CUR’s First Virtual Posters on the Hill Showcases Undergraduate Research to Policymakers, Scholars, and the Public

On April 21, students will participate in the 2020 Posters on the Hill event. This year, because of COVID-19 challenges, undergraduate researchers and faculty mentors from institutions such as Butler University, California State University–Fullerton, and University of Chicago will share their research online.

Rutgers Expert Available to Discuss Doomsday Clock and Nuclear and Climate Threats

New Brunswick, N.J. (Jan. 23, 2020) – Rutgers University–New Brunswick Professor Alan Robock, an expert on nuclear winter, climate change and geoengineering, is available to discuss the Doomsday Clock moving to within 100 seconds of midnight today. “Humanity continues to face two…

Rising global temperatures turn northern permafrost region into significant carbon source

A new study that incorporates datasets gathered from more than 100 sites by institutions including the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, suggests that decomposition of organic matter in permafrost soil is substantially larger than previously thought, demonstrating the significant impact that emissions from the permafrost soil could have on the greenhouse effect and global warming.

Poisoned by Plastic

Too many of the plastic cups, chip bags, cigarette butts and take-out containers you see littering California’s beaches don’t stay on the sand. An estimated 17.6 billion pounds of plastic make their way into the world’s oceans annually, the equivalent of dumping a garbage truck full of plastic into the ocean every minute—and 80 percent of that comes directly from littering on land.

Scientists hit pay dirt with new microbial research technique

A better method for studying microbes in the soil will help scientists understand large-scale environmental cycles Long ago, during the European Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci wrote that we humans “know more about the movement of celestial bodies than about the…