Scientists at the University of Liverpool are embarking on a research cruise to help them understand recent major changes in the temperature of the Atlantic.

Researchers at the University’s Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences have been examining why ocean temperatures are rising within the tropics and mid-latitudes of the North Atlantic, but at the same time are decreasing at the ocean’s high latitudes.

The research team, which also includes scientists from the N

Finding the ’peculiar’ ancestor

A geologist from Washington University in St. Louis is developing new techniques to render a more coherent story of how primitive life arose and diverged on Earth — with implications for Mars.

Carrine Blank, Ph.D., Washington University assistant professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences, has some insight concerning terrestrial microbes that could lead to provocative conclusions about the nature of life on

Engineers in Nottingham are developing ultra-clean coal that could make power generation 50% more efficient and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by a third. A team at The University of Nottingham is one of only two in the world working on ground-breaking techniques to purify one of the world’s main energy sources.

They have been awarded £120,000 to help them develop the ultra-clean fuel for the power stations of the future. Dr Karen Steel, of the School of Chemical, Environmental and

The European Union, with the aim of conserving resources, protecting the environment and overseeing the health and welfare of their citizens, has been opting for some years now for sustainable development as one of its top priorities. The reduction of energy consumption has been identified as one of the aspects that can contribute most in this respect. This is why the EU has financed the Vacuum Insulating Panels (VIP) project, one in which GAIKER has participated in and the object of which is t

Mark Hebblewhite can look at specific climate statistics from the north Pacific Ocean and tell you how the elk are doing in Banff National Park. The University of Alberta doctoral student is the first researcher to show a correlation between the North Pacific Oscillation (NPO) and a mammal population.

Based on many climate-related ocean measurements, researchers are able to determine positive, average and negative NPO values. A positive NPO translates into a milder climate in mo

In the face of tough competition, Skogforsk (the Forestry Research Institute of Sweden) has landed the role of coordinator for one of the EU’s biggest ever research projects in the forestry and forest-based sector. The project, entitled Eforwood, has been set up to develop a tool for sustainability impact assessment of the European forestry and forest-based sector. The project is scheduled to run for four years and will involve 35 organizations in 18 countries, with a planned total budget

The ancient sea was more like a giant salty lake than a rolling ocean, report scientists from Imperial College London in the May edition of the Journal of the Geological Society. A new computer model that simulates how tides in North West Europe would have behaved 300 million years ago shows a sea with so little movement that it was unlike any on Earth today.

Using information on the ancient land masses and the tidal pull of the Moon, the new computer modelling system reveals a pi

MIT and Dartmouth scientists have identified a previously unrecognized, active fault in the Nepalese Himalayas. The discovery, published in the April 21 issue of Nature, provides new insights into how the mountains evolved and helps explain why the transition between the high Himalayan Ranges and their gently sloping foothills is so abrupt.

“This project started with the simple observation that the landscape of the central Nepalese Himalaya seems to be telling us something about

A Purdue University climatologist has found that vegetation can significantly affect extreme weather, a discovery that could add a new piece to the global warming puzzle.

Noah S. Diffenbaugh has found that extreme weather events, such as storms and heat waves, can vary substantially in frequency and severity in a region depending on how vegetation responds to global warming. This is believed to be the first study to indicate that as vegetation responds to climate change, tho

Cadmium, commonly considered a toxic metal and often used in combination with nickel in batteries, has been found to have a biological use as a nutrient in the ocean, the first known biological use of cadmium in any life form.

Scientists have discovered cadmium within an enzyme from a marine diatom, an algae or plankton common in the ocean and a major source of food for many organisms. The finding, reported in the May 5 issue of Nature, suggests that certain trace metals, found

Pesticide levels previously thought to be safe for pollinators may prove harmful to wild bee health, according to research published in Pest Management Science this month.

The Canadian study shows that adult bumble bees exposed to the pesticide spinosad during larval development – at levels they could encounter in the environment – have impaired foraging ability. Bees are important pollinators of crops. In developed countries, approximately a third of human food is reliant on po

A study of the USDA’s corn and soybean production forecasts over a 34-year period concludes that such projections “perform reasonably well in generating crop production forecast for corn and soybeans.” Still, the study, done at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, finds room for improvement.

“In particular, the USDA may want to consider expanding the scope of the subjective yield surveys to incorporate a wider range of market and industry participants,” said Dar

A microbial community thriving under bizarre natural conditions in California could be a gold mine to researchers in their quest to understand the complex biological relationships and how these inner workings might apply on a grander scale.

In a paper to appear today on Science Online, researchers from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of California Berkeley describe a bacterial community that flourishes in the iron sulfide-rich runof

While glaciers around the world are shrinking and disappearing, presumably due to global warming, two small glaciers in the Trinity Alps of Northern California are holding their own.

Richard Heermance, a doctoral student in geological sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara, presented findings of his research on the glaciers at the western meeting of the Geological Society of America in San Jose last weekend.

Heermance first became familiar with the Trinity

A University of Illinois agricultural economist who played a role in shaping a recent assessment of the world’s ecosystem and its future believes the study indicates “our children are at risk.”

“Those of us who are adults will see some of the effects of current stresses on our ecosystems but it is our children who will pay the price of our drawing down of our natural capital, unless we can find ways to make it sustainable,” said Gerald Nelson, a professor in the department of a

Up to now it was thought that nutrients penetrated the interior of plant cells by means of substance-specific transporters. Nevertheless, researchers at the Agrobiotechnology Institute at the Public University of Navarra have shown that the nutrients (saccharose, amino-acids, etc.) penetrate the cells basically through an “endocitic”, mechanism similar to fagocitosis, and induced by saccharose. This finding, carried by the latest issue of the Japanese journal, Plant Cell Physiology, will enable th