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Shell Begins Divestment From Canadian Oil Sands
Last week Royal Dutch Shell agreed to sell most of its Athabasca oil sands investment to a Canadian exploration company for $8.5 billion. To many, this was anything but a surprise. In 2015, the world’s second largest publicly-traded oil company put the brakes on its Pierre River development, suggesting it wasn’t the right time for Shell to enter what…
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Humans Made the Banana Perfect—But Soon, It'll Be Gone
On a plate, a single banana seems whimsical—yellow and sweet, contained in its own easy-to-open peel. It is a charming breakfast luxury as silly as it is delicious and ever-present. Yet when you eat a banana the flavor on your tongue has complex roots, equal parts sweetness and tragedy.
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Doubts about whether internet filters protect teenagers online
Internet filters are widely used in homes, schools and libraries throughout the UK to protect young people from unpleasant online experiences. However, a new study by Oxford casts doubt on whether such technologies shield young teenagers after finding no link between homes with internet filters and the likelihood of the teenagers in those households being…
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MSU researcher studies effects of weather variability and market dynamics on maple syrup production
A Montana State University assistant professor of sustainable food systems who has conducted research all over the world is turning her attention to maple syrup.Some farmers in the United States and Canada have noticed that the quantity and quality of their maple syrup is changing with climate variability, said Selena Ahmed from MSU's Department of…
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The UK's Drop in CO2 Emissions Shows the Power of Carbon Taxes
A new analysis indicates that the UK’s CO2 output is at a record low, and it’s largely down to one major action: a reduction in coal use.
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Organic is only one ingredient in recipe for sustainable food future
Many people choose organic thinking it’s better for humans and the planet, but a new UBC study published today in Science Advances finds that might not always be the case.
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Mayo Clinic discovers high-intensity aerobic training can reverse aging processes in adults
Everyone knows that exercise is good for you, but what type of training helps most, especially when you’re older – say over 65? A Mayo Clinic study says it’s high-intensity aerobic exercise, which can reverse some cellular aspects of aging. The findings appear in Cell Metabolism.Mayo researchers compared high-intensity interval training, resistance training and combined training.…
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NASA Sees Wind Shear Affecting Tropical Cyclone 11S
Tropical Cyclone 11S appeared elongated in NASA satellite imagery as a result of the storm being battered by wind shear.When NASA's Terra satellite flew over Tropical Cyclone 11S on March 10 at 0515 UTC (12:15 a.m. EST) the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument took a visible light picture of the storm. The image…
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Volcano Breath: Measuring Sulfur Dioxide from Space
There is no mint that can take the edge off sulfurous emissions from volcanoes, but researchers can use remote sensing to better understand volcanic breathing.Volcanoes erupt, they spew ash, their scarred flanks sometimes run with both lava and landslides. But only occasionally. A less dramatic but important process is continuous gas emissions from volcanoes; in…
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Fukushima catastrophe unfolds … key facts and figures for an unhappy sixth anniversary
The 2011 Fukushima catastrophe is an ongoing disaster whose end only gets more remote as time passes. The government is desperate to get evacuees back into their homes for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but the problems on the ground, and in the breached reactor vessels, are only getting more serious and costly, as unbelievable volumes…