At the end of a long day, it can be more convenient to order your groceries online while sitting on the living room couch instead of making a late-night run to the store. New research [...]
Tag Archives | carbon
Confirming carbon’s climate effects, and how it helped end the last ice age
Harvard scientists are helping to paint the fullest picture yet of how a handful of factors, particularly world-wide increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide, combined to end the last ice age approximately 20,000 to 10,000 years [...]
Berkeley scientists highlight challenges of meeting state energy goals by 2050
California is showing the way for the rest of the nation in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, having set an ambitious goal to reduce these emissions to 80 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2050. Given that energy demand is projected …
Jewel-toned organic phosphorescent crystals: A new class of light-emitting material
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Pure organic compounds that glow in jewel tones could potentially lead to cheaper, more efficient and flexible display screens, among other applications.
University of Michigan researcher Jinsang Kim and his colleagues ha…
Biogeochemistry at the core of global environmental solutions
Millbrook, NY — If society wants to address big picture environmental problems, like global climate change, acid rain, and coastal dead zones, we need to pay closer attention to the Earth’s coupled biogeochemical cycles. So reports a special i…
A paperweight for platinum
RICHLAND, Wash. — A new combination of nanoparticles and graphene results in a more durable catalytic material for fuel cells, according to work published today online at the Journal of the American Chemical Society. The catalytic material is n…
Analyzing long-term impacts of biofuel on the land
Madison WI, FEBRUARY 03, 2011 — The growing development and implementation of renewable biofuel energy has considerable advantages over using declining supplies of fossil fuels. However, meeting the demands of a fuel-driven society may require uti…
New ‘frozen smoke’ material: 1 ounce could carpet three football fields
Scientists are reporting the development of a new, ultra-light form of “frozen smoke” — renowned as the world’s lightest solid material — with amazing strength and an incredibly large surface area. The new so-called “multiwalled carbon nanotub…
Carbon swap bank to beat climate change
Australian researchers have suggested that nations should abandon the concept of carbon emissions trading in favor of a carbon swap bank that might lead to genuine reductions in the amount of carbon dioxide greenhouse gas entering the atmosphere and…
What can ice reveal about fire?
Scientists studying a column of Antarctic ice spanning 650 years have found evidence for fluctuations in biomass burning–the consumption of wood, peat and other materials in wildfires, cooking fires and communal fires–in the Southern Hemisph…
Researchers create new high-performance fiber
Researchers at Northwestern University have nanoengineered a new kind of fiber that could be tougher than Kevlar.
Working in a multidisciplinary team that includes groups from other universities and the MER Corporation, Horacio Espinosa, James N. …
Developing countries can cut greenhouse gas emissions and help the poor
In the developing world, reducing greenhouse gas emissions is often seen as being in conflict with alleviating poverty, since improving the standard of living is usually associated with increased energy use.
A clean energy development initiative i…
Nanotechnology: A dead end for plant cells?
Using particles that are 1/100,000 the width of a human hair to deliver drugs to cells or assist plants in fighting off pests may sound like something out of a science fiction movie, but these scenarios may be a common occurrence in the near future….
Novel ocean-crust mechanism could affect world’s carbon budget
The Earth is constantly manufacturing new crust, spewing molten magma up along undersea ridges at the boundaries of tectonic plates. The process is critical to the planet’s metabolism, including the cycle of underwater life and the delicate balance …
New research changes understanding of C4 plant evolution
Frostburg, Md. (November 15, 2010) — A new analysis of fossilized grass-pollen grains deposited on ancient European lake and sea bottoms 16-35 million years ago reveals that C4 grasses evolved earlier than previously thought. This new evidence cas…
Scrambling for climate change solutions
The food industry generates a lot of waste products, but one of these, eggshells, could help combat climate change, according to research published in the International Journal of Global Warming this month.
Basab Chaudhuri of the University of Cal…
As Arctic warms, increased shipping likely to accelerate climate change
As the ice-capped Arctic Ocean warms, ship traffic will increase at the top of the world. And if the sea ice continues to decline, a new route connecting international trading partners may emerge — but not without significant repercussions to c…
Carbon dioxide controls Earth’s temperature
NEW YORK — Water vapor and clouds are the major contributors to Earth’s greenhouse effect, but a new atmosphere-ocean climate modeling study shows that the planet’s temperature ultimately depends on the atmospheric level of carbon dioxide.
The s…
A reinvention of agriculture is needed to meet global challenges
Des Moines, Iowa USA: World renowned scientists speaking at the World Food Prize Borlaug Dialogue have called for a radical transformation in the agriculture sector to cope with climate change, food security and to transition towards sustainability.
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Environmental Science & Technology special issue on environmental policy
WASHINGTON, Oct. 12, 2010 — Key articles in a special print edition of the American Chemical Society journal, Environmental Science & Technology (ES&T), one of the world’s premier environmental journals, are now available online. The articles wil…
Half the productivity, twice the carbon
Unless the IT industry adopts new energy-efficient technologies in the coming decade, it runs a serious risk of being unable to contribute to growing the global economy if limits are placed on carbon emissions. The findings come from an 18-month inv…
UW-built device reveals invisible world teeming with microscopic algae
It just got easier to pinpoint biological hot spots in the world’s oceans where some inhabitants are smaller than, well, a pinpoint.
Microscopic algae are called phytoplankton and range from one to hundreds of microns in size — the smallest…
Electric cars hold greater promise for reducing emissions and lowering US oil imports
Electric cars hold greater promise for reducing emissions and lowering U.S. oil imports than a national renewable portfolio standard, according to research conducted by Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. This assessment is among [...]
Carbon nanotubes twice as strong as once thought
Carbon nanotubes — those tiny particles poised to revolutionize electronics, medicine, and other areas — are much bigger in the strength department than anyone ever thought, scientists are reporting. New studies on the strength of these submic…
MIT researchers develop a way to funnel solar energy
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Using carbon nanotubes (hollow tubes of carbon atoms), MIT chemical engineers have found a way to concentrate solar energy 100 times more than a regular photovoltaic cell. Such nanotubes could form antennas that capture and focus …
Scientists observe single ions moving through tiny carbon-nanotube channel
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — For the first time, a team of MIT chemical engineers has observed single ions marching through a tiny carbon-nanotube channel. Such channels could be used as extremely sensitive detectors or as part of a new water-desalination …
Carbon mapping breakthrough
Palo Alto, CA — By integrating satellite mapping, airborne-laser technology, and ground-based plot surveys, scientists from the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology, with colleagues from the World Wildlife Fund and in coordinatio…