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U.S. EPA Releasing Smog Rule
Faced with a lawsuit by 15 states, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced this week it would no longer delay the implementation of a rule requiring states to reduce emissions of smog-creating air pollution. Crafted by the Obama administration in 2015, the regulation calls for states to begin meeting stricter ozone standards as of October 1,…
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Vertical Axis Wind Turbines Can Offer Cheaper Electricity for Urban and Suburban Areas
According to a prediction made by the U.S. Department of Energy, wind energy could provide 20 percent of electricity in the U.S. by the year 2030. This has motivated researchers from the University of Utah’s Department of Mechanical Engineering to investigate the performance capabilities and financial benefits of vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) in urban…
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Simultaneous Design and Nanomanufacturing Speeds Up Fabrication
Design and nanomanufacturing have collided inside of a Northwestern University laboratory.An interdisciplinary team of researchers has used mathematics and machine learning to design an optimal material for light management in solar cells, then fabricated the nanostructured surfaces simultaneously with a new nanomanufacturing technique.
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Standard Model of the Universe Withstands Most Precise Test by Dark Energy Survey
Astrophysicists have a fairly accurate understanding of how the universe ages: That’s the conclusion of new results from the Dark Energy Survey (DES), a large international science collaboration, including researchers from the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, that put models of cosmic structure formation and evolution to the most precise test yet.The survey’s researchers…
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Scientists reveal source of human heartbeat in 3D
A pioneering new study is set to help surgeons repair hearts without damaging precious tissue.A team of scientists from Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), The University of Manchester, Aarhus University and Newcastle University, have developed a way of producing 3D data to show the cardiac conduction system – the special cells that enable our hearts to beat – in unprecedented detail. The…
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Primordial Black Holes May Have Helped to Forge Heavy Elements
Astronomers like to say we are the byproducts of stars, stellar furnaces that long ago fused hydrogen and helium into the elements needed for life through the process of stellar nucleosynthesis.As the late Carl Sagan once put it: “The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon…
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Blood from MERS Virus Survivors May Help Target Treatments
Since causing major outbreaks in Saudi Arabia in 2014, and in Korea a year later, the virus that causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome is laying low. But by no means has it disappeared: A recent cluster of 34 cases cropped up in July in Riyadh City, Saudi Arabia’s capital. The dromedary camels who harbored the virus for more…
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Alaska's North Slope Snow-Free Season is Lengthening
On the North Slope of Alaska, snow is melting earlier in the spring and the snow-in date is happening later in the fall, according to a new study by CIRES and NOAA researchers. Atmospheric dynamics and sea ice conditions are behind this lengthening of the snow-free season, the scientists found, and the consequences are far…
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Where there's fire, there's smoke – and social media
When people see smoke on the horizon, what do they do? Besides (hopefully) calling fire authorities, they post to social media, of course.The fact that people reliably flock to social media to discuss smoke and fire was the inspiration for a new study by Colorado State University atmospheric scientists. Driven to innovate ways to improve…
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Dramatic changes needed in farming practices to keep pace with climate change
Major changes in agricultural practices will be required to offset increases in nutrient losses due to climate change, according to research published by a Lancaster University-led team.