The Eurasian ice sheet was an enormous conveyor of ice that covered most of northern Europe some 23,000 years ago. Its extent was such that one could have skied 4,500 km continuously across it – from the far southwestern isles in Britain to Franz Josef Land in the Siberian Arctic. Suffice to say its existence […]
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Scientists have developed a new recipe for creating synthesis gas mixtures, or syngas, that involves adding a pinch of copper atoms sprinkled atop a gold surface. The new material supports a room-temperature electrochemical reaction that can convert carbon dioxide and water into syngas, a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, and an important precursor […]
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Global solar energy production is taking a major hit due to air pollution and dust. According to a new study, airborne particles and their accumulation on solar cells are cutting energy output by more than 25 percent in certain parts of the world. The regions hardest hit are also those investing the most in solar […]
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Taking inspiration from an unusual source, a Sandia National Laboratories team has dramatically improved the science of scintillators — objects that detect nuclear threats. According to the team, using organic glass scintillators could soon make it even harder to smuggle nuclear materials through America’s ports and borders. The Sandia Labs team developed a scintillator made […]
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California almond farmers who depend on commercial bee hives to pollinate their lucrative crops would benefit from increased efforts to protect essential bee foraging territory in northern prairie states, according a University of California, Berkeley, researcher. A new paper, published this week in the journal Land Use Policy, shows that a government program that pays farmers to […]
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Electric vehicles play a key role in China’s plan to improve air quality and reduce CO2 emissions but, with the majority of China’s electricity still coming from coal-fired power plants, many question just how effective this strategy will be. Now, researchers from Harvard University and Tsinghua University in Beijing found that private electric vehicles in […]
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The Central Valley’s heavy wintertime tule fog – known for snarling traffic and closing schools — has been on the decline over the past 30 years, and falling levels of air pollution are the cause, says a new study by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley. Tule fog, named for a sedge grass that […]
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Industrial fishing fleets dump nearly 10 million tonnes of good fish back into the ocean every year, according to new research. The study by researchers with Sea Around Us, an initiative at the University of British Columbia’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries and the University of Western Australia, reveals that almost 10 per cent […]
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Harmful algal blooms pose a unique toxic threat in Lake Erie’s central basin, new research has found. Not only do blooms routinely occur in this area, they can also produce types of cyanobacterial toxins that aren’t typically detected through routine water-safety monitoring, according to a study published in the Journal of Great Lakes Research. “The cyanobacteria we […]
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Efforts to create an environmentally friendly catalyst that will lower the cost and increase the efficiency in producing bio-based jet fuels has netted Washington State University researchers a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and National Institute of Food and Agriculture. WSU Tri-Cities associate professor Hanwu Lei and his research team aim to develop […]
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