Earth

Earlier annual snowmelt periods may hinder the ability of forests to regulate atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), according to the results of a new study.

The findings, published in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union, predict that this shift in snowmelt timing each spring could result in a 45 percent reduction of snowmelt period forest carbon by mid-century.

For chemists like Sarah Reisman, professor of chemistry at Caltech, synthesizing molecules is like designing your own jigsaw puzzle. You know what the solved puzzle looks like--the molecule--and your job is to figure out the best pieces to use to put it together.

"We look at the molecule we want to build and think about how to cut it up into pieces. When we are in the lab, the question is: do your puzzle pieces go back together?" says Reisman.

WASHINGTON - Increasing energy demands and expanding industrial and agricultural activities worldwide are changing the composition of the atmosphere and contributing to major global challenges like climate change and air pollution. The study of atmospheric chemistry plays a key role in understanding and responding to these challenges, and research in this field has been successful in guiding policies to improve air quality in urban areas and reduce acid rain and stratospheric ozone depletion.

Creating "a star in a jar" - replicating on Earth the way the sun and stars create energy through fusion - requires a "jar" that can contain superhot plasma and is low-cost enough to be built around the world. Such a device would provide humankind with near limitless energy, ending dependence on fossil fuels for generating electricity.

In-depth review charts the scientific understanding of rainbows and highlights the many practical applications of this fascinating interaction between light, liquid and gas.

There's more to rainbows than meets the eye. Knowledge gained from studying these multicoloured arcs of scattered light can be incredibly useful in ways that may not immediately spring to mind. Rainbow effects can warn of chemical contamination in the atmosphere, help to develop more efficient combustion engines and possibly even provide insight into the mechanics of reinforced concrete.

Using a detection network based in Japan, scientists have uncovered a rare type of deep-earth tremor that they attribute to a distant North Atlantic storm called a "weather bomb." The discovery marks the first time scientists have observed this particular tremor, known as an S wave microseism. And, as Peter Gerstoft and Peter D. Bromirski write in a related Perspective, their observation "gives seismologists a new tool with which to study Earth's deeper structure," one that will contribute to a clearer picture of Earth's movements, even those originating from the atmosphere-ocean system.

The inventors of one of the most versatile tools in modern science - the atomic force microscope, or AFM - tell their story in an interview published online this week. The AFM was invented in the mid 1980s by Gerd Binnig, Christoph Gerber and Calvin Quate, three physicists who are sharing the 2016 Kavli Prize in Nanoscience.

Binnig and Gerber discuss their inspiration for the device, how they solved problems through sport, and why their invention continues to propel science at the nanoscale.

GALVESTON, Texas - Many teens experience physical or sexual abuse within their romantic relationships and now dating violence can also be perpetrated digitally by harassing, stalking or controlling a romantic partner via technology and social media.

Chestnut Hill, Mass. (8/25/2016) - The pursuit of next-generation technologies places a premium on producing increased speed and efficiency with components built at scales small enough to function on a computer chip.

One of the barriers to advances in "on-chip" communications is the size of the electromagnetic waves at radio and microwave frequencies, which form the backbone of modern wireless technology. The relatively large waves handcuff further miniaturization.

Japan -- Not too shabby, humans. New research shows that certain primate stem cells have pluripotency superior to some types derived from mice. The study, published in Nature, maps how pluripotency differs among mice, monkeys, and humans, and illustrates for the first time a developmental counterpart of primate stem cells.

"We identified a gene set useful for predicting the properties of human and monkey pluripotent stem cells, breaking new ground for studies that utilize human cells," says study author Mitinori Saitou.

The magnetocaloric effect (MCE) is manifested in cooling or heating of the magnetic material (a material having magnetic properties) in an external magnetic field. This phenomenon was first discovered in the 19th century, but the first theoretical justification was obtained some 40 years later. During the last decades MCE has been thoroughly studied, and in recent years one can observe a real boom of the reports devoted to this phenomenon.

TORONTO, ON - Every year, humans advance climate change and global warming - and quite likely our own eventual extinction - by injecting about 30 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

A team of scientists from the University of Toronto (U of T) believes they've found a way to convert all these emissions into energy-rich fuel in a carbon-neutral cycle that uses a very abundant natural resource: silicon. Silicon, readily available in sand, is the seventh most-abundant element in the universe and the second most-abundant element in the earth's crust.

A team of scientists from the National Space Institute at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU Space) and the Racah Institute of Physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has linked large solar eruptions to changes in Earth's cloud cover in a study based on over 25 years of satellite observations.

Objective measurements of storm intensity show that North Atlantic hurricanes have grown more destructive in recent decades. But coastal residents' views on the matter depend less on scientific fact and more on their gender, belief in climate change and recent experience with hurricanes, according to a new study by researchers at Princeton University, Auburn University-Montgomery, the Louisiana State University and Texas A&M University.

An international research project has found human activity has been causing global warming for almost two centuries, proving human-induced climate change is not just a 20th century phenomenon.

Lead researcher Associate Professor Nerilie Abram from The Australian National University (ANU) said the study found warming began during the early stages of the Industrial Revolution and is first detectable in the Arctic and tropical oceans around the 1830s, much earlier than scientists had expected.