Earth
New results from a research expedition in Antarctic waters may provide critical clues to understanding one of the most dramatic periods of climate change in Earth's history.
Some 53 million years ago, Antarctica was a warm, sub-tropical environment. During this same period, known as the "greenhouse" or "hothouse" world, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels exceeded those of today by ten times.
Then suddenly, Antarctica's lush environment transitioned into its modern icy realm.
Plants remain an effective way of tackling global warming despite emitting small amounts of an important greenhouse gas, a study has shown.
Research led by the University of Edinburgh suggests that plant leaves account for less than one per cent of the Earth's emissions of methane –which is considered to be about 25 times more effective than carbon dioxide at global warming.
The results contrast with a previous scientific study which had suggested that plants were responsible for producing large amounts of the greenhouse gas.
The poles control much of our global climate. Giant ice sheets in Antarctica behave like mirrors, reflecting the sun's energy and moderating the world's temperatures. The waxing and waning of these ice sheets contribute to changes in sea level and affect ocean circulation, which regulates our climate by transporting heat around the planet.
Limited success in modelling the behaviour of the complex, unusual and unpredictable HIV virus has slowed efforts to develop an effective vaccine to prevent AIDS.
A new improved modelling system, developed by Chinese researchers, which attempts to incorporate more of the virus' random behavioural dynamics, suggests that a particular type of T cell could be useful in the development of an AIDS vaccine.
New research indicates that one of the largest fresh-water floods in Earth's history happened about 17,000 years ago and inundated a large area of Alaska that is now occupied in part by the city of Wasilla.
The event was one of at least four "megafloods" as Glacial Lake Atna breached ice dams and discharged water. The lake covered more than 3,500 square miles in the Copper River Basin northeast of Anchorage and Wasilla.
BOULDER, Colo. – Physicists at JILA have demonstrated a new tool for controlling ultracold gases and ultracold chemistry: electric fields.
As described in the April 29 issue of Nature, JILA scientists discovered that applying a small electric field spurs a dramatic increase in chemical reactions in their gas of ultracold molecules. JILA is a joint institute of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Georgia Institute of Technology have demonstrated* that atomic scale moiré patterns, an interference pattern that appears when two or more grids are overlaid slightly askew, can be used to measure how sheets of graphene are stacked and reveal areas of strain.
Using neutron beams and atomic-force microscopes, a team of university researchers working with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) may have resolved a 10-year-old question about an exotic class of "artificial muscles"—how do they work? Their results* could influence the design of future specialized robotic tools.
We know more about distant galaxies than we do about the interior of our own planet. However, by observing distant earthquakes, researchers at the University of Calgary have revealed new clues about the top of the Earth's core in a paper published in the May edition of the journal Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors.
Knowledge of the composition and state in this zone is key to unraveling the source of the Earth's magnetic field and the formation of our planet.
Australian researchers describe a mathematical model in the International Journal of Operational Research that can find the ten optimal sites at which tsunami detection buoys and sea-level monitors should be installed. The model could save time and money in the installation of a detection system as well as providing warning for the maximum number of people should a potentially devastating tsunami occur again in the Indian Ocean.
New Haven, Conn.—The physiology of microbes living underground could determine the amount of carbon dioxide emitted from soils on a warmer Earth, according to a study published online this week in Nature Geoscience.
Researchers at UC Irvine, Colorado State University and the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies have found that as global temperatures increase, microbes in soil become less efficient over time in converting carbon in soil into carbon dioxide, which is a key contributor to climate warming.
DALLAS – April 29, 2010 –Tamiflu and two other drugs used to treat influenza appear safe for pregnant women and their babies, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found in a retrospective study of 239 cases of women who received the medications during pregnancy.
The study provides "reassuring safety data about commonly used medications," the researchers concluded in their study, which appears in the April issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
ANAHEIM, CA – Tuberculosis (TB) continues to be a global health problem, in part due to the exceptional drug resistance displayed by the TB-causing agent, Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Beyond even acquired drug resistance, these bacteria are also inherently resistant to many other common antibiotics, which limits the available options in finding alternative treatments to resistant TB strains.