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Categories: Engineering: Nanotechnology, Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published Detecting the impact of drought on plants with user-friendly and inexpensive techniques
(via sciencedaily.com) Climate change is aggravating the impact of droughts -- one of the factors that only affect plant physiology -- on all plant ecosystems worldwide. Although new tools have been developed to detect and assess drought stress in plants -- transcriptomic or metabolomic technologies, etc. -- they are still difficult to apply in natural ecosystems, especially in remote areas and developing countries.
Published Enhanced arsenic detection in water, food, soil
(via sciencedaily.com) Scientists fabricate sensitive nanostructured silver surfaces to detect arsenic, even at very low concentrations. The sensors make use of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy: As a molecule containing arsenic adheres to the surface, it's hit with a laser and the arsenic compound scatters the laser light, creating an identifiable signature. The technique is a departure from existing methods, which are time-consuming, expensive, and not ideally suited to on-site field assays.
Published Rationing: A fairer way to fight climate change?
(via sciencedaily.com) World War II-style rationing could be an effective way to reduce carbon emissions, according to new research.
Published Feedback loops make climate action even more urgent, scientists say
(via sciencedaily.com) Researchers have identified 26 global warming accelerators known as amplifying feedback loops that the researchers say aren't being properly included in climate models. They note that the findings add urgency to the need to respond to the climate crisis and provide a roadmap for policymakers aiming to avert the most severe consequences of a warming planet.
Published How to pull carbon dioxide out of seawater
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers may have found the key to a truly efficient and inexpensive mechanism for removing carbon dioxide from seawater. The method could be far more efficient than existing systems for removing the greenhouse gas from the air.
Published Using spiders as environmentally-friendly pest control
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Groups of spiders could be used as an environmentally-friendly way to protect crops against agricultural pests. That's according to new research which suggests that web-building groups of spiders can eat a devastating pest moth of commercially important crops like tomato and potato worldwide.
Published Engineered wood grows stronger while trapping carbon dioxide
(via sciencedaily.com) Scientists have figured out a way to engineer wood to trap carbon dioxide through a potentially scalable, energy-efficient process that also makes the material stronger for use in construction.
Published European summer droughts since 2015 were most severe over centuries -- but multi-year droughts also happened in the past
(via sciencedaily.com) The 2015--2018 summer droughts have been exceptional in large parts of Western and Central Europe over the last 400 years, in terms of the magnitude of drought conditions. This indicates an influence of human-made global warming. However, multi-year droughts have occurred frequently in the 17th and 18th century, although not as severe.
Published Scientists engineer a 'self-charging' electrostatic face mask for prolonged air filtration, reducing the environmental burden
(via sciencedaily.com) Researchers have engineered an electrostatic face mask that can 'self-charge' through the user's breathing and continuously replenish its electrostatic charge as the user wears and breathes through the mask. This significantly increase the filtering performance in prolonged use of the mask for up to 60 hours, compared to four hours for a conventional surgical mask. This also benefits the environment.
Published Keeping drivers safe with a road that can melt snow, ice on its own
(via sciencedaily.com) Slipping and sliding on snowy or icy roads is dangerous. Salt and sand help melt ice or provide traction, but excessive use is bad for the environment. And sometimes, a surprise storm can blow through before these materials can be applied. Now, researchers ave filled microcapsules with a chloride-free salt mixture that's added into asphalt before roads are paved, providing long-term snow melting capabilities in a real-world test.
Published How a record-breaking copper catalyst converts CO2 into liquid fuels
(via sciencedaily.com) Researchers have made real-time movies of copper nanoparticles as they evolve to convert carbon dioxide and water into renewable fuels and chemicals. Their new insights could help advance the next generation of solar fuels.
Published From plastic waste to valuable nanomaterials
(via sciencedaily.com) Scientists create carbon nanotubes and other hybrid nanomaterials out of plastic waste using an energy-efficient, low-cost, low-emissions process that could also be profitable.
Published Add-on device makes home furnaces cleaner, safer and longer-lasting
(via sciencedaily.com) Natural gas furnaces not only heat your home, they also produce a lot of pollution. Even modern high-efficiency condensing furnaces produce significant amounts of corrosive acidic condensation and unhealthy levels of nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and methane. These emissions are typically vented into the atmosphere and end up polluting our soil, water and air. Scientists have developed an affordable add-on technology that removes more than 99.9% of acidic gases and other emissions to produce an ultraclean natural gas furnace. This acidic gas reduction, or AGR, technology can also be added to other natural gas-driven equipment such as water heaters, commercial boilers and industrial furnaces.
Published Amazon mammals threatened by climate change
(via sciencedaily.com) Most land-based mammals in the Brazilian Amazon are threatened by climate change and the savannization of the region.
Published Before global warming, was the Earth cooling down or heating up?
(via sciencedaily.com) A review article addresses a conflict between models and evidence, known as the Holocene global temperature conundrum.
Published Microbes play a key role in unleashing 'forever chemicals' from recycled-waste fertilizer
(via sciencedaily.com) 'Forever chemicals' are everywhere -- water, soil, crops, animals, the blood of 97% of Americans -- researchers are trying to figure out how they got there. Their recent findings suggest that the microbes that help break down biodegradable materials and other waste are likely complicit in the release of the notorious per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) into the environment.
Published How to make hydrogen straight from seawater -- no desalination required
(via sciencedaily.com) Researchers have developed a cheaper and more energy-efficient way to make hydrogen directly from seawater, in a critical step towards a truly viable green hydrogen industry. The new method splits the seawater directly into hydrogen and oxygen -- skipping the need for desalination and its associated cost, energy consumption and carbon emissions.
Published When the light is neither 'on' nor 'off' in the nanoworld
(via sciencedaily.com) Scientists detect the quantum properties of collective optical-electronic oscillations on the nanoscale. The results could contribute to the development of novel computer chips.
Published Upsurge in rocket launches could impact the ozone layer
(via sciencedaily.com) Researchers have summarized the threats that future rocket launches would pose to Earth's protective ozone layer.
Published New technique maps large-scale impacts of fire-induced permafrost thaw in Alaska
(via sciencedaily.com) Researchers have developed a machine learning-based ensemble approach to quantify fire-induced thaw settlement across the entire Tanana Flats in Alaska, which encompasses more than 3 million acres. They linked airborne repeat lidar data to time-series Landsat products (satellite images) to delineate thaw settlement patterns across six large fires that have occurred since 2000. The six fires resulted in a loss of nearly 99,000 acres of evergreen forest from 2000 to 2014 among nearly 155,000 acres of fire-influenced forests with varying degrees of burn severity. This novel approach helped to explain about 65 percent of the variance in lidar-detected elevation change.