science wire

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

Chemistry - Environment - 14.03.2012

Fielding questions about climate change
Iron is key to reversing global warming, Concordia and McGill research shows Canada defines itself as a nation that stretches from coast to coast to coast. But can we keep those coasts healthy in the face of climate change? Yves Gélinas, associate professor in Concordia's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, has found the solution in a surprising element: iron.

Environment - Life Sciences - 14.03.2012

Clash of the crayfish: why the Americans are winning
Aggressive American signal crayfish are threatening Yorkshire's native white-clawed crayfish populations because they have better resistance to parasites and are less fussy about what they eat.

Environment - 14.03.2012

GlobIce: mapping the movement of sea ice
A UCL-led project to map changes in sea ice in the Arctic has released its data after the conclusion of the 5 year project.

Environment - Administration - 14.03.2012

Africa research explores the complex influence of changes in climate upon migration
Africa research explores the complex influence of changes in climate upon migration Governments need to take multiple factors into account if they are to plan effectively for population displacement as a result of drought, new research from the University of Sussex reveals. Existing predictions of the number of people likely to be displaced as a result of future climate change events in vulnerable parts of the world don't offer a realistic basis upon which governments and aid agencies can plan appropriately, say the researchers.

Earth Sciences - Environment - 13.03.2012

Coastal scientists braced for storm-force research
A team of internationally-renowned scientists studying the power of waves, and the effect they have upon gravel beaches and coastal erosion, are bracing themselves for a storm as part of their fieldwork on one of Cornwall’s most notorious and celebrated coastlines.

Environment - Administration - 13.03.2012

Irrational avoidance of the unpleasant: Global environment foundation head shares his thoughts on American investors
A successful investment management strategist, who also co-founded a global environment foundation, will deliver a special lecture at Imperial College London this week on a rare visit to the UK.

Administration - Environment - 13.03.2012

Federal Councillor Berset in Singapore to inaugurate first research centre of a Swiss university in Asia
Bern, 13. The head of the Federal Department of Home Affairs, Federal Councillor Alain Berset, will be in Singapore from March 16th to 19th.

Mathematics - Environment - 12.03.2012

The shape of things to come
Mathematical methods help predict movement of oil and ash following environmental disasters When oil started gushing into the Gulf of Mexico in late April 2010, friends asked George Haller whether he was tracking its movement. That's because the McGill engineering professor has been working for years on ways to better understand patterns in the seemingly chaotic motion of oceans and air.

Environment - Economics / Business - 12.03.2012

DuPont joins Stanford’s Global Climate and Energy Project
DuPont is GCEP's newest corporate sponsor, joining ExxonMobil, GE, Schlumberger and Toyota in support of innovative research on sustainable energy technologies.

Environment - 12.03.2012

Bellingham roadway with recycled toilets is world’s first official ’Greenroad’
Greenroads, a rating system developed at the University of Washington to promote sustainable roadway construction, awarded its first official certification to a Bellingham project that incorporates porcelain from recycled toilets.

Environment - Mechanical Engineering - 12.03.2012

Carnegie Mellon’s Marija Ilic Leads Team Developing New Smart Grid Models and Tools for Low-Cost Green Islands
: Carnegie Mellon's Marija Ilic Leads Team Developing New Smart Grid Models and Tools for Low-Cost Green Islands-Carnegie Mellon News - Carnegie Mellon University New Research To Be Compiled in Educa

Environment - 12.03.2012

Environment - 09.03.2012

March 13 Penn Science Café to Explore the Life, Death and Rebirth of the Mississippi River Delta
At the Penn Science Café on Tuesday, March 13, Douglas Jerolmack, an assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science at the University of Pennsylvania, will discuss his research on river patterns and what his findings mean for the future of the Mississippi Delta.

Environment - 09.03.2012

Environment - Career - 09.03.2012

Environment - 09.03.2012

Invading Trees?
Rumours of trees 'invading' the Arctic as a by-product of climate change have been 'greatly exaggerated' according to a polar scientist due to lecture on the subject at Cambridge University's annual Science Festival.

Earth Sciences - Environment - 08.03.2012

Fukushima lesson: Prepare for unanticipated nuclear accidents
ANN ARBOR, Mich.-A year after the crisis at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, scientists and engineers remain largely in the dark when it comes to fundamental knowledge about how nuclear

Environment - 08.03.2012

Shop till you drop? Sir Partha explains why
One of the world's leading economists is to explain the latest thinking about what drives us to consume goods and services at a University of Manchester lecture tomorrow (8 March).

Environment - Earth Sciences - 07.03.2012

Searsville Dam steering committee wrestling with complex issues
The steering committee studying the future of Searsville Dam and Reservoir is preparing to engage consultants, while continuing discussions with local organizations and residents, as it begins sorting through the complicated issues governing the dam's fate.