UBC researcher sees future for flax and hemp as particleboard alternative

Wood scientist Solace Sam-Brew envisions a future where Canadian homes are furnished with products made from flax and hemp.

“Both flax and hemp are widely available in Canada, especially in the West,” said Sam-Brew, a recent PhD graduate from the University of British Columbia’s faculty of forestry. “It’s worth considering their viability as alternative raw materials to wood for particleboard production.”

Birds sing shorter songs in response to traffic noise

Birds sing differently in response to traffic noise, which potentially affects their ability to attract mates and defend their territory, according to research published in Bioacoustics. The study found that a species of North American flycatcher sings shorter songs at a lower range of frequencies in response to traffic noise levels. The researchers suggest traffic noise reduction, for example through road closures, is a viable option for mitigating this effect.

Lyme Disease Imposes Large Cost On the Northeast United States

As people across the northeastern U.S. begin venturing back into the outdoors with the arrival of spring, they will make 1 billion fewer trips than they otherwise would have if Lyme disease didn’t exist, a new Yale study concludes.

New Battery Coating Could Improve Smart Phones and Electric Vehicles

High performing lithium-ion batteries are a key component of laptops, smart phones, and electric vehicles. Currently, the anodes, or negative charged side of lithium ion batteries, are generally made with graphite or other carbon-based materials.

Cover crops may be used to mitigate and adapt to climate change

Cover crops long have been touted for their ability to reduce erosion, fix atmospheric nitrogen, reduce nitrogen leaching and improve soil health, but they also may play an important role in mitigating the effects of climate change on agriculture, according to a Penn State researcher.

Eat, Prey, Move

It’s a fish-eat-fish world out in the ocean, and prey species usually fear the predators that would make them into a tasty snack.

New era of western wildfire demands new ways of protecting people, ecosystems

Just four weeks ago, fire crews battled the Sunshine fire in the foothills west of Boulder. Low humidity, record-high temperatures and 40 mile-per-hour gusts of wind helped fan flames that forced over 1,000 people to evacuate their homes. Firefighters quickly contained the wildfire, with no injuries or damage reported. But the reality of a blaze this serious in March raises concerns about how we deal with wildfire in the western United States.

Termite gut holds a secret to breaking down plant biomass

In the Microbial Sciences Building at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the incredibly efficient eating habits of a fungus-cultivating termite are surprising even to those well acquainted with the insect’s natural gift for turning wood to dust. - See more at: http://news.wisc.edu/termite-gut-holds-a-secret-to-breaking-down-plant-biomass/#sthash.wNKkjWOk.dpuf

NASA Spots Tropical Cyclone 02W's Remnants in South China Sea

The remnants of former Tropical Depression 02W still lingered in the South China Sea when NASA's Terra satellite passed overhead on April 17.

Tropical Depression 02W made landfall along the east coast of the eastern Visayas around 1500 UTC/11 a.m. EST) on Saturday, April 15, 2017. At 0900 UTC (5 a.m. EST) Tropical Depression 02W had maximum sustained winds near 25 knots as it neared the eastern Philippines. At that time, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center issued their final bulletin on the storm and said that satellite imagery showed weak development of thunderstorms and that bands of thunderstorms were diminishing.  It was centered near 11.4 degrees north latitude and 125.9 degrees east longitude, about 373 nautical miles east-southeast of Manila, Philippines, was moving to the west-northwest and moved in that direction over the central Philippines

Researchers design coatings to prevent pipeline clogging

When the Deepwater Horizon oil rig suffered a catastrophic explosion and blowout on April 21, 2010, leading to the worst oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry, the well’s operators thought they would be able to block the leak within a few weeks. On May 9 they succeeded in lowering a 125-ton containment dome over the broken wellhead. If that measure had worked, it would have funneled the leaking oil into a pipe that carried it to a tanker ship above, thus preventing the ongoing leakage that made the spill so devastating. Why didn’t the containment work as expected?

The culprit was an icy mixture of frozen water and methane, called a methane clathrate. Because of the low temperatures and high pressure near the seafloor, the slushy mix built up inside the containment dome and blocked the outlet pipe, preventing it from redirecting the flow. If it hadn’t been for that methane clathrate, the containment might have worked, and four months of unabated leakage and widespread ecological devastation might have been prevented.