Scientists have found that a portion of the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica, the world’s largest ice shelf and an important contributor to future global sea level rise, is melting 10 times faster than the rest of the shelf, according to a new studypublished in the journal Nature Geoscience. The melting, the […]
Environment
Scientists at USC and Caltech may have taken a big step toward storing and neutralizing carbon in the deepest recesses of the ocean without harming coral or other organisms. It all revolves around calcium carbonate, a molecule common to the oceans. For the first time, the USC-Caltech team precisely measured […]
Scientists have wondered for decades why marine animals that live in the polar oceans and the deep sea can reach giant sizes there, but nowhere else. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa zoology PhD student Caitlin Shishido, with UH researcher Amy Moran and colleagues at the University of Montana, went to Antarctica to test the prevailing theory–the ‘oxygen-temperature hypothesis’-that animals […]
New research suggests there’s a large untapped resource for many of the increasingly water-limited regions of the U.S. and around the world: brackish groundwater, which, in theory at least, would require much less energy to desalinate than seawater. The amount of brackish groundwater in the United States is about 800 […]
Rapid changes in terrain are taking place in Canada’s high Arctic polar deserts due to increases in summer air temperatures. A McGill-led study published recently in Environmental Research Letters presents close to 30 years of aerial surveys and extensive ground mapping of the Eureka Sound Lowlands area of Ellesmere and Axel Heiberg […]
Do you feel the warmth coming off your computer or cell phone? That’s wasted energy radiating from the device. With automobiles, it is estimated that 60% of fuel efficiency is lost due to waste heat. Is it possible to capture this energy and convert it into electricity? Researchers working in […]
When oil mixes with or enters into water, conventional methods of cleaning the water and removing the oil can be challenging, expensive and environmentally risky. But researchers in the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin believe they may have developed a better method. In a […]
West Antarctica’s vast ice sheet conceals what may be the largest volcanic region on earth, research has revealed. The continent’s ice covers almost 100 newly discovered volcanoes, the largest of which is as tall as the Eiger in Switzerland, a study has found. Geologists and ice experts say the range […]
A new look inside 2,000-year-old concrete – made from volcanic ash, lime (the product of baked limestone), and seawater – has provided new clues to the evolving chemistry and mineral cements that allow ancient harbor structures to withstand the test of time. The research has also inspired a hunt for […]
Virginia Commonwealth University researchers have discovered a novel strategy for creating superatoms — combinations of atoms that can mimic the properties of more than one group of elements of the periodic table. These superatoms could be used to create new materials, including more efficient batteries and better semiconductors; a core component […]