Earth

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- University at Buffalo physicists are among researchers engaged in one of modern history's most exciting scientific endeavors: The hunt for the elusive Higgs boson, a subatomic particle that could help explain why objects have mass.

The particle is the last particle in the Standard Model of particle physics that scientists have yet to observe conclusively. If discovered, the Higgs boson would help validate the model, which describes how particles and forces interact with one another. The model enables physicists to describe how the world around us works.

A study carried out by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland indicates that extreme weather conditions cost EU transport system at least €15 billion a year. Currently, the greatest costs incurred are from road accidents, with the associated material damage and psychological suffering. However, costs arising from accidents are expected to decrease in volume, though time-related costs attributable to delays are projected to increase. In part, this is due to climate change, whose impact on extreme weather phenomena was addressed in the study, and because of consequent costs.

When evaluating the historic contributions made by different countries to the greenhouse gases found in Earth's atmosphere, researchers generally go back no further than the year 1840, because that is when the Industrial Age was large enough to matter. New research from Carnegie's Julia Pongratz and Ken Caldeira says that carbon dioxide contributions from the pre-industrial era are still having an impact on our climate today.

A climate model accounting for the carbon dioxide (CO2) released into our atmosphere before the industrial revolution has been used to show the detrimental effect of carbon emissions on global temperature in the long-term.

In a study published today, 4 July, in IOP Publishing's journal Environmental Research Letters, researchers from the Carnegie Institution for Science have shown that pre-industrial emissions from land use changes are responsible for about nine per cent of the increase in today's global mean temperature since that era.

The Sustainable Consumption Institute research claims food which families now take for granted, such as meat and fresh vegetables, could become too expensive for many if global temperatures rise in line with the current trends and reach 4°C within the lifetime of many people.

Even if families continue to take steps to lower their carbon emissions from energy use, global farming emissions will continue to rise because of our growing appetite for energy-intensive foods and a rising demand to meet just basic living standards across the world.

In this week's PLoS Medicine, David Osrin of the UCL Institute of Child Health, UK and colleagues report findings from a cluster-randomized trial conducted in Mumbai slums that aimed to evaluate whether facilitator-supported women's groups could improve perinatal outcomes.

A newly published article in Physical Review Letters eliminates one of the top unsolved theoretical problems in chemical physics as ranked by the National Research Council in 1995. Scientists now can more accurately predict the dynamic behavior of electrons in atoms and molecules in chemical reactions that govern a wide range of phenomena, including the fuel efficiency of combustion engines and the depletion of the atmospheric ozone.

In an international scientific breakthrough, a Griffith University research team has been able to photograph the shadow of a single atom for the first time.

"We have reached the extreme limit of microscopy; you can not see anything smaller than an atom using visible light," Professor Dave Kielpinski of Griffith University's Centre for Quantum Dynamics in Brisbane, Australia.

"We wanted to investigate how few atoms are required to cast a shadow and we proved it takes just one," Kielpinski said.

WASHINGTON, July 3, 2012 — From the hiss of the fuse to the boom and burst of colors, an American Chemical Society (ACS) video, available again this year, explains the science behind the exciting sights and sounds of Fourth of July fireworks. The video is available at www.BytesizeScience.com.

MANHATTAN, KAN. -- A Kansas State University-led quantum mechanics study has discovered a new bound state in atoms that may help scientists better understand matter and its composition.

Tree ring and oxygen isotope data from the U.S. Pacific Northwest do not provide the same information on past precipitation, but rather than causing a problem, the differing results are a good thing, according to a team of geologists.

The researchers are trying to understand the larger spatial patterns and timing of drought in the arid and semiarid areas of the American West.

Researchers at the University of Bristol with collaborators from ETH-Zurich have shown that the rate of condensation of water on organic aerosol particles in the atmosphere can be very slow, taking many hours for a particle to change in size. This could have significant consequences for understanding how clouds are formed, affecting climate.

PITTSBURGH-- Through an exploration of tree rings and oxygen isotopes, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh are now able to better pinpoint the history of droughts in the arid and semiarid areas of the American West.

COLUMBIA, Mo. --Black men, especially those living in low-income, urban areas, face many societal stressors, including racial discrimination, incarceration and poverty. In addition, these men have poorer health outcomes. Now, a University of Missouri faculty member has studied these men's efforts to negotiate social environments that are not designed to help them attain good health and success.