New tools to combat Chicago’s changing climate

Argonne and Northeastern Illinois University launched instruments to measure Chicago’s changing climate. These sensors are the first for the Argonne-led Urban Integrated Field Laboratory called Community Research on Climate and Urban Science (CROCUS).

Is Colombia’s deadly Nevado del Ruiz on the verge of a major eruption?

Hundreds of villagers who live in the shadow of the Western Hemisphere’s deadliest volcano, Colombia’s Nevado del Ruiz, have been on edge for nearly a month ever since the 17,000-foot-tall mountain started spewing plumes of ash and steam high into the atmosphere, indicating that an eruption could be imminent.

UAH researchers to gain revolutionary data on air pollutants from new NASA instrument launch

A team of air-quality researchers at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) expects to receive vital data from a new NASA instrument launched into space on Space X’s Falcon 9 rocket toward its host geostationary satellite, Intelsat 40e, on Friday, April 7.The Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) is the first spectrometer instrument that will collect hourly daytime observations of major air pollutants over greater North America, revolutionizing scientific capabilities to monitor air quality.

Blind spots in the monitoring of plastic waste

Whether in drinking water, food or even in the air: plastic is a global problem – and the full extent of this pollution may go beyond of what we know yet. Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), together with partners from the Netherlands and Australia, have reviewed conventional assumptions for the transport of plastic in rivers.

Department of Energy Announces $4.7 Million for Research and Development Partnership Pilots

Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $4.7 million in funding for 35 new grants to colleges and universities that are under-represented in DOE’s foundational climate, Earth, and environmental science research investments. These grants will help provide technical assistance to build capacity and achieve the goal of broadening institutional participation in DOE’s science investments.

Crop Protection: Biohacking against Fungal Attacks

Harmful fungi cause enormous agricultural losses. Conventional techniques for combating them involve the use of poisonous fungicides. Researchers at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), working with partners from Germany, France, and Switzerland on the DialogProTec project, have developed environmentally safe alternatives that trick the pathogens’ chemical communication with plants. Now that the research has been completed, the new technology is ready for use.

These stunning 3D models of coral reefs are a crucial research tool

Martínez Quintana has created stunning 3D digital models that visualize the surface of coral reefs in painstaking detail. The artful re-creations aren’t just beautiful: They’re also filled with data on the distribution of young corals, known as recruits, that scientists are analyzing.

Volcanic eruptions may have spurred first ‘whiffs’ of oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere

A new analysis of 2.5-billion-year-old rocks from Australia finds that volcanic eruptions may have stimulated population surges of marine microorganisms, creating the first puffs of oxygen into the atmosphere. This would change existing stories of Earth’s early atmosphere, which assumed that most changes in the early atmosphere were controlled by geologic or chemical processes.

Communicating about climate change: What’s politics got to do with it?

In the United States, climate change is controversial, which makes communicating about the subject a tricky proposition. A recent study by Portland State researchers Brianne Suldovsky, assistant professor of communication, and Daniel Taylor-Rodriguez, assistant professor of statistics, explored how liberals…

Deep-sea research bolstered with $2 million grant

Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences has been awarded $2 million by the National Science Foundation to lead an international effort to accelerate scientific understanding of the environmental impacts of emerging industries in the deep sea – one of the most…

The Indus basin: Untapped potential for long-term energy storage

Hydropower has massive potential as a source of clean electricity, and the Indus basin can be a key player in fulfilling long-term energy storage demands across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. IIASA researchers explored the role the Indus…

National Astronomy Meeting 2021: Media invitation

Around 850 astronomers and space scientists will gather online from 19 – 23 July, for the Royal Astronomical Society National Astronomy Meeting 2021 (NAM 2021) hosted by the University of Bath. Postponed in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the…

Press registration opens for ACS Fall 2021 meeting

WASHINGTON, July 15, 2021 — Journalists who register for the fall meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) will have access to more than 7,000 presentations on topics including agriculture and food, energy and fuels, health and medicine, space science,…