articles

A new MIT study reports that if China follows through with its international pledge to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, every one of its provinces will experience benefits to air quality and human health, with associated monetary savings that could offset the total cost of implementing the climate policy.

It’s not easy to catch an Egyptian vulture.

Evan Buechley knows. He’s hunkered down near garbage dumps from Ethiopia to Armenia, waiting for the highly intelligent birds to trigger a harmless trap. But no matter how well he and other researchers hid the traps, he says, “somehow the birds could always sense that something was up.”

Thanks to mom and dad, baby reef fish may have what it takes to adjust to hotter oceans.

In a rapidly changing climate, the decline of animal populations is a very real concern. Today, an international team of researchers report new evidence of reef fish adjusting to global warming conditions at the genetic level.

Cheap, flexible and sustainable plastic semiconductors will soon be a reality thanks to a breakthrough by chemists at the University of Waterloo. 

Professor Derek Schipper and his team at Waterloo have developed a way to make conjugated polymers, plastics that conduct electricity like metals, using a simple dehydration reaction the only byproduct of which is water. 

More than 70 years after the end of the Second World War, countless pieces of ammunition from this time are still lying – and corroding – in all oceans. Once the casings are damaged, the explosives can release toxic substances into the seawater. A new review study, published by scientists from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel and the Schleswig-Holstein Ministry of the Environment in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science, points to considerable knowledge gaps regarding the spread and effects of these chemicals on marine ecosystems.