Engineers at the University of Illinois Chicago have built a machine that captures carbon from flue gas and converts it to ethylene.  The device integrates a carbon capture system with an ethylene conversation system for the first time. And, the system not only runs on electricity, but it also removes more carbon from the environment than it generates – making it what scientists call net-negative on carbon emissions. Among manufactured chemicals worldwide, ethylene ranks third for carbon emissions after ammonia…

Oxygen is the key substance for life and one of the most abundant elements in the Earth. However, it’s still unknown whether oxygen is present and in which form in the inner core with extreme high pressure and temperature conditions, and almost composed of pure iron. Scientists co-led by Dr. Jin Liu from HPSTAR (the Center for High Pressure Science &Technology Advanced Research) and Dr. Yang Sun from Columbia University reveal that Fe-rich Fe-O alloys are stable at extreme pressures…

Emissions from copper-based antifouling paints are a well-known environmental problem. As much as 40 percent of copper inputs to the Baltic Sea come from antifouling paints on ships and leisure boats. According to a new study from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, this is completely unnecessary. When the researchers compared copper-based antifouling paint with biocide-free silicone-based paint, they found that the environmentally friendly alternative was best at keeping the fouling at bay. ‘This means that we now have a great…

First investigation of stress state below plate boundary fault of Tohoku earthquake. The great 2011 earthquake that caused the tsunami in northeastern Japan is still remembered for its destructive power. Also known as the Mw 9.0 Tohoku earthquake, the seismic nature of this calamity was not initially entirely clear. While earthquakes resulting from built-up tectonic stress in reverse faulting had only been partially released. In previous studies where complete releases have been posited, the hypothesis was based on seismicity observation and simulation,…

Pitt engineer Lei Fang launches NSF-funded project to understand effect of active matter on transport barriers. Imagine a school of fish swimming through the open water. The way the water flows affects how the school of fish moves and how much energy the fish expend; however, their movement affects the way the water flows, too. The interactions at play here are part of the field of fluid dynamics, which is critical to engineering solutions like directing wastewater, or mapping and…

Big egos, lack of staff training and policy enforcement are major barriers to island conservation. Published today in the journal People and Nature, a new study is the first to quantify the day-to-day barriers that conservation workers face as they try to conserve and manage island ecosystems around the world. Island nations are noted for their particularly high-levels of biodiversity and endemic species. However, they are also more vulnerable to biodiversity loss, having already experienced 61% of recent global extinctions….

Desiccation of tree foliage is a key factor in the spread of fires. However, during droughts, changes in the water content of forest canopies remain poorly understood. Scientists from INRAE and the CNRS have developed the first model to predict canopy water content during drought and heat waves. Their results, published in the journal New Phytologist, could enable the development of fire danger forecasting models that include the role of vegetation in their calculations. Climate change and increasing drought are…

How the current Southwestern North American megadrought is affecting Earth’s upper atmosphere. New research, based on two decades’ worth of data, shows that in the ten years after its onset in 2000, the Southwestern North American (SWNA) megadrought caused a 30% change in gravity wave activity in Earth’s upper atmosphere. More than 30 years ago, Chester Gardner of UIUC’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Chiao-Yao She of Colorado State University’s Department of Physics teamed up to study Earth’s middle…

… when aquatic environments change abruptly. A closed copper mine on the Baltic Sea coast just south of Västervik has helped researchers study the capacity of coastal diatoms to survive when the environmental conditions change. A thesis from the University of Gothenburg shows that diatom species survived discharges of copper into the sea due to their great genetic diversity. By having and retaining strains with broad genetic diversity across the generations, a species can cope with rapid environmental changes without…

Largest spatial assessment to date underscores need for enhanced management practices and coral restoration efforts in Florida. A new study found that 70 percent of Florida’s reefs are eroding and experiencing net loss of reef habitat. The research, conducted by an interdisciplinary group of scientists through the NOAA Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Science, provides new information on the state of Florida’s world-famous coral reefs. “This…

An almost limitless supply of fresh water exists in the form of water vapor above Earth’s oceans, yet remains untapped, researchers said. A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is the first to suggest an investment in new infrastructure capable of harvesting oceanic water vapor as a solution to limited supplies of fresh water in various locations around the world. The study, led by civil and environmental engineering professor and Prairie Research Institute executive director Praveen Kumar, evaluated…

Radar scans of the Greenland ice sheet reveal the shutdown and reconfiguration of ice streams in the span of a few thousand years. Major ice streams can shut down, shifting rapid ice transport to other parts of the ice sheet, within a few thousand years. This was determined in reconstructions of two ice streams, based on ice-penetrating radar scans of the Greenland ice sheet, that a team of researchers led by the Alfred Wegener Institute have just presented in the…

… highlights sea ice response to climate change. A new study published in the European Geosciences Union journal The Cryosphere could improve our understanding of changes in the atmosphere–ice–ocean system and the mass balance of sea ice in a changing Arctic. Years of research show that climate change signals are amplified in the Arctic, and that sea ice in this region is sensitive to increases in Arctic warming. Sea ice greatly modifies the exchanges of heat, momentum and mass between…

… also for other species. Marking trees are important hotspots of communication for cheetahs: Here they exchange information with and about other cheetahs via scent marks, urine and scats. A team from the Cheetah Research Project of the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) now showed that several mammalian species on farmland in Namibia maintain a network for intra- and interspecific communication at cheetah trees. Black-backed jackals, African wildcats and warthogs visited and sniffed the cheetahs’ “places to…

Airborne campaign solves parts of the riddle of clouds. In a major field campaign in 2020, Dr. Raphaela Vogel who is now at Universität Hamburg’s Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability (CEN) and an international team from the Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique in Paris and the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg analyzed observational data they and others collected in fields of cumulus clouds near the Atlantic island of Barbados. Their analysis revealed that these clouds’ contribution to…

A warming climate is causing a decline in sea ice in the Arctic Ocean, where loss of sea ice has important ecological, economic and climate impacts. On top of this long-term shift due to climate change are weather events that affect the sea ice from week to week. The strongest Arctic cyclone ever observed poleward of 70 degrees north latitude struck in January 2022 northeast of Greenland. A new analysis led by the University of Washington shows that while weather…