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5/3/12
| News
Existing
historical climate records are typically biased to the high latitudes,
where polar ice and ocean sediments lock in the atmosphere’s past. Yet a
main driver of climate variability today is El Niño, which is a
completely tropical phenomenon. Scientists at the California Institute
of Technology believe they have found the ice core of the tropics,
however.
May 3 | News
To
help predict the rate at which plants respond to changing climate
conditions, researchers use experiments that manipulate the temperature
surrounding small plots of plants to gauge how specific plants will
react to higher temperatures. But wild plants are leafing out and
flowering sooner each year than predicted by results from these
experiments, according to data from a major new archive of historical
observations.
Apr 22 | News
Mount
Everest has attracted climbers and adventurers for nearly 100 years.
Now, a team of U.S. scientists have set up a laboratory at the base of
the world’s highest mountain to study the effects of high altitude on
humans. A team from the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota says it plans to
monitor nine climbers attempting to scale Everest to learn more about
the physiology of humans at high altitudes in order to help patients
with heart conditions and other ailments.
1 hour ago | News
While many are focusing on atmospheric solutions to reduce greenhouse gases, some researchers are setting their sights on the ground—deep underground. Li Li, an assistant professor of energy and mineral engineering at Penn State University, is investigating geologic carbon sequestration as a way to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
23 hours ago | News
Plants
rely on photoreceptors to activate internal chemical processes like
germination and leaf growth. Theorizing that the light-absorbing
component of the photoreceptor may be replaced by a chemically similar
synthetic substance, scientist have for the first time shown that full
growth of plants is possible in the complete absence of light.
May 17 | News
It
doesn’t matter if it’s regular or decaf, a big new study find that
coffee drinkers are a little more likely to live longer. The results
from the largest study ever done on the issue, comes after years of
waffling research on coffee and health, even some fear that java might
raise the risk of heart disease.
May 17 | News
Scientists
in the U.K. have discovered a previously unrecognized volcanic process
called “fluidized spray granulation”, which can occur during kimberlite
eruptions to produce well-rounded particles containing mantle, most
notably diamonds. This physical process is remarkable similar to the gas
injection and spraying process used to form smooth coatings on
chocolates.
May 16 | News
Some remarkable types of bacteria have proven themselves capable of "consuming" toxic pollutants, organically diminishing environmental impact in a process called bioremediation. Enzymes within these bacteria can effectively alter the molecular structure of dangerous chemicals, but the underlying mechanisms and keys to future advances often remain unknown. Now, scientists Brookhaven National Laboratory have revealed a possible explanation for the superior function of one pollution-degrading enzyme.
May 16 | News
MIT provost L. Rafael Reif, an internationally recognized electrical engineer who learned to speak English after coming to the U.S. for graduate school from his native Venezuela, was named MIT's 17th president on Wednesday.The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Corporation elected Reif to...
May 16 | News
Starting
this week, U.S. Navy divers will be part of a multinational effort near
Estonia to help clear the Baltic Sea of underwater mines left over from
as long ago as the First and Second World Wars. At the same time,
physicians are studying these divers and how gas molecules form in
humans who experience long periods deep underwater.
May 15 | News
A
former U.K. government advisor and chemical engineer recently published
an article that discussed how dispersing sub-micrometer
light-scattering particles into the upper atmosphere could help to
combat climate change. Author Peter Davidson says the effect would
replicate the cooling that occurred after the 1991 eruption of Mount
Pinatubo.
May 15 | News
According
to predictions made by climate researchers with the Alfred Wegener
Institute for Polar and Marine Research, the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf
fringing the Weddell Sea in Antarctica may start to melt rapidly in this
century and no longer act as a barrier for ice streams draining the
Antarctic Ice Sheet. They claim this finding refutes previous
assumptions that climate change would not affect the Weddell Sea.
May 15 | News
Researchers at the Joint BioEnergy Institute have identified a tropical rainforest microbe that can endure relatively high concentrations of an ionic liquid used to dissolve cellulosic biomass for the production of advanced biofuels. They've also determined how the microbe accomplishes this, a discovery that holds broad implications beyond biofuels.
