Articles on or after 4/20/2024: |
 |
Organizations |
 |
Organizations |
|
| Climate Crocks,Huffington Post,DeSmogBlog,Skeptical Science,VOX -Environment,PHYS.ORG - Earth,PHYS.ORG - Technology |
|
Huffington Post:
|
|
|
Biden Finalizes Plan To Overhaul Dirty Power Grid And Reduce Blackouts - Huffington Post (Apr 25) |
|
Apr 25 · The Biden administration rolled out its plan Thursday to overhaul the United States’ aging patchwork of fossil-fueled electrical grids, finishing work on a suite of regulations designed to rein in rising utility bills and stem worsening blackouts while cutting planet-heating pollution from power plants.
The regulatory package includes the nation’s first-ever limits on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, tighter restrictions on mercury gas and coal ash, and a new way to speed up construction of badly needed transmission lines.
Paired with the billions of dollars in carrots for manufacturing, building and buying modern energy equipment that came with President Joe ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
New Report Details Just How Quickly Europe Is Warming - Huffington Post (Apr 22) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
This Is One Of The Biggest Threats To Democracy - And It’s 'Underappreciated’ - Huffington Post (Apr 24) |
|
Apr 24 · In May 2019, I flew to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, to attend a conference on the future of carbon capture, the technology the oil industry was betting on to slash the climate impact of burning fossil fuels. Just six months after the release of a dire report giving humanity roughly a decade to halve emissions that were then still growing year over year, I braced myself for what I expected to be a roomful of unreformed climate deniers.
Instead, I spent most of two days listening to conversations detailing the surprisingly complex reality: technologies to keep carbon from leaving smokestacks and entering the atmosphere could actually work.
In particular, I heard Akshat Rathi, an ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Trump Cancels Rally Due To Weather, Proving The Difficulty Of Balancing Trial And Campaign - Huffington Post (Apr 20) |
|
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 ...
|
|
PHYS.ORG - Earth:
|
|
|
'So hot you can't breathe': Extreme heat hits the Philippines - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 24) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
'Sunny day flooding' increases fecal contamination of coastal waters - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
A comprehensive monitoring and evaluation of disaster risk due to linkage of residual coal pillars and rock strata - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 22) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
A new electrochemical approach could reduce ocean acidity and remove carbon in the process - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
A shade closer to more efficient organic photovoltaics - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 24) |
|
Apr 24 · Semitransparent photovoltaics are able to convert sunlight into electricity without blocking visible light. This makes them attractive for building integrated applications, such as windows, facades and greenhouses.
Unlike traditional silicon-based cells, organic photovoltaics can be flexible and can also be tailored to be transparent. Yet the more transparent the solar cell, the less light it captures for producing electricity.
Organic solar cells typically rely on an active layer called a bulk heterojunction—comprised of electron donor and acceptor materials—to capture and convert sunlight. Upon contact, sunlight can excite electrons to higher energy states ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Accelerated marine carbon cycling forced by tectonic degassing over the Miocene Climate Optimum - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Africa's megacities threatened by heat, floods, disease - action needed to start greening, adapt to climate change - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 24) |
|
Apr 24 · African megacities like Lagos, Nigeria (with 21 million residents) and Cairo, Egypt (with 10 million residents) are experiencing significant temperature increases due to the urban heat island effect and climate change.
Meelan Thondoo is a medical anthropologist and environmental epidemiologist who researches the health impacts of climate change in cities of fast-developing countries. She explains what cities in Africa are doing to mitigate climate change, and what further steps they need to take to protect their populations.
What health effects of climate change do African cities experience?
Currently, 3.3 billion to 3.6 billion people globally live in cities that ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
AI weather forecasts can capture destructive path of major storms, new study shows - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 22) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Airborne interferometric radar altimeter shows potential for submesoscale sea surface height anomaly measurements - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Airborne observations of Asian monsoon sees ozone-depleting substances lofting into the stratosphere - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 24) |
|
Apr 24 · The study, led by the U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR) and NASA, found that the East Asian Monsoon delivers more than twice the concentration of very short-lived ozone-depleting substances into the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere than previously reported.
"It was a real surprise to fly through a plume with all those very short-lived ozone-depleting substances," said NSF NCAR scientist Laura Pan, the lead author of the study. "These chemicals may have a significant impact on what will happen with the ozone layer, and it's critical to quantify them."
The study was published in the Proceedings of the National ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Artificial intelligence helps scientists engineer plants to fight climate change - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 24) |
|
Apr 24 · To design these climate-saving plants, scientists in Salk's Harnessing Plants Initiative are using a sophisticated new research tool called SLEAP—an easy-to-use artificial intelligence (AI) software that tracks multiple features of root growth. Created by Salk Fellow Talmo Pereira, SLEAP was initially designed to track animal movement in the lab. Now, Pereira has teamed up with plant scientist and Salk colleague Professor Wolfgang Busch to apply SLEAP to plants.
In a study published in Plant Phenomics, Busch and Pereira debut a new protocol for using SLEAP to analyze plant root phenotypes—how deep and wide they grow, how massive their root systems become, and other ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Australia's Great Barrier Reef struggles to survive - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 20) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Balancing AI and physics: Toward a learnable climate model - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 24) |
|
Apr 24 · Previous studies have demonstrated that Pangu-Weather can accurately replicate certain climate patterns like tropical Gill responses and extra-tropical teleconnections through qualitative analysis. However, quantitative investigations have revealed significant differences in wind components, such as divergent winds and ageostrophic winds, within current AI weather models. Despite these findings, there are still concerns that the importance of physics in climate science is sometimes overlooked.
"The qualitative assessment finds AI models could understand and learn spatial patterns in weather and climate data. On the other hand, the quantitative approach highlights a limitation: ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Beyond higher temperatures: Preparing for national security risks posed by climate change - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Can climate change accelerate transmission of malaria? New research sheds light on impacts of temperature - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 24) |
|
Apr 24 · In tropical and subtropical regions where malaria is prevalent, scientists are concerned that climate warming might increase the risk of malaria transmission in certain areas and contribute to further spread. However, there is still much to learn about the relationship between temperature and the mosquito and parasite traits that influence malaria transmission.
In "Estimating the effects of temperature on transmission of the human malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum," a study published in the journal Nature Communications, researchers at the University of Florida, Pennsylvania State University and Imperial College, combined novel experimental data within an innovative ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Climate change expected to increase wildfire danger - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Climate change supercharged a heat dome, intensifying 2021 fire season, study finds - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 24) |
|
Apr 24 · A new study has revealed the extent to which human-caused climate change intensified the extraordinary event, with researchers theorizing the heat dome was 34% larger and lasted nearly 60% longer than it would have in the absence of global warming. The heat dome, in turn, was associated with up to a third of the area burned in North America that year, according to the study, published in Communications Earth & Environment.
"What happens is you get a stagnated weather pattern—it's very hot and very dry," said study author Piyush Jain, research scientist with Natural Resources Canada. "And it dries out all the vegetation and makes whatever is on the ground extremely ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Climate impacts set to cut 2050 global GDP by nearly a fifth - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 20) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Czechs 3D-print Eiffel Tower from ocean waste for Olympics - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 22) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Diversity and productivity go branch-in-branch: Scientists share which forests can adapt to climate change - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 24) |
|
Apr 24 · Now, a study by an international group, including Kyoto University, found that forests with higher trait diversity not only adapt better to climate change but may also thrive. The work is published in the journal Science Advances.
The study, conducted by researchers from Lakehead University, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, and Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University, unveiled how tree functional trait diversity—a key aspect of biodiversity—plays a pivotal role in mitigating climate warming.
"In the face of environmental stress, these diverse trees have been shown to maintain higher productivity levels, in contrast to monoculture ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Earth Day 2024: Four effective strategies to reduce household food waste - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 22) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Ecosystems are deeply interconnected - environmental research, policy and management should be too - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Emperor penguins perish as ice melts to new lows: Study - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 25) |
|
Apr 25 · Colonies of emperor penguin chicks were wiped out last year as global warming eroded their icy homes, a study published Thursday found, despite the birds' attempts to adapt to the shrinking landscape.
The study by the British Antarctic Survey found that record-low sea ice levels in 2023 contributed to the second-worst year for emperor penguin chick mortality since observations began in 2018.
It follows a "catastrophic breeding failure" in 2022, signaling long-term implications for the population, the study's author Peter Fretwell told AFP.
Emperor penguins breed on sea-ice platforms, with chicks hatching in the winter between late July and mid-August.
The ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Estimating emissions potential of decommissioned gas wells from shale samples - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
EU lawmakers agree to exit energy treaty over climate fears - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 24) |
|
Apr 24 · The European Parliament on Wednesday backed the EU's withdrawal from an international energy treaty over concerns it offers too much protection to fossil fuel companies.
The Energy Charter Treaty was signed in 1994, after the end of the Cold War, to offer guarantees to investors in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
But the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, said in July it was necessary to withdraw from the treaty in a coordinated manner since it is "no longer compatible" with the bloc's "enhanced climate ambition".
During a parliament vote in Strasbourg, 560 lawmakers gave the green light for a withdrawal, while 43 voted against and 27 ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Europe suffered record number of 'extreme heat stress' days in 2023: Monitors - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 22) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Extreme heat scorches Southeast Asia, bringing school closures and warnings - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 24) |
|
Apr 24 · Extreme heat scorched parts of South and Southeast Asia Wednesday, prompting schools across the Philippines to suspend classes, heat warnings in the Thai capital and worshippers in Bangladesh to pray for rain.
The high temperatures were recorded just a day after the United Nations said Asia was the region that suffered the most disasters from climate and weather hazards in 2023, with floods and storms the chief causes of casualties and economic losses.
Extensive scientific research has found climate change is causing heat waves to become longer, more frequent and more intense.
"It's so hot you can't breathe," said Erlin Tumaron, 60, who works at a Philippine ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Feedback loop that is melting ice shelves in West Antarctica revealed - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 22) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
From the coast to the deep sea, changing oxygen levels affect marine life in different ways - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Future hurricanes could compromise New England forests' ability to store and sequester carbon - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 24) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Heatstroke kills 30 in Thailand this year as kingdom bakes - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 25) |
|
Apr 25 · Thailand issued fresh warnings about scorching hot weather on Thursday as the government said heatstroke has already killed at least 30 people this year.
City authorities in Bangkok gave an extreme heat warning as the heat index was expected to rise above 52 degrees Celsius (125 degrees Fahrenheit).
Temperatures in the concrete sprawl of the Thai capital hit 40.1 C on Wednesday and similar levels were forecast for Thursday.
A wave of exceptionally hot weather has blasted parts of South and Southeast Asia this week, prompting schools across the Philippines to suspend classes and worshippers in Bangladesh to pray for rain.
The heat index - a measure of what the ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
High air pollution in Denmark may impact children's academic performance - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Highest-level rainstorm warning issued in south China's Guangdong - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
How creating less-gassy cows could help fight climate change - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
How light can vaporize water without the need for heat - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
How spicy does mustard get depending on the soil? - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 22) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
In Ecuadoran Amazon, butterflies provide a gauge of climate change - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 22) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Investigating the porosity of sedimentary rock with neutrons - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 22) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Japan's moon lander wasn't built to survive a weekslong lunar night. It's still going after 3 - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 24) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Lakes worldwide are facing a slew of health issues that may become chronic - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Laser-treated cork absorbs oil for carbon-neutral ocean cleanup - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Look to deadly Venus to find life in the universe, new paper argues - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 22) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Malians struggle to cope after deadly heat wave - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 21) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Mangrove blue carbon at higher risk of microplastic pollution - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 22) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Modeling broader effects of wildfires in Siberia - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 24) |
|
Apr 24 · The global effects of increasing wildfires in Siberia have been modeled by researchers at Hokkaido University and colleagues at the University of Tokyo and Kyushu University. The results, published in the journal Earth's Future, suggest significant and widespread effects on air quality, climate, health, and economics under the most extreme wildfire scenarios.
The authors performed global numerical simulation experiments to evaluate how the increased intensity of wildfires in Siberia would affect air quality, premature mortality, and economy through increased atmospheric aerosols (air pollution particles) under the present climate and near-future global warming ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
NASA's CloudSat ends mission peering into the heart of clouds - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
NASA's Voyager 1 resumes sending engineering updates to Earth - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 22) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Planet sees 10 straight months of record-breaking heat - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 21) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Planting trees in grasslands won't save the planet - instead, protect and restore forests - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Q&A: B.C.'s 2024 wildfire season has started - here's what to know - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 21) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Record electron temperatures for a small-scale, sheared-flow-stabilized Z-pinch fusion device achieved - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Research showcases Indigenous stewardship's role in forest ecosystem resilience - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 22) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Researchers develop forest extent map for Mexico - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Researchers find oldest undisputed evidence of Earth's magnetic field - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 24) |
|
Apr 24 · A new study, led by the University of Oxford and MIT, has recovered a 3.7-billion-year-old record of Earth's magnetic field, and found that it appears remarkably similar to the field surrounding Earth today. The findings have been published in the Journal of Geophysical Research.
Without its magnetic field, life on Earth would not be possible since this shields us from harmful cosmic radiation and charged particles emitted by the sun (the 'solar wind'). But up to now, there has been no reliable date for when the modern magnetic field was first established.
In the study, the researchers examined an ancient sequence of iron-containing rocks from Isua, Greenland. Iron ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Researchers uncover kinky metal alloy that won't crack at extreme temperatures at the atomic level - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 22) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Scientists demonstrate high-resolution lidar sees birth zone of cloud droplets, a first-ever remote observation - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 24) |
|
Apr 24 · "We are interested in this 'droplet activation zone,' where most cloud droplets are initially formed at the cloud base, because the number of droplets formed there will affect the later stages and properties of the cloud—including how much sunlight a cloud reflects and the likelihood of precipitation," said Brookhaven atmospheric scientist Fan Yang, the first author on the paper.
"If there are more aerosols in the atmosphere, clouds tend to have more droplets, but the droplets will each be smaller, which means they can reflect more sunlight," Yang said. "This might help to cool our warming Earth," he noted.
But to accurately predict the impacts of these ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Scientists map soil RNA to fungal genomes to understand forest ecosystems - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 24) |
|
Apr 24 · This way, the fungi of forest soils hold keys to tree health and carbon storage—skills that matter increasingly as the climate warms. However, these are complicated interactions to untangle. Fungi work in cooperation to support a forest, and species vary across Earth's ecosystems.
Recently, in work published in New Phytologist, researchers have pioneered new understanding of which fungi take on certain functions at the forest floor. For the first time, they compared three different fungal guilds in a range of different locations. They sampled soils in four forest ecosystems, extracted RNA to understand gene expression, and developed new tools to map that soil RNA to ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Shoreline model predicts long-term future of storm protection and sea-level rise - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 24) |
|
Apr 24 · "Coastal management strategies intended to protect people, property and infrastructure from storm impacts can, over decades, increase vulnerability, even leading to the loss of barrier islands, especially as sea-level rise rates increase," said A. Brad Murray, professor of geomorphology and coastal processes at Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment.
He and other researchers in North Carolina created a computer model that simulates dynamics of barrier island systems over the next two centuries, showing how natural processes that create and maintain these systems affect communities and infrastructure, and how human efforts to protect communities and ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Spintronics research shows material's magnetic properties can predict how a spin current changes with temperature - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Squids' birthday influences mating: Male spear squids shown to become 'sneakers' or 'consorts' depending on birth date - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
State's new law involving Puget Sound Energy aspires to set a course for the future - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Study shows it's not too late to save the West Antarctic Ice Sheet - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Talks on global plastic treaty begin in Canada - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
The big quantum chill: Scientists modify common lab refrigerator to cool faster with less energy - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
This ancient snake in India might have been longer than a school bus and weighed a ton - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 20) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Thousands in heatwave-hit Bangladesh pray for rain - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 24) |
|
Apr 24 · Thousands of Bangladeshis gathered to pray for rain on Wednesday in the middle of an extreme heat wave that prompted authorities to shut down schools around the country.
Extensive scientific research has found climate change is causing heat waves to become longer, more frequent and more intense.
Bangladesh's weather bureau says that average maximum temperatures in the capital Dhaka over the past week have been 4-5 degrees Celsius (7.2-9 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than the 30-year average for the same period.
Muslim worshippers gathered in city mosques and rural fields to pray for relief from the scorching heat, which forecasters expect to continue for at least ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Three dead, tens of thousands evacuated as storms strike south China - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 22) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Turning to nature to improve vital water treatment - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 22) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
UN launches fund to shield displaced people from climate shocks - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 24) |
|
Apr 24 · The United Nations said Wednesday it was launching a new Climate Resilience Fund aimed at boosting protections for "refugees and displaced communities" threatened by climate change.
The UN refugee agency said it aimed to raise $100 million for the new fund by the end of next year to support refugees, their host communities and countries of origin hardest hit by climate emergencies.
The agency highlighted in a statement that climate risks were "strongly correlated with conflict and poverty", experienced by many refugees.
In 2022, more than 70 percent of refugees and asylum seekers fled from highly climate-vulnerable countries, it pointed out.
"The impacts of ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Victims of China floods race to salvage property - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 24) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Warming climate is putting more metals into Colorado's mountain streams - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
When red-hot isn't enough: New government heat risk tool sets magenta as most dangerous level - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 23) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Why is methane seeping on Mars? NASA scientists have new ideas - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 22) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
World's oases threatened by desertification, even as humans expand them - PHYS.ORG - Earth (Apr 22) |
|
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 ...
|
|
PHYS.ORG - Technology:
|
|
|
Aerogel-based phase change materials improve thermal management, reduce microwave emissions in electronic devices - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 23) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Amazon sold a chemical that led to 15 deaths: Who is responsible? - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 22) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
An ultralow-concentration electrolyte for lithium-ion batteries - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 22) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Car giants vie for EV crown at Beijing's Auto China show - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 25) |
|
Apr 25 · Chinese car giants locked in a cut-throat price war descended on the capital for the start of the Auto China show Thursday, vying to draw consumers and headlines in the world's biggest electric vehicle market and abroad.
China's EV sector has exploded in recent years, and firms are now engaged in a no-holds-barred battle to offer customers the coolest accessories at the lowest prices.
EV makers from China have made inroads into markets from Europe to Southeast Asia and Tesla's Elon Musk described them in January as "the most competitive car companies in the world".
Beijing's Auto China show, which lasts until May 4, sees dozens of firms square off in a bid to draw ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Denmark launches its biggest offshore wind farm tender - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 22) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Energy-smart bricks keep waste out of landfill - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 23) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Honda to build major EV plant in Canada: govt source - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 23) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
How potatoes, corn and beans led to breakthrough in smart windows technology - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 23) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Ion thermoelectric conversion devices for near room temperature - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 22) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Italy fines Amazon over 'recurring' purchase option - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 24) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Microsoft and Amazon face scrutiny from UK competition watchdog over recent AI deals - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 24) |
|
Apr 24 · British competition regulators said Wednesday they'll scrutinize recent artificial intelligence deals by Microsoft and Amazon over concerns that the moves could thwart competition in the AI industry.
The Competition and Markets Authority said it's looking into Microsoft's partnership with France's Mistral AI and the company's hiring of key staff from another startup, Inflection AI. The watchdog also separately announced that it's investigating Amazon's $4 billion investment in San Francisco-based Anthropic.
Big Tech companies have been pouring money into generative AI startups amid growing public and business interest in the technology, but the investments have also ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
More support needed to help households transition to green energy, UK research concludes - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 23) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
New insights lead to better next-gen solar cells - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 24) |
|
Apr 24 · Saliba and Malekshahi reached out to researchers at the Molecular Foundry, a Department of Energy Office of Science user facility located at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).
Fast forward several months, and the Berkeley Lab team has applied a set of techniques to reveal changes in the crystalline structures of perovskite solar cell materials in real-time as they were being fabricated with Saliba's process. The results, published in a recent Advanced Materials paper, provide researchers with a deeper understanding of how to make better perovskite solar cells.
"Material fabrication is often a black box," said Carolin Sutter-Fella, a Molecular Foundry ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
New survey finds positive perceptions of solar projects - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 24) |
|
Apr 24 · Among these respondents, 42% support additional development in their community, compared to 18% who would oppose further projects. At the same time, more than 80% of the respondents were unaware of the project prior to construction and a third did not know until completing the survey.
Doug Bessette, associate professor for energy systems in the Department of Community Sustainability at Michigan State University's College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, was one of the leads on the project.
"The responses from residents were generally positive, which is good to see considering the amount of solar that is likely to be developed in the coming years," Bessette said. "At ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Plasma treatment enhances electrode material for fuel cells in industry, homes and vehicles - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 22) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Q&A: Could automation, electrification of long-haul trucking reduce environmental impacts? - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 22) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Researchers develop high-energy-density aqueous battery based on halogen multi-electron transfer - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 23) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Researchers propose a new method for wind turbine blade recycling - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 23) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Rubber-like stretchable energy storage device fabricated with laser precision - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 24) |
|
Apr 24 · The advent of wearable technology has brought with it a pressing need for energy storage solutions that can keep pace with the flexibility and stretchability of soft electronic devices. Micro supercapacitors (MSCs) have emerged as a promising candidate for deformable energy storage, due to high-power density, rapid charging, and long cycle life.
However, the fabrication of interdigitated electrode patterns capable of maintaining the energy storage performance under repeated stretching and twisting has remained a great challenge, because brittle materials like gold (Au) have been commonly used as an electrode. Meanwhile, though eutectic gallium-indium liquid metal (EGaIn) has ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Salt battery harvests osmotic energy where the river meets the sea - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 24) |
|
Apr 24 · Estuaries - where freshwater rivers meet the salty sea - are great locations for birdwatching and kayaking. In these areas, waters containing different salt concentrations mix and may be sources of sustainable, "blue" osmotic energy.
Osmotic energy can be generated anywhere salt gradients are found, but the available technologies to capture this renewable energy have room for improvement. One method uses an array of reverse electrodialysis (RED) membranes that act as a sort of "salt battery," generating electricity from pressure differences caused by the salt gradient.
To even out that gradient, positively charged ions from seawater, such as sodium, flow through the ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Securing competitiveness of energy-intensive industries through relocation: The pulling power of renewables - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 24) |
|
Apr 24 · This 'renewables pull' would create strong incentives for businesses to invest in low-emission production facilities in these renewable-rich countries. Renewable-scarce countries could put all focus on down-stream production and refinement as the smart way to secure industrial competitiveness.
"Our new study shows that renewable-scarce countries like parts of the EU, Japan and South Korea could save between 18 to 38 percent in production costs," explains Philipp Verpoort, scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and lead author of the study published in Nature Energy.
"They could do so by relocating their production of industrial basic ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Single-walled carbon nanotubes doped with 'nitrogen' enhance the performance of secondary battery anode - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 24) |
|
Apr 24 · Silicon, despite offering significantly higher energy density compared to graphite (a common anode material), suffers from a major drawback: it expands 3-4 times during charging and discharging, leading to performance degradation. To address this issue, researchers are blending silicon with graphite to balance their strengths and weaknesses.
To maximize silicon content and overcome its limitations, the Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI) has utilized nitrogen-doped single-walled carbon nanotubes and graphene. Single-walled carbon nanotubes, being thinner and more conductive than multi-walled ones, present challenges in dispersion due to their small diameter. ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Storing and utilizing energy with innovative sulfur-based cathodes - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 24) |
|
Apr 24 · Sulfur is a sustainable alternative to the materials commonly used in lithium-ion batteries because it is less toxic and—unlike cobalt—is abundant. However, the storage capacity of batteries in which sulfur is used as a cathode material has so far declined rapidly.
"Our development paves the way for sulfur electrodes as a viable alternative to conventional metal-based cathodes. It could fundamentally change the way we store and use energy and represents an important step towards a more sustainable future," explains Prof Bojdys.
Solving the sulfur-shuttle problem using polymer chemistry
With sulfur-based cathodes, the mobility of the sulfur has so far ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Study shows potential of super grids when hurricanes overshadow solar panels - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 24) |
|
Apr 24 · Caribbean islands are starting to shift away from importing expensive fossil fuels, using instead their own abundant sun and wind to make electricity. However, their frequent hurricanes can put a damper on solar energy generation. Researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory developed a comprehensive modeling method to predict the drop in electricity generation better when these storm clouds overshadow solar panels.
The team explored ways to compensate for these energy losses with super grids, a collection of grids connected so electricity can flow across island chains or between continents.
The historically underserved island residents can't ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Tesla 1Q profit falls 55%, but stock jumps as company moves to speed production of cheaper vehicles - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 24) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Tesla cuts the price of its 'Full Self Driving' system by a third to $8,000 - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 22) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Tesla driver in Seattle-area crash that killed motorcyclist told police he was using Autopilot - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 25) |
|
Apr 25 · A Tesla that may have been operating on the company's Autopilot driving system hit and killed a motorcyclist near Seattle, raising questions about whether a recent recall went far enough to ensure Tesla drivers using Autopilot pay attention to the road.
After the crash Friday in a suburban area about 15 miles (24 kilometers) northeast of the city, the driver of a 2022 Tesla Model S told a Washington State Patrol trooper that he was using Autopilot and looked at his cellphone while the Tesla was moving.
"The next thing he knew there was a bang and the vehicle lurched forward as it accelerated and collided with the motorcycle in front of him," the trooper wrote in a ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Tesla earnings a 'moment of truth' for Musk after stumbles - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 23) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Ultra-thin, flexible solar cells demonstrate their promise in a commercial quadcopter drone - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 24) |
|
Apr 24 · Conventional energy solutions—including fossil fuels, batteries and other alternative energy generation methods—have their challenges. For example, they are either often too large, require cables or stationary charging, negatively impact on the environment, or their power density is too low.
Ultra-thin and flexible solar cells made from a new material called "perovskite" are proving to be an efficient and lightweight solution to facilitate self-sufficient energy generation over extended periods of time.
As part of a groundbreaking development, researchers at the JKU have now succeeded in developing ultra-lightweight quasi-2D perovskite solar cells with an ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Using liquid metal to develop energy storage systems with 100 times better heat transfer - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 24) |
|
Apr 24 · From April 22 to 26, 2024, the researchers will present a model of their energy storage system at the KIT stand at the Energy Solutions (Hall 13, Stand C76) of the Hannover Messe.
Worldwide, high-temperature heat storage systems are being developed to supply resource-intensive production companies with heat independently of fluctuating renewable energy production. These storage systems convert electrical power into heat, which is then stored.
The heat is used if needed, for instance when electricity is expensive and production processes cannot be stopped. The higher the temperature stored, the better. This reduces the amount of additional energy that would be needed to ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Volkswagen revamps its approach in China in bid to overtake upstart EV makers - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 24) |
|
Apr 24 · As auto giant Volkswagen AG races to catch up with upstart Chinese competitors, it has drivers like 26-year-old Ren Yiling in mind.
She is young and wants to play video games in her car. The digital features of her Zeekr 001, a European-designed electric car from China's Geely Holding Group, appeal to her. She uses her smartphone to help her parents adjust their seats and tells an animated voice assistant to open the window or play music.
"I once sung karaoke in the car when travelling a long way with my family," she said. "To me, the car is more like an entertainment place. I am a singer."
Foreign automakers have been caught flat-footed in China by an electric ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Why Germany ditched nuclear before coal - and why it won't go back - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 24) |
|
Apr 24 · In the face of climate change, calls to expedite the transition away from fossil fuels, and an energy crisis precipitated by Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Berlin's move to quit nuclear before carbon-intensive energy sources like coal has attracted significant criticism. (Greta Thunberg prominently labeled it "a mistake.")
This decision can only be understood in the context of post-war socio-political developments in Germany, where anti-nuclearism predated the public climate discourse.
From a 1971 West German bestseller evocatively titled Peaceably into Catastrophe: A Documentation of Nuclear Power Plants, to huge protests of hundreds of thousands—including the ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Wind and solar in limbo: Long waitlists to get on the grid are a 'leading barrier' - PHYS.ORG - Technology (Apr 22) |
|
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 ...
|
|
Skeptical Science:
|
|
|
2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #16 - Skeptical Science (Apr 21) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
At a glance - The difference between weather and climate - Skeptical Science (Apr 23) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
New Research for Week #17 2024 - Skeptical Science (Apr 25) |
|
Apr 25 · Ice acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:
In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products hampers the detection of inland changes. In-situ measurements using stake surveys or GPS have lower uncertainties. To detect inland changes, we repeated in-situ measurements of ice-sheet surface velocities at 11 historical locations first measured in 1959, located upstream of Jakobshavn Isbræ, west Greenland. Here, we show ice velocities have ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Water is at the heart of farmers’ struggle to survive in Benin - Skeptical Science (Apr 24) |
|
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 ...
|
|
VOX -Environment:
|
|
|
Climate change is disrupting our sense of home - VOX -Environment (Apr 22) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|