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Categories: Geoscience: Earthquakes, Geoscience: Geochemistry

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Scientists have discovered that nighttime air pollution -- coming primarily form car exhaust and power plant emissions -- is responsible for a major drop in nighttime pollinator activity. Nitrate radicals (NO3) in the air degrade the scent chemicals released by a common wildflower, drastically reducing the scent-based cues that its chief pollinators rely on to locate the flower. The findings show how nighttime pollution creates a chain of chemical reactions that degrades scent cues, leaving flowers undetectable by smell. The researchers also determined that pollution likely has worldwide impacts on pollination.

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Cutting-edge research converted waste carbon dioxide into a potential precursor for chemicals and carbon-free fuel.

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A team of scientists has developed an artificial 'worm gut' to break down plastics, offering hope for a nature-inspired method to tackle the global plastic pollution problem.

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Rocks once buried deep in ancient subduction zones -- where tectonic plates collide -- could help scientists make better predictions of how these zones behave during the years between major earthquakes, according to a research team.

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Inspired during field work in South Australia's Flinders Ranges, geoscientists have proposed that all-time low volcanic carbon dioxide emissions triggered a 57-million-year-long global 'Sturtian' ice age.

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Researchers say there needs to be better regulation and more guidance for consumers about how safe cleaning products really are.

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Forests, which cover a third of Earth's land surface, are pivotal in carbon storage and the water cycle, though the full scope of their impact remains to be fully understood. In a new study, researchers provide new insights into the complex role forests play in the climate system and water cycle.

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When it comes to making fuel from plants, the first step has always been the hardest -- breaking down the plant matter. A new study finds that introducing a simple, renewable chemical to the pretreatment step can finally make next-generation biofuel production both cost-effective and carbon neutral.

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For the first time, a hydrogel material made of nanocellulose and algae has been tested as an alternative, greener architectural material. The study shows how the abundant sustainable material can be 3D printed into a wide array of architectural components, using much less energy than conventional construction methods.

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A more accurate way of identifying underground nuclear tests, including those conducted in secret, has been developed.

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One of the most important components of satellites that enable telecommunication is the waveguide, which is a metal tube for guiding radio waves. It is also one of the heaviest payloads satellites carry into orbit. As with all space technology, reducing weight means reducing the amount of expensive and greenhouse gas-producing fuel it takes to launch a rocket, or increasing the number of devices carried by the same rocket to space. Researchers are trying to lighten the load by creating and testing a waveguide made from 3D-printed polymers coated with a conductive nanomaterial called MXene.

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Think of it as recycling on the nanoscale: a tantalizing electrochemical process that can harvest carbon before it becomes air pollution and restructure it into the components of everyday products. The drive to capture airborne carbon dioxide from industrial waste and make it into fuel and plastics is gaining momentum after a team of researchers uncovered precisely how the process works and where it bogs down.

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Researchers have discovered peptide factors that function in the shoot and root systems to transport iron into the root nodules colonized by nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Moreover, these peptide factors regulate nitrogen homeostasis by maintaining a balance between nitrogen and iron concentrations in plants without rhizobial symbiosis.

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The Seattle fault zone is a network of shallow faults slicing through the lowlands of Puget Sound, threatening to create damaging earthquakes for the more than four million people who live there. A new origin story, proposed in a new study, could explain the fault system's earliest history and help scientists improve hazard modeling for the densely populated region.

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Switching to ammonia as a marine fuel, with the goal of decarbonization, can instead create entirely new problems. This is shown in a study where researchers carried out life cycle analyses for batteries and for three electrofuels including ammonia. Eutrophication and acidification are some of the environmental problems that can be traced to the use of ammonia -- as well as emissions of laughing gas, which is a very potent greenhouse gas.

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New research sheds light on tiny plankton, which measure less than 0.02mm in diameter but can make up more than 70% of the plankton biomass found in the ocean.

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The algae P. antarctica has two forms of the enzyme that makes the amino acid methionine, one needing B12, and one that is slower, but doesn't need it. This means it has the ability to adapt and survive with low B12 availability. The presence of the MetE gene in P. antarctica gives the algae the ability to adapt to lower vitamin B12 availability, giving it a potential advantage to bloom in the early austral spring when bacterial production is low. P. antarctica takes in the CO2 and releases oxygen through photosynthesis. Understanding its ability to grow in environments with low vitamin B12 availability can help climate modelers make more accurate predictions.

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Researchers have developed a new search tool to that can match microbes to the metabolites they produce with no prior knowledge, an innovation that could transform our understanding of both human health and the environment.

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With 2,500 billion tons of carbon, soil is one of Earth's largest carbon sinks. Researchers used experiments and computational modeling to study interactions between carbon molecules and clay minerals in soil. New research gives clues to why some plant-based carbon molecules are sequestered in soils but others are respired as CO2. Findings show that electrostatic charges, surrounding nutrients in soil and competition from other molecules all play roles in facilitating carbon trapping.

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Scientists developed a new method to map exactly how a fungus works with leafcutter ants in a complex microbial community to degrade plant material at the molecular level. The team's insights are important for biofuels development.