Offbeat: General Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Astrophysics Space: Exploration Space: General Space: Structures and Features
Published

Dark matter flies ahead of normal matter in mega galaxy cluster collision      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Astronomers have untangled a messy collision between two massive clusters of galaxies in which the clusters' vast clouds of dark matter have decoupled from the so-called normal matter.

Environmental: General Geoscience: Earth Science Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geochemistry
Published

Study of urban moss raises concerns about lead levels in older Portland neighborhoods      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Lead levels in moss are as much as 600 times higher in older Portland, Oregon, neighborhoods where lead-sheathed telecommunications cables were once used compared to lead levels in nearby rural areas, a new study of urban moss has found.

Environmental: General Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geochemistry
Published

Warehousing industry increases health-harming pollutants, research shows      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new study shows an average 20-percent spike of nitrogen dioxide polluting the air for communities located near huge warehouses. And people of color are harder hit.

Geoscience: Earth Science Geoscience: Geochemistry Geoscience: Geology
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New study supports stable mantle chemistry dating back to Earth's early geologic history and over its prodigious evolution      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new analysis of rocks thought to be at least 2.5 billion years old helps clarify the chemical history of Earth's mantle -- the geologic layer beneath the planet's crust. The findings hone scientists' understanding of Earth's earliest geologic processes, and they provide new evidence in a decades-long scientific debate about the geologic history of Earth. Specifically, the results provide evidence that the oxidation state of the vast majority of Earth's mantle has remained stable through geologic time and has not undergone major transitions, contrary to what has been suggested previously by other researchers.

Offbeat: General Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Exploration Space: General Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

Images of nearest 'super-Jupiter' open a new window to exoplanet research      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers imaged a new exoplanet that orbits a star in the nearby triple system Epsilon Indi. The planet is a cold super-Jupiter exhibiting a temperature of around 0 degrees Celsius and a wide orbit comparable to that of Neptune around the Sun. This measurement was only possible thanks to JWST's unprecedented imaging capabilities in the thermal infrared. It exemplifies the potential of finding many more such planets similar to Jupiter in mass, temperature, and orbit. Studying them will improve our knowledge of how gas giants form and evolve in time.

Chemistry: Biochemistry Chemistry: General Chemistry: Inorganic Chemistry Chemistry: Thermodynamics Environmental: General Environmental: Water Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geochemistry
Published

Researchers develop more environmentally friendly and cost-effective method for soil remediation      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Chemists have developed a rapid electrothermal mineralization (REM) process, which in seconds can remediate the accumulation of synthetic chemicals that can contaminate soil and the environment.

Environmental: General Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geochemistry
Published

Best bioenergy crops for sustainable aviation fuels by U.S. region, policy goals      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers analyzed the financial and environmental costs and benefits of four biofuels crops used to produce sustainable aviation fuels in the U.S. They found that each feedstock -- corn stover, energy sorghum, miscanthus or switchgrass -- performed best in a specific region of the rainfed United States. Their study will help growers and policymakers select the feedstocks most suited to meeting goals like reducing production costs, lowering greenhouse gas emissions and building soil carbon stocks.

Environmental: General Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geochemistry
Published

Children's exposome associated with changes in serum metabolites      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The combined effect of environmental exposures and unhealthy lifestyle habits can affect children's cardiometabolic health in a way that exceeds their separate effects. A new study shows the benefit of measuring the combined effect of multiple environmental and lifestyle factors.

Chemistry: General Chemistry: Inorganic Chemistry Environmental: General Environmental: Water Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geochemistry Physics: Optics
Published

A promising new method uses light to clean up forever chemicals      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A room-temperature method to decompose perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) using visible LED light offers a promising solution for sustainable fluorine recycling and PFAS treatment.

Offbeat: General Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Astrophysics Space: General Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

Astrophysicists uncover supermassive blackhole/dark matter connection in solving the 'final parsec problem'      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers have found a link between some of the largest and smallest objects in the cosmos: supermassive black holes and dark matter particles. Their new calculations reveal that pairs of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) can merge into a single larger black hole because of previously overlooked behavior of dark matter particles, proposing a solution to the longstanding 'final parsec problem' in astronomy.

Chemistry: Biochemistry Chemistry: General Environmental: General Environmental: Water Geoscience: Earth Science Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geochemistry
Published

Converting captured carbon to fuel: Study assesses what's practical and what's not      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new analysis sheds light on major shortfalls of a recently proposed approach to capture CO2 from air and directly convert it to fuel using electricity. The authors also provide a new, more sustainable, alternative.

Environmental: General Geoscience: Earth Science Geoscience: Geochemistry Geoscience: Geography Geoscience: Oceanography
Published

Deep-ocean floor produces its own oxygen      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

An international team of researchers has discovered that metallic minerals on the deep-ocean floor produce oxygen -- 13,000 feet below the surface. Discovery challenges long-held assumptions that only photosynthetic organisms generate Earth's oxygen. Minerals at the abyssal seafloor appear to act like geobatteries to produce oxygen in a process that does not require sunlight.

Offbeat: General Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Astrophysics Space: Exploration Space: General Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

Life signs could survive near surfaces of Enceladus and Europa      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Europa and Enceladus, icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn respectively, have evidence of oceans beneath their crusts. A NASA experiment suggests -- if these oceans support life -- signatures of that life in the form of organic molecules (like amino acids and nucleic acids) could survive just under the surface ice despite the harsh, ionizing radiation on these worlds. If robotic landers were to go to these moons to look for life signs, they would not have to dig very deep to find amino acids that have survived being altered or destroyed by radiation.

Chemistry: Biochemistry Chemistry: General Chemistry: Inorganic Chemistry Chemistry: Organic Chemistry Environmental: General Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geochemistry
Published

Waste Styrofoam can now be converted into polymers for electronics      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new study describes a chemical reaction that can convert Styrofoam into a high-value conducting polymer known as PEDOT:PSS. Researchers also noted that the upgraded plastic waste can be successfully incorporated into functional electronic devices, including silicon-based hybrid solar cells and organic electrochemical transistors.