For the first time, new climate observations and computer models provide a consistent picture of recent warming of the tropical atmosphere.

Over the past decade, scientific evidence from a variety of sources has implicated human-caused increases in greenhouse gases as a major driver of recent climate change. A key argument used to rebut such findings relates to satellite records of temperature change in the troposphere – the lowest layer of Earth’s atmosphere.

Unt

Coastal populations and ecosystems are more likely to bounce back from extreme coastal disasters by protecting local environments and building on local knowledge, according to a report published in Science today.

And the aftermath of the Asian tsunami has given valuable insight into handling extreme coastal disasters – inevitable as the world’s coastal population is set to double by 2030 and global warming continues to exacerbate extreme weather conditions.

The research t

Swarms of millions of locusts have, since Biblical times and until our very own day, been considered a “plague” of major proportions, with the creatures destroying every growing thing in their path.

Until now, it was thought that the directions of these swarms were predominantly directed by prevailing winds. Now, Hebrew University of Jerusalem scientists have shown that a physiological trait of these grasshoppers – namely their polarization vision — provides them with a built-in

Researchers have urged policy makers to field test any new strategy to control the spread of TB between badgers and cattle. The recommendation comes in a new study published in the British Ecological Society’s Journal of Applied Ecology that reveals evidence of a close spatial association between bovine tuberculosis (TB) in badgers and cattle.

Using data from the Randomised Badger Culling Trial, Dr Rosie Woodroffe and colleagues from the Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB l

Mild winters, low humidity, lots of room, cultural diversity, higher education opportunities and a lively economy – El Paso has a lot to offer. But one thing it doesn’t have is a lot of water.

Enter Texas Agricultural Experiment Station researchers, who study ways to make the most of the area’s limited water supply.

El Paso sprawls at the base of the Franklin Mountains in the farthest point of West Texas. The terrain is mostly desert except for the Rio Grande, which mean

Phosphorus (P) is a vital mineral for all crops. Farmland has to be supplied with phosphorus regularly by applying fertiliser, in order to provide crops with sufficient phosphorus. P fertilisers are produced out of rock phosphates by means of different processes from sedimentary (fossil) or magmatic deposits. Rock phosphates from sedimentary deposits are characterised by a high content of elements which can also be detected in standard fertilisers.

Scientists at the Institute of Plant Nutri

Thanks to measurements by ESA’s Cluster mission, a team of European scientists have identified ‘micro’-vortices in Earth’s magnetosphere.

Such small-scale vortex turbulence, whose existence was predicted through mathematical models, has not been observed before in space. The results are not only relevant for space physics, but also for other applications like research on nuclear fusion.

On 9 March 2002, the four Cluster satellites, flying in tetrahedral formation at 10

As water becomes ever more scarce, quenching thirsty crops with wastewater may be OK if done right, researchers here say.

“Managing reclaimed water by pretreating before using it to irrigate, monitoring for viruses, choosing correct crops and periodically leaching the soils should be successful and safe,” said Dr. George Di Giovanni, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station environmental microbiologist.

Di Giovanni and his colleagues studied the movement of viruses carried

Aquapharm Bio – Discovery Ltd (Aquapharm), a leading UK marine biotechnology company developing, amongst other things, anti-infective drug candidates from marine natural products, is pleased to announce the completion this month of its latest round of financing.

The investment of £344000 by E-Synergy Ltd and the Scottish Enterprise Co-Investment Fund completed the £1.25 million package by adding to a recent earlier investment of £350000 (£175,000 each) by NESTA (the National Endow

Too little of the research being done on renewable energy options is taking potential ecological implications into account, a major new review of the ecological implications of offshore renewable energy published in the British Ecological Society’s Journal of Applied Ecology has found.

The review by Dr Andrew Gill of Cranfield University found that despite an explosion of academic interest in the subject – almost 400 papers on renewable energy were published in peer-reviewed

They are called “hellfire”, “smart bombs”, “advanced penetrators” or “bunker-busters”. They all have the component of depleted Uranium (DU) in common. DU remains after the fissile isotope 235U has been extracted from natural Uranium for the production of nuclear fuel or nuclear weapons. However 235U only comes to 5% of the total Uranium content, so that DU consists of the isotope 238U almost entirely. Between DU and natural Uranium there are no chemical and toxicological differences, merely the ra

I. Highlights, including authors and their institutions

The following highlights summarize research papers in Geophysical Research Letters (GL). The papers related to these Highlights are printed in the next paper issue of the journal following their electronic publication.

You may read the scientific abstract for any of these papers by going to www.agu.org/pubs/search_options.shtml and inserting

While volcanologists can see the dome of the Soufriere Hills Volcano on the island of Montserrat grow and collapse, it takes instrumentation to delve beneath the surface. Now, Penn State geologists, using tiltmeter measurements, have investigated a shallow area under the dome and what they found was not quite what they expected.

“The Soufriere Hills Volcano has been building a lava dome, collapsing and rebuilding a dome since 1995, when it first erupted,” says Dr. Christina W

British researchers have hit on a clever way to search for ancient ozone holes and their relationship to mass extinctions: measure the remains of ultraviolet-B absorbing pigments ancient plants left in their fossilized spores and pollen.

To develop the approach, researcher Barry Lomax and his colleagues at the University of Sheffield and other leading UK institutions analyzed spores held in the British Antarctic Survey’s collection from South Georgia Island, a UK territor

New discoveries about the timing and speed of gigantic, 6500-foot (2-km) thick lava flows that poured out of the ground 65 million years ago could shift the blame for killing the dinos.

The Deccan Traps of India are one of Earth’s largest lava flows ever, with the potential of having wreaked havoc with the climate of the Earth – if they erupted and released climate-changing gases quickly enough. French and Indian geologists have now identified a 600-meter (2000-foot) thick po

Accurately forecasting rain will be easier thanks to new insights into clouds from the University of Leeds, UCL (University College London) and others. Details of a new model for predicting cloud and rain-formation are published today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society (10 August 2005).

Existing forecasting models – including ones used by the UK’s Meteorological Office – assume rain droplets fall through still air within a cloud. However, there is turbulence within cl