PITTSBURGH (Feb. 25, 2016) ... Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh's Swanson School of Engineering, along with collaborators at Penn State University's Chemistry Department, have discovered a novel way of utilizing the chemical reactions of certain enzymes to trigger self-powered mechanical movement.
Earth
ITHACA, N.Y. - Just as the single-crystal silicon wafer forever changed the nature of communication 60 years ago, a group of Cornell researchers is hoping its work with quantum dot solids - crystals made out of crystals - can help usher in a new era in electronics.
Many studies have shown that critical natural resources, including fish stocks, are moving poleward as the planet warms. A new Yale-led study suggests that these biophysical changes are also reallocating global wealth in unpredictable, and potentially destabilizing, ways.
On its surface, these biophysical movements will shift resources from communities and nations closer to the equator into places closer to the poles. In many cases this would seem to exacerbate inequalities between richer and poorer communities.
Irvine, Calif., Feb. 24, 2016 - Hundreds of methane-emitting hot spots have been identified across the Los Angeles Basin, including a "clean ports" truck refueling facility near the Port of Long Beach, power plants, water treatment facilities, and cattle in Chino, according to new findings by the University of California, Irvine.
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- One of the great joys in mathematics is the ability to use it to describe phenomena seen in the physical world, says University at Buffalo mathematician Gino Biondini.
With UB postdoctoral researcher Dionyssios Mantzavinos, Biondini has published a new paper that advances the art -- or shall we say, the math -- of describing a wave. The findings, published Jan. 27 in Physical Review Letters, are thought to apply to wave forms ranging from light waves in optical fibers to water waves in the sea.
Washington, DC-- A team of scientists led by Carnegie's Rebecca Albright and Ken Caldeira performed the first-ever experiment that manipulated seawater chemistry in a natural coral reef community in order to determine the effect that excess carbon dioxide released by human activity is having on coral reefs. Their results provide evidence that ocean acidification is already slowing coral reef growth. Their work is published in Nature.
New findings from fieldwork undertaken at the University of Sydney's One Tree Island Research Station provide evidence ocean acidification resulting from carbon dioxide emissions is already slowing coral reef growth.
Their findings were published in Nature today.
MADISON, Wis. -- Since pre-industrial times, the world's oceans have absorbed 41 percent of the carbon dioxide humans have released into the atmosphere. The remainder stays airborne, warming the planet.
The relationship between our future carbon dioxide emissions and future climate change depends strongly on the capacity of the ocean-carbon sink. How efficiently will it continue to soak up what we emit?
ANN ARBOR -- Scientists at the University of Michigan have found evidence that some carbon nanomaterials can enter into immune cell membranes, seemingly going undetected by the cell's built-in mechanisms for engulfing and disposing of foreign material, and then escape through some unidentified pathway.
NEW ORLEANS - Millions of tiny pieces of plastic are escaping wastewater treatment plant filters and winding up in rivers where they could potentially contaminate drinking water supplies and enter the food system, according to new research being presented here.
Microplastics - small pieces of plastic less than 5 millimeters (0.20 inches) wide - are an emerging environmental concern in ocean waters, where they can harm ocean animals.
The world's workshop -- China -- surpassed the United States as the largest emitter of greenhouse gases on Earth in 2007. But if you consider that nearly all of the products that China produces, from iPhones to tee-shirts, are exported to the rest of the world, the picture looks very different.
In a comprehensive new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change, researchers propose a limit to future greenhouse gas emissions--or carbon budget--of 590-1240 billion tons of carbon dioxide from 2015 onwards, as the most appropriate estimate for keeping warming to below 2°C, a temperature target which aims to avoid the most dangerous impacts of climate change.
Fish and other important resources are moving toward the Earth's poles as the climate warms, and wealth is moving with them, according to a new paper by scientists at Rutgers, Princeton, Yale, and Arizona State universities.
Climate change is forcing some species of migrating fish to shift their range toward the poles, which means big changes for people whose livelihoods depend on those fish.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 23, 2016 -- To fire up the grill or the gas stove, we often reach for a match. It turns out there's a lot of chemistry going on to make those little wooden wonders work. The best way to find out about the chemistry of burning matches is to watch it in ultra-slow motion. This week, Reactions explains the science with special footage courtesy of UltraSlo. Watch the beautiful chemistry here: https://youtu.be/y2ErAPODA6U.
NEW ORLEANS - Global warming and the intense El Niño now underway are prolonging the longest global coral die-off on record, according to NOAA scientists monitoring and forecasting the loss of corals from disease and heat stress due to record ocean temperatures. The global coral bleaching event that started in 2014 could extend well into 2017, researchers report at the Oceans Sciences Meeting here this week.