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Rapid Climate Change Affected Marine Ecosystems Tens of Thousands of Years Ago

In common parlance, the phrase "global climate change" is often used to describe how present-day climate is changing in response to human activities. But climate has also varied naturally and sometimes quite rapidly in the past, with implications for the ocean and its ecosystems.

16 Apr 2015

Deep Borehole Concept Holds Promise for Disposing High Level Nuclear Waste

Scientists at the University of Sheffield calculate that all of the UK's high level nuclear waste from spent fuel reprocessing could be disposed of in just six boreholes 5km deep, fitting within a site no larger than a football pitch.

16 Apr 2015

BPA Can Alter Turtle's Reproductive System

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a chemical that is used in a variety of consumer products, such as food storage products and resins that line plastic food and beverage containers. Often, aquatic environments such as rivers and streams become reservoirs for BPA, and fish and turtle habitats are affected. Now, a collaboration of researchers from the University of Missouri, Westminster College, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Saint Louis Zoo have determined that BPA--which mimics estrogen--can alter a turtle's reproductive system and disrupts sexual differentiation. Scientists are concerned findings could indicate harmful effects on environmental and human health.

16 Apr 2015

Huge Reservoir of Methane Discovered in Deep Fram Strait of the Arctic Ocean

Methane, a highly effective greenhouse gas, is usually produced by decomposition of organic material, a complex process involving bacteria and microbes.

15 Apr 2015

Insecticides Pose Alarming Threats to Biodiversity of Global Agricultural Surface Waters

A study performed at the Institute for Environmental Science of the University of Koblenz-Landau evaluated for the first time comprehensive global insecticide contamination data for agricultural surface waters using the legally-accepted regulatory threshold levels (RTLs) as defined during the official pesticide authorisation procedures.

15 Apr 2015

Anthropogenic Carbon Dioxide Entering the Atmosphere Underpins Greenhouse Effect

Burying the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, a byproduct of burning fossil fuels, has been mooted as one geoengineering approach to ameliorating climate change. To be effective, trapping the gas in geological deposits would be the for the very long term, thousands of years.

15 Apr 2015

Air-Conditioning Achieves Maximum Efficiency When in Direct Proximity to Passengers

How can a pleasant vehicle climate be achieved efficiently? Researchers at the Technische Universität München (TUM) pursued this question in the context of the research project Visio.M funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) with a total of 7.1 million euro.

15 Apr 2015

Exposure to PCB-153 Chemical Pollutant Increases Risk of Cancer in Males

An international research project which counts with the participation of the University of Granada has demonstrated that the exposure to a chemical pollutant called PCB-153 is positively associated to the risk of suffering from cancer in males.

15 Apr 2015

Increased Air Pollution Linked to Higher Risk of Cardiovascular Disease

Air pollution and smog have health consequences for affected populations ranging from respiratory problems to death. Fine particulate matter especially has become the focus in recent years, because it increases the probability of dying from respiratory or cardiovascular disease.

15 Apr 2015

New Discovery Could Improve Efficiency of Fuel Cells, Batteries

Scientists from South Carolina's leading public universities—the University of South Carolina and Clemson University—have made a discovery that could dramatically improve the efficiency of batteries and fuel cells.

13 Apr 2015

Levels of Cancer-Causing Radon Rising in Pennsylvania Homes as Natural Gas Fracking Booms

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health researchers say that levels of radon in Pennsylvania homes - where 42 percent of readings surpass what the U.S. government considers safe - have been on the rise since 2004, around the time that the fracking industry began drilling natural gas wells in the state.

13 Apr 2015

Study: Ocean Acidification Caused the Earth's Greatest Mass Extinction

Changes to the Earth's oceans, caused by extreme volcanic activity, triggered the greatest extinction of all time, a study suggests.

13 Apr 2015

U-M Scientists Awarded $250,000 Grant to Track Toxicity of Cyanobacterial Blooms in Lake Erie

ANN ARBOR--Efforts to reduce the amount of phosphorus and other nutrients washing off farm fields and into Lake Erie shifted into overdrive after high levels of a bacterial toxin shut down the drinking water supply to more than 400,000 Toledo-area residents last August.

13 Apr 2015

Lake Erie's Dead Zones Greatly Affect Fish Distributions, Catch Rates

New research shows that Lake Erie's dead zones are actually quite active, greatly affecting fish distributions, catch rates and the effectiveness of fishing gear.

13 Apr 2015

German Marine Scientists Reconstruct Variations in Past Arctic Climate

In the past decades ferromanganese crusts have been the focus of interest due to their resource potential of valuable metals such as cobalt, nickel or rare earth elements, which are highly enriched in these crusts. For the moment, however, the cost of underwater mining outweighs their cost of recovery.

13 Apr 2015