Earth & Climate News

July 10, 2016

London's 1952 Great Smog: More Asthma Now

Cigarette Butts: Threat to Marine Environment

Clean Energy: Better Catalysts

Harnessing the Power of Photosynthesis

Latest Headlines

updated 12:40pm EDT

Engineering E. Coli for Biofuel, Bioproduct Production

July 7, 2016 — Researchers developed an alternative fatty acid synthase (FAS) system in which enzymes from other organisms work with the native FAS in <i>E. coli</i> to improve the ... read more

Game Theory: Does the Rhino Poacher or the Gamekeeper Win?

July 6, 2016 — Conservationists have used game theory to look at the likely outcome of the battle between rhino poachers and the gamekeeper or rhino ... read more

Traffic Noise Increases the Risk of Heart Attack

July 8, 2016 — Your risk of heart attack increases with the amount of traffic noise to which you are exposed. The increase in risk -- though slight -- is greatest with road and rail traffic noise, less with ... read more

Preserving Forest Carbon Sinks Top of Donors' Climate Mitigation Agenda

July 7, 2016 — Developing countries with large carbon sinks and good governance tend to be the main destination for major green donors' climate mitigation funding, research shows. This study compared the factors ... read more

Mixed Response: Floodwaters Return to the Colorado River but Can Release Greenhouse Gases

July 8, 2016 — Deliberately flooding riverbeds left parched by dams has great potential to restore wetlands but may also have a significant unintended consequence: ... read more

Watery Roadblock in the Pathway to Biofuels

July 7, 2016 — Removing oxygen atoms is vital to turning biomass into biofuels. Scientists discovered how water interferes with two oxygen-removal paths by creating a highly stable ... read more

Researchers Reveal First Sightings of Rare Whales Off New Zealand Coast

July 8, 2016 — For the first time in New Zealand waters, an extremely rare grouping of Shepherd's Beaked Whales has been spotted from a research vessel off the coast of the city of Dunedin ... read more

After Decades of Clean Up Attempts, World's Lakes Still Suffer from Phosphorus Pollution

July 8, 2016 — Leading scientists warn: Phosphorus pollution is a major concern. We need to speed up recovery treatments of lakes -- or ... read more

Bats Take Dangerous Flight Into the Wind Farm

July 8, 2016 — Wind turbines attract bats. They seem to appear particularly appealing to female noctule bats in early summer. In a pilot study, researchers noticed this when they tracked ... read more

Frogs That Can Take the Heat Expected to Fare Better in a Changing World

July 7, 2016 — Amphibians that tolerate higher temperatures are likely to fare better in a world affected by climate change, disease and habitat loss, according to two ... read more

Typhoon's Trail of Destruction in Asia

Super Typhoon Nepartak Lashes Taiwan

Deadly Flood Spread Across China

Flooding in Tennesee Prompts State of Emergency

100s of Deaths in 2 Cities in 2003 Heatwave Due to Human-Made Climate Change

July 7, 2016 — Scientists have specified how many deaths can be attributed to human-made climate change during an extreme heatwave. Researchers calculate that in Paris, the hottest city in Europe during the ... read more

Model for Predicting Coastal Storm Damage in the North Sea

July 7, 2016 — A system for predicting storm damage by waves in northern areas of the North Sea has been developed by mathematicians. The north-east Scottish coast was found to be more exposed to swell arriving ... read more

How Solar Energy Can Be Transformed Into Fuel

July 7, 2016 — A new study look into the quest for sustainable fuel, and how solar energy can be transformed into exactly this. The new procedure uses the sun's thermal energy to convert carbon dioxide and ... read more

Weathering of Rocks by Mosses May Explain Climate Effects During the Late Ordovician

July 7, 2016 — During the Ordovician period, the concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere was about eight times higher than today. It has been hard to explain why the climate cooled and why the ... read more

Butterflies' Wing Patterns Change With the Seasons

July 7, 2016 — Tropical butterflies adapt to their environment to improve their chances of survival. The changes are triggered by hormone signals that transmit information about temperature to the butterflies' ... read more

Energy Saving Filters for Wastewater Treatment Created

July 7, 2016 — Scientists have invented a new type of nanofilter that could reduce the energy needed to treat wastewater by up to five times. This breakthrough technology took about two years to develop and is now ... read more

Understanding Tsunamis With EM Fields

July 7, 2016 — New research shows that important focal parameters of tsunamigenic earthquakes -- particularly fault dip direction -- can be extracted from tsunami-borne electromagnetic fields. Such details may ... read more

New Study Calls for Old Methods of Coastal Management

July 6, 2016 — A recent collaborative research effort seeks to highlight this enclave of stability against the stark reality of Louisiana's predominantly sediment-starved, sinking deltaic ... read more

New Study Upends a Theory of How Earth's Mantle Flows

July 6, 2016 — A new study carried out on the floor of Pacific Ocean provides the most detailed view yet of how the earth's mantle flows beneath the ocean's tectonic plates. The findings appear to upend a ... read more

How Can We Slow Down Urban Sprawl? 'Use Land Sparingly'

July 6, 2016 — There's a lot more we could be doing to combat urban sprawl -- and European countries are leading the way, say ... read more

Flipping Crystals Triples Solar-Cell Performance

July 6, 2016 — In a step that could bring perovskite crystals closer to use in the burgeoning solar power industry, researchers have tweaked their crystal production method and developed a new type of ... read more

Local Consumption, Global Consequences: Examining Impacts of an Interconnected World

July 6, 2016 — A new study examines the virtual shrinking of distances between places -- arising because of trade, telecommunication and travel -- and the widening gap between where products are made, where ... read more

Bees' Ability to Forage Decreases as Air Pollution Increases

July 6, 2016 — Air pollutants interact with and break down plant-emitted scent molecules, which insect pollinators use to locate needed food, according to a team of researchers. The pollution-modified plant odors ... read more

Experts Listen in on Noisy Falmouth Seas

July 6, 2016 — A long-term plan for managing noise in shallow parts of the ocean such as Falmouth Bay is needed to protect the environment, scientists say. Humanmade noise in the marine environment can increase ... read more

Evolution May Have Moved at a Furious Pace on a Much Warmer Earth

July 6, 2016 — The rate of a certain chemical change in DNA -- a key driver of spontaneous mutation and thus of evolution's pace -- increases rapidly with temperature, researchers have discovered. The ... read more

Drought Stalls Tree Growth and Shuts Down Amazon Carbon Sink, Researchers Find

July 6, 2016 — A recent drought completely shut down the Amazon Basin's carbon sink, by killing trees and slowing their growth, a ground-breaking study has ... read more

Penguin Colonies at Risk from Erupting Volcano

July 6, 2016 — A volcano erupting on a small island in the Sub Antarctic is depositing ash over one of the world's largest penguin colonies. Zavodovski Island is a small island in the South Sandwich ... read more

'The Blob' Overshadows El Niño

July 6, 2016 — New research based on ocean models and near real-time data from autonomous gliders indicates that the 'The Blob' and El Nino together strongly depressed productivity off the West Coast, ... read more

Neural Networks to Obtain Synthetic Petroleum

July 6, 2016 — A research group has made progress in obtaining bio-oils and raw materials from biomass using its patented reactor. Biomass is one of the main sources of energy and heat in the field of renewable ... read more

Replacing Oil With Wood for the Production of Chemicals

July 6, 2016 — Two research projects have developed new processes to replace petroleum with wood for the production of important chemicals. These precursors are used in the manufacture of pharmaceuticals, plastics ... read more

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California droughts caused mainly by changes in wind, not moisture

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