Environment
Decades-old question: Is antibacterial soap safe?
May 3, 2013 9:15 am | by Matthew Perrone, AP Health Writer | News | Commentst's a chemical that's been in U.S. households for more than 40 years, from the body wash in your bathroom shower to the knives on your kitchen counter to the bedding in your baby's basinet. But federal health regulators are just now deciding whether triclosan—the germ-killing ingredient found in an estimated 75% of antibacterial liquid soaps and body washes sold in the U.S.—is ineffective, or worse, harmful.
On-site asbestos detector IDs fibers in real-time
May 2, 2013 12:46 pm | News | CommentsAsbestos was banned in the many industrialized countries in the 1980s, but the threat lingers on in the ceilings, walls and floors of old buildings and homes. Now a team of researchers in the U.K. has developed and tested the first portable, real-time airborne asbestos detector. The device uses a laser-based light scattering technique to identify harmful fibers.
Meteorite study may reveal Mars’ secrets of life
May 2, 2013 8:57 am | News | CommentsIn an effort to determine if conditions were ever right on Mars to sustain life, a team of scientists has examined a meteorite that formed on the red planet more than a billion years ago. And although this team’s work is not specifically solving the mystery, it is laying the groundwork for future researchers to answer this age-old question.
Air pollution linked to hardening of arteries
April 25, 2013 11:03 am | News | CommentsLong-term exposure to air pollution may be linked to heart attacks and strokes by speeding up atherosclerosis, or "hardening of the arteries," according to a University of Michigan public health researcher and colleagues from across the U.S.
A Close Eye on Nanotechnology
April 24, 2013 12:30 pm | by Lindsay Hock | Articles | CommentsNanotechnology typically describes any material, device, or technology where feature sizes are smaller than 100 nanometers in dimension. However, this new and uncharted direction in research provides a large spark for new product and drug delivery development. To achieve these discoveries, scientists must rely on specialized instruments and materials to drive their experiments and analysis.
Analysis of 2,000 years of climate records reveals end of global cooling trend
April 24, 2013 8:58 am | News | CommentsThe most comprehensive evaluation of temperature change on Earth’s continents over the past 1,000 to 2,000 years indicates that a long-term cooling trend—caused by factors including fluctuations in the amount and distribution of heat from the sun, and increases in volcanic activity—ended late in the 19th century.
Nitrogen has key role in estimating CO2 emissions from land use change
April 23, 2013 9:42 am | News | CommentsA new global-scale modeling study that takes into account nitrogen—a key nutrient for plants—estimates that carbon emissions from human activities on land were 40% higher in the 1990s than in studies that did not account for nitrogen. Most existing models used to estimate global emissions changes based on land use do not have the ability to model nitrogen limitations on plant regrowth.
Fossil shells, new geochemical technique provide clues to ancient climate cooling
April 23, 2013 9:41 am | News | CommentsUsing a new laboratory geochemical technique to analyze heavy isotopes of carbon and oxygen in fossil snail shells, scientists have gained insights into an abrupt climate shift that transformed the planet nearly 34 million years ago. At that time, the Earth switched from a warm and high-carbon dioxide "greenhouse" state to the lower-carbon dioxide, variable climate of the modern "icehouse" world.
Where does charcoal, or black carbon, in soils go?
April 22, 2013 7:43 am | News | CommentsThe ability to determine the fate of charcoal is critical to knowledge of the global carbon budget, which in turn can help understand and mitigate climate change. However, until now, researchers only had scientific guesses about what happens to charcoal once it's incorporated into soil. They believed it stayed there. Surprisingly, the findings of a new study shows that most of these researchers were wrong.
Superstorm Sandy literally shook the United States
April 19, 2013 12:57 pm | News | CommentsWhen superstorm Sandy turned and took aim at New York City and Long Island last October, ocean waves hitting each other and the shore rattled the seafloor and much of the United States—shaking detected by seismometers across the country, University of Utah researchers have recently found. These “microseisms” generated by Sandy were detected by Earthscope, a network of 500 portable seismometers.
Experts unclear how China bird flu infects humans
April 18, 2013 11:38 am | by GILLIAN WONG - Associated Press - Associated Press | News | CommentsAlmost three weeks after China reported finding a new strain of bird flu in humans, experts are still stumped by how people are becoming infected when many appear to have had no recent contact with live fowl and the virus isn't supposed to pass from person to person.
Scientists discover new materials to capture methane
April 16, 2013 12:52 pm | News | CommentsScientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley have discovered new materials to capture methane, the second highest concentration greenhouse gas emitted into the atmosphere. The research team performed systematic computer simulation studies on the effectiveness of methane capture using two different materials—liquid solvents and nanoporous zeolites.
Sunlit snow triggers atmospheric cleaning, ozone depletion in the Arctic
April 15, 2013 4:23 pm | News | CommentsA Purdue University-led team of researchers discovered sunlit snow to be the major source of atmospheric bromine in the Arctic, the key to unique chemical reactions that purge pollutants and destroy ozone. The team's findings suggest the rapidly changing Arctic climate—where surface temperatures are rising three times faster than the global average—could dramatically change its atmospheric chemistry.
Report: Cutting specific atmospheric pollutants would slow sea level rise
April 15, 2013 12:56 pm | News | CommentsNew research indicates that cutting emissions of certain pollutants can greatly slow sea level rise this century. Scientists focussing on emissions of four heat-trapping pollutants—methane, tropospheric ozone, hydrofluorocarbons, and black carbon—found that reductions these pollutants that cycle comparatively quickly through the atmosphere could temporarily forestall the rate of sea level rise by roughly 25 to 50%.
FDA finds safety issues at specialty pharmacies
April 12, 2013 11:29 am | by The Associated Press | News | CommentsThe Food and Drug Administration says it has uncovered potential safety problems at 30 specialty pharmacies that were inspected in the wake of a recent outbreak of meningitis caused by contaminated drugs. The agency said its inspectors targeted 31 compounding pharmacies that produce sterile drugs, which must be prepared under highly sanitary conditions.
Researchers measure reaction rates of second key atmospheric component
April 12, 2013 8:14 am | News | CommentsResearchers have successfully measured reaction rates of a second Criegee intermediate, CH3CHOO, and proven that the reactivity of the atmospheric chemical depends strongly on which way the molecule is twisted. The measurements will provide further insight into hydrocarbon combustion and atmospheric chemistry.
Hidden dangers in the air we breathe
April 12, 2013 7:40 am | News | CommentsFor decades, no one worried much about the air quality inside people’s homes. Then scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory made the discovery that the aggregate health consequences of poor indoor air quality are as significant as those from all traffic accidents or infectious diseases in the United States. They are now working on turning those research findings into science-based solutions.
Researchers call for marine observation network
April 11, 2013 3:31 am | News | CommentsA comprehensive marine biodiversity observation network could be established with modest funding within five years, according to a recently published assessment from a team led by J. Emmett Duffy of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. Such a network, they say, would fill major gaps in scientists' understanding of the global distribution of marine organisms.
Satellite shelved after 2000 election to now fly
April 11, 2013 2:51 am | by Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writer | News | CommentsObama proposed Wednesday spending nearly $35 million in his 2014 budget to refurbish a satellite, nicknamed GoreSat by critics, that's been sitting in storage after it was shelved in 2001, months after Bush took office. It cost about $100 million by then with NASA's internal auditors faulting its cost increases.
Ocean nutrients a key component of future change. say scientists
April 11, 2013 2:18 am | News | CommentsVariations in nutrient availability in the world's oceans could be a vital component of future environmental change, according a research team. Their research reviews what we know about ocean nutrient patterns and interactions, and how they might be influenced by future climate change and other man-made factors. The authors also highlight how nutrient cycles influence climate by fuelling biological production.
Widely used index may have overestimated drought
April 8, 2013 6:26 pm | News | CommentsFor decades, scientists have used sophisticated instruments and computer models to predict the nature of droughts. The majority of these models have steadily predicted an increasingly frequent and severe global drought cycle. But a recent study from a team of researchers in the United State and Australia suggests that one of these widely used tools—the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI)—may be incorrect.
A ‘green’ Sahara was far less dusty than today
April 6, 2013 3:07 pm | News | CommentsAs recently as 5,000 years ago, the Sahara was a verdant landscape, with sprawling vegetation and numerous lakes. The Sahara’s “green” era likely lasted from 11,000 to 5,000 years ago, and is thought to have ended abruptly. Now researchers have found that this abrupt climate change occurred nearly simultaneously across North Africa.
Thin, low Arctic clouds an important key to Greenland Ice Sheet melt
April 5, 2013 6:06 pm | News | CommentsAccording to a new study by scientists funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), clouds over the central Greenland Ice Sheet last July were "just right" for driving surface temperatures there above the melting point. The 2012 melt illustrates the often-overlooked role that clouds play in climate change. Current models don’t do enough, says researchers, to account for their effects.
Extreme algae blooms the new normal?
April 4, 2013 7:36 am | News | CommentsIn 2011, Lake Erie experienced a record-breaking algae bloom that began in the lake's Western region in mid-July and eventually covered an area of 230 square miles. At its peak in October, the bloom had expanded to more than 1,930 square miles, three times greater than any other bloom on record. According to recent research, the bloom was triggered by long-term agricultural practices coupled with extreme precipitation, followed by weak lake circulation and warm temperatures.
NASA team investigates complex chemistry at Titan
April 3, 2013 6:06 pm | News | CommentsA laboratory experiment at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., simulating the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan suggests complex organic chemistry that could eventually lead to the building blocks of life extends lower in the atmosphere than previously thought. The results now point out another region on the moon that could brew up prebiotic materials.
