Ecology: Endangered Species Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published

Soil microbes help plants cope with drought, but not how scientists thought      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

In a multi-generation experiment, researchers found microbes helped plants cope with drought, but not in response to plants' cries for help. Instead, the environment itself selected for drought-tolerant microbes. And while those hardy microbes were doing their thing, they just happened to make plants more drought-tolerant, too.

Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Oceanography
Published

Gloomy climate calculation: Scientists predict a collapse of the Atlantic ocean current to happen mid-century      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Important ocean currents that redistribute heat, cold and precipitation between the tropics and the northernmost parts of the Atlantic region will shut down around the year 2060 if current greenhouse gas emissions persist. This is the conclusion based on new calculations that contradict the latest report from the IPCC.

Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published

Researchers recover vital resources from wastewater sludge      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

If you were ever to see sewage sludge up close, you might be hard-pressed to find any redeemable value; however, researchers now see it another way.

Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published

Dynamic pricing superior to organic waste bans in preventing climate change      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

While composting and organic waste ban policies are gaining popularity across the United States, a new study finds dynamic pricing could be the most effective way for grocery chains to keep perishables out of landfills, reducing food waste by 21% or more.

Computer Science: Encryption Computer Science: General
Published

Why computer security advice is more confusing than it should be      (via sciencedaily.com) 

If you find the computer security guidelines you get at work confusing and not very useful, you're not alone. A new study highlights a key problem with how these guidelines are created, and outlines simple steps that would improve them -- and probably make your computer safer.

Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published

Improving recyclable waste classification with laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Delving into the intricacies of waste management, researchers explore the application of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy technology for the identification and classification of recyclable waste. They collected and analyzed the spectra of 80 recyclable waste samples, classifying them into paper, plastic, glass, metal, textile, and wood based on LIBS spectra. This crucial step toward waste management optimization demonstrates a significant stride toward improving environmental sustainability and promoting resource reuse.

Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published

New robot boosts solar energy research      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers have created a robot capable of conducting experiments more efficiently and sustainably to develop a range of new semiconductor materials with desirable attributes. The researchers have already demonstrated that the new technology, called RoboMapper, can rapidly identify new perovskite materials with improved stability and solar cell efficiency.

Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Severe Weather
Published

Risk of fatal heart attack may double in heat wave and high fine particulate pollution days      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

An analysis of more than 202,000 heart attack deaths between 2015-2020 in a single Chinese province found that days that had extreme heat, extreme cold or high levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) air pollution were significantly associated with the risk of death from a heart attack, especially in women and older adults.

Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published

Study links cadmium levels in women's urine to endometriosis      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Women with a history of endometriosis had higher concentrations of cadmium in their urine compared to those without that diagnosis, according to a new study that suggests the toxic metal could be linked to the development of endometriosis.

Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published

Advancing chemical recycling of waste plastics      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

New research focuses on optimizing a promising technology called pyrolysis, which can chemically recycle waste plastics into more valuable chemicals.

Ecology: Endangered Species Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published

Study improves understanding of how bacteria benefit plant growth      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Scientists have found that competition between strains of beneficial bacteria in the soil degrades the service that the bacteria provide to their hosts.

Energy: Alternative Fuels Energy: Technology Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published

Renewable solar energy can help purify water, the environment      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Chemists have demonstrated that water remediation can be powered in part -- and perhaps even exclusively -- by renewable energy sources.

Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published

Biosurfactants might offer an environmentally friendly solution for tackling oil spills      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Can biosurfactants increase microbiological oil degradation in North Sea seawater? An international research team has been exploring this question and the results have revealed the potential for a more effective and environmentally friendly oil spill response.

Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published

Nature inspires breakthrough achievement: Hazard-free production of fluorochemicals      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A team of chemists have developed an entirely new method for generating critically important fluorochemicals that bypasses the hazardous product hydrogen fluoride (HF) gas. The findings could achieve an immense impact in improving the safety and carbon footprint of a growing global industry.

Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Severe Weather
Published

Climate science is catching up to climate change with predictions that could improve proactive response      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

In Africa, climate change impacts are experienced as extreme events like drought and floods. It has now been possible to predict and monitor these climatic events, providing early warning of their impacts on agriculture to support humanitarian and resilience programming in the most food insecure countries of the world.

Geoscience: Environmental Issues Paleontology: Climate
Published

Greenland melted recently: High risk of sea level rise today      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A large portion of Greenland was an ice-free tundra landscape -- perhaps covered by trees and roaming woolly mammoths -- in the recent geologic past (about 416,000 years ago), a new study shows. The results help overturn a previous view that much of the Greenland ice sheet persisted for most of the last two and a half million years. Instead, moderate warming, from 424,000 to 374,000 years ago, led to dramatic melting. At that time, the melting of Greenland caused at least five feet of sea level rise, despite atmospheric levels of heat-trapping carbon dioxide being far lower than today (280 vs. 420 ppm). This indicates that the ice sheet on Greenland may be more sensitive to human-caused climate change than previously understood -- and will be vulnerable to irreversible, rapid melting in coming centuries.

Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published

Researchers investigate new use for plastic bottles      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

For years, unrecycled plastic bottles have been dumped in landfills. Now, thanks to new research, those bottles may have a second life in that landfill -- stabilizing its earth walls.

Ecology: Sea Life Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published

Artificial 'rocks' from macroplastics threaten ocean health      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Plastic waste is a problem on our beaches. Hence, it is largely removed in a coordinated manner within a few weeks. However, it can litter other coasts of the world for many months to years due to unregulated waste disposal. Often the garbage on the beach is simply burned and a special form of plastic waste is created: so-called plastiglomerate. This 'rock' is made up of natural components, such as coral fragments, held together by the melted and reconsolidated plastic. A new study has now demonstrated, using field samples from Indonesia, that such rocks pose an increased environmental risk to coastal ecosystems such as seagrass beds, mangroves or coral reefs. The melted plastic decomposes more quickly into microplastics and is also contaminated with organic pollutants.

Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published

Chemists recycle shrimp waste as catalyst for hydrogen generation      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Flexible spheres of the biomolecule chitosan, made from shrimp waste, can be used for catalysts that generate hydrogen gas from borohydride salts. A research team now shows how the spheres can 'breathe out' hydrogen bubbles without breaking. This is an important step towards practical and safe hydrogen storage and release units.

Energy: Nuclear Geoscience: Environmental Issues
Published

Unlocking the power of molecular crystals: A possible solution to nuclear waste      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A team researchers has discovered molecular crystals capable of capturing iodine -- one of the most common radioactive fission products -- and other pollutants. The versatile crystals could be used for nuclear waste management and other energy-related applications and move the world closer to a net-zero future.