Blog

Structural materials like steel or cement come at a high cost both in dollars and carbon dioxide emissions; building construction and use accounts for an estimated 40% of emissions. Developing sustainable alternatives to existing materials could help mitigate climate change and reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Working to address both issues at once, materials scientist Muhammad …

Engineered wood grows stronger while trapping carbon dioxide Read More »

Background: European hydroclimate development Recently, Europe has seen an increase in floods and droughts. These extreme events are part of the complex dynamics of European hydroclimate. Obtaining a precise spatially-resolved picture of the dynamics in frequency and intensity of extremes at regional to local scale is a challenge, especially in the context of longer-term climatic …

European summer droughts since 2015 were most severe over centuries — but multi-year droughts also happened in the past Read More »

Driving on snowy roads at or near-freezing temperatures can create unsafe conditions, forming nearly invisible, slick black ice, if roads aren’t cleaned quickly enough. But the most common ways to keep roads clear have significant downsides: Regular plowing requires costly equipment, is labor intensive and can damage pavement. Heavy salt or sand applications can harm …

Keeping drivers safe with a road that can melt snow, ice on its own Read More »

Commercial-scale deep seabed mining in international waters could be permitted for the first time later this year. In a new paper, scientists from the University of Exeter and Greenpeace Research Laboratories say that deep seabed mining could be a “significant risk to ocean ecosystems,” with “long lasting and irreversible” effects. The study focuses on cetaceans …

Whale warning as clock ticks towards deep-sea mining Read More »

Surface vegetation plays a dominant role in protecting permafrost from summer warmth, so any alteration of vegetation structure, particularly following severe wildfires, can cause dramatic top-down thaw. Severe wildfires remove the vegetation and surface soil organic matter, and the loss of this insulation increases the ground heat flux and promotes permafrost thaw. This thaw triggers …

New technique maps large-scale impacts of fire-induced permafrost thaw in Alaska Read More »

Continental margins harbor vast accumulations of globally distributed sedimentary, igneous and ultramafic rocks, adjacent to large coastal populations due to their geographic location. Until a few decades ago, such continental margins were divided into magma-rich and magma-poor. This classification followed the formation history of new ocean floor — but does not seem to encompass the …

Better understanding on the way to a carbon-neutral economy Read More »

The new method from RMIT University researchers splits the seawater directly into hydrogen and oxygen — skipping the need for desalination and its associated cost, energy consumption and carbon emissions. Hydrogen has long been touted as a clean future fuel and a potential solution to critical energy challenges, especially for industries that are harder to …

How to make hydrogen straight from seawater — no desalination required Read More »

After researchers added the baby kangaroo culture and a known methane inhibitor to the simulated stomach, it produced acetic acid instead of methane. Unlike methane, which cattle discard as flatulence, acetic acid has benefits for cows as it aids muscle growth. The researchers published their work in the journal Biocatalysis and Agricultural Biotechnology. “Methane emissions …

Kangaroo fecal microbes could reduce methane from cows Read More »

While global warming is causing the loss of coral reefs globally, scientists believe that some corals are increasing their tolerance to heat by changing the symbiotic algae communities they host, which through photosynthesis provide them with the energy they need to live. “Our results suggest that some reefs in the eastern tropical Pacific, which includes …

Coral reefs in the Eastern Pacific could survive into the 2060s Read More »

This presents a challenge to researchers attempting to design artificial trees or other methods of capturing carbon dioxide directly from the air. That challenge is one a Sandia National Laboratories-led team of scientists is attempting to solve. Led by Sandia chemical engineer Tuan Ho, the team has been using powerful computer models combined with laboratory …

Can clay capture carbon dioxide? Read More »