Science Daily March 19, 2018 The ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica will contribute more to sea-level rise this century than any other source. An international team of researchers (Finland, USA – Princeton University) argue that geoengineering of glaciers could delay much of Greenland and Antarctica’s grounded ice from reaching the sea for centuries, buying time to address global warming. According to them this is plausible because about 90% of ice flowing to the sea from the Antarctic ice sheet and about half of that lost from Greenland travels in narrow, fast ice streams. These streams measure tens of kilometres […]
Category Archives: Environmental science
Preventing hurricanes using air bubbles
Science Daily March 19, 2018 Tropical hurricanes are generated when masses of cold and warm air collide. Another essential factor is that the sea surface temperature must be greater than 26.5°C. Researchers in Norway have developed a method which consists of supplying bubbles of compressed air from a perforated pipe lowered in the water, which then rise, taking with them colder water from deeper in the ocean. Initial investigation shows that by bringing cold water to the surface using the bubble curtains, the surface temperature will fall to below 26.5°C. The bubble curtains can be deployed from oil production platforms. […]
Space radiation more hazardous: Implications for astronauts and satellites
Science Daily March 15, 2018 According to a team of researchers in the US (University of New Hampshire, NASA Ames Research Center, The Aerospace Corporation, Harvard University, University of Tennessee, Goddard Space Flight Center, University of Michigan, industry), for most of the space age, the sun’s activity ebbed and flowed like clockwork in 11-year cycles. However, starting around 2006, scientists observed the longest solar minimum and weakest solar activity observed during the space age. Despite this overall reduction, the September 2017 solar eruptions produced episodes of significant Solar Particle Events and associated radiation caused by particle acceleration by successive, magnetically […]
A biological solution to carbon capture and recycling?
Science Daily January 8, 2018 The E. coli bacterium can grow in the complete absence of oxygen. When it does this it makes a special metal-containing enzyme, called ‘FHL’, which can interconvert gaseous carbon dioxide with liquid formic acid. An international team of researchers (Scotland, UK, Industry partners) has shown that when the bacteria containing the FHL enzyme are placed under pressurized carbon dioxide and hydrogen gas mixtures — up to 10 atmospheres of pressure — then 100 per cent conversion of the carbon dioxide to formic acid is observed. The reaction happens quickly, over a few hours, and at […]