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Categories: Chemistry: Thermodynamics, Geoscience: Severe Weather

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Researchers have made a significant breakthrough in developing a passive radiative cooling (PRC) material. The material, known as cooling ceramic, has achieved high-performance optical properties for energy-free and refrigerant-free cooling generation. Its cost-effectiveness, durability and versatility make it highly suitable for commercialization in numerous applications, particularly in building construction. 

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Rubber-like materials can exhibit both spring-like and flow-like behaviors simultaneously, which contributes to their exceptional damping abilities. To understand the dynamic viscoelasticity of these materials, researchers have recently developed a novel system that can conduct dynamic mechanical analysis and dynamic micro X-ray computed tomography simultaneously. This technology can enhance our understanding of the microstructure of viscoelastic materials and pave the way for the development of better materials.

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Most wildfires in boreal forests, such as those in Canada, are caused by lightning strikes, according to a study aimed at attributing fire ignition sources globally. 

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A team of researchers has built a prototype microscope that does not rely on backscattered radiation, instead uses passive detection of thermally excited evanescent waves. They have examined dielectric materials with passive near-field spectroscopy to develop a detection model to further refine the technique, working to develop a new kind of microscopy for examining nanoscopic material surfaces.

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Over the past few decades, algae have been slowly edging corals out of their native reefs across the globe by blocking sunlight, wearing the corals down physically, and producing harmful chemicals. But in recent years, a new type of algal threat has surfaced in tropical regions like the Caribbean -- one that spreads quickly and forms a crust on top of coral and sponges, suffocating the organisms underneath and preventing them from regrowing. Marine biologists report that peyssonnelioid alga crusts, or PACs, are expanding quickly across reefs worldwide, killing off corals and transforming entire ecosystems.

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Researchers studied how young trees respond to a hotter, drier climate. Their findings can help shape forest management policy and our understanding of how landscapes will change.

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A team of researchers has unveiled a first-of-its-kind stable and fully solid-state thermal transistor that uses an electric field to control a semiconductor device's heat movement.  The group's study details how the device works and its potential applications. With top speed and performance, the transistor could open new frontiers in heat management of computer chips through an atomic-level design and molecular engineering. The advance could also further the understanding of how heat is regulated in the human body.

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An innovative plastic, stronger and stretchier than the current standard type and which can be healed with heat, remembers its shape and partially biodegradable, has been developed. They created it by adding the molecule polyrotaxane to an epoxy resin vitrimer, a type of plastic. Named VPR, the material can hold its form and has strong internal chemical bonds at low temperatures.

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The heat given off by car engines warms up underground car parks in such a way that the heat passes through the ground into the groundwater. In Berlin alone, enough energy is transferred to the groundwater to supply 14,660 households with heat. According to the researchers, this warming could have long-term effects on groundwater quality. In their study, they also propose a solution. Using geothermal energy and heat pumps, the heat could be extracted from the ground and utilized.

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Researchers have discovered how superfluid helium 3He would feel if you could put your hand into it. The interface between the exotic world of quantum physics and classical physics of the human experience is one of the major open problems in modern physics. Nobody has been able to answer this question during the 100-year history of quantum physics.

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Destructive winds that flow out of thunderstorms in the central United States are becoming far more widespread with warming temperatures, according to new research. A new study shows that the central U.S. experienced a fivefold increase in the geographic area affected by damaging thunderstorm straight line winds in the past 40 years. 

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At the interface of water and air, light can, in certain conditions, bring about evaporation without the need for heat, according to a new study.

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Optical tweezers use laser light to manipulate small particles. A new method has been advanced using Stampede2 supercomputer simulations that makes optical tweezers safer to use for potential biological applications, such as cancer therapy. 

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A new study reveals increasing warming rates in the world's oceans in recent decades and the locations with the greatest heat uptake.

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As the planet gets hotter, the need for cool living environments is becoming more urgent. But air conditioning is a major contributor to global warming since units use potent greenhouse gases and lots of energy. Now, researchers have found in a new study an inexpensive, sustainable alternative to mechanical cooling with refrigerants in hot and arid climates, and a way to mitigate dangerous heat waves during electricity blackouts.

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Large geomagnetic storms disrupt radio signals and GPS. Now, researchers have identified the previous underestimated role of the ionosphere, a region of Earth's upper atmosphere that contains a high concentration of ions and free electrons, in determining how such storms develop. Understanding the interactions that cause large geomagnetic storms is important because they can disrupt radio signals and GPS. Their findings may help predict storms with the greatest potential consequences.

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Using a new 3D printing technique, researchers have developed special ceramic structures for a solar reactor. Initial experimental testing show that these structures can boost the production yield of solar fuels.

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Scientists at NCAR have identified two entirely different modes of hurricane rapid intensification. The findings may lead to better understanding and prediction of these dangerous events.

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New research suggests that increasingly severe weather driven by climate change may push oceangoing seabirds to their limits.  

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A new report finds that drastic changes are approaching if risks to our fundamental socioecological systems are not addressed.  The Interconnected Disaster Risks Report 2023 warns of six risk tipping points ahead of us: Accelerating extinctions; Groundwater depletion; Mountain glaciers melting; Space debris; Unbearable heat; and an Uninsurable future.