Tillage farming damaging earthworm populations, say scientists

The digging, stirring and overturning of soil by conventional ploughing in tillage farming is severely damaging earthworm populations around the world, say scientists.

Scottish badgers highlight the complexity of species responses to environmental change

In a new study researchers have found that although warmer weather should benefit badger populations, the predicted human population increase in the Scottish highlands is likely to disturb badgers and counteract that effect. These results emphasise the importance of interactive effects and context-dependent responses when planning conservation management under human-induced rapid environmental change.

Poor overall environmental quality linked to elevated cancer rates

Nationwide, counties with the poorest quality across five domains – air, water, land, the built environment and sociodemographic – had the highest incidence of cancer, according to a new study published in the journal Cancer.

Space Weather Model Simulates Solar Storms From Nowhere

Our ever-changing sun continuously shoots solar material into space. The grandest such events are massive clouds that erupt from the sun, called coronal mass ejections, or CMEs. These solar storms often come first with some kind of warning — the bright flash of a flare, a burst of heat or a flurry of solar energetic particles. But another kind of storm has puzzled scientists for its lack of typical warning signs: They seem to come from nowhere, and scientists call them stealth CMEs.

NASA Spots Powerful Tropical Cyclone Donna Between Vanuatu and New Caledonia

Tropical Cyclone Donna continues to move through the South Pacific Ocean as a major hurricane. NASA's Aqua satellite passed over the storm and captured an image of a clear eye as the storm was located between the island nations of Vanuatu and New Caledonia. The GPM satellite found that the powerful hurricane was generating very high amounts of rainfall.

'Hot' electrons don't mind the gap

If they’re quick about it, “hot” electrons excited in a plasmonic metal can tunnel their way across a nanoscale gap to a neighboring metal. Rice University scientists said the cool part is what happens in the gap.

A Rice team discovered those electrons can create a photovoltage about a thousand times larger than what is seen if there is no gap. The finding shows it should be possible to create nanoscale photodetectors that convert light into electricity and can be used as sensors or in other sophisticated electronics.

Large Nuclear Cardiology Laboratory Slashes Radiation Dose By 60% In Eight Years

A large nuclear cardiology laboratory has slashed its average radiation dose by 60% in eight years, according to new research presented today at ICNC 2017 and published in JACC: Cardiovascular Imaging.1,2 The study in over 18 000 patients shows dose reductions were achieved despite a large number of obese patients.

Chemically tailored Graphene

Two-dimensional graphene consists of single layers of carbon atoms and exhibits intriguing properties. The transparent material conducts electricity and heat extremely well. It is at the same time flexible and solid. Additionally, the electrical conductivity can be continuously varied between a metal and a semiconductor by, e.g., inserting chemically bound atoms and molecules into the graphene structure – the so-called functional groups. These unique properties offer a wide range of future applications as e.g. for new developments in optoelectronics or ultrafast components in the semiconductor industry. However, a successful use of graphene in the semiconductor industry can only be achieved if properties such as the conductivity, the size and the defects of the graphene structure induced by the functional groups can already be modulated during the synthesis of graphene.

New water filtration process uses 1,000 times less energy

A new process for water filtration using carbon dioxide consumes one thousand times less energy than conventional methods, scientific research published this week has shown.

The research was led by University of Limerick’s Dr Orest Shardt together with Dr Sangwoo Shin (now at University of Hawaii, Manoa), while they were post doctoral researchers at Princeton University last year.

Nickel: a greener route to fatty acids

Chemists designed a nickel catalyst that easily transforms petroleum feedstocks into valuable compounds like fatty acids. The process is environmentally friendly: not only it works at room temperature and atmospheric pressure, but also recycles carbon dioxide, contributing to the fight against climate change.

Fatty acids are key in several industrial processes like the manufacture of soaps, plastics –such as nylon– and dyes. Experts estimate that the global market for these compounds could reach $20 billion in the next few years. Classical synthetic methods to obtain fatty acids often require toxic and hazardous reagents like carbon monoxide and extreme conditions of pressures and temperatures. Alternative methods like the derivatization of natural products are less dangerous, but lead to complicated mixtures of products that require tedious purifications.