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Categories: Geoscience: Geochemistry
Published How did Earth get its water?
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Our planet's water could have originated from interactions between the hydrogen-rich atmospheres and magma oceans of the planetary embryos that comprised Earth's formative years.
Published Humans need Earth-like ecosystem for deep-space living
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Can humans endure long-term living in deep space? The answer is a lukewarm maybe, according to a new theory describing the complexity of maintaining gravity and oxygen, obtaining water, developing agriculture and handling waste far from Earth.
Published Dancing in the mud: Cut cable puts an end to bacterial party
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source You can still be celebrated, even if you're buried in mud. A new study shows that innumerable other bacteria flock around cable bacteria in the oxygen-free seabed in something that looks like a dance. They apparently use the cable bacteria as an electrical lifeline for oxygen. Video recordings show that the dance stops abruptly if you cut the cable bacteria in half.
Published World's biggest cumulative logjam, newly mapped in the Arctic, stores 3.4 million tons of carbon
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Throughout the Arctic, fallen trees make their way from forests to the ocean by way of rivers. Those logs can stack up as the river twists and turns, resulting in long-term carbon storage. A new study has mapped the largest known woody deposit, covering 51 square kilometers (20 square miles) of the Mackenzie River Delta in Nunavut, Canada, and calculated that the logs store about 3.4 million tons (about 3.1 million metric tons) of carbon.
Published Lightning strike creates phosphorus material
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A lightning strike in New Port Richey, Florida, led to a chemical reaction creating a new material that is transitional between space minerals and minerals found on Earth. High-energy events, such as lightning, can cause unique chemical reactions. In this instance, the result is a new material -- one that is transitional between space minerals and minerals found on Earth.
Published Shutting down nuclear power could increase air pollution
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study shows that if U.S. nuclear power plants are retired, the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas to fill the energy gap could cause more than 5,000 premature deaths.
Published Solar cells charging forward
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source An environmentally friendlier solution to solar cell production with enhanced performance utilizes PEDOT:PSS/silicon heterojunction solar cells. This hybrid type is made of organic-inorganic material, which could potentially ease the production process compared to conventional silicon-only solar cells. It avoids manufacturing solar cells in vacuums and high-temperature processes, which require large and expensive equipment and a great amount of time.
Published Rooting out how plants control nitrogen use
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Nitrogen is such a crucial nutrient for plants that vast quantities of nitrogen-containing fertilizers are spread on farmlands worldwide. However, excess nitrogen in the soil and in drainage run-off into lakes and rivers causes serious ecological imbalances. A recent study has uncovered the regulatory mechanisms at work when plants utilize nitrogenous fertilizers in their roots, a positive step in the quest to generate crops that require less fertilizer while still producing the yields needed to feed the world.
Published Engineered plants produce sex perfume to trick pests and replace pesticides
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Tobacco plants have been engineered to manufacture an alluring perfume of insect sex pheromones, which could be used to confuse would-be pests looking for love and reduce the need for harmful pesticides.
Published Scientists discover a way Earth's atmosphere cleans itself
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Human activities emit many kinds of pollutants into the air, and without a molecule called hydroxide (OH), many of these pollutants would keep aggregating in the atmosphere.
Published Long-forgotten equation provides new tool for converting carbon dioxide
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source To manage atmospheric carbon dioxide and convert the gas into a useful product, scientists have dusted off an archaic -- now 120 years old -- electrochemical equation.
Published New pesticide exposure test developed to protect inexperienced cannabis farmers
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Chemists created a more reliable, robust and efficient way to monitor pesticide exposure and help protect the health and safety of agricultural workers, especially for emerging sectors like the cannabis industry.
Published Newly discovered probiotic could protect Caribbean corals threatened by deadly, devastating disease
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have discovered the first effective bacterial probiotic for treating and preventing stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD), a mysterious ailment that has devastated Florida's coral reefs since 2014 and is rapidly spreading throughout the Caribbean. The probiotic treatment provides an alternative to the use of the broad-spectrum antibiotic amoxicillin, which has so far been the only proven treatment for the disease but which runs the risk of promoting antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Published Air pollution may increase risk for dementia
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Exposure to fine particulate air pollutants (PM2.5) may increase the risk of developing dementia, according to a new meta-analysis.
Published Gone for good? California's beetle-killed, carbon-storing pine forests may not come back
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Ponderosa pine forests in the Sierra Nevada that were wiped out by western pine beetles during the 2012-2015 megadrought won't recover to pre-drought densities, reducing an important storehouse for atmospheric carbon.
Published Surprising science behind bumblebee superfood
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source It's the spines. New research shows that the spiny pollen from plants in the sunflower family (Asteraceae) both reduces infection of a common bee parasite by 81 -- 94% and markedly increases the production of queen bumble bees. The research provides much-needed food for thought in one of the most vexing problems facing biologists and ecologists: how to reverse the great die-off of the world's pollinators.
Published Opening a new frontier: PdMo intermetallic catalyst for promoting CO2 utilization
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A recently discovered catalyst, can convert carbon dioxide (CO2) into useful methanol at room temperature and low-pressure conditions. This novel compound, which is thermally and chemically stable in air, represents a new milestone in CO2 conversion via hydrogenation and could be key to slow down climate change.
Published Was plate tectonics occurring when life first formed on Earth?
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers used small zircon crystals to unlock information about magmas and plate tectonic activity in early Earth. The research provides chemical evidence that plate tectonics was most likely occurring more than 4.2 billion years ago when life is thought to have first formed on our planet. This finding could prove beneficial in the search for life on other planets.
Published New insights into engineering climate-smart crops for the future
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source New research in the field of plant sciences has made significant advances towards understanding the underlying reasons behind why certain crops are better at generating more yield than others.
Published Scientists use computational modeling to design 'ultrastable' materials
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers developed a computational approach to predict which metal-organic framework (MOF) structures will be the most stable, and therefore the best candidates for applications such as capturing greenhouse gases.