Two years ago this week, oil began streaming from the seafloor into the Gulf of Mexico following the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon platform. All told, the disaster cost 11 lives, released 4.9 million barrels of crude oil, and caused still unspecified impacts to marine life and the Gulf economy.
In a study appearing this month in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, MIT researchers report that emissions from cars, trucks, planes and powerplants cause 13,000 premature deaths in the United Kingdom each year.
Heidelberg researchers have succeeded in unravelling the defense mechanisms of jellyfish. Scientists working with Prof. Dr. Thomas Holstein and Dr. Suat Özbek from the Centre for Organismal Studies (COS) of Heidelberg University, together with collaborators from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), analyzed the proteome, or full set of proteins, of the stinging cells in the freshwater polyp Hydra.
Colorado State University apparel design and production researchers and students are working to develop natural-fiber outdoor clothing that can charge MP3 devices, tablets, computers, GPS units and cell phones with built-in -- but comfortable to wear -- solar panels. The project is so impressive that it was recently selected to compete in a sustainability design competition in Washington, D.C., from April 21-23.
A Dow gift allows UC Berkeley to renovate and update its green chemistry program.
Marco Rosa-Clot, a professor at Florence University, has introduced his new project that addresses the limited-space concerns of photovoltaic panels: The Floating Tracking Cooling Concentrator (FTCC) System, which harnesses small basins and natural and artificial lakes to install PV plants.
Wait. What? Hydraulic fracturing of shale formations to extract natural gas has no direct connection to reports of groundwater contamination, based on evidence reviewed in a study released by the Energy Institute at The University of Texas at Austin.
In an effort to protect public health, the EPA completed an assessment of the popular dry cleaning solvent - perc. The final assessment determined that perc is a "likely human carcinogen."
Farmers and water managers may soon have an online tool to help them assess drought and irrigation impacts on water use and crop development, thanks to the work of two U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists.
Scientists are preparing to launch a 10-year project to study water resources, gas exchange and carbon cycling in three man-made landscapes built in a half-acre laboratory at the University of Arizona’s Biosphere 2.
A study combines experimental observations of spider webs with complex computer simulations has shown that web durability depends not only on silk strength, but on how the overall web design compensates for damage and the response of individual strands to continuously varying stresses.
Research into biofuel crops, such as switchgrass and Miscanthus, has focused mainly on how to grow these crops and convert them into fuels. But many steps lead from the farm to the biorefinery, and each could help or hinder the growth of this new industry.
Robotic exploration to remote regions, to include distant planetary bodies, is often limited by energy requirements to perform, in repetition, even the simplest tasks.
Researchers at Aalto University in Finland have developed a new and significantly cheaper method of manufacturing fuel cells.
Engineering researchers at the University of Arkansas are developing an anti-icing system that could make airport runways safer and less expensive to maintain during winter months.
Explaining the purchase of a hundred pounds of dry ice to the authorities might be a bit awkward for some people; however, for Ari Jumpponen, associate professor of biology at Kansas State University, it's just another day as a scientist.
Emissions regulations do have an environmental impact, according to a long-term study of acidic rainfall by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
The rapid, large scale coastal development underway in the Middle East must be better planned and managed to avoid aggravating degradation and losses in the fragile marine ecosystems shared by eight Gulf countries – Bahrain, Kuwait, Iran, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates – warns a new report by the United Nations University (UNU).
A new report by Duke University researchers offers several health and environmental measures for North Carolina lawmakers to consider as they debate legalizing horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing for natural gas.
Technology with the ability to detect more than 1,000 colors, the hyperspectral camera is being used to diagnose contaminants and other environmental hazards in real time.