Sep 30, 2016 | Earth, Energy & Environment, Life & Non-humans
Wind turbines are known to kill large birds, such as golden eagles, that live nearby. Now there is evidence that birds from up to hundreds of miles away make up a significant portion of the raptors that are killed at these wind energy fields. Using DNA from tissue and...
Sep 29, 2016 | Earth, Energy & Environment
A trio of Arizona State University researchers has quantified the “Uber effect” by completing the first study to prove that when the ride-hailing service enters an urban market, it reduces traffic congestion, cuts travel time and saves gas for all drivers. The new...
Sep 29, 2016 | Earth, Energy & Environment
A new study connects the unprecedented West Coast toxic algae bloom of 2015 that closed fisheries from southern California to northern British Columbia to the unusually warm ocean conditions — nicknamed “the blob” — in winter and spring of that year. UC...
Sep 29, 2016 | Earth, Energy & Environment, Physics & Mathematics
New research in game theory shows that people are naturally predisposed to over-use “common-pool resources” such as transportation systems and fisheries even if it risks failure of the system, to the detriment of society as a whole. The ongoing research harnesses the...
Sep 28, 2016 | Earth, Energy & Environment, Life & Non-humans
A new optimization technique could help conservation biologists choose the most cost-effective ways of connecting isolated populations of rare, threatened and endangered species living in protected areas. As the human population grows and expands its footprint,...
Sep 28, 2016 | Earth, Energy & Environment, Physics & Mathematics
In certain parts of the ocean, towering, slow-motion rollercoasters called internal tides trundle along for miles, rising and falling for hundreds of feet in the ocean’s interior while making barely a ripple at the surface. These giant, hidden swells are responsible...
Sep 27, 2016 | Earth, Energy & Environment
What if every coastal community along the entire Pacific Rim were involved in monitoring their local marine environment, and all of that data were brought together in one place? Imagine, for example, if residents in Long Beach, Washington, could submit information...
Sep 27, 2016 | Earth, Energy & Environment, Life & Non-humans
Could the future of a salt marsh be hidden in the health of its microbes? Scientists say yes. Salt marshes play key roles in reducing the effects of urbanization and climate change. Marshes absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and their microbes break down...
Sep 26, 2016 | Earth, Energy & Environment, Health, Technology
Residents of China’s megacities who post comments about air quality to social media can give environmental scientists a window into pollution levels there. A multidisciplinary study by Rice University researchers showed that the frequency of key words like dust,...
Sep 26, 2016 | Earth, Energy & Environment, Technology
Elementary school science teaches us that in the sun, dark colors get hot while white stays cool. Now new research from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has found an exception: Scientists have determined that certain dark pigments can stay just as...
