Earth

Many molecules have a chemical structure that is "chiral" - they come in two forms, each with an arrangement of atoms that are mirror images of each other.

These "right-handed" and "left-handed" arrangements, called enantiomers, are problematic for industries that make pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals.

Proteins and sugars in the human body exist in only one of the two enantiomers. Yet the catalytic reactions involved in making drugs often produce molecules with both the "right-handed" and "left-handed" arrangements.

ITHACA, N.Y. - While the human race will always leave its carbon footprint on the Earth, it must continue to find ways to lessen the impact of its fossil fuel consumption.

"Carbon capture" technologies - chemically trapping carbon dioxide before it is released into the atmosphere - is one approach. In a recent study, Cornell University researchers disclose a novel method for capturing the greenhouse gas and converting it to a useful product - while producing electrical energy.

SAN DIEGO, Calif. (Aug 3, 2016) -- Featured alongside the glamour and star power of the 88th Academy Awards was a potentially planet-saving performance: Leonardo DiCaprio used his Best Actor acceptance speech to advocate for action on climate change before 34.5 million live viewers.

New research published in PLOS ONE out of the San Diego State University Graduate School of Public Health finds that Tweets and Google searches about climate change set new record highs after DiCaprio's speech, even though coverage in traditional news media did not increase.

Kyoto, Japan -- When human and chimp infants are dozing, they sometimes show facial movements that resemble smiles. These facial expressions -- called spontaneous smiles -- are considered the evolutionary origin of real smiles and laughter.

Researchers at Kyoto University's Primate Research Institute show that this not only happens to higher-order primates like humans and chimpanzees, but also in newborn Japanese macaques, which are more distant relatives in the evolutionary tree.

In seeking the realization of the fusion reactor, research on confining high temperature and high density plasma in the magnetic field is being conducted around the world. One of the most important issues in realizing the power generation reactor is the problem that "turbulence," which is the turbulent flow of plasma, causes plasma confinement deterioration. When turbulence*1) exists, plasma with a high core temperature is expelled to outside the plasma, and the condition for producing fusion cannot be achieved.

Physicists at Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg and the Vienna University of Technology have successfully created one-dimensional magnetic atom chains for the first time. Their break-through provides a model system for basic research in areas such as magnetic data storage, as well as in chemistry. Their results were recently published in the renowned journal Physical Review Letters.

Earlier snowmelt periods associated with a warming climate may hinder subalpine forest regulation of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), according to the results of a new University of Colorado Boulder study.

The findings, which were recently published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, predict that this shift in the timing of the snowmelt could result in a 45 percent reduction of snowmelt period forest carbon uptake by mid-century.

Search and rescue operations in Nunavut have more than doubled over the past decade. In the communities of the vast northern Canadian territory, it's commonly felt that climate change is one factor making hunting riskier in the spring and fall.

A new study shows a strong link between environmental conditions and search and rescues cases across Nunavut, moving scientists closer to understanding the impact of climate change on Inuit.

Action figures of the Man of Steel are rarely made out of steel. They are, like seemingly everything in our lives, made of cheap, easy to mold plastic. But what if steel and other metals were as easy to work with as plastic?

DURHAM, NC -- Imagine pouring a glass of ice water and having the ice cubes remain unchanged hours later, even under a broiler's heat or in the very back corner of the freezer.

That's fundamentally the surprising discovery recently made by an international group of researchers led by an electrical engineering professor at Duke University in a paper published online in Nature Matter on July 25, 2016. But instead of a refreshing mixture of H2O in a pint glass, the researchers were working with the chemical element gallium on a nanoscopic scale.

Tropical Depression 10E formed on Aug. 2 around 5 p.m. EDT and strengthened into Tropical Storm Ivette 12 hours later at 5 a.m. EDT on Aug. 3. NOAA's GOES-West satellite spotted Ivette almost 900 miles southwest of the southern tip of Baja California, Mexico on Aug. 3.

The visible image from NOAA's GOES-West satellite from Aug. 3 at 11 a.m. EDT shows a concentrated ring of thunderstorms around the center of Tropical Storm Ivette and a band of thunderstorms west of the center.

MADISON, Wis. -- As climate changes and wildfires get larger, hotter and more frequent, how should public lands in the American West be managed to protect endangered creatures that, like the spotted owl, rely on fire-prone old-growth forests?

Could periodic forest thinning and prescribed burns intended to prevent dangerous "megafires" help conserve owls in the long run? Or are those benefits outweighed by their short-term harm to owls? The answer depends in part on just how big and bad the fires are, according to a new study.

The fifth tropical cyclone of the Atlantic Ocean hurricane season formed today in the Caribbean Sea. NOAA's GOES-East satellite provided a look at the storm as hurricane-hunter aircraft confirmed a closed circulation.

Tropical Storm Earl formed in the Caribbean Sea and is forecast to move west over the next couple of days. As a result, the government of Honduras has issued a tropical storm warning for the entire north coast of Honduras from Cabo Gracias a Dios westward to the Honduras-Guatemala border including the Bay Islands.

UPTON, NY-Scientists exploring the dynamic behavior of particles emerging from subatomic smashups at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC, https://www.bnl.gov/rhic/)-a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility for nuclear physics research at DOE's Brookhaven National Laboratory-are increasingly interested in the role of gluons. These glue-like particles ordinarily bind quarks within protons and neutrons, and appear to play an outsized role in establishing key particle properties.

TAMPA, Fla. (Aug. 3, 2016) - Florida, often recognized as the "lightning capital of the United States," is a great place to study the amount of energy released by a lightning strike. Just ask University of South Florida School of Geosciences Associate Professor Matthew Pasek and his colleague Marc Hurst of Independent Geological Sciences, Inc. who have developed a unique method to measure the amount energy expended by a bolt of cloud-to-ground lightning.