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Measuring 6,000 African cities: Double the population means triple the energy costs

“Our model allows us to estimate African cities’ transport requirements and energy needs with a never before seen accuracy,” Prieto-Curiel, researcher at the Complexity Science Hub, says. Together with Jorge E. Patino from Universidad EAFIT and Brilé Anderson from OECD, he studied a recently published dataset from Google AI. With this unprecedented data the researchers …

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Human-wildlife conflicts rising worldwide with climate change

The research, led by scientists at the University of Washington’s Center for Ecosystem Sentinels and published Feb. 27 in Nature Climate Change, reveals that a warming world is increasing human-wildlife conflicts. “We found evidence of conflicts between people and wildlife exacerbated by climate change on six continents, in five different oceans, in terrestrial systems, in …

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Tiny environmental plastic particles in mom’s food reach unborn children

“Much remains unknown, but this is certainly cause for concern and follow-up study,” said Philip Demokritou, the Henry Rutgers Chair and professor in nanoscience and environmental bioengineering at the Rutgers School of Public Health. Erosion chips microscopic particles off the billions of tons of plastics that are exposed to the elements in the environment. These …

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Corralling ions improves viability of next generation solar cells

Perovskite materials, which are defined by their crystalline structure, are better at absorbing light than silicon is. That means that perovskite solar cells can be thinner and lighter than silicon solar cells without sacrificing the cell’s ability to convert light into electricity. “That opens the door to a host of new technologies, such as flexible, …

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Research captures and separates important toxic air pollutant

The research published today in journal Chem, demonstrates the high adsorption of benzene at low pressures and concentrations, as well as the efficient separation of benzene and cyclohexane. This was achieved by the design and successful preparation of two families of stable metal-organic framework (MOF) materials, named UiO-66 and MFM-300. These highly porous materials are …

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New design for lithium-air battery could offer much longer driving range compared with the lithium-ion battery

The main new component in this lithium-air battery is a solid electrolyte instead of the usual liquid variety. Batteries with solid electrolytes are not subject to the safety issue with the liquid electrolytes used in lithium-ion and other battery types, which can overheat and catch fire. More importantly, the team’sbattery chemistry with the solid electrolyte …

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Plastic upcycling to close the carbon cycle

Now, an international research team led by the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has cracked the code that stymied previous attempts to break down these persistent plastics. They reported their discovery in today’s issue of Science. Low temperature and reaction control Typically, recycling plastics requires ‘cracking’ or splitting apart the tough and stable …

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Why do Earth’s hemispheres look equally bright when viewed from space?

As early as the 1970s, when scientists analyzed data from the first meteorological satellites, they were surprised to find out that the two hemispheres reflect the same amount of solar radiation. Reflectivity of solar radiation is known in scientific lingo as “albedo.” To better comprehend what albedo is, think about driving at night: It is …

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