Forest fire particles come to town
Researchers at the University of Toronto have detected migratory pollutants from a forest fire in Quebec and even particles from a sandstorm in the Sahara in Toronto air, findings that could someday give regulatory agencies an idea of who is contributing to the pollutants found in urban air.
“It’s a bit of detective work,” says Greg Evans, a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry. “We happened
While parents and youngsters are busy carving jack-o-lanterns in preparation for Halloween, Canadian scientists are hard at work on another way to use the popular yellow-orange plant. New research shows that pumpkins can clean up soil contaminated with DDT and other pollutants.
In a greenhouse study, members of the Cucurbita pepo species — including pumpkin and zucchini — demonstrated the ability to remove DDT from soil, suggesting a potential “green” technique for cleaning up sites
French and Australian scientists resume measurements of Antarctic waters south of Australia this week to assess their capacity as a massive oceanic sponge to absorb greenhouse gases and store them away for hundreds or perhaps thousands of years.
France and Australia have a joint research program taking measurements from the Antarctic supply ship L’Astrolabe during its voyages between Hobart and the French base at Dumont D’Urville. L’Astrolabe, equipped with a full
Plant-eating insects inhabit all forest ecosystems, but sometimes their numbers explode, resulting in massive tree defoliation. In the October issue of the Journal of Tropical Ecology researchers from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) associate a severe moth outbreak with drought conditions following the 1997-1998 El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) event in a dry lowland forest near Panama’s Pacific coast. If ENSO events become more common, repeated herbivore outbreaks might a
Scientists have made a world-first discovery which is a step towards using environmentally-friendly hydrogen to power our cars.
A team from the Universities of Newcastle upon Tyne and Liverpool in the UK, who report their findings in the prestigious academic journal, Science, have found a safe way of storing and releasing hydrogen to produce energy. They do this using nanoporous materials, which have tiny pores that are one hundred-thousandth (100,00th) the thickness of a sheet
In the steamy waters of Yellowstone National Park’s hot springs lives a type of bacterium that could help make industrial bleaching cheaper and more environmentally friendly. Scientists have found Thermus brockianus bacteria produce a hardy enzyme that can be put to work breaking down hydrogen peroxide in industrial wastewater, producing only harmless oxygen and water as byproducts. Most important, the so-called extremozyme endures harsh industrial conditions better than currently availabl
Doing a little now to mitigate long-term climate change would cost much less than doing nothing and making an adjustment in the future, say scientists whose paper appears in the Oct. 15 issue of the journal Science.
Implementing a carbon tax of five cents per gallon of gasoline and gradually increasing the tax over the next 30 years is the optimal solution, the researchers report. “You can think of the tax as a low-cost insurance policy that protects against climate change,” sa
Russian scientists give an explanation for the wonder of beaver survival throughout the 19th century, when these animals were badly endangered and lived in conditions that would be fatal for another mammalian species.
A population of beavers can survive, if it includes only three animals living together. Such a small size of viable population is explained by the genetic adaptation of beavers to inbreeding. Beaver genome and behaviour account for an outstanding viability of this s
Researchers studying the evolutionary dynamics of bacteria and viruses in bubbling glass tubes have confirmed an evolutionary theory of central importance to ecologists studying more familiar flora and fauna in the wild. The theory predicts how the movement of individuals between different populations of a species influences evolutionary change in those populations, particularly with respect to coevolutionary interactions between species.
This is an important issue in understa
The proposed construction of a European Arctic Flagship ‘AURORA BOREALIS’, the 250 Million Euro joint European Research Icebreaker with a deep drilling capability would result in a considerable commitment of the participating nations to coordinate and expand their Polar Research Programmes. Recent results from drilling of the Deep Arctic Ocean within the Arctic Coring Expedition (Acex) have revealed dramatic changes of climate in the Arctic region during the last 55 million years. European science
Vilified in popular culture as a relentless man-eater, the great white shark finally received today global recognition as a persecuted species worthy of protection, as participants of the 13th meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (CITES) adopted a proposal to improve management and monitoring of trade in jaws, teeth and fins from the world’s largest predatory fish. Led by the governments of Madagascar and Australia, the proposal to list the
Based on 18 months of Envisat observations, this high-resolution global atmospheric map of nitrogen dioxide pollution makes clear just how human activities impact air quality.
ESA’s ten-instrument Envisat, the world’s largest satellite for environmental monitoring, was launched in February 2002. Its onboard Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Chartography (SCIAMACHY) instrument records the spectrum of sunlight shining through the atmosphere. These
Shipyards throughout Europe could become more competitive, and help the environment, by moving away from welding and using adhesive bonding for joining lightweight materials. That is the result of BONDSHIP, a major initiative to funded with €4.6 million (euros) under the Sustainable Surface Transport programme of the EU’s Framework Programme.
The aim of the project was to achieve considerable cost savings in the production and operation of more fuel-efficient passenger ships, ferr
University of York calculates huge economic impact of ozone
Increased ozone concentrations at ground level may be causing millions of pounds of damage to UK food crops, according to a University of York researcher. Building on a previous study on ozone concentrations in the environment, which estimated that in 1990 alone the UK lost £130million in crops due to ozone taken up by plants, Dr Lisa Emberson of the Stockholm Environment Institute has been developing new methods to calcul
MIT researchers have developed new metrics for assessing the performance of firms that recycle scrapped electronic equipment, a major source of toxic pollutants.
The metrics focus not just on how much of a firm’s incoming waste is processed but also on the quality and reusability of the materials produced from it, a consideration critical to overall resource efficiency.
To assess the performance of electronics recycling firms, people have focused mainly on the most e
A joint English Nature and RSPB scientific review comparing evidence about wildlife on organic and equivalent non-organic farms has concluded that organic farms are better for wildlife.
The review, published in the journal Biological Conservation, concludes that a wide range of wildlife including birds, bats, insects and wild flowers flourish on organic farms. In more than 50 comparisons it was usually, although not universally, true that organic farms had more individual wild ani
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