Showing 20 articles starting at article 681

< Previous 20 articles        Next 20 articles >

Categories: Geoscience: Geochemistry, Geoscience: Geology

Return to the site home page

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Micron-size microplastic debris can be carried by the jet stream across oceans and continents, and their shape plays a crucial role in how far they travel.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A team of scientists has revealed the mechanism a desert plant native to the United Arab Emirates uses to capture moisture from the desert air in order to survive.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers developed an efficient process that can convert carbon dioxide into formate, a nonflammable liquid or solid material that can be used like hydrogen or methanol to power a fuel cell and generate electricity.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

To quickly and accurately characterize prospective materials for use in solar energy, researchers built an automated system to perform laboratory experiments and used machine learning to help analyze the data they recorded. Their goal is to identify semiconductor materials for use in photovoltaic solar energy, which are highly efficient and have low toxicity.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Large geomagnetic storms disrupt radio signals and GPS. Now, researchers have identified the previous underestimated role of the ionosphere, a region of Earth's upper atmosphere that contains a high concentration of ions and free electrons, in determining how such storms develop. Understanding the interactions that cause large geomagnetic storms is important because they can disrupt radio signals and GPS. Their findings may help predict storms with the greatest potential consequences.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Investigators have developed a new risk score that assesses a person's risk for developing ALS, as well as for survival after diagnosis, using a blood sample based on exposure to toxins in the environment, a new study shows.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Examining how plates move in Earth's mantle and how mountains form is no easy feat. Certain rocks that have sunk deep into Earth's interior and then returned from there can deliver answers.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The explosion of the underwater volcano Kolumbo in the Aegean Sea in 1650 triggered a destructive tsunami that was described by historical eye witnesses. A group of researchers has now surveyed Kolumbo's underwater crater with modern imaging technology and reconstructed the historical events. They found that the eyewitness accounts of the natural disaster can only be described by a combination of a landslide followed by an explosive eruption.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers have developed a new hydrogen energy carrier material capable storing hydrogen energy efficiently and potentially more cheaply. Each molecule can store one electron from hydrogen at room temperature, store it for up the three months, and can be its own catalyst to extract said electron. Moreover, as the compound is made primarily of nickel, its cost is relatively low.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Dyes widely used in the textile, food and pharmaceutical industries pose a pressing threat to plant, animal and human health, as well as natural environments around the world, a new study has found. Billions of tons of dye-containing wastewater enter water systems every year, and a group of researchers say that new sustainable technologies including new membrane-based nano-scale filtration are needed to solve the issue, adding that legislation is needed to compel industrial producers to eliminate colorants before they reach public sewage systems or waterways.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Scientists have discovered that even among the sulfur-cycling microbes that are responsible for the 'rotten egg gas' smell in salt marsh air, diversity extends all the way to genomes and even to individual nucleotides.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Venus, may have once had tectonic plate movements similar to those believed to have occurred on early Earth, a new study found. The finding sets up tantalizing scenarios regarding the possibility of early life on Venus, its evolutionary past and the history of the solar system.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The key to bringing global net-zero goals into reach may be algae, say researchers. Studies show impressive success of certain microalgae varieties to remove CO2 from the atmosphere then break it down into useful materials.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Existing air pollution regulations will reduce thousands of premature adult deaths in the UK, but even the most effective technically feasible actions, which will save thousands more lives, will do little to protect the country's sensitive ecosystems, find researchers.  

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

More than 100,000 tons of diapers are disposed of annually in Germany. Vast amounts of valuable resources, such as diaper liners, end up in the trash. The liners consist of special polymers, so-called superabsorbers. Researchers have now succeeded in considerably improving their complex recycling process. They use UV radiation to degrade the chemical chains that keep the polymers together. No chemicals are needed. Recycling at room temperature is 200 times faster than conventional recycling. The recycled polymers can then be processed to new adhesives and dyes.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Opening a clamshell of berries and seeing them coated in fuzzy mold is a downer. And it's no small problem. Gray mold and other fungi, which cause fruit to rot, lead to significant economic losses and food waste. Now, researchers report that compounds from sunflower crop waste prevented rotting in blueberries. They suggest the food industry could use these natural compounds to protect against post-harvest diseases.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

As bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have grown in market share, they've been criticized for their heavy carbon footprint: Cryptocurrency mining is an energy-intensive endeavor. Mining has massive water and land footprints as well, according to a new study that is the first to detail country-by-country environmental impacts of bitcoin mining.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers have identified buried kimberlite, the rocky home of diamonds, by testing the DNA of microbes in the surface soil. These 'biological fingerprints' can reveal what minerals are buried tens of meters below the earth's surface without having to drill. The researchers believe it is the first use of modern DNA sequencing of microbial communities in the search for buried minerals. The research represents a new tool for mineral exploration, where a full toolbox could save prospectors time and a lot of money,

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Adding crushed volcanic rock to farmland can pull carbon dioxide out of the air. In a field test, scientists found that the process works even in dry climates. 

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Next-generation solar materials are cheaper and more sustainable to produce than traditional silicon solar cells, but hurdles remain in making the devices durable enough to withstand real-world conditions. A new technique could simplify the development of efficient and stable perovskite solar cells, named for their unique crystalline structure that excels at absorbing visible light.