Earth

Chemists at UC San Diego have developed a new tool that allows scientists for the first time to see, at the scale of five billionths of a meter, "nanoscale" mixing processes occurring in liquids.

Predictions from quantum physics have been confirmed by countless experiments, but no one has yet detected the quantum physical effect of entanglement directly with the naked eye. This should now be possible thanks to an experiment proposed by a team around a theoretical physicist at the University of Basel. The experiment might pave the way for new applications in quantum physics.

Nature shows how to do it: Photosynthesis is a process used by plants to create energy-rich organic compounds, usually in the form of carbohydrates, and oxygen (O2) from carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O) driven by light. If we succeeded in mimicking this process on a large scale, numerous problems of humanity would probably be solved. Artificial photosynthesis could supply the Earth with fuels of high energy density such as hydrogen, methane or methanol while reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere and slowing down climate change.

"Vortex" is a common phenomenon in nature from tornado to turbulence, for example turbulence is a vortex buildup process (Figure 1). Investigators have realized that turbulence is not a purely stochastic process, but a process with coherent vortical structures which play a decisive role in fluid dynamics and energy transport. Therefore, accurate visualization of vortices from huge amount of data obtained by experiments and numerical simulations becomes a key issue to solve the turbulence which is a century-long scientific problem.

(Chapel Hill, N.C. - May 3, 2016) - The southeastern United States should, by all means, be relatively quiet in terms of seismic activity. It's located in the interior of the North American Plate, far away from plate boundaries where earthquakes usually occur. But the area has seen some notable seismic events - most recently, the 2011 magnitude-5.8 earthquake near Mineral, Virginia that shook the nation's capital.

BINGHAMTON, NY - With documented public water problems in Flint, Mich., and Hoosick Falls, N.Y., caused by corrosion, understanding how copper is affected at the atomic level is critical to avoiding problems in future pipes. Corrosion-related damage costs more than three percent of the United States' Gross Domestic Product (about $503.1 billion, going by 2013 numbers).

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have challenged understanding of a key element in fusion plasmas. At issue has been an accurate prediction of the size of the "bootstrap current" -- a self-generating electric current -- and an understanding of what carries the current at the edge of plasmas in doughnut-shaped facilities called tokamaks.

Scientists at the Swiss Nanoscience Institute and the Department of Physics at the University of Basel have developed a new method that has enabled them to image magnetic fields on the nanometer scale at temperatures close to absolute zero for the first time. They used spins in special diamonds as quantum sensors in a new kind of microscope to generate images of magnetic fields in superconductors with unrivalled precision. In this way the researchers were able to perform measurements that permit new insights in solid state physics, as they report in Nature Nanotechnology.

Influence of sea-ice loss on Arctic warming is shaped by varying temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, new study shows

The crucial role that sea-ice loss plays in rapid Arctic warming is regulated by variable climate patterns taking place in the Pacific Ocean, a pioneering new study has found.

The Arctic amplification phenomenon refers to the faster rate of warming in the Arctic compared to places farther south. Arctic amplification has been linked to a spike in the number of persistent cold spells experienced in recent years over Europe and North America.

Groundwater extraction and other land water contribute about three times less to sea level rise than previous estimates, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change. The study does not change the overall picture of future sea level rise, but provides a much more accurate understanding of the interactions between water on land, in the atmosphere, and the oceans, which could help to improve future models of sea level rise.

Algaculture or algae farming, like any form of agriculture, is highly sensitive to fertilizer costs. A major roadblock to commercial algae farming is efficient utilization of volatile nutrients, specifically ammonia and carbon dioxide (CO2), to feed the algae being farmed. Currently, society produces large quantities of waste streams in the air and water that are not being efficiently treated or not treated at all.

In many parts of the world, grass and forest fires pose a threat to animals and humans. According to a new study from Lund University in Sweden, while climate change is likely to cause more and larger fires, in the future, more and more people will become directly affected as a result of demographic changes.

Alexandria, VA - EARTH Magazine plunges into the depths of the ocean with scientists seeking whether Earth's climate and sea-level history are intrinsically linked with tectonics at mid-ocean ridges. Since these ridges are not as well studied as terrestrial volcanoes, largely given the challenge to access them, teams of researchers are using tectonic models, evidence from high-resolution mapping of different spreading ridges and sediment cores to examine the evidence.

A group of researchers at Okayama University and Osaka University, Japan examined the state of the surface of apparently fixed powder beds in which air weak enough not to move the powder is injected, and observed anomalous sinking phenomena, a world first.

The Rök Runestone, erected in the late 800s in the Swedish province of Östergötland, is the world's most well-known runestone. Its long inscription has seemed impossible to understand, despite the fact that it is relatively easy to read. A new interpretation of the inscription has now been presented - an interpretation that breaks completely with a century-old interpretative tradition. What has previously been understood as references to heroic feats, kings and wars in fact seems to refer to the monument itself.