Rock glaciers look very different from conventional glaciers. Instead of exposed ice, they resemble sprawling fields of loose rock, while potentially concealing large quantities of ice below the surface. These formations are widespread across Utah’s Wasatch and Uinta ranges and can also be found on the Colorado Plateau in the La Sal Mountains near Moab. […]
Virginia Tech chemist and chemical engineer Guoliang “Greg” Liu and his research team have developed a method for transforming polyvinyl chloride (PVC) into polyalphaolefin, an important ingredient used in lubricants including engine oil. Published Aug. 5 in Nature, the work could offer a way to address two separate environmental problems at once: the difficulty of recycling […]
How Portugal’s University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro works out the age of hundreds of ancient olive trees. A tree was recently discovered in Germany which may be the oldest known in the country, at around 1,100 years old. But in Portugal there are hundreds of trees estimated to be at least 2,000 years old, particularly olive […]
Tiny aerosol particles may be able to strengthen tropical convective clouds, but scientists have debated the idea for decades. Aerosols influence the formation and growth of cloud droplets, which can affect condensation and the release of latent heat. One proposed process, called condensational aerosol convective invigoration, depends on clouds developing very high water vapor supersaturation. […]
When a massive earthquake struck off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula in late July, it unleashed a tsunami that raced across the Pacific Ocean. As the giant waves spread outward, an advanced NASA satellite happened to be in a perfect position to observe the event in unprecedented detail. The satellite, called Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT), recorded […]
Hawaii faces a growing plastic waste challenge. Recycling on the islands is expensive and difficult, and large amounts of marine debris continue to wash ashore or remain in surrounding waters. Now, researchers are exploring an innovative solution by turning discarded fishing nets and household plastic waste into asphalt for roads. Early results suggest the approach […]
A study published in Nature suggests that thawing permafrost may have an unexpected effect on the carbon cycle. While melting frozen ground is widely known for releasing greenhouse gases, researchers found that it can also strengthen a natural process that removes carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. The research was conducted by scientists from Umeå University in […]
One of the biggest questions in science is how life first emerged on Earth. Researchers generally agree that the appearance of the first biopolymers and their building blocks marked a critical step in the origin of life (OoL). However, scientists still do not know exactly how a collection of prehistoric inert chemicals (gases) transformed into […]
Trees planted along farmland to shield crops from strong winds are often viewed as a simple way to support biodiversity. But new research suggests the picture is more complicated, especially in agricultural wetlands where many bird species depend on open landscapes. A team of researchers studying farmland wetlands on the western coast of central Japan […]
Researchers at the University of Birmingham have developed a new low-temperature approach to hydrogen production that could make the clean fuel cheaper and more practical to generate. The technique could be used both in large centralized facilities and in smaller local systems that take advantage of waste heat from major industrial operations. Hydrogen is the […]
