In these days when it costs nearly $50 a barrel, spilled oil – unlike milk – could be worth crying about, especially in Texas.
A team of Texas A&M University researchers has developed – and continues to refine – a system of buoys in the Gulf of Mexico that can accurately predict the movement of oil spills. Such spills can present Texas-sized problems, both environmentally and economically, to the state’s coastline.
The buoys can even be used to locate ship passengers
Studies demonstrate that trees keep pollutants out of streams, help process pollutants in them
A team of researchers led by scientists from the Stroud Water Research Center in Avondale, Pa., has discovered that streamside (or riparian) forests play a critical – and previously unacknowledged – role in protecting the world’s fresh water.
Their findings, funded jointly by the National Science Foundation and Environmental Protection Agency and published online this week in
The simplest molecule presents the best opportunity for energy. With global energy demands projected to rise 66% by 2030, the world desperately needs alternatives to fossil fuels. Hydrogen power, a recent media phenomenon, presents an enticing alternative – one whose development reaches much further back than most imagine. -When people hear ‘hydrogen power,’ they don’t realize that we’ve been working on it for 25 years, says Trygve Riis, the Norwegian chairman of the International Energy Agency’s
As sport fishes go, the blue marlin is a king of sorts – highly prized for its beautiful shape and its ferocious fighting ability when hooked.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that many blue marlin caught in the Gulf of Mexico contain 20 to 30 times the acceptable levels of mercury.
Texas A&M University at Galveston researchers Jay Rooker and Gary Gill are trying to learn why the mercury levels are so high in blue marlin compared to similar fishes and why so many of
Technology to monitor how the rock barrier around radio active waste reacts has been developed by an Anglo French consortium with the help of 466,286 euros from the EU’s Framework Programme towards the projects total cost of 765,619 euros.
As the sources of traditional fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas continue to decrease there is a growing demand for more sustainable forms of energy. The option to turn to nuclear power for the production of electricity has long been debated but
The greatest single strength of Earth Observation is its wideness of view: the 10 instruments aboard ESA’s Envisat spacecraft allow scientists simultaneous looks across large expanses of our planet.
Under discussion during Wednesday’s Envisat Symposium is how researchers use this ability to peer further through time, addressing the leading scientific question of our time – the likely extent of climate change. Human activities have been changing the chemical composition of the atmosp
In a treasure hunt through Western Australia’s south-west more than 20 new species of trigger plants have been discovered – small plants that catapult pollen onto visiting insects.
Perth botanist Dr Juliet Wege made her findings whilst researching at the Department of Conservation and Land Management in a study funded by the Australian Biological Resources Study. Juliet has formally named eight new species and is in the process of naming and describing many more. Her work won her a
As the rains from the downgraded Hurricane Frances move northward while the eastern U.S. continues to watch Hurricane Ivan’s approach, the destruction from the heavy winds and rains is mounting into the billions of dollars.
In Florida alone, initial estimates for losses caused by Frances were between $2 and 4 billion following the projected $7.4 billion in insured damages from Hurricane Charley, according to Reuters News Service.
In most cases, low-rise buildings, inc
Soils provide humans with a whole range of irreplaceable ecosystem services the production and maintenance of which are largely dependent on the actions of the animal communities which inhabit them. Apart from the substantial agricultural production made necessary by humanity’s demand for food, soils filter and store water, holding back erosion and flooding. They provide a large proportion of the nutrients necessary for plant growth and for maintaining biodiversity, and at the same time limit g
A method that uses roughly only one-hundredth the fresh water customarily needed to grow forage for livestock may leave much more water available for human consumption, as well as for residential and industrial uses. As a byproduct, it also may add formerly untapped solar energy to the electrical grid.
The method for lessening water use is being tested by 42 wireless sensors being installed in a forage-growing hydroponic greenhouse built barely a stone’s throw from the Mexico b
Plankton poo could be the key to understanding how much carbon dioxide our oceans can store according to Tasmanian researcher Dr Karin Beaumont.
The greenhouse effect is arguably humanity’s greatest environmental threat. “We need to understand where and how carbon dioxide is stored in the oceans. Part of the answer lies in the poo of microscopic zooplankton: does it float or does it sink?” said Karin. “Heavy poo that sticks together and sinks to the ocean floor is good. It locks u
A biodegradable plastic made from toxic waste could solve pollution problems, scientists from Dublin announced today (Wednesday, 08 September 2004) at the Society for General Microbiology’s 155th Meeting at Trinity College Dublin.
The team from University College in Dublin have demonstrated that bacteria can use styrene, a toxic by-product of the polystyrene industry, to make a type of biodegradable plastic, polyhydroxyalkanoate, known as PHA.
Styrene is found in many type
ISURPAK has announced that it will have the first packaging machine for its ecological carton by the middle of 2005. The first prototype is to be developed by a consortium in which the engineering group IDOM is participating. This first machine will be able to fill 25 packs per minute – particularly suitable for small- and medium-sized production lines.
Compared to similar packages, this design is the most simple, with a rectangular shape and stiffness, plus a secure waterproof and
In the near future the usual summer ozone peaks exceeding the allowed threshold may be a thing of the past: the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Switzerland has developed a new type of catalytic conversion system, which filters nearly all nitrogen oxides out of diesel exhaust gases using a refined control technology. This eliminates the main cause of summer ozone build-up. The process requires a non-toxic urea solution, which future diesel engine commercial vehicles can take with them in a separat
Air quality has improved dramatically over the past 50 years. Professor Mike Piling, Head of Physical Chemistry at the University of Leeds, will reveal the latest about air quality research at the Festival of Science today.
The Clean Air Act was passed in 1956 in response to the devastating London smog of 1952 and led to substantial improvements. Since then road traffic has become a major contributor to air pollution and much of current legislation is designed to minimise the eff
High levels of mercury can have a toxic effect on the human nervous system. To help reduce the amount of mercury emitted from power plants during coal combustion, UAB has received a three-year, $400,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to find the best, most cost-effective method for mercury removal from power plant emissions.
“It is difficult for utilities to plan equipment improvements and new construction without quantitative data with which to evaluate alternative designs,” says
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