Showing 20 articles starting at article 1441

< Previous 20 articles        Next 20 articles >

Categories: Environmental: General, Paleontology: Fossils

Return to the site home page

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Carbon capture is essential to reduce the impact of human carbon dioxide emissions on our climate. Researchers have developed a method to confirm whether carbon in concrete originates from the raw materials, or from carbon in the air which has been trapped when it reacts with the concrete to form the mineral calcium carbonate. By measuring the ratio of certain carbon isotopes in concrete that had been exposed to the air and concrete that hadn't, the team could successfully verify that direct air carbon capture had occurred.  This method could be useful for the industrial sector and countries looking to offset their carbon emissions.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new form of wave devouring propulsion (WDP) could power ships and help to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the maritime industry.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Research shows that variations in pyrite sulfur isotopes may not represent the global processes that have made them such popular targets of analysis and interpretation. A new microanalysis approach helps to separate out signals that reveal the relative influence of microbes and that of local climate.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

For 200 years, scientists have failed to grow a common mineral in the laboratory under the conditions believed to have formed it naturally. Now, researchers have finally pulled it off, thanks to a new theory developed from atomic simulations. Their success resolves a long-standing geology mystery called the 'Dolomite Problem.' Dolomite -- a key mineral in the Dolomite mountains in Italy, Niagara Falls, the White Cliffs of Dover and Utah's Hoodoos -- is very abundant in rocks older than 100 million years, but nearly absent in younger formations. The lessons learned from the Dolomite Problem can help engineers manufacture higher-quality materials for semiconductors, solar panels, batteries and other tech.  

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Extreme events like tropical cyclones have immediate impacts, but also long-term implications for societies. A new study now finds: Accounting for the long-term impacts of these storms raises the global Social Cost of Carbon by more than 20 percent, compared to the estimates currently used for policy evaluations. This increase is mainly driven by the projected rise of tropical-cyclone damages to the major economies of India, USA, China, Taiwan, and Japan under global warming.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Exposure to fine particulate air pollutants from coal-fired power plants (coal PM2.5) is associated with a risk of mortality more than double that of exposure to PM2.5 from other sources, according to a new study. Examining Medicare and emissions data in the U.S. from 1999 to 2020, the researchers also found that 460,000 deaths were attributable to coal PM2.5 during the study period -- most of them occurring between 1999 and 2007, when coal PM2.5 levels were highest.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Engineers have achieved a world first by manufacturing the first back-contact micrometric photovoltaic cells.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new study of shallow-water ecosystems estimates that, by 2100, climate change and coastal land usage could result in significant shrinkage of coral habitats, tidal marshes, and mangroves, while macroalgal beds remain stable and seagrass meadows potentially expand.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Modern hippos first dispersed in Europe during the Middle Pleistocene, according to a new study.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

As the planet gets hotter, animal and plant species around the world will be faced with new, potentially unpredictable living conditions, which could alter ecosystems in unprecedented ways. A new study investigates the importance of temperature in determining where animal species are currently found to better understand how a warming climate might impact where they might live in the future.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

To meet the goals of the Paris Agreement and limit global heating to 1.5°C, global annual emissions will need to drop radically over the coming decades. Climate economists say that this goal could still be within our reach. They identify key 'sensitive intervention points' that could unlock significant progress towards the Paris Agreement with the least risk and highest impact.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Tandem solar cells based on perovskite semiconductors convert sunlight to electricity more efficiently than conventional silicon solar cells. In order to make this technology ready for the market, further improvements with regard to stability and manufacturing processes are required. Researchers have succeeded in finding a way to predict the quality of the perovskite layers and consequently that of the resulting solar cells: Assisted by Machine Learning and new methods in Artificial Intelligence (AI), it is possible assess their quality from variations in light emission already in the manufacturing process.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The land use, land use change, and forestry sector plays a strong role in achieving global climate targets, but a gap exists between how scientists and countries account for its emissions. A new study highlights how mitigation benchmarks change when assessing IPCC scenarios from a national inventory perspective, with net-zero timings arriving up to five years earlier and cumulative emissions to net-zero being 15-18% smaller.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Scientists and colleagues from Utah's caving community have published the first research from their collaborative fieldwork effort deep in Utah's caves. The journal's feature article reveals why caves make such compelling research archives; what was uncovered in Boomerang Cave in northern Utah; why skeletal remains provide new access to hard-to-get data from the recent past; and offers a new zoological baseline for mammalian changes in an alpine community.  

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Ten newly discovered species of trilobites, hidden for 490 million years in a little-studied part of Thailand, could be the missing pieces in an intricate puzzle of ancient world geography.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

LUCA, the 'last universal common ancestor' of all living organisms, lived 4.32 to at most 4.52 billion years ago. What LUCA looked like is unknown, but it must have been a cell with among others ribosomal proteins and an ATP synthase.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Despite public perception, the Antarctic ozone hole has been remarkably massive and long-lived over the past four years; researchers believe chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) aren't the only things to blame.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The deep sea is home to one of the largest animal communities on earth which is increasingly exposed to environmental pressures. However, our knowledge of its inhabitants and their response to human-induced stressors is still limited. A new study now provides first insights into the stress response of a pelagic deep-sea jellyfish to ocean warming and sediment plumes caused by deep-sea mining.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Global measurements and model calculations show that the complex relationship between the chemistry and climate impact of aerosol particles can be successfully captured by a simple formula.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

  The research makes it clear that ensuring the sustained well-being of our planet requires a more serious commitment toward new carbon dioxide removal technologies, and a faster scale-up of their production.