a major part of the picture all along.
In a series of painstakingly precise experiments, a team of researchers at MIT has demonstrated that heat isn't alone in causing water to evaporate. Light, striking the water's surface where air and water meet, can break water molecules away and float them into the air, causing evaporation in the absence of any source of heat.
The astonishing new discovery could have a wide range of significant implications. It could help explain mysterious measurements over the years of how sunlight affects clouds, and therefore affect calculations of the effects of climate change on cloud cover and ... Read more ...
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How potatoes, corn and beans led to breakthrough in smart windows technology - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · A study from researchers at The University of Texas at Austin aims to solve these problems through a new type of electrochromic device and materials. The device uses common, low-cost, sustainable building blocks such as amylose, a natural polymer found in corn, potatoes and beans.
"There's an urgent need to develop novel sustainable electrochromic materials and devices with excellent properties for smart windows," said Guihua Yu, a professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering's Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Texas Materials Institute.
"The biomass materials we extracted from corn, potatoes and other common sources enable the achievement of ... Read more ...
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How spicy does mustard get depending on the soil? - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · Can microbes in the soil also contribute to taste?
In a recent study published in New Phytologist, former Ph.D. student Corrine Walsh at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado Boulder and CIRES Fellow Noah Fierer have run one of the first experiments to determine whether soil microorganisms like bacteria and fungi influence the flavor of a crop. Their target: the spiciness of mustard seeds.
"I thought that was an interesting question," Walsh said. "We know microbes and plants communicate via chemicals—could those chemicals impact plant flavor?"
Previous research has confirmed that soil properties ... Read more ...
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In Ecuadoran Amazon, butterflies provide a gauge of climate change - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · Biologists on a trail in the Ecuadoran Amazon hold their breath as they distribute a foul-smelling delicacy to lure butterflies, critical pollinators increasingly threatened by climate change.
A team has hung 32 traps made of green nets, each baited with rotting fish and fermented bananas. They are meant to blend in with the forest canopy. Their pungent odor clearly does not.
Since last August, a team of biologists and park rangers has been monitoring butterfly numbers in the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve, a park famed for its abundant flora and fauna.
They catch and document the colorful insects, releasing most with an identifying mark on their wings. Some of them, ... Read more ...
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Investigating the porosity of sedimentary rock with neutrons - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · At the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Research Neutron Source (FRM II) at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), the networks of micropores were characterized using small and very small angle neutron scattering.
Dense, dark, compact—at first glance, the sedimentary rock samples that Dr. Amirsaman Rezaeyan has on his lab desk are only slightly different. Pores are not visible to the naked eye.
Nevertheless, it is precisely the pores that give the mudrocks their special properties: The pores, ranging from a few micrometers to sub-nanometers in size, are formed during sedimentation and compacted over time, determining the permeability. These pores are the decisive factor for ... Read more ...
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Ion thermoelectric conversion devices for near room temperature - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · Prof. Zeng Wei of the Institute of Chemical Engineering, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, said that at the beginning, the research team mainly carried out study based on the thermal diffusion effect and published a series of research results. In spite of this, their results never realized the expected effect, and the prospect of practical application was not optimistic.
Later, they tried to make a further enhancement on the basis of the thermal current effect; that is, to incorporate the redox reaction of the electrode. The reason for this is that the thermal current effect is redox in the electrolyte, so the gain and loss of electrons mainly occur in the solution, and the ... Read more ...
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Iran Fires At Suspected Israeli Attack Drones Near Isfahan Air Base And Nuclear Site - Huffington Post (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Iran fired air defenses at a major air base and a nuclear site early Friday morning near the central city of Isfahan after spotting drones, which were suspected to be part of an Israeli attack in retaliation for Tehran’s unprecedented drone-and-missile assault on the country.
No Iranian official directly acknowledged the possibility that Israel attacked, and the Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment. However, tensions have been high since the Saturday assault on Israel amid its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip and its own strikes targeting Iran in Syria.
United States officials declined to comment as of early Friday, ... Read more ...
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It never rains but it pours: Intense rain and flash floods have increased inland in eastern Australia - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · But that's changing. Now we get flash floods much further inland, such as Broken Hill in 2012 and 2022 and Cobar, Bourke and Nyngan in 2022. Flash floods are those beginning between one and six hours after rainfall, while riverine floods take longer to build.
Why? Global warming is amplifying the climate drivers affecting where flash floods occur and how often. All around the world, we're seeing intense dumps of rain in a short period, triggering flooding—just as we saw in Dubai this week.
This means these systems, which usually bring most of the east coast's rain during cooler months, are now dumping more rain out at sea. Instead, we're seeing warm, moist air ... Read more ...
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Italy fines Amazon over 'recurring' purchase option - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · Italy's competition authority said Wednesday it had fined two Amazon companies 10 million euros ($10.6 million) for unfair commercial practices, for pushing customers into agreeing to "recurring" rather than "one-time" purchases online.
In a statement, the AGCM said the option to set up regular purchases was "pre-selected by default" on a wide selection of products listed on Amazon's Italian website.
"The graphic layout of the pre-selected recurring purchase option may lead consumers to buy products periodically - even when there is no actual need - thereby limiting their ability to choose freely," the AGCM said in a statement.
"Moreover, the conduct implemented by ... Read more ...
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Japan's moon lander wasn't built to survive a weekslong lunar night. It's still going after 3 - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · Japan's first moon lander has survived a third freezing lunar night, Japan's space agency said Wednesday after receiving an image from the device three months after it landed on the moon.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said the lunar probe responded to a signal from the earth Tuesday night, confirming it has survived another weekslong lunar night.
Temperatures can fall to minus 170 degrees Celsius (minus 274 degrees Fahrenheit) during a lunar night, and rise to around 100 Celsius (212 Fahrenheit) during a lunar day.
The probe, Smart Lander for Investing Moon, or SLIM, reached the lunar surface on Jan. 20, making Japan the fifth country to successfully place ... Read more ...
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LA's water supplies are in good shape: But is the city ready for the next drought? - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · California's second wet winter in a row has left L.A's water supplies in good shape for at least another year, but the inevitable return to dry conditions could once again put the city's residents in a precarious position.
After the state's final snow survey of the season, officials with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power announced that Eastern Sierra snowpack is measuring 103% of normal, "providing ample supplies through the city's most cost-efficient water supply from the Los Angeles Aqueduct."
The aqueduct - two pipelines that deliver water from the Mono Basin and Owens Valley hundreds of miles away - is the backbone of L.A.'s water system. The recent rain ... Read more ...
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Lakes worldwide are facing a slew of health issues that may become chronic - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · In a new study, published in Earth's Future, researchers suggest using human health terminology and approaches to assess and treat the world's lake system issues. For example, lakes with multiple health problems could be characterized as having "multimorbidity," and regular screenings similar to human checkups could help detect issues in lakes early. These anthropomorphic analogies, the researchers report, may help people better connect with and protect nature.
Some high-income countries have methods to assess lake health, but the team introduced a global classification system modeled after the World Health Organization's human health classification system.
They used ... Read more ...
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Laser-treated cork absorbs oil for carbon-neutral ocean cleanup - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · Oil spills are deadly disasters for ocean ecosystems. They can have lasting impacts on fish and marine mammals for decades and wreak havoc on coastal forests, coral reefs, and the surrounding land. Chemical dispersants are often used to break down oil, but they often increase toxicity in the process.
In Applied Physics Letters, researchers from Central South University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev used laser treatments to transform ordinary cork into a powerful tool for treating oil spills.
They wanted to create a nontoxic, effective oil cleanup solution using materials with a low carbon footprint, but their ... Read more ...
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Look to deadly Venus to find life in the universe, new paper argues - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · "We often assume that Earth is the model of habitability, but if you consider this planet in isolation, we don't know where the boundaries and limitations are," said UC Riverside astrophysicist and paper first author Stephen Kane. "Venus gives us that."
Though it also features a pressure cooker-like atmosphere that would instantly flatten a human, Earth, and Venus share some similarities. They have roughly the same mass and radius. Given the proximity to that planet, it's natural to wonder why Earth turned out so differently.
Many scientists assume that insolation flux, the amount of energy Venus receives from the sun, caused a runaway greenhouse situation that ruined ... Read more ...
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Malians struggle to cope after deadly heat wave - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 21) |
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Apr 21 · In Mali's capital Bamako, Aboubacar Pamateck runs a scarf under a trickle of water and wraps it around his head to cope with the West African nation's soaring heat.
Africa's Sahel region experienced a deadly heat wave in early April, exceptional both in terms of duration and intensity.
"I drink a lot of water and wear my turban, which I often get wet," Pamateck said. "I even avoid wearing nylon boubous. I prefer to wear small cotton boubous to avoid the heat."
From April 1 to April 5, temperatures in Mali exceeded 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) and peaked at a record 48.5C in the western city of Kayes.
A few days later, the thermometer fell back ... Read more ...
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Mangrove blue carbon at higher risk of microplastic pollution - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · Microplastic pollution (particles <5 mm diameter) is one such issue affecting mangroves in particular. These tiny fragments can be of primary origin, such as microbeads used in personal care products like face washes and even toothpaste, or secondary from the decomposition of larger plastic pieces, such as water bottles and plastic bags.
Previous research has estimated that up to 12.7 million tons of plastic pollution entered the oceans in 2010, which is expected to have doubled by 2025 without appropriate intervention, and is carried globally via wind and currents.
Associate Professor Peng Zhang, of Guangdong Ocean University, China, and colleagues investigated the ... Read more ...
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Mapping plant functional diversity from space: Ecosystem monitoring with novel field-satellite integration - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · An international team of researchers, led by Professor Jin Wu from the School of Biological Sciences at The University of Hong Kong (HKU), has made a promising advancement in mapping plant functional traits from space using time-series satellite data. The study, published in Remote Sensing of Environment, showcases the innovative combination of the Sentinel-2 satellite mission and its dynamic time-series capabilities.
This innovative approach not only unlocks a deeper understanding of essential foliar traits, providing crucial insights into the functional diversity and ecosystem functioning of terrestrial ecosystems, but it also equips us with powerful tools to address ... Read more ...
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Merging nuclear physics experiments and astronomical observations to advance equation-of-state research - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · "In nuclear physics, we are often confined to studying small systems, but we know exactly what particles are in our nuclear systems. Stars provide us an unbelievable opportunity, because they are large systems where nuclear physics plays a vital role, but we do not know for sure what particles are in their interiors," said Lynch, professor of nuclear physics at FRIB and in the Michigan State University (MSU) Department of Physics and Astronomy.
"They are interesting because the density varies greatly within such large systems. Nuclear forces play a dominant role within them, yet we know comparatively little about that role."
When a star with a mass that is 20–30 ... Read more ...
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Mess is best: Disordered structure of battery-like devices improves performance - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · Supercapacitors are a key technology for the energy transition and could be useful for certain forms of public transport, as well as for managing intermittent solar and wind energy generation, but their adoption has been limited by poor energy density.
Like batteries, supercapacitors store energy, but supercapacitors can charge in seconds or a few minutes, while batteries take much longer. Supercapacitors are far more durable than batteries, and can last for millions of charge cycles. However, the low energy density of supercapacitors makes them unsuitable for delivering long-term energy storage or continuous power.
"Supercapacitors are a complementary technology to ... Read more ...
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More support needed to help households transition to green energy, UK research concludes - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · New gas boiler installations need to be phased out before 2050 in order for the UK to meet its climate change targets. There are grants of £7,500 available in England and Wales to help with the cost of installing heat pumps.
The study draws on data from deliberative workshops representing a diversity of geographic and housing contexts across the UK.
Academics found that while participants were open to the fact that there needed to be a move away from fossil fuel use for heating, there were also concerns about the impact such changes might have on their finances as well as the upheaval of retrofitting homes.
No one retrofit measure was seen as preventing ... Read more ...
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NASA chief warns of Chinese military presence in space - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · China is bolstering its space capabilities and is using its civilian program to mask its military objectives, the head of the US space agency NASA said Wednesday, warning that Washington must remain vigilant.
"China has made extraordinary strides especially in the last 10 years, but they are very, very secretive," NASA administrator Bill Nelson told lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
"We believe that a lot of their so-called civilian space program is a military program. And I think, in effect, we are in a race," Nelson added.
He said he hoped Beijing would "come to its senses and understand that civilian space is for peaceful uses," but added, "We have not seen that ... Read more ...
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NASA's CloudSat ends mission peering into the heart of clouds - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · CloudSat, a NASA mission that peered into hurricanes, tallied global snowfall rates, and achieved other weather and climate firsts, has ended its operations. Originally proposed as a 22-month mission, the spacecraft was recently decommissioned after almost 18 years observing the vertical structure and ice/water content of clouds.
As planned, the spacecraft - having reached the end of its lifespan and no longer able to make regular observations - was lowered into an orbit last month that will result in its eventual disintegration in the atmosphere.
When launched in 2006, the mission's Cloud Profiling Radar was the first-ever 94 GHz wavelength (W-band) radar to fly in ... Read more ...
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NASA's Juno gives aerial views of mountain and lava lake on Io - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · Scientists on NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter have transformed data collected during two recent flybys of Io into animations that highlight two of the Jovian moon's most dramatic features: a mountain and an almost glass-smooth lake of cooling lava. Other recent science results from the solar-powered spacecraft include updates on Jupiter's polar cyclones and water abundance.
The new findings were announced Wednesday, April 16, by Juno's principal investigator Scott Bolton during a news conference at the European Geophysical Union General Assembly in Vienna.
Juno made extremely close flybys of Io in December 2023 and February 2024, getting within about 930 miles (1,500 ... Read more ...
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NASA's Voyager 1 resumes sending engineering updates to Earth - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · For the first time since November, NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft is returning usable data about the health and status of its onboard engineering systems. The next step is to enable the spacecraft to begin returning science data again. The probe and its twin, Voyager 2, are the only spacecraft to ever fly in interstellar space (the space between stars).
Voyager 1 stopped sending readable science and engineering data back to Earth on Nov. 14, 2023, even though mission controllers could tell the spacecraft was still receiving their commands and otherwise operating normally. In March, the Voyager engineering team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California confirmed ... Read more ...
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New Photos Show Just How Bad Mass Coral Bleaching Is On The Great Barrier Reef - Huffington Post (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is experiencing one of the most extensive and serious coral bleaching events in recorded history after a summer of extreme temperatures and oceanic heat effectively cooked the delicate corals that make up the iconic structure.
The Australian Institute of Marine Science recently completed an intensive, large-scale survey of the reef, which is a system of about 3,000 individual reefs that stretches nearly 1,500 miles along the coastline. For the first time, extreme levels of bleaching have been seen along all regions of the Great Barrier and around 75% of the reefs surveyed showed signs of prevalent bleaching.
Aerial photos released Wednesday ... Read more ...
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New Report Details Just How Quickly Europe Is Warming - Huffington Post (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · NAPLES, Italy (AP) - Europe is the fastest-warming continent and its temperatures are rising at roughly twice the global average, two top climate monitoring organizations reported Monday, warning of the consequences for human health, glacier melt and economic activity.
The U.N.’s World Meteorological Organization and the European Union’s climate agency, Copernicus, said in a joint report the continent has the opportunity to develop targeted strategies to speed up the transition to renewable resources like wind, solar and hydroelectric power in response to the effects of climate change.
The continent generated 43% of its electricity from renewable resources last year, up ... Read more ...
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New report tackles electric vehicle charging payment challenges and offers key recommendations - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · Addressing payment issues presents an opportunity for improvements that may speed along EV adoption and improve drivers' time with their EVs, keeping them on the road and not waiting at a charging station.
"We need to make ease of payment a core focus of public EV charging network expansion," said Kristi Moriarty, a senior researcher and ChargeX Consortium lead at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. "If we want to build consumer trust around the promise of a reliable national charging network, we need to maintain a seamless charging experience."
To address failures in accepting or processing payments during EV charging sessions, the U.S. Department of Energy's ... Read more ...
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New research finds electric vehicles depreciate faster than gas cars, but the trend is changing - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · The study examined more than nine million car listings at over 60,000 dealerships between 2016 and 2022. It found that older battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles with shorter driving ranges depreciated at faster rates than conventional cars and hybrid electric cars, the one exception being Tesla, whose older battery electric vehicle model held its value better.
However, the study also showed the trend is changing—as newer model electric vehicles with higher driving ranges come online, they are retaining their value better than the older models with smaller driving ranges. The research also found that the COVID-19 pandemic significantly affected ... Read more ...
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New Research for Week #16 2024 - Skeptical Science (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · Glacial isostatic adjustment reduces past and future Arctic subsea permafrost, Creel et al., Nature Communications:
Sea-level rise submerges terrestrial permafrost in the Arctic, turning it into subsea permafrost. Subsea permafrost underlies ~ 1.8 million km2 of Arctic continental shelf, with thicknesses in places exceeding 700 m. Sea-level variations over glacial-interglacial cycles control subsea permafrost distribution and thickness, yet no permafrost model has accounted for glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA), which deviates local sea level from the global mean due to changes in ice and ocean loading. Here we incorporate GIA into a pan-Arctic model of subsea ... Read more ...
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New study shows how quickly surface water moves to groundwater reservoirs across Australia - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · Groundwater recharge is the rate at which groundwater resources are replenished by rainfall in millimeters per year (mm/y).
The recharge rates estimated for the Darwin area typically ranged between 150 and 420 mm/y, compared to values typically less than 2 mm/y around Alice Springs. In both cases, these values are only a fraction of the total annual rainfall.
The recharge rates estimated for the Beetaloo Sub-basin typically ranged between 1 and 50 mm/y, with an average of 16.5 mm/y.
CDU Ph.D. candidate and lead author Stephen Lee said the study used recently developed approaches to estimate recharge, and several existing datasets, aiming to aid water resource ... Read more ...
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New understanding of energy losses in emerging light source - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · "This insight will help us to reduce efficiency loss, allowing us to design and develop LEC devices that deliver bright emission at high efficiency," says Xiaoying Zhang, a doctoral student at the Department of Physics at Umeå University, and one of the authors of the study that was published in the journal Advanced Materials.
The breakthrough revolves around a detailed understanding and quantification of the internal so-called quenching processes, where collisions between particles in the device lead to energy loss in the form of decreased light production.
"Think of a box with two kinds of tiny balls bouncing around: one kind can glow, and the other kind can't. ... Read more ...
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Novel material supercharges innovation in electrostatic energy storage - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · Sang-Hoon Bae, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and materials science in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, has addressed this long-standing challenge in deploying ferroelectric materials for energy storage applications.
In a study published April 18 in Science, Bae and his collaborators, including Rohan Mishra, associate professor of mechanical engineering & materials science, and Chuan Wang, associate professor of electrical & systems engineering, both at WashU, and Frances Ross, the TDK Professor in Materials Science and Engineering at MIT, introduced an approach to control the relaxation time—an internal material ... Read more ...
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Owner Of New York City’s Defunct Nuclear Plant Sues The State - Huffington Post (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · The company that owns the shuttered nuclear plant that once provided the bulk of New York City’s zero-carbon electricity is suing the state over a law passed last year specifically to block the Indian Point power station from carrying out routine releases of treated wastewater into the Hudson River, HuffPost has learned.
Virtually every nuclear power plant all over the world releases tiny volumes of a radioactive isotope known as tritium from its cooling water into surrounding waterways. Unlike the long-lasting and dangerous radioisotopes that form during the atom-splitting process, tritium ? an isotope of hydrogen ? laces into water, making it almost impossible to extract. ... Read more ...
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Planet sees 10 straight months of record-breaking heat - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 21) |
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Apr 21 · Californians have had weekend after weekend of cool, stormy weather and the Sierra Nevada has been blessed with a healthy snowpack. But the reality is that even the last few months have been more than 2 degrees hotter than average.
The planet is experiencing a horrifying streak of record-breaking heat, with March marking the 10th month in a row that the average global temperature has been the highest ever recorded.
It would be shocking if it wasn't so predictable. Despite everything we know about the effects of burning fossil fuels, humanity is still going in the wrong direction with self-destructive abandon. Last year greenhouse gas pollution climbed to a new high, a ... Read more ...
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Planting trees in grasslands won't save the planet - instead, protect and restore forests - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · They include agroforestry initiatives such as the Great Green Wall in the Sahel, or commercial timber plantations that double as carbon offset projects. These target millions of hectares in countries like Mozambique, Madagascar and Rwanda.
I am part of a team of ecologists and social scientists who are working to highlight the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists in 2026. Our goal is to protect and promote rangelands that combat desertification and support economic growth, resilient livelihoods and the sustainable development of pastoralism. In pursuit of this goal, we reviewed all the scientific studies we could find on the effects of planting trees in ... Read more ...
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Plasma treatment enhances electrode material for fuel cells in industry, homes and vehicles - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · These are a promising technology for cleaner and more efficient electrical power generation. Published in the Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry, the study even shows that the cheaper-to-make air plasma is better-suited for processing the carbon material than pure nitrogen or oxygen plasma.
One way to make burning natural gas cleaner is to use fuel cells. These are devices that technically do not burn the fuel but rather oxidize it in a different manner. That process is friendlier to the environment, because it produces more useful power, less greenhouse gases and emits no pollutants such as nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and aerosol particles.
Fuel cells are used ... Read more ...
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Proof-of-concept nanogenerator turns CO2 into sustainable power - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · Dr. Zhuyuan Wang from UQ's Dow Center for Sustainable Engineering Innovation says the small, proof-of-concept nanogenerator is carbon negative because it consumes the greenhouse gas. The paper is published in the journal Nature Communications.
"This nanogenerator is made of two components: a polyamine gel that is already used by industry to absorb CO2 and a skeleton a few atoms thick of boron nitrate that generates positive and negative ions," Dr. Wang said.
"We've worked out how to make the positive ions much larger than the negative ions and because the different sizes move at different speeds, they generate a diffusion current which can be amplified into electricity ... Read more ...
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Q&A: B.C.'s 2024 wildfire season has started - here's what to know - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 21) |
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Apr 21 · Dr. Daniels is the Koerner Chair in the Center for Wildfire Coexistence at UBC, focusing on proactive management to increase ecosystem and community resilience to climate change and wildfires. Dr. Bourbonnais is a former wildland firefighter and now assistant professor at UBC Okanagan who employs advanced technologies to study wildfire risk and behavior.
Drs. Daniels and Bourbonnais answer questions on the outlook for wildfire season, and how communities can prepare for a challenging year.
What should we expect in terms of wildfire magnitude and severity this year?
LD: Predicting the fire season is challenging, but we are hoping for spring rains after the dry ... Read more ...
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Q&A: Could automation, electrification of long-haul trucking reduce environmental impacts? - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · For long-haul routes below 300 miles, electrification can reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas damages by 13%, or $587 million annually, according to the study. For long-haul routes above 300 miles, electrification of just the urban segments facilitated by hub-based automation of highway driving can reduce damages by 35%, or $220 million annually.
"It's the first study we know of that simultaneously studies a realistic model of automation and a realistic model of electrification—things that are feasible in the near term—and assesses their environmental benefits," said lead author Parth Vaishnav, assistant professor at the U-M School for Environment and ... Read more ...
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Q&A: Why are we drowning in single-use plastics, and what can we do about it? - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · Plastic is ubiquitous. It's in the clothes we wear, wrapped around the food we eat and in the toothpaste we use. It floats in the oceans and litters the snow on Mount Everest.
Every year, the world produces nearly 400 million tons of plastic, a 19,000% increase from 1950. The amount is forecast to double by 2050 and 90% is never recycled. Over half of the plastics produced are used only once, for things like packaging, utensils and straws.
"A lot of people have a hard time imagining that," said Phaedra Pezzullo, associate professor in the Department of Communication at CU Boulder. "But we produce an astronomical amount of plastics every day. Most plastic bags are used ... Read more ...
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Record electron temperatures for a small-scale, sheared-flow-stabilized Z-pinch fusion device achieved - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · Due to the electrons' ability to rapidly cool a plasma, this feat is a key hurdle for fusion systems and FuZE is the simplest, smallest and lowest cost device to have achieved it. Zap's technology offers the potential for a much shorter and more practical path to a commercial product capable of producing abundant, on-demand, carbon-free energy to the globe.
"These are meticulous, unequivocal measurements, yet made on a device of incredibly modest scale by traditional fusion standards," describes Ben Levitt, VP of R&D at Zap. "We've still got a lot of work ahead of us, but our performance to date has advanced to a point that we can now stand shoulder to shoulder with some of ... Read more ...
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Recycling carbon fiber reinforced plastics waste is a challenge, but researchers find a way to make it work - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · Supercritical water has a high polarity, diffusivity, and density that allows it to selectively remove only the epoxy impregnated in the CFRP to obtain recycled carbon fiber. The researchers achieved a highly efficient recycling system using only water without using any catalysts, oxidants, or organic solvents. They also found that adding glycine to supercritical water can upcycle CFRP into recycled carbon fiber doped with nitrogen atoms.
This upcycled carbon fiber has better electrical conductivity than conventional recycled carbon fiber. This is the first time that a single recycling process has been used to simultaneously recycle and upcycle CFRP within tens of minutes, ... Read more ...
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Research showcases Indigenous stewardship's role in forest ecosystem resilience - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · Western scientists and land managers have become increasingly cognizant of cultural burning, but its extent and purpose are generally absent from fire modeling research, said Skye Greenler, who led the partnership when she was a graduate research fellow in the OSU College of Forestry.
"We developed this project in collaboration with the Karuk Tribe to explore the impact of cultural burning at a landscape scale in a completely new way," she said. "The information that went into this model is not new at all—it's been held by Karuk Tribal members for millennia—but we developed new methods to bring the knowledge together and display it in a way that showcases the ... Read more ...
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Researcher studies worst western US megadrought in 1,200 years - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · Drylands in the western United States are currently in the grips of a 23-year "megadrought," and one West Virginia University researcher is working to gain a better understanding of this extreme climate event.
Steve Kannenberg, assistant professor of biology at the WVU Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, is using observations from existing networks of scientific instrument stations across the region to inch toward that goal.
The megadrought is an ongoing climate crisis for natural ecosystems, agricultural systems and human water resources, but researchers have a limited understanding of the phenomenon.
Kannenberg is seeking to identify where this drought has been ... Read more ...
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Researchers develop forest extent map for Mexico - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · One of the challenges facing researchers when it comes to evaluating the accuracy of forest extent, however, is that models use different remote sensing products that may have different definitions for what determines forest extent. In addition, on the ground surveys may sometimes come into conflict with what remote, satellite-based products are describing as forests.
To help quantify this problem, a group of researchers from the University of Delaware teamed up with an international group of collaborators. Together, they looked at forest extent estimates from seven regional and global land or tree cover remote sensing products across Mexico, using two independent forest ... Read more ...
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Researchers develop high-energy-density aqueous battery based on halogen multi-electron transfer - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · Aqueous batteries use water as the solvent for electrolytes, significantly enhancing the safety of the batteries. However, due to the limited solubility of the electrolyte and low battery voltage, aqueous batteries typically have a lower energy density. This means that the amount of electricity stored per unit volume of aqueous battery is relatively low.
In a study published in Nature Energy, a research group led by Prof. Li Xianfeng from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in collaboration with Prof. Fu Qiang's group also from DICP, developed a multi-electron transfer cathode based on bromine and iodine, realizing a ... Read more ...
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Researchers develop sodium battery capable of rapid charging in just a few seconds - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · The innovative hybrid energy storage system integrates anode materials typically used in batteries with cathodes suitable for supercapacitors. This combination allows the device to achieve both high storage capacities and rapid charge-discharge rates, positioning it as a viable next-generation alternative to lithium-ion batteries.
However, the development of a hybrid battery with high energy and high power density requires an improvement to the slow energy storage rate of battery-type anodes as well as the enhancement of the relatively low capacity of supercapacitor-type cathode materials.
To account for this, Professor Kang's team utilized two distinct metal-organic ... Read more ...
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Researchers develop technology to improve offshore wind safety - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · A new project at The University of Texas at Dallas' Wind Energy Center, known as UTD Wind, is designed to make the divers' jobs safer through the development of remote-monitoring technology for offshore wind farms.
The project, which began in March, expands UTD Wind research into a new area focusing on safety. Researchers will develop digital twins, or virtual models, to simulate wind turbines, and algorithms to extract information about failures from simulation data.
"We're focusing on something very important: safety. In every industry, you want zero accidents," said Dr. Mario Rotea, professor of mechanical engineering in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and ... Read more ...
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Researchers propose a new method for wind turbine blade recycling - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · Wind turbine blades play a crucial role in harnessing renewable energy but as these blades reach the end of their operational lifespan, the issue of disposal becomes a serious concern.
Made from composite materials, such as layers of fiberglass or carbon fiber reinforced with epoxy or polyester resin, these wind turbine blades can be used for 20 to 25 years. While these materials ensure the strength, lightness, and stiffness of turbine blades, they also significantly complicate the recycling of the equipment.
Pyrolysis: A promising strategy for wind turbine blade recycling
However, until a few years ago, wind turbine blades were almost impossible to recycle. ... Read more ...
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Researchers realize hydrogen formation by contact electrification of water microdroplets and its regulation - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · Water microdroplets have been shown to possess a high electric field at the interface of microdroplets, which is sufficient to ionize OH- to produce free electrons spontaneously. Subsequent charge transfer can lead to a variety of essential hydrogenation reactions.
In this study, the researchers found marked charge separation between oil-water microdroplets of different sizes through atomization. Compared with pure water microdroplets, the charge separation of oily aqueous microdroplets was improved due to the oil-mediated extraction of electrons from sprayed microdroplets, thus promoting the generation of hydrogen species. The hydrogen formation was proposed to proceed by ... Read more ...
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Researchers reveal sources of black carbon in southeastern Qinghai-Tibet plateau - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) is China's most developed cryosphere region, where glaciers are shrinking rapidly due to light-absorbing impurities such as BC. Both modeling and geochemical evidence indicate that BC emitted from this region can be transported across the Himalayas and reach the interior of the QTP, contributing over 60% of its BC.
This mainly affects the southern and central regions of the QTP. However, there is a lack of sufficient online monitoring of BC in the glacier area of the QTP, which requires stronger integration with model simulations.
Prof. Kang Shichang's research team from the Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources of the ... Read more ...
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Researchers uncover kinky metal alloy that won't crack at extreme temperatures at the atomic level - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · In this context, strength is defined as how much force a material can withstand before it is permanently deformed from its original shape, and toughness is its resistance to fracturing (cracking). The alloy's resilience to bending and fracture across an enormous range of conditions could open the door for a novel class of materials for next-generation engines that can operate at higher efficiencies.
The team, led by Robert Ritchie at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and UC Berkeley, in collaboration with the groups led by professors Diran Apelian at UC Irvine and Enrique Lavernia at Texas A&M University, discovered the alloy's surprising properties and then ... Read more ...
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RFK Jr. Denounced By Environmental Colleagues, Urged To End Campaign - Huffington Post (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · Environmentalists who once worked with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are calling on him to drop his presidential bid, The New York Times was first to report Friday, while a number of green organizations are also denouncing the independent candidate for his anti-science beliefs.
The push for Kennedy to exit the 2024 race comes from his ex-colleagues at the Natural Resources Defense Council, whose political arm is planning to run full-page newspaper ads in six swing states next week. Kennedy had served as a senior attorney at the climate advocacy group for around 28 years.
The ads describe his campaign as benefiting presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, “the single worst ... Read more ...
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Scientists discover forests that may resist climate change - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · The study, published in Ecology and Evolution, explores forests that experience "cold-air pooling," a phenomenon where cold air at higher elevations drains down into lower-lying valleys, reversing the expected temperatures—warm at the bottom, cold at the top—that typically occurs in mountainous areas. That is, the air temperature drops with descent from mountain to valley.
"With temperature inversions, we also see vegetation inversions," says lead study author and former UVM postdoctoral researcher Melissa Pastore. "Instead of finding more cold-preferring species like spruce and fir at high elevations, we found them in lower elevations—just the opposite of ... Read more ...
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Scientists reveal hydroclimatic changes on multiple timescales in Central Asia over the past 7,800 years - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · A recent study published in the PNAS shows that western Central Asia has experienced a long-term drying trend over the past 7,800 years. This discovery, based on the analysis of a stalagmite from the Fergana Valley in Kyrgyzstan, adds a critical piece to the understanding of westerly-influenced hydroclimatic patterns in Central Asia.
Central Asia is among one of the most important arid regions in the world. With the acceleration of global warming, the region faces severe challenges such as accelerated glacier melting, shrinking lakes, and water scarcity. The shrinking of the Aral Sea has been described as "one of the planet's worst environmental disasters."
Because of ... Read more ...
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Scientists urge action over life-threatening pollution from solar power waste in Africa - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · Common informal recycling activities for lead-acid batteries used in solar energy systems were recorded to release 3.5-4.7 kg of lead pollution from a typical battery, which is equivalent to more than 100 times the lethal oral dose of lead for an adult.
Off-grid solar technologies are used to provide power to areas lacking traditional grid connections and are crucial for expanding electricity access across sub-Saharan Africa. The private market for off-grid solar electrification technologies is expected to provide electricity access to hundreds of millions of people by 2030, subsidized by global energy companies in the Global North, including the UK.
Meanwhile, ... Read more ...
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Scotland is ditching its flagship 2030 climate goal - why legally binding targets really matter - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · Scotland is still subject to the 2030 carbon target for the UK as a whole. This was set in law by the UK parliament in 2016. Still, Scotland's move raises questions about the credibility of national (or in this case subnational) carbon targets and the usefulness of putting them into law.
Having credible carbon targets, and sticking to them, matters enormously. Globally, 88% of all greenhouse gas emissions are now subject to a net zero emissions target. If these were implemented to the letter, global mean temperatures would remain below 2°C, the upper target of the 2015 Paris agreement.
They won't be, of course. If we judge climate commitments based on the carbon ... Read more ...
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Slow recovery as Dubai airport, roads still plagued by floods - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · Dubai's airport, one of the world's busiest, witnessed major disruption for the third day in a row on Thursday after the heaviest rains on record drenched the desert United Arab Emirates.
Emirates, Dubai's state-owned flagship airline, and sister carrier flydubai resumed check-ins after telling passengers to stay away on Wednesday, when thousands of stranded passengers clogged the airport.
Some 1,244 flights were cancelled and 41 diverted on Tuesday and Wednesday, after torrential rains flooded the Middle East financial center including its runways and highways.
Traffic congestion remained severe on Thursday, two days after the storms, with at least one major ... Read more ...
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South Africa's electricity crisis: A series of failures over 30 years have left a dim legacy - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · Back then only 36% of all South Africans had electricity in their homes. The development program promised to double that number by electrifying an additional 2.5 million homes by 2000.
This seemed achievable—during the 1980s, the state-owned power utility Eskom's build program was so aggressive it had surplus electricity. Some power stations even had to be mothballed. By 1994, South Africa's coal industry was generating high quality coal which was exported mainly to Europe. These earnings cross-subsidized low quality, inexpensive coal provided by mines built next door to the coal-fired power stations, which was delivered affordably by conveyor belt. These factors made ... Read more ...
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Spintronics research shows material's magnetic properties can predict how a spin current changes with temperature - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · Spintronics exploits the intrinsic spin of electrons, and fundamental to the field is controlling the flows of the spin degree of freedom, i.e., spin currents. Scientists are focused on ways to create, remove, and control them for future applications.
Detecting spin currents is no easy feat. It requires the use of macroscopic voltage measurement, which looks at the overall voltage changes across a material. However, a common stumbling block has been a lack of understanding as to how this spin current actually moves or propagates within the material itself.
A team of researchers now report a method to predict how spin current changes with temperature. The study is ... Read more ...
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Squids' birthday influences mating: Male spear squids shown to become 'sneakers' or 'consorts' depending on birth date - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · Understanding how mating tactics are influenced by birth date, and the environmental conditions at that time, can help researchers consider how squid might be affected by climate change and the implications for marine resource management.
What does your date of birth say about you? Maybe you feel it reveals something about your personality, or perhaps even your destiny. For male spear squid, it can tell us a lot about their love life.
A team of researchers in Japan have found that the mating tactics of spear squid are heavily influenced by the day they were born. These squid can be classified into two types according to their mating techniques: consorts, which fight off ... Read more ...
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State's new law involving Puget Sound Energy aspires to set a course for the future - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · Over the past couple of years, Washington lawmakers have wrestled with a daunting task.
The problem: The state's largest utility, Puget Sound Energy, sells natural gas to nearly 1 million customers and burns gas and coal to electrify cities. That contributes millions of metric tons of planet-warming gases to the atmosphere.
It makes PSE one of the largest producers of greenhouse gas pollution in the state, ranked among fuel suppliers like Marathon, BP and Philips 66. And it represents a huge threat to the state's ambitious climate goals.
Lawmakers' original proposed fix would have been unprecedented in the country and required PSE to stop offering new commercial ... Read more ...
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Study demonstrates high CO2 storage efficiency in shale reservoirs using fracturing technology - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · A new study published in the journal Engineering unveils the remarkable carbon storage potential of shale reservoirs utilizing CO2 fracturing technology.
Conducted by a collaborative team from the PetroChina Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development (Beijing), the National Key Laboratory of Continental Shale Oil (Daqing), and China University of Petroleum (Beijing), the research signifies a pivotal advancement in China's pursuit of energy independence and carbon neutrality.
Shale reservoirs play a crucial role in China's energy landscape, and the utilization of CO2 fracturing offers a dual benefit: not only enhance oil recovery but also promote large ... Read more ...
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Study shows it's not too late to save the West Antarctic Ice Sheet - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · More than 5 meters of potential global sea-level rise is locked within the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, so understanding whether the regions of the ice sheet that appear "stable" today might melt in the future is critical for forecasting how much and how fast our seas will rise around the world.
One such region that is currently stable is West Antarctica's Siple Coast, where rivers of ice flow over the continent and drain into the Ross Sea. This ice flow is slowed down by the Ross Ice Shelf, a floating mass of ice nearly the size of Spain, which serves as a buttress to the ice sheet glaciers. Compared to other ice shelves in West Antarctica, the Ross Ice Shelf has very little ... Read more ...
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Study unlocks opportunities to bridge the US wind energy workforce gap - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · A new National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) report, "National Wind Workforce Assessment: Challenges, Opportunities, and Future Needs," estimates that in 2030, the demand for workers could reach 258,000, whereas the supply of full-time workers might reach only 134,000—a shortfall of approximately 124,000 workers.
The report builds on a 2019 report released by NREL that identified the wind energy workforce gap, in which wind energy employers indicate difficulty finding qualified applicants while recent graduates and current workers indicate difficulty finding open work positions.
"Although wind continues to be a major renewable energy source in the United ... Read more ...
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Talks on global plastic treaty begin in Canada - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · Negotiators from 175 nations began talks Tuesday on a proposed global treaty to reduce plastic pollution, which is found everywhere from mountain tops to ocean depths, and in human blood and breast milk.
"The world is counting on us to deliver a new treaty that will catalyze and guide the actions and international cooperation needed to deliver a future free of plastic pollution," said Luis Valdivieso, chair of the negotiations at the UN-led talks in Ottawa, Canada.
"Let's not fail," Valdivieso added as he opened the session that will run to April 29.
Nations agreed in 2022 to finalize a world-first treaty by the end of 2024, with concrete measures to battle plastic ... Read more ...
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Tesla 1Q profit falls 55%, but stock jumps as company moves to speed production of cheaper vehicles - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · Tesla's first-quarter net income plummeted 55%, but its stock price surged in after-hours trading Tuesday as the company said it would move up production of new, more affordable vehicles.
The Austin, Texas, company said it made $1.13 billion from January through March compared with $2.51 billion in the same period a year ago.
Investors and analysts were looking to the earnings release for some sign that Tesla will move to end a stock slide this year and reverse the sales decline. The company did that in a letter to investors Tuesday, saying that production of smaller, more affordable models will start in the second half next year, ahead of previous guidance.
The ... Read more ...
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Tesla cuts the price of its 'Full Self Driving' system by a third to $8,000 - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · Tesla knocked roughly a third off the price of its "Full Self Driving" system - which can't drive itself and so drivers must remain alert and be ready to intervene - to $8,000 from $12,000, according to the company website.
Tesla CEO and billionaire Elon Musk promised in 2019 that there would be a fleet of robotaxis on the road in 2020, but the promise has yet to materialize, and the system still has to be supervised by humans.
The cuts, which occurred on Saturday, follow Tesla's moves to slash $2,000 off the prices of three of its five models in the United States late Friday. That's the latest evidence of the challenges facing the electric vehicle maker.
Tesla ... Read more ...
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Tesla earnings a 'moment of truth' for Musk after stumbles - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · Tesla CEO Elon Musk faces heightened pressure with Tuesday's earnings report to reassure investors that recent stumbles are simply unexpected speed bumps - and not indications of a road to decline.
The electric car maker, which enjoyed scorching growth for most of 2022 and 2023, has experienced setbacks that analysts say have raised the stakes for the first-quarter report.
Tuesday's earnings and conference call are a "moment of truth" for Tesla and Musk, constituting "one of the most important moments in the company's history in our view," said a note from Wedbush.
Heading into 2024, Tesla watchers were already girding for a tougher path, with Musk's once-dominant ... Read more ...
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Tesla to recall Cybertruck over acceleration defect - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · Tesla is recalling 3,878 Cybertruck vehicles because of a defect that can cause unintentional vehicle acceleration, increasing crash risk, according to a US notice posted this week.
Tesla notified the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on April 17 of the condition in which the accelerator pedal may become trapped on the Cybertruck, Elon Musk's futuristic take on the American pickup truck.
If the accelerator pedal becomes trapped, "the performance and operation of the pedal will be affected, which may increase the risk of a collision," Tesla said in the notice.
Tesla said it was not aware of any collisions or injuries related to the condition. The ... Read more ...
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Tesla, Starlink entry on agenda when Musk heads to India - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · Tech billionaire Elon Musk is set to visit India as his businesses seek new markets in the world's most populous nation, with electric carmaker Tesla - suffering a sales downturn in the United States - reportedly scouting factory locations.
Another Musk-owned business, satellite internet operator Starlink, is set to receive initial approvals to operate in India, a government source told AFP.
Also likely to be on the agenda for the self-described "free speech absolutist" is the large number of content takedown orders India's government imposes on X, the social media platform he took over in 2022.
"Looking forward to meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in ... Read more ...
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The big quantum chill: Scientists modify common lab refrigerator to cool faster with less energy - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · The scientists say that their prototype device, which they are now working to commercialize with an industrial partner, could annually save an estimated 27 million watts of power, $30 million in global electricity consumption, and enough cooling water to fill 5,000 Olympic swimming pools.
From stabilizing qubits (the basic unit of information in a quantum computer) to maintaining the superconducting properties of materials and keeping NASA's James Webb Space Telescope cool enough to observe the heavens, ultracold refrigeration is essential to the operation of many devices and sensors. For decades, the pulse tube refrigerator (PTR) has been the workhorse device for achieving ... Read more ...
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The biggest barrier to a vibrant second-hand electric vehicle market? Price - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · As early adopters of electric vehicles (EVs) trade up for the latest models, the used EV market is beginning to mature in the United States. Yet many potential buyers, particularly low-income drivers, are skeptical of EV's conveniences and are put off by the price, according to a study conducted at Rutgers University–New Brunswick.
"While the transition to electric vehicles is an important piece of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, the market for used electric vehicles in the U.S. remains dominated by wealthy households," said Wei San Loh, a former graduate student of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers–New Brunswick. "Our ... Read more ...
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The Italian central Apennines are a source of CO₂, study finds - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · In the central Italian Apennine Mountains, researchers led by Erica Erlanger and Niels Hovius from the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences and Aaron Bufe from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München have now investigated and balanced all of these processes in one region for the first time—using, among others, analyses of the CO2 content in mountain rivers and springs. They found that weathering in this region leads to an overall CO2 uptake.
However, these near-surface processes only determine the CO2 balance in areas with a thick and cold crust. On the western side of the Central Apennines, the crust is thinner and the heat flow is higher. There, CO2 ... Read more ...
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This ancient snake in India might have been longer than a school bus and weighed a ton - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 20) |
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Apr 20 · Fossils found near a coal mine revealed a snake that stretched an estimated 36 feet (11 meters) to 50 feet (15 meters). It's comparable to the largest known snake at about 42 feet (13 meters) that once lived in what is now Colombia.
The largest living snake today is Asia's reticulated python at 33 feet (10 meters).
The newly discovered behemoth lived 47 million years ago in western India's swampy evergreen forests. It could have weighed up to 2,200 pounds (1,000 kilograms), researchers said in the journal Scientific Reports.
They gave it the name Vasuki indicus after "the mythical snake king Vasuki, who wraps around the neck of the Hindu deity Shiva," said Debajit ... Read more ...
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Three dead, tens of thousands evacuated as storms strike south China - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · Three people are dead and 11 others missing following storms that battered southern China, state media said Monday, with tens of thousands evacuated away from the torrential downpours.
Heavy rain has descended upon the vast southern province of Guangdong in recent days, swelling rivers and raising fears of severe flooding that state media said could be of the sort only "seen around once a century".
"The three deaths were reported in Zhaoqing City. They were trapped due to the rainfall and were found to have died at the site," state broadcaster Xinhua reported, citing local authorities.
Eleven others remain missing as search and rescue efforts in the area continue ... Read more ...
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Trump Cancels Rally Due To Weather, Proving The Difficulty Of Balancing Trial And Campaign - Huffington Post (Apr 20) |
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Apr 20 · WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) - Donald Trump had to cancel his first planned rally since the start of his criminal hush money trial because of a storm Saturday evening in North Carolina, an added complication that highlights the difficulty the former president faces in juggling his legal troubles with his rematch against President Joe Biden.
Trump called into the rally site near the Wilmington airport less than an hour before he was scheduled to take the stage and apologized to a few thousand supporters who had gathered throughout the afternoon under initially sunny skies that later darkened with storm clouds.
Speaking from his private plane, Trump cited lightning and the ... Read more ...
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Turning to nature to improve vital water treatment - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · Escalating industrialization, urbanization and climate change in Asia present a significant challenge to maintaining water quality.
In an effort to improve water treatment, RMIT has collaborated in an international team supporting pilot projects in Vietnam, Sri Lanka and the Philippines through an Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research project.
Led by RMIT's Professor Jega Jegatheesan, the pilots included the construction of floating wetlands in Can Tho, Vietnam and Kandy, Sri Lanka, green roofs in Ho Chi Minh City and constructed wetland in the Philippines.
This saw 40 students at Can Tho University trained to build and install the structures in two ... Read more ...
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Universal 'cocktail electrolyte' developed for 4.6 V ultra-stable fast charging of commercial lithium-ion batteries - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · LiCoO2 (LCO) is the primary cathode material for LIBs. Currently, the advanced electrolytes for LCO cannot meet the high energy density and fast-charging performance of LIBs.
Recently, a research group led by Prof. Wu Zhongshuai from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) developed a novel universal additive-containing "cocktail electrolyte" based on the synergistic cooperation of multi-component additives. This electrolyte enabled commercial LCO with high voltage (4.6 V) and ultra-fast charging (5 C) in a wide temperature range (-20 to 45o C). It also exhibited high applicability to high-Ni and Co-free cathodes.
The ... Read more ...
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Unraveling the mysteries of consecutive atmospheric river events - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · A paper published in Communications Earth and Environment details their findings.
California's winter climate is largely defined by these atmospheric rivers—long, narrow regions in the atmosphere that transfer water vapor from the tropics, most commonly associated with the West Coast coming from the Pacific Ocean. When they make landfall (i.e., pass over land), they can release massive amounts of rain and snow. The catastrophic environmental and economic effects of ARs highlight the urgency of studying them, especially as Earth's climate changes.
"Atmospheric river events are likely to become worse with rising temperatures," explained Yang Zhou, Earth and ... Read more ...
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Using deep learning to image the Earth's planetary boundary layer - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · "The PBL is where the surface interacts with the atmosphere, including exchanges of moisture and heat that help lead to severe weather and a changing climate," says Adam Milstein, a technical staff member in Lincoln Laboratory's Applied Space Systems Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "The PBL is also where humans live, and the turbulent movement of aerosols throughout the PBL is important for air quality that influences human health."
Although vital for studying weather and climate, important features of the PBL, such as its height, are difficult to resolve with current technology. In the past four years, Lincoln Laboratory staff have been studying the PBL, ... Read more ...
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Using sim-to-real reinforcement learning to train robots to do simple tasks in broad environments - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 18) |
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Apr 18 · A team of roboticists at the University of California, Berkeley, reports that it is possible to train robots to do relatively simple tasks by using sim-to-real reinforcement learning to train them. In their study, published in the journal Science Robotics, the group trained a robot to walk in unfamiliar environments while it carried different loads, all without toppling over.
Over the past several years, roboticists have used a variety of techniques to train robots to move efficiently and quickly across varied environments. But as the researchers with this new effort note, such robots do not have very many useful applications. They suggest that robots that are able to carry ... Read more ...
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Versatile fibers offer improved energy storage capacity for wearable devices - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · A joint research team led by Dr. Hyeonsu Jeong and Namdong Kim of the Center for Functional Composite Materials, Jeonbuk Branch, and Dr. Seungmin Kim of the Center for Carbon Fusion Materials has developed a fiber-like electrode material that can store energy. The research is published in the journal Advanced Energy Materials.
The fibers are strong, lightweight, and highly flexible, enabling greater freedom in wearable device form factors and the ability to be made into various shapes and applications.
Carbon nanotube fibers are flexible, lightweight, and possess excellent mechanical and electrical properties, making them a promising material for wearable devices. ... Read more ...
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Victims of China floods race to salvage property - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · Victims of severe floods in southern China raced on Wednesday to salvage property from the muddy waters as authorities warned of more heavy rains to come.
Massive downpours have struck Guangdong province in recent days, triggering deluges that have claimed the lives of four people and forced the evacuation of more than 100,000.
The severe floods are virtually unheard of so early in the year even in lush, subtropical Guangdong, with one senior official linking them to worsening climate change.
AFP reporters in Shatang village on Wednesday saw staff and officials at a tourist resort taking advantage of a break in the rain to clear mud from the streets.
"The ... Read more ...
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Warming climate is putting more metals into Colorado's mountain streams - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · Natural chemical weathering of bedrock is the source of the rising acidity and metals, but the ultimate driver of the trend is climate change, the report found.
"Heavy metals are a real challenge for ecosystems," said lead author Andrew Manning, a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Denver. "Some are quite toxic. We are seeing regional, statistically significant trends in copper and zinc, two key metals that are commonly a problem in Colorado. It's not ambiguous, and it's not small."
The study was published in Water Resources Research.
Although the mechanism coupling warming temperatures to increased sulfide weathering is still an open research question, ... Read more ...
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Warming of Antarctic deep-sea waters contribute to sea level rise in North Atlantic, study finds - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · Analysis of mooring observations and hydrographic data suggest the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation deep water limb in the North Atlantic has weakened. Two decades of continual observations provide a greater understanding of the Earth's climate regulating system.
A new study published in the journal Nature Geoscience led by scientists at University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, found that human-induced environmental changes around Antarctica are contributing to sea level rise in the North Atlantic.
"Although ... Read more ...
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Water is at the heart of farmers’ struggle to survive in Benin - Skeptical Science (Apr 24) |
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Apr 24 · For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough food has become a worrying dilemma.
“Last year, our horticultural production plummeted due to water scarcity,” said Chantal Agbangla, a farmer residing in Soclogbo, a town located about 30 minutes by car from the capital of Dassa-Zoumé. “We had to travel nine kilometers to find water, mainly for our agricultural and domestic needs.”
Family farming, a pillar of the economy in Dassa-Zoumè, is more threatened than ever by climate change. Small-scale farms cover only about 2% of cultivable land in the ... Read more ...
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Weather prediction models can also forecast satellite displacements - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · By leveraging these models, the researchers gained insights into how LEO satellites respond to weather events below, such as tropical cyclones with tall and reflective clouds. The results were published in the Journal of Geophysical Research in April.
In the study, the researchers utilized numerical weather models. They are sophisticated computer simulators that predict future atmospheric conditions based on current observations and laws of physics.
"Numerical weather models not only simulate weather patterns but also calculate various parameters, including the Earth's energy emissions and reflections under various weather conditions.
"By analyzing these ... Read more ...
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When red-hot isn't enough: New government heat risk tool sets magenta as most dangerous level - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
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Apr 23 · The National Weather Service and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday—Earth Day—presented a new online heat risk system that combines meteorological and medical risk factors with a seven-day forecast that's simplified and color-coded for a warming world of worsening heat waves.
"For the first time we'll be able to know how hot is too hot for health and not just for today but for coming weeks," Dr. Ari Bernstein, director of the National Center for Environmental Health, said at a joint news conference by government health and weather agencies.
Magenta is the worst and deadliest of five heat threat categories, hitting everybody with what the ... Read more ...
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Why is methane seeping on Mars? NASA scientists have new ideas - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · Living creatures produce most of the methane on Earth. But scientists haven't found convincing signs of current or ancient life on Mars, and thus didn't expect to find methane there. Yet, the portable chemistry lab aboard Curiosity, known as SAM, or Sample Analysis at Mars, has continually sniffed out traces of the gas near the surface of Gale Crater, the only place on the surface of Mars where methane has been detected thus far. Its likely source, scientists assume, are geological mechanisms that involve water and rocks deep underground.
If that were the whole story, things would be easy. However, SAM has found that methane behaves in unexpected ways in Gale Crater. It ... Read more ...
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Wind and solar in limbo: Long waitlists to get on the grid are a 'leading barrier' - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · Ninety miles west of Chicago, the corn and soybean fields stretch to the sky, and dreams of the clean energy future dangle - just out of reach.
To the east of Route 52, there's the first phase of the 9,500-acre Steward Creek solar farm, in the works since 2019.
To the west, there's South Dixon Solar, which once hoped to begin construction on 3,800 acres in 2022.
Both projects have been approved by the Lee County Board. But neither can be built, according to a county official, due to PJM Interconnection, a powerful but little-known entity that controls access to the high-voltage electric grid in northern Illinois.
"There isn't anything we can do to help the ... Read more ...
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World's oases threatened by desertification, even as humans expand them - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 22) |
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Apr 22 · "Although the scientific community has always emphasized the importance of oases, there has not been a clear map of the global distribution of oases," said Dongwei Gui, a geoscientist at the Chinese Academy of Science, who led the study. "Oasis research has both theoretical and practical significance for achieving United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and promoting sustainable development in arid regions."
The study found that oases around the world grew by more than 220,149 square kilometers (85,000 square miles) from 1995 to 2020, mostly due to intentional oasis expansion projects in Asia. But desertification drove the loss of 134,300 square kilometers (51,854 square ... Read more ...
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