Science Daily June 11, 2018 An international team of researchers (UK, USA – Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Russia, France, China) has developed an MOF, denoted as MFM-300(Al), which exhibits reversible, selective capture of nitrogen dioxide at ambient pressures and temperatures — at low concentrations — in the presence of moisture, sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide. Despite the highly reactive nature of nitrogen dioxide, the MFM-300(Al) material proved extremely robust, demonstrating the capability to be fully regenerated, or degassed, multiple times without loss of crystallinity or porosity. This work may pave the way for the development of future capture and conversion technologies… […]
Tag Archives: Climatology
Universal migration predicts human movements under climate change
Physics World June 12, 2018 An international team of researchers (USA – Columbia University, The Nature Conservancy, North Carolina State University, UC Berkeley, Italy) modified a diffusion-based model of human mobility in combination with population, geographic, and climatic data to estimate the sources, destinations, and flux of potential migrants as driven by sea level rise (SLR) in Bangladesh in the years 2050 and 2100. By linking the sources of migrants displaced by SLR with their likely destinations, they demonstrated an effective approach for predicting climate-driven migrant flows, especially in data-limited settings… read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
This Has Got to Be One of The Most Beautiful And Powerful Climate Change Visuals We’ve Ever Seen
Science Alert May 25, 2018 Climate scientist Ed Hawkins has been developing unique ways to make climate change easier for the public to imagine. And his newest project has got to be one of the most beautiful and powerful climate change visuals we’ve ever seen. Starting with dark blue and ending in dark red, Hawkins creates a clear and terrifying translation of global warming using the UK’s Met Office data from 1850 to 2017… read more.
Workshop explores intertwined future of food production, water, and climate
MIT News May 11, 2018 Choices by consumers and farmers can help limit global warming, but climate change may also curtail those choices in the future. While all global climate models show an overall increase in surface temperatures over the coming decades when it comes down to regional effects on temperature and rainfall there are areas of significant uncertainty. To clarify some of what is known about these complex interactions, and what areas have a pressing need for further research, a two-day MIT workshop this week brought together a group of specialists from around the world to explore the interactions […]
Virtual contact lenses for radar satellites
Science Daily April 16, 2018 Water level from sea ice-covered oceans is particularly challenging to retrieve with satellite radar altimeters due to the different shapes assumed by the returned signal compared with the standard open ocean waveforms. An international team of researchers (Germany, Denmark, UK, Italy) has developed a fitting (also called retracking) strategy (ALES+) based on a subwaveform retracker that is able to adapt the fitting of the signal depending on the sea state and on the slope of its trailing edge. The algorithm modifies the existing Adaptive Leading Edge Subwaveform retracker originally designed for coastal waters and is […]
New source of global nitrogen discovered
Science Daily April 4, 2018 Nitrogen is both the most important limiting nutrient on Earth and a dangerous pollutant, so it is important to understand the natural controls on its supply and demand. A team of researchers in the US (UC Davis, industry) found that up to 26 percent of the nitrogen in natural ecosystems is sourced from rocks which is determined by weathering, which can be physical, such as through tectonic movement, or chemical, such as when minerals react with rainwater. According to the study large areas of Africa are devoid of nitrogen-rich bedrock while northern latitudes and mountainous […]
R&D Special Focus: Green Technology
R&D Magazine March 29, 2018 Throughout the month of March, R&D Magazine highlighted many of those green-minded R&D 100 Awardees as well as other innovators working on important environmentally sustainable and clean technologies. With new green technologies like those they featured this month emerging every day, advocacy groups across the country are needed to work with federal and state agencies, school districts and small business owners to promote these innovations… read more.
Geoengineering polar glaciers to slow sea-level rise
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]