EurekAlert! - Earth Science
Sun Apr 24 04:23:07 EDT 2011
Home: http://www.eurekalert.org
Feed: http://www.eurekalert.org/rss/earth_science.xml

Effect of cloud-scattered sunlight on earth's energy balance depends on wavelength of light - (DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory) Atmospheric scientists trying to pin down how clouds curb the amount of sunlight available to warm the earth have found that it depends on the wavelength of sunlight being measured. This unexpected result will help researchers improve how they portray clouds in climate models.

Seafloor recovery from fishing gear impacts in Stellwagen Bank Marine Sanctuary slow, unstable - (NOAA Headquarters) The University of Connecticut and California State University researchers found that seafloor communities in a restricted fishing area in NOAA's Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary showed indications of recovery from chronic fishing gear impacts but is not fully stable.

Penn research using frog embryos leads to new understanding of cardiac development - (University of Pennsylvania) During embryonic development, cells migrate to their eventual location in the adult body plan and begin to differentiate into specific cell types. Thanks to new research at the University of Pennsylvania, there is new insight into how these processes regulate tissues formation in the heart.

17th Annual International Sustainable Development Research Conference - (The Earth Institute at Columbia University) “Moving Toward a Sustainable Future: Opportunities and Challenges” is the theme of this three-day annual gathering of the International Sustainable Development Research Society, bringing together experts in agriculture, urban development, climate, business, education, architecture, public health and other fields. The fundamental question: how can global society’s aspiration for continued economic growth be harmonized with the limits imposed by earth’s resources? Speakers include Nina Federoff, Lester Brown, Sanjeev Chadha, Christiana Figueres, Achim Steiner and Jeffrey D. Sachs.

Ben-Gurion University professor awarded top prize for best article on Palestinian-Israeli watersheds - (American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) Prof. Tal and his co-authors from BGU's Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research were recognized for the article titled "Chemical and Biological Monitoring in Ephemeral and Intermittent Streams: A Study of Two Trans-boundary Palestinian-Israeli Watersheds." The article described the joint monitoring and restoration of the Besor and Alexander streams undertaken by the two groups.

What motivates environmental activists, policymakers? asks new research center - (University of Maryland) A new University of Maryland research center will focus on the human side of environmental policymaking and activism -- one of the first of its kind in the field."Environmental legislation and community activism doesn't just spring up in a vacuum," said Dana R. Fisher, a University of Maryland sociology professor who directs the new Center for Society and the Environment.

Fossil sirenians give scientists new look at ancient climate - (National Science Foundation) What tales they tell of their former lives, these old bones of sirenians, relatives of today's dugongs and manatees. And now, geologists have found, they tell of the waters in which they swam.While researching the evolutionary ecology of ancient sirenians -- commonly known as sea cows--scientist Mark Clementz and colleagues unexpectedly stumbled across data that could change the view of climate during the Eocene Epoch, some 50 million years ago.

Purdue-led team studies Earth's recovery from prehistoric global warming - (Purdue University) The Earth may be able to recover from rising carbon dioxide emissions faster than previously thought, according to evidence from a prehistoric. When faced with high levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide and rising temperatures 56 million years ago, the Earth increased its ability to pull carbon from the air. This led to a recovery that was quicker than anticipated by many models of the carbon cycle.

MIT: Development in fog harvesting process - (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Shreerang Chhatre is an engineer and aspiring entrepreneur at MIT who works on fog harvesting, the deployment of devices that, like the beetle, attract water droplets and corral the runoff. This way, poor villagers could collect clean water near their homes, instead of spending hours carrying water from distant wells or streams.

Lecture at UC Riverside explores how unnatural disasters can be prevented cost-effectively - (University of California - Riverside) While earthquakes, droughts, floods, and storms are natural hazards, "unnatural disasters" are the deaths and damages that result from human acts of omission or commission. But can unnatural disaster be prevented, and, if yes, how could such prevention be achieved cost-effectively? Apurva Sanghi, senior economist at the World Bank, will explore these issues in a free, public lecture, titled "Natural Hazards, UnNatural Disasters: The Economics of Effective Prevention," at noon, April 22, at UC Riverside.

Berkeley Lab study finds that photovoltaic systems boost the sales price of California homes - (DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) New research by the US Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory finds strong evidence that homes with solar photovoltaic (PV) systems sell for a premium over homes without solar systems. The Berkeley Lab research is the first to empirically explore the existence and magnitude of residential PV sales price impacts across a large number of homes and over a wide geographic area.

UC Berkeley launches Synthetic Biology Institute to advance research in biological engineering - (Pontifex Marketing and Communications) Aiming to create "an industrial revolution in biological engineering," the Synthetic Biology Institute is launching a collaborative effort with its first Industry Member, Agilent Technologies Inc., a leader in measurement technologies and products to advance science and engineering research. Agilent is helping to initiate SBI research with a multi-year, multi-million dollar commitment, including early access to Agilent technologies through the active participation of the company's research scientists and engineers.

Columbia engineering study links ozone hole to climate change all the way to the equator - (Columbia University) In a study in the April 21 issue of Science, researchers at Columbia University's School of Engineering and Applied Science report their findings that the ozone hole, which is located over the South Pole, has affected the entire circulation of the Southern Hemisphere all the way to the equator. This is the first time that ozone depletion, an upper atmospheric phenomenon confined to the polar regions, has been linked to climate change from the Pole to the equator.

Say hello to cheaper hydrogen fuel cells - (DOE/Los Alamos National Laboratory) Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists have developed a way to avoid the use of expensive platinum in hydrogen fuel cells, the environmentally friendly devices that might replace current power sources in everything from personal data devices to automobiles.In a paper published today in Science, Los Alamos researchers Gang Wu, Christina Johnston, and Piotr Zelenay, joined by researcher Karren More of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, describe the use of a platinum-free catalyst in the cathode of a hydrogen fuel cell.

GOES-13 sees an extraordinarily early Atlantic low in the tropics - (NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) Hurricane season doesn't start in the Northern Atlantic Ocean until June 1, but a low pressure system in doesn't seem to want to follow the calendar. There's a low pressure area with a small chance for development north-northeast of Puerto Rico, and the GOES-13 satellite captured a visible image of the storm.

Ring around the hurricanes: Satellites can predict storm intensity - (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) Coastal residents may soon have longer warning when a storm headed in their direction is becoming a hurricane, thanks to a University of Illinois study demonstrating how to use existing satellites to monitor tropical storm dynamics and predict sudden surges in strength. Using passive microwave satellites, the researchers found that low-shear storm systems form a symmetrical ring of thunderstorms around the center of the system about six hours before rapidly intensifying into a hurricane.

Evolution of human 'super-brain' tied to development of bipedalism, tool-making - (University of Colorado at Boulder) Scientists seeking to understand the origin of the human mind may want to look to honeybees -- not ancestral apes -- for at least some of the answers, according to a University of Colorado Boulder archaeologist.

Laser sparks revolution in internal combustion engines - (Optical Society of America) For more than 150 years, spark plugs have powered internal combustion engines. Automakers are now one step closer to being able to replace this long-standing technology with laser igniters, which will enable cleaner, more efficient, and more economical vehicles. At this year's Conference on Lasers and Electro Optics, in Baltimore May 1-6, researchers from Japan will describe the first multibeam laser system small enough to screw into an engine's cylinder head.

Rensselaer secures $1.5 million from DOE/NNSA to launch new nuclear safety research program - (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) Nuclear criticality safety and reactor safety are at the heart of a new initiative led by researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The five-year funding plan calls for $1.5 million to be invested at Rensselaer by the US DoE Nuclear Criticality Safety Program, managed by the National Nuclear Security Administration. The funds will support a new nuclear engineering research program and laboratory at Rensselaer, dedicated to the careful measurement and analysis of high-accuracy nuclear interaction data.

Using the energy in oil shale without releasing carbon dioxide in a greenhouse world - (American Chemical Society) New technology that combines production of electricity with capture of carbon dioxide could make billions of barrels of oil shale -- now regarded as off-limits because of the huge amounts of carbon dioxide released in its production -- available as an energy source in a greenhouse world of the future. That's the conclusion of a report on "electricity production with in situ carbon capture" in ACS' journal Energy & Fuels.

New battery produces electricity where freshwater meets saltwater - (American Chemical Society) Scientists are reporting development of a new battery that extracts and stores energy produced from the difference in saltiness at the point where freshwater in rivers flows into oceans. A report on the battery, which could supply about 13 percent of the world's energy needs, appears in ACS' journal Nano Letters.

Life in extreme environments paves the way for international collaboration - (European Science Foundation) Life thriving in deserts, the polar regions and the deep sea is the focus of a report released today by the CAREX project, involving over 200 international scientists. The CAREX (Coordination Action for Research Activities on life in Extreme Environments) roadmap outlines priorities for future research into life in extreme environments, giving the basis for international collaboration.

Singapore's first locally made satellite launched into space - (Nanyang Technological University) Singapore's first indigenous micro-satellite, X-SAT, lifted off on board India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C16 at 10.12am Indian Standard Time (12.42pm, Singapore time) on April 20, 2011. The X-SAT, developed and built by Singapore's Nanyang Technological University (NTU), in collaboration with DSO National Laboratories, was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, India.

Melting ice on Arctic islands a major player in sea level rise - (University of Michigan) Melting glaciers and ice caps on Canadian Arctic islands play a much greater role in sea level rise than scientists previously thought, according to a new study led by a University of Michigan researcher.

WHRC debuts detailed maps of forest canopy height and carbon stock for the conterminous US - (Woods Hole Research Center) The Woods Hole Research Center has released the first hectare-scale maps of canopy height, aboveground biomass, and associated carbon stock for the forests and woodlands of the conterminous United States. The multi-year project, referred to as the National Biomass and Carbon Dataset, produced maps of these key forest attributes at an unprecedented spatial resolution of 30 meters.