Earth

"Cities have had little information with which to guide reductions in greenhouse gas emissions – and you can't reduce what you can't measure," said Kevin Gurney, an associate professor in ASU's School of Life Sciences, and senior scientist with the Global Institute of Sustainability. "With Hestia, we can provide cities with a complete, three-dimensional picture of where, when and how carbon dioxide emissions are occurring."

TEMPE, Ariz. - Arizona State University researchers have developed a new software system capable of estimating greenhouse gas emissions across entire urban landscapes, all the way down to roads and individual buildings. Until now, scientists quantified carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions at a much broader level.

WASHINGTON, October 8, 2012 — Smart phones almost as thin and flexible as paper and virtually unbreakable. Solar panels molded to cover the surface of an electric or hybrid car. Possible treatments for damaged spinal cords. It's not science fiction. Those all are possible applications of a material known as graphene. This so-called "wonder material," the world's strongest (100 times stronger than steel) and thinnest (one ounce would cover 28 football fields), is the focus of a new episode of the ChemMatters video series.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Carbon nanotubes offer a powerful new way to detect harmful gases in the environment. However, the methods typically used to build carbon nanotube sensors are hazardous and not suited for large-scale production.

Engineering faculty and students at the University of Colorado Boulder have produced the first experimental results showing that atomically thin graphene membranes with tiny pores can effectively and efficiently separate gas molecules through size-selective sieving.

The findings are a significant step toward the realization of more energy-efficient membranes for natural gas production and for reducing carbon dioxide emissions from power plant exhaust pipes.

The scientific analysis in this document shows that the research design of Séralini et al. contained fundamental shortcomings that preclude any sensible conclusions from being drawn. In other words, the statements that Séralini made about the health effects of GMOs and Roundup were baseless. Moreover, the research shows signs of selective interpretation of the findings or a misleading representation of these, which is contrary to prevailing scientific ethical standards.

Source: VIB (the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology)

Signs that are too small or unclear to consumers seem to be a growing national issue, leading some business owners to lose potential customers, according to University of Cincinnati Marketing Professor James Kellaris.

"This persistent, growing national problem is frustrating for consumers and can lead to loss of business and, by extension, loss of tax revenue for the community," Kellaris said.

Businesses and consumers may soon have a simple, cheaper way to store large amounts of digital data.

Case Western Reserve University researchers have developed technology aimed at making an optical disc that holds 1 to 2 terabytes of data – the equivalent of 1,000 to 2,000 copies of Encyclopedia Britannica. The entire print collection of the Library of Congress could fit on five to 10 discs.

Using demographic methods, ecologist Roberto Salguero-Gómez investigates desert plants to find out how vulnerable they are to climate change. The results of his newest study are surprising: Climate change may have a positive impact on some plants.

Climate models used by scientists to forecast the effect of climate change on the various ecosystems predict a bleak future for these regions: temperatures will rise, there will be less rain, and it will rain more erratically – all conditions seemingly unfavorable to plants.

Alexandria, VA – The Arctic is getting warmer and wetter. As temperatures rise and sea ice melts, scientists suspect that system feedback cycles may further speed up the warming process. Now, a new study out of the University of Colorado at Boulder is showing how shifting patterns of humidity may bring about changes in the Arctic atmosphere.

The fracture of materials is a very important issue for both structural and functional materials. Crack-tip behavior is among the most basic problems in fracture mechanics. Many theoretical and experimental investigations have been carried out to understand the effect of crack-tip deformation fields. However, direct nanoscale measurement of strain fields around the crack-tip has not yet been achieved, despite many years of research. Professors Zhao ChunWang and Xing YongMing from Inner Mongolia University of Technology set out to tackle this problem.

Researchers at the University of Twente, in the Netherlands, placed water droplets on a plate chilled to -20 degrees Celsius and captured images as a freezing front traveled up the droplet. The photos are published in the American Institute of Physics' (AIP) journal Physics of Fluids. The approximately 4-millimeter diameter droplets took about 20 seconds to freeze. During the final stage of freezing, the ice drop developed a pointy tip, as can be seen in Figure 1d. The effect, which is not observed for most other liquids, arises because water expands as it freezes.

Providing birth control to women at no cost substantially reduced unplanned pregnancies and cut abortion rates by 62 percent to 78 percent over the national rate, a new study shows.

The research, by investigators at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, appears online Oct. 4 in Obstetrics & Gynecology.

RICHMOND, Va. (Oct. 4, 2012) – A new study reveals that a significant amount of carbon released into the atmosphere from lakes and rivers in Southern Québec, Canada, is very old – approximately 1,000 to 3,000 years old – challenging the current models of long-term carbon storage in lakes and rivers.

The study in question has been carried out by a group of researchers at the Department of Biology at Lund University. The research team is specifically focusing on predictions regarding how our water resources will be like in the future, in terms of drinking water, recreation, fishing and biodiversity. They have now published findings on the impact of a warmer climate on lakes in the journal Nature Climate Change.