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Anaerobic Gut Fungi Hold Potential for Cheaper Biofuels and Bio-Based Products

Nature's figured it out already, how to best break down food into fuel. Now scientists have caught up, showing that fungi found in the guts of goats, horses and sheep could help fill up your gas tank too.

19 Feb 2016

New Method to Project Future Climate Scenarios at Local Level

Global climate models are essential for climate prediction and assessing the impacts of climate change across large areas, but a Dartmouth College-led team has developed a new method to project future climate scenarios at the local level.

19 Feb 2016

MIT Scientists Find Reason for Permanent Loss of Forests in Madagascar

Stalagmites reveal huge shift in ancient Madagascar’s plant species, unrelated to climate change.

19 Feb 2016

Biologists Develop New Method for Measuring Ecosystem Sensitivity to Climate Variability

By developing this method, the international team of researchers has been able to map which areas are most sensitive to climate variability across the world.

19 Feb 2016

ABB to Supply Power and Process Electrical Systems for New Bioproduct Mill in Finland

ABB will supply the complete power and process electrical systems for Metsä Group’s new bioproduct mill in Äänekoski in central Finland, opening in 2017. The mill will produce 1.3 million tonnes of pulp per year and bioproducts such as tall oil, turpentine, lignin products, bioelectricity and bark-based solid fuel.

From ABB Power Conditioning – Electrification Products Division 19 Feb 2016

UCLA Researcher Reveals Impact of Long-Term Ozone Exposure

Adults with long-term exposure to ozone face an increased risk of dying from respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, a new study suggests.

18 Feb 2016

Researchers Find Bioenergy Crops Do Best in Regions with Higher Precipitation Rates

New research has identified regions in the United States where bioenergy crops would grow best while minimizing effects on water quantity and quality.

18 Feb 2016

Experimental Pretreatments Show Promise for Cost-Effective Ethanol Production

When the Ford Motor Company’s first automobile, the Model T, debuted in 1908, it ran on a corn-derived biofuel called ethanol, a substance Henry Ford dubbed “the fuel of the future.”

17 Feb 2016

Methane-Producing Microbes Could Extend Lifespan of Coal Seam Gas Wells

UNSW Australia-led researchers have discovered a way to produce a tenfold increase in the amount of methane gas emitted by naturally occurring microbes living in coal seams and on food waste.

17 Feb 2016

Waters Surrounding Small Islands, Reefs and Atolls Support Greater Sea-Life than Near-by Open Ocean

A 60 year-old theory to explain why seas surrounding islands and atolls are particularly productive has just been proven by a marine biologist from Bangor University’s School of Ocean Science, working with a colleague at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

17 Feb 2016

Research Demonstrates Impact of Climate Change on Treatment & Prevention of Parasite Infections

New research demonstrates how climate change and the immune reaction of the infected individual can affect the long-term and seasonal dynamics of parasite infections. The study, led by Penn State scientists, assessed the infection dynamics of two species of soil-transmitted parasites in a population of rabbits in Scotland every month for 23 years.

16 Feb 2016

Marine Organisms at Risk of Infectious Disease Due to Warmer Ocean Temperatures

A new study describes how diverse marine organisms are susceptible to diseases made worse by warming oceans. The research warns that warm sea temperatures in 2015 may increase the levels of epizootic shell disease in American lobster in the northern Gulf of Maine in 2016.

16 Feb 2016

Cloud Droplets Play Key Role in Atmospheric Transformation of Volatile Organic Pollutants

In addition to precipitation, clouds influence the climate in various ways: they cover 70% of the Earth's surface and represent nearly 15% of the volume of the atmosphere. Scientists need to understand their underlying chemical and physical mechanisms in order to better integrate them into climate change models.

16 Feb 2016

Improved Agricultural Water Management Could Reduce Global Food Gap by 2050

Improved agricultural water management could halve the global food gap by 2050 and buffer some of the harmful climate change effects on crop yields. For the first time, scientists investigated systematically the worldwide potential to produce more food with the same amount of water by optimizing rain use and irrigation. They found the potential has previously been underestimated. Investing in crop water management could substantially reduce hunger while at the same time making up for population growth. However, putting the findings into practice would require specific local solutions, which remains a challenge.

16 Feb 2016