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Categories: Energy: Fossil Fuels, Environmental: Ecosystems
Published JET fusion facility sets a new world energy record
(via sciencedaily.com) European scientists have achieved a major success on the road to energy production through fusion plasmas: They produced stable plasmas with 59 megajoules of energy output at the world's largest fusion facility, JET, in Culham near Oxford, UK.
Published Massive methane emissions by oil and gas industry detected from space
(via sciencedaily.com) For the first time ever on a global scale, using satellite imagery, scientists have quantified volumes of massive methane emissions due to fossil-fuel extraction activities and their impact on the climate. Their findings partly explain why official inventories generally underestimate the volume of these emissions. Stopping these releases, be they accidental or deliberate, would save those countries responsible billions of dollars.
Published Fuel cells and game-changing tech to remove 99% of carbon dioxide from air
(via sciencedaily.com) Engineers have demonstrated a way to effectively capture 99% of carbon dioxide from air using a novel electrochemical system powered by hydrogen.
Published New polymer fuel cells can operate at higher temperatures
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new high-temperature polymer fuel cell that operates at 80-160 degrees Celsius, with a higher-rated power density than state-of-the-art fuel cells, solves the longstanding problem of overheating, one of the most significant technical barriers to using medium-and heavy-duty fuel cells in transportation vehicles such as trucks and buses.
Published How fuel poverty 'gets under the skin'
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source New research shows that fuel poverty makes people's physical and mental health worse. Researchers found that not being able to keep homes warm enough affects people's levels of life satisfaction. But they also found that it impacts people's physical health by causing higher levels of inflammation, measured by fibrinogen, a blood-based biomarker.
Published Ancient Mesopotamian discovery transforms knowledge of early farming
(via sciencedaily.com) Researchers have unearthed the earliest definitive evidence of broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum) in ancient Iraq, challenging our understanding of humanity's earliest agricultural practices.
Published Watering holes bring together wildlife, and their parasites
(via sciencedaily.com) The sun rises on the savannas of central Kenya. Grasses sway in the wind as hoof-steps fall on the dusty ground. A menagerie of Africa's iconic wildlife congregates around a watering hole to quench their thirst during the region's dry season.
Published Hidden order in windswept sand
(via sciencedaily.com) Researchers have analyzed an extensive collection of sand samples from so-called megaripple fields around the world and gained new insights into the composition of these sand waves. These could help settle debates about the mechanistic origin of some recently discovered enigmatic extraterrestrial sand structures and improve our ability to infer information about past weather and climate events from sediment records.
Published Iodine in desert dust destroys ozone
(via sciencedaily.com) When winds loft fine desert dust high into the atmosphere, iodine in that dust can trigger chemical reactions that destroy some air pollution, but also let greenhouse gases stick around longer. The finding may force researchers to re-evaluate how particles from land can impact the chemistry of the atmosphere.
Published Desert shrubs cranked up water use efficiency to survive a megadrought
(via sciencedaily.com) Shrubs in the desert Southwest have increased their water use efficiency at some of the highest rates ever observed to cope with a decades-long megadrought. Researchers found that although the shrubs' efficiency increases are unprecedented and heroic, they may not be enough to adapt to the long-term drying trend in the West.
Published Collapse of ancient Liangzhu culture caused by climate change
(via sciencedaily.com) Referred to as 'China's Venice of the Stone Age', the Liangzhu excavation site in eastern China is considered one of the most significant testimonies of early Chinese advanced civilization. More than 5000 years ago, the city already had an elaborate water management system. Until now, it has been controversial what led to the sudden collapse. Massive flooding triggered by anomalously intense monsoon rains caused the collapse, as geologists and climate researchers have now shown.
Published Stalagmites as key witnesses of the monsoon
(via sciencedaily.com) Researchers have now reconstructed how the Indian summer monsoon responded to meltwater pulses into the North Atlantic at the end of the penultimate cold period.
Published Woodland and hedgerow creation can play crucial role in action to reverse declines in pollinators
(via sciencedaily.com) The largest survey of pollinator abundance in Wales has found that woodland and hedgerow creation can play a crucial role in action to reverse declines in insects that are essential for crop yield and other wildlife.
Published Climate changed abruptly at tipping points in past
(via sciencedaily.com) Climate scientists identify abrupt transitions in climate records that may have been caused by the climate system crossing a tipping point. They devised a statistical method to determine whether these transitions are simply noise or evidence of a more significant change. Their method is less error-prone than previous methods, since it doesn't rely on human determination. It also allows comparing different records consistently and can identify important events that may have been overlooked in older studies.
Published Making aircraft fuel from sunlight and air
(via sciencedaily.com) Scientists have built a plant that can produce carbon-neutral liquid fuels from sunlight and air. The next goal will be to take this technology to industrial scale and achieve competitiveness. Researchers now describe how this novel solar reactor functions and outline a policy framework that would provide incentives to expand the production of 'solar kerosene'.
Published Vast patches of glassy rock in Chilean desert likely created by ancient exploding comet
(via sciencedaily.com) Heat from a comet exploding just above the ground fused the sandy soil into patches of glass stretching 75 kilometers, a new study found.
Published A life less obvious: Study sheds light on the evolution of underground microbes
(via sciencedaily.com) Precambrian cratons -- some of Earth's oldest rocks -- were uninhabitable for microbes for much of their existence, with the longest period of habitability not much beyond a billion years, and many only for the past 50 million to 300 million years, according to a paper correlating Earth's deep biosphere with geologic history.
Published A new model could help stall shifting sand dunes, protecting infrastructure and ecosystems
(via sciencedaily.com) Scientists have used down-scaled laboratory models to show how sand dunes move through a landscape, revealing the conditions that determine whether they will pass through hurdles in their path -- like pipelines or walls -- or get stopped in their tracks.
Published A cost effective and quick way to find groundwater in arid regions
(via sciencedaily.com) Water is a scarce commodity in many countries worldwide, but new cost-effective technology pioneered by researchers in Australia, Egypt and Saudi Arabia could ensure sustainable water supplies for decades to come.
Published Clues from the ancient past can help predict abrupt climate change
(via sciencedaily.com) Climate 'tipping points' can be better understood and predicted using climate change data taken from the ancient past, new research shows.