Showing 20 articles starting at article 601

< Previous 20 articles        Next 20 articles >

Categories: Geoscience: Severe Weather, Physics: Optics

Return to the site home page

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Wine quality is notorious for varying from year to year, but what makes for a 'good year?' Researchers show that weather plays an important role in determining wine quality. By analyzing 50 years’ worth of wine critic scores from the Bordeaux wine region in relation to that year’s weather, the researchers showed that higher quality wine is made in years with warmer temperatures, higher winter rainfall, and earlier, shorter growing seasons—conditions that climate change is predicted to make more frequent.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Research finds that experiencing days in which the temperature exceeds previous highs for that time of year affects people’s perception of weather trends.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers have synthesized a zinc complex based on two zinc centers that absorbs visible light. They demonstrated that this capability depends on the proximity of the zinc ions, where the complex responds to visible light when the zinc atoms are closer. This new property is expected to expand the utility of zinc, which already offers advantages including biological relevance, cost effectiveness, and low toxicity.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Discharged in large quantities by textile, cosmetic, ink, paper and other manufacturers, dyes carry high-toxicity and can bring potential carcinogens to wastewater. It’s a major concern for wastewater treatment — but researchers may have found a solution, using a tiny nanofilament.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

With global warming apparently here to stay, a team of paleoclimatologists are studying an ancient source to determine future rainfall and drought patterns: fossilized plants that lived on Earth millions of years ago.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A team found a way to deliver clear pictures of anyone's internal anatomy, no matter their skin tone.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

An international team of scientists have discovered a huge spike in radiocarbon levels 14,300 years ago by analyzing ancient tree-rings found in the French Alps. The radiocarbon spike was caused by a massive solar storm, the biggest ever identified.  A similar solar storm today would be catastrophic for modern technological society – potentially wiping out telecommunications and satellite systems, causing massive electricity grid blackouts, and costing us billions. The academics are warning of the importance of understanding such storms to protect our global communications and energy infrastructure for the future.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The Gulf Stream is intrinsic to the global climate system, bringing warm waters from the Caribbean up the East Coast of the United States. As it flows along the coast and then across the Atlantic Ocean, this powerful ocean current influences weather patterns and storms, and it carries heat from the tropics to higher latitudes as part of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation.  A new study now documents that over the past 20 years, the Gulf Stream has warmed faster than the global ocean as a whole and has shifted towards the coast. The study relies on over 25,000 temperature and salinity profiles collected between 2001 and 2023.  

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

If global temperatures increase by 1 degree Celsius (C) or more than current levels, each year billions of people will be exposed to heat and humidity so extreme they will be unable to naturally cool themselves, according to interdisciplinary research. Results indicated that warming of the planet beyond 1.5 C above preindustrial levels will be increasingly devastating for human health across the planet.  

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

New research has revealed that since the 1980s, Category 4 and 5 hurricanes (maximum wind speed greater than 131 miles per hour) have been arriving three to four days earlier with each passing decade of climate change.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Settling a half century of debate, researchers have discovered that tiny linear defects can propagate through a material faster than sound waves do. These linear defects, or dislocations, are what give metals their strength and workability, but they can also make materials fail catastrophically ­– which is what happens every time you pop the pull tab on a can of soda. The fact that they can travel so fast gives scientists a new appreciation of the unusual types of damage they might do to a broad range of materials in extreme conditions.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Physicists have experimentally detected how so-called Hubbard excitons form in real-time. 

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers have developed a data-driven AI algorithm for controlling the heating and cooling of an office building. The system does not require ambient sensors or specific knowledge of the building's rooms. During heating operations, the system was able to achieve energy savings of up to 30%, which can represent significant reductions to cost and environmental impact.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Some of the thinnest materials known to humankind -- MXene and MBene compounds -- may provide solutions to scientists in their quest to curb the effects of global warming. These substances are only a few atoms thick, making them two-dimensional. Because of their large surface area, the materials have the potential to absorb carbon dioxide molecules from the atmosphere, which could help reduce the harmful effects of climate change by safely sequestering carbon dioxide, according to a review study.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Whether you’re battling foes in a virtual arena or collaborating with colleagues across the globe, lag-induced disruptions can be a major hindrance to seamless communication and immersive experiences. That’s why researchers have developed new technology to make data transfer over optical fiber communication faster and more efficient.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Winter is coming—eventually. And while the earth is warming, a new study suggests that the atmosphere is being pushed around in ways that cause long bouts of extreme winter cold or wet in some regions. The study’s authors say they have identified giant meanders in the global jet stream that bring polar air southward, locking in frigid or wet conditions concurrently over much of North America and Europe, often for weeks at a time. Such weather waves, they say, have doubled in frequency since the 1960s. In just the last few years, they have killed hundreds of people and paralyzed energy and transport systems.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Hot weather reduces workers’ productivity – even if their workplace is air conditioned.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Climate change means the American West will have 17% fewer safe days to light prescribed fires for wildfire management, according to new research. Winter, however, will see a net 4% increase in the number of favorable days. Implementing controlled burns in the West will require changes to policy and the availability of firefighters.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Using a novel method, beams of laser light can be deflected using air alone. An invisible grating made only of air is not only immune to damage from the laser light, but it also preserves the original quality of the beam.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers have succeeded in printing uniformly sized droplets with a diameter of approximately 100 µm using a liquid film of fluorescent ink. This ink, with a viscosity roughly 100 times that of water, was irradiated with an optical vortex, resulting in prints of exceptional positional accuracy at the micrometer scale.