science wire

Environment - Physics - 04.04.2012

Environmental Declaration for Master’s Programme
Reception and service at central level for international students after arrival at KTH.

Environment - Administration - 04.04.2012

University hosts carbon capture centre
A £13 million investment is being made in a research centre for carbon capture and storage based at the University.

Environment - 04.04.2012

African Americans are more apt to blog than whites and Latinos
The blogging community is more racially diverse than one might think. Internet-connected African Americans are more likely to blog than their white and Hispanic counterparts, according to new research from the University of California, Berkeley. While African Americans as a whole are less likely to afford laptops and personal computers, Internet-savvy blacks, on average, blog one and a half times to nearly twice as much as whites, while Hispanics blog at the same rate as whites, according to a study published in the March online issue of the journal, Information, Communication & Society.

Environment - Economics / Business - 03.04.2012

New £13M UK Centre for CCS research to be established
The University of Leeds is to benefit from a multi-million pound investment in carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology.

Physics - Environment - 03.04.2012

Environment - 02.04.2012

Where the wild winds blow: Stanford engineers use weather models to site offshore wind farms
Stanford engineers enlist weather models to find the best place on the map for a grid of four wind farms in the ocean off the U.S. East Coast.

Health - Environment - 02.04.2012

Climate model to predict malaria outbreaks in India
Scientists from the University of Liverpool are working with computer modelling specialists in India to predict areas of the country that are at most risk of malaria outbreaks, following changes in monsoon rainfall.

Chemistry - Environment - 02.04.2012

Fertilizer use responsible for increase in nitrous oxide in atmosphere
University of California, Berkeley, chemists have found a smoking gun proving that increased fertilizer use over the past 50 years is responsible for a dramatic rise in atmospheric nitrous oxide, which is a major greenhouse gas contributing to global climate change. Climate scientists have assumed that the cause of the increased nitrous oxide was nitrogen-based fertilizer, which stimulates microbes in the soil to convert nitrogen to nitrous oxide at a faster rate than normal.

Architecture - Environment - 30.03.2012

Earth Institute Develops Interactive Map of NYC’s Energy Use
To use the above map: Zoom in and out using the +/- buttons; click and drag to find a neighborhood; zoom in further to pinpoint a building lot. As you cursor touches the lot, a box will appear for that address showing estimated energy use (based on ZIP code-wide data), and a breakdown of how it's used.

Chemistry - Environment - 29.03.2012

Engineering researchers use electricity to generate alternative fuel
Imagine being able to use electricity to power your car — even if it's not an electric vehicle. Researchers at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have for the first time demonstrated a method for converting carbon dioxide into liquid fuel isobutanol using electricity.

Computer Science - Environment - 29.03.2012

Big grant for Big Data: NSF awards $10 million to harness vast quantities of data
The quest to capture the massive amounts of data being produced in our world - and in so doing unveil answers to some of society's most vexing problems - has gotten a $10 million boost from a National Science Foundation award to the University of California, Berkeley.

Chemistry - Environment - 29.03.2012

New material cuts energy costs of separating gas for plastics and fuels
A new type of hybrid material developed at the University of California, Berkeley, could help oil and chemical companies save energy and money - and lower their environmental impacts - by eliminating an energy-intensive gas-separation process.

Environment - Physics - 29.03.2012

Conservation Prof shares thoughts on priorities for a planet under pressure
By Simon Levey Thursday 29 March 2012 A Professor at Imperial College London is amongst those taking part in a major event in central London this week looking at global sustainability.

Environment - 29.03.2012

Many young people would rather surf the web than drive a car
ANN ARBOR, Mich.-More young adults today would rather hit the information highway than the open highway, say University of Michigan researchers.

Environment - Earth Sciences - 29.03.2012

Coral links ice to ancient 'mega flood'
Coral off Tahiti has linked the collapse of massive ice sheets 14,600 years ago to a dramatic and rapid rise in global sea-levels of around 14 metres. Previous research could not accurately date the sea-level rise but now an Aix-Marseille University-led team, including Oxford University scientists Alex Thomas and Gideon Henderson, has confirmed that the event occurred 14,650-14,310 years ago at the same time as a period of rapid climate change known as the Bølling warming.

Environment - Health - 29.03.2012

Helping Laotians adapt to rapid change
Human geographers and international public health experts from the University of Sydney are collaborating on a project to help people in Laos adjust to large-scale environmental changes, with a research grant of $1.4 million from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research.

Environment - Life Sciences - 28.03.2012

Research Note: Yale researcher develops global model that helps predict biodiversity
Understanding what determines the distribution of biodiversity across the planet remains one of the critical challenges in biology and has gained particular urgency in the face of environmental change and accelerating species extinctions.

Environment - Life Sciences - 28.03.2012

Research Note: Global gradients in vertebrate diversity predicted by historical area-productivity dynamics and contemporary environment
Understanding what determines the distribution of biodiversity across the planet remains one of the critical challenges in biology and has gained particular urgency in the face of environmental change and accelerating species extinctions.

Environment - 28.03.2012

Small dams on Mekong River tributaries could harm fish and people, Stanford researcher finds
Planned dams in Southeast Asia would affect fish productivity and biodiversity in the world's largest inland fishery, says Stanford researcher Guy Ziv. New dams planned for tributaries of the Mekong River in Southeast Asia will be more environmentally destructive and will produce less energy than the dams in the main river, according to Stanford researcher Guy Ziv.

Environment - Agronomy / Food Science - 28.03.2012

International commission offers road map to sustainable agriculture
An independent commission of scientific leaders from 13 countries today (Wednesday, March 28) released a detailed set of recommendations to policymakers on how to achieve food security in the face of climate change.

Environment - Life Sciences - 28.03.2012

Natural river networks are essential for biodiversity
To alter natural waterways is to take a serious risk of endangering species living on the entire length of a river. In a joint project, scientists from EPFL, EAWAG and Princeton University have modeled the flow of organisms living along river networks. Their research will be published this week in the journal PNAS.

Environment - Administration - 27.03.2012

New study of Welsh rivers
The importance of river organisms to the function and economic value of Wales' river ecosystems is to be investigated after a major government research award to a team led by Cardiff University.

Environment - 27.03.2012

News Digest: Effective charter schools, annual ’Trash-In’
Study: Similarities of effective charter school organizations In January, the UW's Center on Reinventing Public Education teamed with Mathematica Policy Research to release a study that found effecti

Environment - 27.03.2012

Berry growers cautioned about new insect pest
Late last summer, a single fruit fly dropped into a vinegar trap in the Hudson Valley, alerting extension specialists to spotted wing drosophila's (SWD) arrival to New York state.

Environment - Life Sciences - 27.03.2012

Bird ranges shift northward, but not as fast as climate
As warmer winter temperatures become more common, one way for some animals to adjust is to shift their ranges northward. But a new study of 59 North American bird species indicates that doing so is not easy or quick - it took about 35 years for many birds to move far enough north for winter temperatures to match where they historically lived.

Environment - 26.03.2012

Warmer summers could cause trout populations to dwindle
The New York state fish could be jeopardy due to climate change, warn Cornell scientists. Warmer summers mean later fall spawning times and fewer nests for brook trout, which could eventually affect the fish's population numbers. Cliff Kraft, associate professor in the Department of Natural Resources, and four other researchers looked at 11 years of data from Rock Lake in the Adirondacks to find the link between summer temperatures and spawning times for brook trout.

Earth Sciences - Environment - 23.03.2012

New project to help predict the future of the UK’s coastline
A new project is being launched that will help forecast what the UK's coastline will look like in up to 100 years' time. The four-year £2.9m iCoast project brings together UCL scientists with researchers from a number of other UK universities, research laboratories and leading consultants, to develop new methods that will characterise and forecast long-term changes to coastal sediment systems.

Environment - 23.03.2012

Mediterranean landscape 6,000 years ago
Journal of Biogeography acceptance - The mid-Holocene vegetation of the Mediterranean region and southern Europe, and comparison with the present day. Authors: Pamela M. Collins, Basil A. S. Davis and Jed O. Kaplan Collins , Davis , and Kaplan map differences in Mediterranean and southern European vegetation beween 6,000 years ago and the present.

Physics - Environment - 23.03.2012

Nanotechnology and your views
What are the implications of nanotechnology for the general public? What use is it to them? What are the risks and benefits? These are the types of questions that an online Knowledge Debate hopes to provoke.

Environment - 22.03.2012

$3M will help ’green’ up NYC’s low-income, older housing
Energy experts will test new, energy-saving approaches in older multifamily housing developments in the New York City region with a $3 million, two-year grant.

Environment - Physics - 22.03.2012

Managing our water resources from space
Managing our water resources from space Today is World Water Day, and satellite observations are indispensible for monitoring our water resources.

Economics / Business - Environment - 22.03.2012

President Obama Visits Solar Power Plant Using Technology Developed by UC San Diego Engineers
When President Obama visited the Copper Mountain Solar 1 Facility in Nevada Wednesday, he got a first-hand look at the first large-scale solar facility equipped with solar forecasting devices called sky imagers. The devices are powered by sophisticated algorithms, which were developed by researchers at the University of California San Diego.

Health - Environment - 22.03.2012

U-M funds sustainable water-quality projects in Ghana, Peru
ANN ARBOR, Mich.-The University of Michigan's Graham Sustainability Institute and the Center for Global Health are co-sponsoring two research projects addressing water-quality impacts on public health, one in Ghana and the other in Peru. Each of the projects, which are called integrated assessments, will receive $350,000 over the next three years.

Health - Environment - 22.03.2012

Arsenic in Goldfields soil needs monitoring
Exposure to arsenic in soil and mine waste may have contributed to a slight increase in past cancer risk in socio-economically disadvantaged areas in the Goldfields region of Victoria, according to new research published in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology. Researchers from the University of Ballarat have released findings showing that the incidence of some cancers between 1984 and 2003 was slightly higher in areas with higher arsenic levels.

Physics - Environment - 21.03.2012

Calculating the cost of advanced manufacturing
The Environmentally Benign Manufacturing group studies the life cycle of new technologies. For Tim Gutowski, advanced manufacturing is an opportunity not just to boost employment, but also to improve the environment. Gutowski heads MIT's Environmentally Benign Manufacturing research group, which looks at the environmental costs and impacts associated with manufacturing traditional materials such as concrete and steel, as well as advanced and emerging technologies such as semiconductors, photovoltaics, and nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes.

Architecture - Environment - 21.03.2012

Smart building exteriors for reduced energy costs and a cleaner environment
ANN ARBOR, Mich.-Within the "envelopes" of commercial and residential buildings rests the promise of major, new energy efficiencies in the built-environment, according to University of Michigan researchers.

Environment - 21.03.2012

Significantly Higher Potential for Wind Energy in India than Previously Estimated
A new assessment of wind energy in India by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has found that the potential for on-shore wind energy deployment is far higher than the official estimates- about 20 times and up to 30 times greater than the current government estimate of 102 gigawatts. This landmark finding may have significant impact on India's renewable energy strategy as it attempts to cope with a massive and chronic shortage of electricity.

Environment - Economics / Business - 20.03.2012

Green Jail to Demonstrate Power of Microgrids
When the next "big one" hits northern California, chances are good that the power will be knocked out across large swaths of the Bay Area.

Environment - Life Sciences - 20.03.2012

One step for early hominins: Study reveals why our ancestors switched to bipedal power
Our earliest ancestors may have started walking on two limbs instead of four in a bid to monopolise resources and to carry as much food as possible in one go, researchers have found. Bipedality as the key human adaptation may be an evolutionary product of this strategy persisting over time. Ultimately, it set our ancestors on a separate evolutionary path." —William McGrew.

Environment - Economics / Business - 20.03.2012

Room to store CO2 underground
New MIT analysis shows there's enough room to safely store at least a century's worth of U.S. fossil fuel emissions.

Environment - Agronomy / Food Science - 19.03.2012

D.C. cherry trees: Blooms won’t wait in warming world, UW research finds
"Predicting the Timing of Cherry Blossoms in Washington, D.C. and Mid-Atlantic States in Response to Climate Change" Access the paper published on the Public Library of Sciences' PLoS One, an open-access peer-reviewed journal. Cherry trees in full bloom in our nation's capital – as well as the festival surrounding that event – could be as much as four weeks earlier by 2080 depending on how much warming occurs.

Environment - Chemistry - 19.03.2012

UM Scientist to Lead Arctic Expedition
— Coral Gables — Led by a University of Miami scientist, a multinational team of researchers will travel to the Arctic Ocean to conduct experiments that could lead to a better understanding of the effects of global climate change in the region. Established by the U.S. GEOTRACES Science Steering Committee, the U.S. Arctic GEOTRACES initiative will use multiple icebreakers-anticipated to be provided initially by the United States and Germany-and will include scientists from several nations who will conduct sampling of the Arctic Ocean.

Environment - Life Sciences - 18.03.2012

Tracking genes from the sky
In the context of a landscape genetics research project dedicated to the study of adaptation of an Alpine plant species to its environment, a team of LASIG's scientists were last Friday on the top of les Rochers-de-Naye.

Environment - Economics / Business - 16.03.2012

A task of Olympic proportions: An insight into how London is getting ready for the summer
By Tanya Gubbay Friday 16 March 2012 In 133 days, the Olympic Cauldron will be lit at the stadium, signaling the beginning of the London 2012 Olympics.

Environment - 16.03.2012

Scholars say global governance overhaul needed for earth’s sustainability
A group of the world's leading environmental scholars are sounding the alarm that human societies need to transform their national and international environmental institutions into a more coherent an

Environment - 15.03.2012

New Research Suggests Cap and Trade Programs Do Not Provide Sufficient Incentives for Energy Technology Innovation
Cap and trade programs to reduce emissions do not inherently provide incentives to induce the private sector to develop innovative technologies to address climate change, according to a new study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences .

Environment - Physics - 15.03.2012

Space for the Arctic
International stakeholders met in Copenhagen this week to discuss the contribution of space technologies to one of the regions most affected by climate change.

Electroengineering - Environment - 15.03.2012

Delivering a good plug for recycling
Businesses, residents and organisations in Cambridge are being urged to recycle their broken electronics at a three-day event being held at University of Cambridge, Sidgwick Site Car Park, Sidgwick Avenue, Cambridge CB3 9DD.

Economics / Business - Environment - 15.03.2012

Cutting Edge Lighting Technologies Showcased at U of’T Workshop
From the development of the light bulb over a century ago to today's LED technology, lighting has come a long way.

Administration - Environment - 14.03.2012

Sussex Conversations go global