Earth

Freezing eggs or ovarian tissue for the sole purpose of delaying childbearing for social reasons may prove too costly for society, according to a recent analysis by a University of Illinois at Chicago researcher.

Fertility preservation -- freezing eggs or ovarian tissue -- was originally intended for women undergoing medical treatments that could affect their fertility.

WASHINGTON, March 14, 2012 — The latest episode in the American Chemical Society's (ACS) award-winning "Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions" podcast series describes the development of a new test that could help track down and prosecute terrorists.

Nearly four million Americans, occupying a combined area larger than the state of Maryland, find themselves at risk of severe flooding as sea levels rise in the coming century, new research suggests.

A new study, published today, 14 March, in IOP Publishing's journal Environmental Research Letters, asserts that around 32,000 km2 of US land lies within one vertical meter of the high tide line, encompassing 2.1 million housing units where 3.9 million people live.

DURHAM, N.H. – Researchers from the University of New Hampshire have found that many African farmers inaccurately perceive changes in climate and rainfall when compared with scientific data, highlighting the need for better climate information to assist them to improve farming practices.

China's groundwater irrigation system is responsible for polluting the atmosphere with more than 30 million tonnes of CO2 per year – according to research from the University of East Anglia.

Groundwater used for crop irrigation in China has grown from 10 billion cubic metres in 1950 to more than 100 billion today.

A research paper, published today in Environmental Research Letters, estimates that the pumping systems which support this immense irrigation network annually produce 33.1 MtCO2e (33.1 mega tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent).

There is better evidence for the effectiveness of drug-based approaches for relieving labour pains than non-drug approaches. These are the findings of an all-encompassing publishing in The Cochrane Library, which draws together results from a number of previous reviews on the subject.

These days graphene is the rock star of materials science, but it has an Achilles heel: It is exceptionally sensitive to its electrical environment.

STORRS, Conn. – The American public's growing skepticism in recent years about the existence of man-made global warming is rooted in apprehension about the troubled economy, a University of Connecticut study suggests.

Lyle Scruggs, associate professor of political science in UConn's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, says the public's belief in climate change dropped significantly as the economy dipped and unemployment climbed in the late 2000s.

Do a Google image search for "Greece." Before you find pictures of the Parthenon or Acropolis, you'll see several beautiful photos of Santorini, the picturesque island in the Aegean Sea. The British Broadcasting Company named it the world's best island in 2011. Santorini is a tourist magnet, famous for its breathtaking, cliff side views and sunsets.

"Bows and flows of angel hair, and ice cream castles in the air;" we've looked at clouds that way. But the interface between clouds and clear air isn't as well-defined as these imaginative shapes might lead us to believe. Detecting that hazy line can help scientists to better understand the processes that lead to cloud formation, which is important for good weather forecasts and climate modeling.

Using an experimental apparatus reminiscent of a classic Frankenstein movie, French researchers have coaxed laboratory-generated lightning into striking the same place, not just twice, but over and over. This feat of electrical reorientation used femtosecond (one quadrillionth of a second) pulses of laser light to create a virtual lightning rod out of a column of ionized gas. This is the first time that these laser-induced atmospheric filaments were able to redirect an electrical discharge away from its intended target and guide it to a normally less-attractive electrode.

More than one hundred years after the pioneering inventor Nikola Tesla first became fascinated with wireless energy transfer, the spread of mobile electronic devices has sparked renewed interest in the ability to power up without plugging in. Now researchers from Duke University in Durham, N.C., and the Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories in Cambridge, Mass., have proposed a way to enhance the efficiency of wireless power transfer systems by incorporating a lens made from a new class of artificial materials.

Boulder, Colo., USA - Highlights include several studies based in the U.S. Sierra Nevada, including a description of "magma fingers" and the formation of granite in the high Sierra crest near Yosemite National Park. Other studies investigate knickzones in the South Fork of the Eel River, California; the Rodgers Creek-Maacama fault system in the northern California Coast Ranges and its relation to the San Andreas fault; and the frequency and severity of destructive debris flows in the Pacific Northwest.

The earth's structure can be compared to an orange: its crust is the peel supported by the earth's heavy mantle. That peel is made up of a continental crust 30 to 40 kilometers thick. It is much lighter than the thinner oceanic crust and protrudes from the earth's mantle because of its lower density, like an iceberg in the sea. "According to the current theory, the first continental crusts were formed when tectonic plates would collide, submerging oceanic crusts into the earth's mantle, where they would partially melt at a depth of approximately 100 kilometers.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Advances in fuel-cell technology have been stymied by the inadequacy of metals studied as catalysts. The drawback to platinum, other than cost, is that it absorbs carbon monoxide in reactions involving fuel cells powered by organic materials like formic acid. A more recently tested metal, palladium, breaks down over time.