Earth

More than 300 eminent scientists from 21 other countries around the world today urged the Australian Federal Government to create the world's largest no-take marine reserve in the Coral Sea.

As scientists warn that the Earth is on the brink of a period of mass extinctions, they are struggling to identify ecosystem responses to environmental change. But to truly understand these responses, more information is needed about how the Earth's staggering diversity of species originated.

Curiously, a vexing modeling mystery has stymied research on this topic: mathematical models have told us that complex ecosystems, such as jungles, deserts and coral reefs, in which species coexist and interact with another, cannot persist--even though they obviously do.

Washington, D.C. — Superconductivity is a rare physical state in which matter is able to conduct electricity—maintain a flow of electrons—without any resistance. This phenomenon can only be found in certain materials at low temperatures, or can be induced under chemical and high external pressure conditions. Research to create superconductors at higher temperatures has been ongoing for two decades with the promise of significant impact on electrical transmission.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – The first anniversary is approaching of the March, 2011, earthquake and tsunami that devastated Fukushima, Japan, and later this year debris from that event should begin to wash up on U.S. shores – and one question many have asked is whether that will pose a radiation risk.

The simple answer is, no.

New research has established the "miracle material" called graphene as the world's thinnest known coating for protecting metals against corrosion. Their study on this potential new use of graphene appears in ACS Nano.

A mysterious cycle of booms and busts in marine biodiversity over the past 500 million years could be tied to a periodic uplifting of the world's continents, scientists report in the March issue of The Journal of Geology.

Deep-diving ocean "gliders" have revealed the journey of Bass Strait water from the Tasman Sea to the Indian Ocean.

Deployed in 2010 and 2011, the gliders have also profiled a 200-metre tall wall of water at the core of long-lived ocean eddies formed from the East Australian Current.The study, by University of Technology Sydney and CSIRO oceanographers, revealed the value of new sensors being deployed by Australia's Integrated Marine Observing System.

MMV and partners have completed the first-ever comparative analysis of all currently available and in-development antimalarials in terms of the steps they target in the parasite's lifecycle. This information provides the missing pieces of the puzzle needed to develop future medicines able to block transmission of the parasite from person to person.

RENO, Nev. – The March 11, 2011 Tohoku earthquake is a grim reminder of the potential for another strong-motion mega-earthquake along the Pacific Northwest coast, geophysicist John Anderson of the University of Nevada, Reno told members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in a lecture at their annual conference in Vancouver, B.C. Sunday.

Three years ago Professor Christian Pfleiderer and his team from the physics department at the TUM discovered an entirely new magnetic structure in a silicon manganese crystal – a grid of magnetic eddies. Together with the team of Professor Achim Rosch from the University of Cologne, he studied the properties of these eddies, so-called skyrmions, named after the British physicist Tony Skyrme, who predicted their existence 50 years ago.

PHILADELPHIA (February 20, 2012) — Drexel engineers have found a way to improve upon ordinary Portland cement (OPC), the glue that's bonded much of the world's construction since the late 1800s. In research recently published in Cement and Concrete Composites the group served up a recipe for cement that is more energy efficient and cost effective to produce than masonry's most prevalent bonding compound.

Alexandria, VA – Throughout the Zamfara region in northwestern Nigeria, children are dying at an alarming rate. What exactly could be causing such an epidemic? The answer lies in the unique geology.

Lead-rich gold ores permeate the area, and mining them provides critical income for many families in need. Families get by on small-scale artisanal level mining, which, in turn, exposes them to lead poisoning. With the rising value of gold, villagers must weigh the socioeconomic impacts against the lethal health repercussions.

Human activity is likely a greater threat to coastal groundwater used for drinking water supplies than rising sea levels from climate change, according to a study conducted by geoscientists from the University of Saskatchewan and McGill University in Montreal.

New clues as to how the Earth's remote ecosystems have been influenced by the Industrial Revolution are frozen in glaciers, according to a paper in the March issue of Nature Geoscience.

"Remote regions are often perceived as being pristine and devoid of human influence," said Aron Stubbins, the study's lead author and an assistant professor at the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography. "Glaciers show us that burning fuels has an impact upon the natural functioning of ecosystems far removed from industrial activity."

Thawing permafrost will have far-reaching ramifications for populated areas, infrastructure and ecosystems. A geographer from the University of Zurich reveals where it is important to confront the issue based on new permafrost maps -- the most precise global maps around. They depict the global distribution of permafrost in high-resolution images and are available on Google Earth.