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Categories: Chemistry: Organic Chemistry, Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published Greener neighborhoods can protect us -- at the cellular level



A new study finds that greenspace -- the vegetation in a neighborhood's yards, parks and public spaces -- has a positive impact on a key genetic marker associated with exposure to stress. However, the study also finds that the positive impact of greenspace isn't enough to compensate for other environmental challenges, such as air pollution.
Published Germicidal UV lights could be producing indoor air pollutants, study finds



While useful for killing pathogens including SARS-CoV-2, 222-nanometer UV lights may produce harmful compounds in indoor spaces, and should be used with ventilation, researchers have found.
Published How to build greener data centers? Scientists say crank up the heat



Colder is not always better for energy-hungry data centers, especially when it comes to their power bills. A new analysis says that keeping the centers at 41°C, or around 105°F, could save up to 56% in cooling costs worldwide. The study proposes new temperature guidelines that may help develop and manage more efficient data centers and IT servers in the future.
Published Subalpine forests in the Northern Rockies are fire resilient--for now



Using lake sediment cores, scientists determined how these subalpine ecosystems recovered after 4,800 years of fire.
Published New recipe for efficient, environmentally friendly battery recycling



Researchers are now presenting a new and efficient way to recycle metals from spent electric car batteries. The method allows recovery of 100 per cent of the aluminum and 98 per cent of the lithium in electric car batteries. At the same time, the loss of valuable raw materials such as nickel, cobalt and manganese is minimized. No expensive or harmful chemicals are required in the process because the researchers use oxalic acid -- an organic acid that can be found in the plant kingdom.
Published Art with DNA -- Digitally creating 16 million colors by chemistry



The DNA double helix is composed of two DNA molecules whose sequences are complementary to each other. The stability of the duplex can be fine-tuned in the lab by controlling the amount and location of imperfect complementary sequences. Fluorescent markers bound to one of the matching DNA strands make the duplex visible, and fluorescence intensity increases with increasing duplex stability. Now, researchers have succeeded in creating fluorescent duplexes that can generate any of 16 million colors -- a work that surpasses the previous 256 colors limitation. This very large palette can be used to 'paint' with DNA and to accurately reproduce any digital image on a miniature 2D surface with 24-bit color depth.
Published How to help save plants from extinction



Now is the time to identify the conditions that cause plants to die. Doing so will allow us to better protect plants by choosing conservation targets more strategically, botanists argue.
Published Ocean circulation, ice melt and increasing tourism could all be contributing to Arctic microplastics



Scientists measured microplastic concentrations in the highly productive Barents Sea and suggest that ocean circulation, ice melt, tourism, inadequate waste management, shipping and fishing are all likely contributors.
Published Research finds water quality in Gulf of Mexico improves when adding social costs to carbon emissions



Researchers took a closer look at what would happen to agriculture if there was an extra cost, or so-called social cost, added to fossil fuels, which are essential for making fertilizer used in farming. They found that while CO2 emissions would decline by as much as 50%, the cost of fertilizer would rise leading to a significant benefit on water quality by lessening fertilizer runoff contributing to the Gulf of Mexico's dead zone.
Published World may have crossed solar power 'tipping point'



The world may have crossed a 'tipping point' that will inevitably make solar power our main source of energy, new research suggests.
Published Decontamination method zaps pollutants from soil



A rapid, high-heat electrothermal soil remediation process flushes out both organic pollutants and heavy metals in seconds without damaging soil fertility.
Published Climate network analysis helps pinpoint regions at higher risk of extreme weather



Climate change and the rapid increase in frequency of extreme weather events around the globe reinforces the reality that these events are interconnected. Researchers now describe a climate network analysis method to explore the intensity, distribution, and evolution of this interlinked climate behavior, or teleconnections. The analysis combines the directions and distribution patterns of teleconnections to evaluate their intensity and to identify sensitive regions using global daily surface air temperature data. The method relies on advanced data processing and mathematical algorithms to find meaningful insights.
Published Novel hydrogel finds new aptamers, or 'chemical antibodies,' in days



A new method uses a hydrogel -- a polymer network that holds its shape and can expand when it takes in a large amount of water -- to retain 'high-affinity,' or well-fitting, aptamers while the rest of the aptamer candidates leave the gel in 60 hours.
Published Unique marimo threatened by rising lake temperatures



Rising lake water temperatures threaten the survival of marimo, unique algal balls found only in cold lakes. Researchers clarified that the warmer it gets, the more the inward decomposition outpaces the outward growth of these life forms, making them increasingly fragile.
Published Researchers develop organic nanozymes suitable for agricultural use



Nanozymes are synthetic materials that mimic the properties of natural enzymes for applications in biomedicine and chemical engineering. They are generally considered too toxic and expensive for use in agriculture and food science. Now, researchers have developed a nanozyme that is organic, non-toxic, environmentally friendly, and cost effective.
Published Signatures of the Space Age: Spacecraft metals left in the wake of humanity's path to the stars



Using tools hitched to the nose cone of their research planes and sampling more than 11 miles above the planet's surface, researchers have discovered significant amounts of metals in aerosols in the atmosphere, likely from increasingly frequent launches and returns of spacecraft and satellites. That mass of metal is changing atmospheric chemistry in ways that may impact Earth's atmosphere and ozone layer.
Published Ice sheet surface melt is accelerating in Greenland and slowing in Antarctica



Surface ice in Greenland has been melting at an increasing rate in recent decades, while the trend in Antarctica has moved in the opposite direction, according to researchers.
Published Marine bacteria take a bite at plastic pollution



A bacterium found in the sea can degrade a plastic that otherwise resists microbial breakdown in marine environments.
Published More sustainable agriculture by global redistribution of nitrogen fertilizer



The growing global population needs sufficient food. Its production causes overfertilization and increased nitrogen concentration in agriculture, which negatively affects the population, climate, and ecosystems. According to new models, however, today's crop production might be maintained with a far smaller global fertilizer consumption, if nitrogen fertilizer would be used more homogeneously across global croplands.
Published New study confirms presence of flesh-eating and illness-causing bacteria in Florida's coastal waters following Hurricane Ian



When Hurricane Ian struck southwest Florida in September 2022, it unleashed a variety of Vibrio bacteria that can cause illness and death in humans, according to a new study.