A look at our changing environment.
Americans have debated the value of daylight savings time going all the way back to Benjamin Franklin. As a country, we adopted the practice of changing our clocks twice a year in 1918. Since the energy crisis of the 1970s, there have been a number of initiatives aimed at making daylight savings time permanent. However, […]
According to a new study published in the journal Nature Communications, salmon returning to Alaskan rivers have become significantly smaller over the past 60 years. As a result of climate change and competition from hatchery fish, wild salmon are spending less time at sea and are returning to spawning grounds at younger ages. The study, […]
The Ebo Forest in Cameroon is one of the last intact forests in central Africa and is a biodiversity hotspot, home to hundreds of rare plants and animal species, including tool-using Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees, western gorillas, forest elephants, red colobus monkeys, and giant goliath frogs. The 600 square miles of mountain slopes and river valleys are […]
Oceans cover more than 70% of the earth and absorb 94% of incoming solar radiation. As a result, oceans play a major role in the climate system. With their massive size and capacity to store heat, oceans help keep temperature fluctuations in check. But oceans also play a more active role. Ocean currents are responsible […]
There is a great deal of attention on the plight of bees and other pollinators. Much of that focuses on the problems plaguing the large, domesticated honeybee colonies that are trucked from region to region to pollinate everything from almonds to fruit trees. Managed bee colonies have recently been losing more than 40% of their […]
Forty years of satellite data from Greenland shows that the glaciers on the island have shrunk so much that even if global warming came to an abrupt halt, the Greenland ice sheet would continue to shrink. This conclusion was published in the journal Communications Earth and Environment by researchers at Ohio State University. According to […]
The United States installed 3.6 gigawatts of photovoltaic solar capacity in the first quarter of this year to reach a total installed capacity of 81.4 GW. That is enough to power about 16 million American homes. More than 2/3 of that capacity has been installed during the past five years. There has been a boom […]
Corals are often mistaken for rocks because of their hardened surfaces. And, since they attach or “take root” to the sea floor, they are often mistaken for plants. But unlike rocks, corals are alive. And unlike plants, corals do not make their own food. Corals are actually animals. Most of these structures that we call […]
Researchers from the University of Exeter in the UK and the University of Queensland in Australia have developed a new method for identifying and measuring the presence of five different types of plastic in seafood. The researchers purchased oysters, prawns, squid, crabs, and sardines from a market in Australia and analyzed them using the new […]
A team led by the University of Illinois has been pursuing a project called Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency or RIPE, which has the aim of improving photosynthesis in order to provide farmers with higher-yielding crops in an increasingly challenging climate. Photosynthesis is the natural, sunlight-powered process that plants use to convert carbon dioxide into sugars […]
In recent years, the number of people affected by celiac disease, wheat allergies, or gluten or wheat sensitivity has increased dramatically. Why this should be is not well understood. One theory is that modern wheat varieties contain more immunoreactive protein than those used in the past. Researchers at two German research institutions investigated this issue […]
Tropical forests store more than half of the world’s above-ground carbon. For this reason, deforestation is one of the greatest threats to global climate regulation. Once forests are degraded through partial clearing and agricultural conversion, they are often perceived as no longer having much ecological value even though degraded forests still provide important ecosystem services […]
Flip-flops are the world’s most popular shoe. They are lightweight, comfortable, affordable, and durable. In fact, the global market for flip-flops is expected to reach a whopping $23.8 billion by the year 2025. But the popularity comes with a price. Flip-flops account for a troubling percentage of plastic waste that ends up in our landfills […]
Hydrogen could be the basis of a complete energy system. It could be stored and transported and could be used to power vehicles and to generate electricity in power plants. Proponents of the so-called hydrogen economy contend that hydrogen is the best solution to the global energy challenge. But among the challenges faced by a […]
As the U.S. enters the last part of the summer, fully one-third of the country is experiencing at least a moderate level of drought. Much of the West is reaching severe drought conditions and New England has been unusually dry and hot. In total, over 50 million Americans are living in drought-affected areas. According to […]
During the past 70 years, global shark populations have been on the decline. Many species have become threatened or endangered. Conservation efforts have been underway in many places, but shark populations continue to be at risk because of over-fishing and habitat loss. A comprehensive study by marine biologists at Texas A&M University deployed more than […]
Thermoset plastics are ones that contain polymers that cross-link together during the curing process to form an irreversible chemical bond. This improves the material’s mechanical properties, provides chemical resistance, heat resistance, and structural integrity. Thermosets include epoxies, polyurethanes, and rubber used for tires. The big problem with thermosets is that they cannot be easily recycled […]
The numbers are in and, unsurprisingly, July was a hot month. July 2020 tied for the second-hottest July on record for the planet, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In our own backyard, the Northern Hemisphere saw the hottest July ever, breaking the previous record set just last year. The July 2020 global […]
About 10% of all electricity consumption in the U.S. is devoted to keeping us cool with air conditioning and other methods. Researchers at two universities in Shanghai, China have developed a new material that can be made into clothing that cools the wearer without using any electricity. The new fabric transfers heat, allows moisture to […]
Siberia has been in the news for record-setting heat waves and wildfires, but it is not the only northern region experiencing unusual weather. Alaska, apart from setting its own warm weather records, is experiencing the rainiest five years in its century-long meteorological record. Extreme weather in the Arctic is being driven by an aspect of […]