Month: January 2017

  • Why It's Impossible to Predict When That Giant Antarctic Ice Sheet Will Split

    OVER THE PAST several months, scientists working in Antarctica have been watching—with a mixture of professional fascination and personal horror—a fissure growing in the continent’s fourth-largest ice shelf. Since last November, the crack has lengthened by some 90 miles. It has 13 miles more before it rends completely, and a chunk of ice the size of…

  • Canada's Vast Source of Climate Pollution May Go Bust

    The Canadian oil sands are one of the world’s largest sources of climate pollution and America’s biggest source of imported oil. And they may be about to go bust.Canada’s oil sands, also known as tar sands, are the world’s fourth-largest reserve of crude oil. Mining them unleashes massive volumes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, easing the…

  • Study describes new method to remove nickel from contaminated seawater

    The same deposit that builds up in many tea kettles or water pipes in areas where calcium-rich water is the norm might be just the (cheap) ticket to rid contaminated seawater of toxic metals. This is according to a study by a research group led by Charlotte Carré of the University of New Caledonia in the French…

  • Beijing Creates Anti-Smog Police to Fight Air Pollution

    Authorities in Beijing are taking new actions to resolve the city’s ongoing and harmful air pollution problem with the creation of an anti-smog police force — but will it help?Beijing’s acting mayor Cai Qi reportedly announced the initiative on Saturday, January 7. The dedicated branch of regulation enforcement will patrol the streets looking specifically for violations that could harm air quality, including…

  • Affordable water in the US: A burgeoning crisis

    If water rates continue rising at projected amounts, the number of U.S. households unable to afford water could triple in five years, to nearly 36 percent, finds new research by a Michigan State University scholar.

  • Scientists identify protein central to immune response against tuberculosis bacteria

    UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have identified a protein that is central to the immune system’s ability to recognize and destroy the bacterium responsible for the global tuberculosis (TB) epidemic.

  • PRESSURE FROM GRAZERS HASTENS ECOSYSTEM COLLAPSE FROM DROUGHT

    Extreme droughts, intensified by a warming climate, are increasingly causing ecosystem collapse in many regions worldwide. But models used by scientists to predict the tipping points at which drought stress leads to ecosystem collapse have proven unreliable and too optimistic.A new study by scientists at Duke University and Beijing Normal University may hold the answer…

  • CWRU researchers directly measure how perovskite solar films efficiently convert light to power

    Measurement shows potential for building better solar cells by imaging fundamental properties of the materialSolar cells made with films mimicking the structure of the mineral perovskite are the focus of worldwide research. But only now have researchers at Case Western Reserve University directly shown the films bear a key property allowing them to efficiently convert…

  • Changing climate changes soils

    The hottest months. The snowiest winters. Catastrophic floods and droughts.Climate change impacts lives across the world in drastic and unpredictable ways. This unpredictability also extends to the more subtle – yet still important – effects of climate change.For example, it is uncertain how climate change will affect soils and their ability to support productive farms…

  • Campus greenhouse gas emissions down 7 percent since 2014

    MIT’s total campus emissions have dropped by 7 percent since 2014, according to MIT’s second annual greenhouse gas inventory. The inventory, whose results were released by the MIT Office of Sustainability in collaboration with the Department of Facilities and the Environment, Health and Safety Office, measured campus emissions in fiscal year 2016, which runs from…