Earth

Whether it is in catalytic processes in the chemical industry, environmental catalysis, new types of solar cells or new electronic components, nanoparticles are everywhere in modern production and environmental technologies, where their unique properties ensure efficiency and save resources. The special properties of nanoparticles often arise from a chemical interaction with the support material that they are placed on. Such interactions often change the electronic structure of the nanoparticle because electrical charge is exchanged between the particle and the support.

The growth of mountain ranges on New Zealand's South Island directly influenced the evolution of different freshwater fish species in the region, according to new University of Otago-led research.

The findings are published online this week in Nature Geoscience.

The study provides an example of how natural changes in the Earth's landscape and topography can help shape and increase local biodiversity.

Topological insulators are materials that let electric current flow across their surface while keeping it from passing it through their bulk. This exotic property makes topological insulators very promising for electricity with less energy loss, spintronics, and perhaps even quantum computing. EPFL scientists have now identified a new class of topological insulators, and have discovered its first representative material, which could propel topological insulators into applications.

Scientists have discovered enhanced weathering of rock could counter man-made fossil fuel CO2 emissions and help to protect our oceans.

An international team, led by researchers from the University of Sheffield, found that speeding up the naturally occurring process of the weathering of rock to draw CO2 out of the atmosphere could help to significantly stabilise the climate and avert ocean acidification caused by humans burning fossil fuels.

Contrary to recent headlines -- and a talk by actor Arnold Schwarzenegger at the United Nations Paris Climate Change Conference -- eating a vegetarian diet could contribute to climate change.

New study by geologist Christoph Korte from University of Copenhagen, Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, provides documentation to explain a previously not understood major change in temperature during the Jurassic.

If light is able to propagate from left to right, the opposite direction is usually allowed as well. A beam of light can normally be sent back to its point of origin, just by reflecting it on a mirror. Researchers at TU Wien have developed a new device for breaking this rule. Just like in an electrical diode, which allows current to pass only in one direction, this glass fibre-based device transmits light only in one direction. The one-way-rule holds even if the pulse of light that passes through the fibre consists of only a few photons.

Radiation therapy: A chilling word that creates images of burn-injuries where the cancer killing ray went through the skin. For decades research hospitals have been investigating the alternative method Hadron therapy, or particle therapy, where runaway cells are bombarded with "naked" atomic nuclei or protons. When the particles pass through sick cells the collision creates chemical reactions preventing further cell division. Now researchers at the Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen, have discovered an unknown reaction caused by the therapy.

New hydrophone surveys of migration gateways to the Arctic show that recent extremes in sea ice loss has opened new waters to humpback and fin whales that once ranged through the far north only in summer. And as climate change drives the ice into further retreat, such "summer" species may begin competing with bowhead whales that once had the habitat to themselves, according to research presented at the Society of Marine Mammalogy's Biennial Conference in San Francisco this week.

Berkeley, Calif. -- The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) dark matter experiment, which operates nearly a mile underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in the Black Hills of South Dakota, has already proven itself to be the most sensitive detector in the hunt for dark matter, the unseen stuff believed to account for most of the matter in the universe. Now, a new set of calibration techniques employed by LUX scientists has again dramatically improved the detector's sensitivity.

Electrical engineers at the University of California, San Diego developed a receiver that can detect a weak, fast, randomly occurring signal. The study, published in the Dec. 11 issue of Science, lays the groundwork for a new class of highly sensitive communication receivers and scientific instruments that can extract faint, non-repetitive signals from noise. The advance has applications in secure communication, electronic warfare, signal intelligence, remote sensing, astronomy and spectroscopy.

Chemists at Princeton have developed a new chemical method to introduce valuable alkenes into simple hydrocarbon molecules, a transformation known as dehydrogenation, which is found in important processes such as the biosynthesis of essential fatty acids in the body and the commercial production of detergents.

Alexandria, VA - Next week at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, geoscientists will be meeting to discuss findings from the April 2015 Gorkha Earthquake, which devastated Nepal and killed approximately 8,900 people. EARTH Magazine brings you a special feature that describes how initial data informed relief efforts and a community ranging from mountaineers to geophysicists to engineers is helping Nepal rebuild.

Scientists are studying past changes in sea level in order to make accurate future predictions of this consequence of climate change, and they're looking down to Earth's core to do so. "In order to fully understand the sea-level change that has occurred in the past century, we need to understand the dynamics of the flow in Earth's core" says Mathieu Dumberry, a professor in physics at the University of Alberta.

Pioneering new research has shed new light on the causes behind an 'ice-age' that took place on Earth around 170 million years ago.

An international team of experts, including researchers from the Camborne School of Mines, have found evidence of a large and abrupt cooling of the Earth's temperature during the Jurassic Period, which lasted millions of years.