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Combating sulphuric acid corrosion at wastewater plants![]() Styria, Austria (SPX) Feb 26, 2018 Wastewater systems are integral to infrastructure in every community. In an ideal world, they operate smoothly and are long-lasting. But biogenic transformation processes in sewage and water treatment systems are a "natural enemy" of conventional plants, frequently causing damage to concrete and metal elements that is expensive to repair. As a result, it is not uncommon for wastewater systems to have a lifespan of under ten years, before they need to be refurbished or individual components replace ... read more |
Chinese billionaire sees baguette goldmine in French fieldsThiel-Sur-Acolin, France (AFP) Feb 25, 2018 In the peaceful French village of Thiel-sur-Acolin, retired farmer Marc Bernardet is ambivalent about having a Chinese billionaire for a neighbour. ... more
Crop-saving soil tests now at farmers' fingertipsPullman WA (SPX) Feb 26, 2018 Soil pathogen testing - critical to farming, but painstakingly slow and expensive - will soon be done accurately, quickly, inexpensively and onsite, thanks to research that Washington State Universi ... more
Land use change has warmed the Earth's surfaceMunich, Germany (SPX) Feb 21, 2018 Natural ecosystems play a crucial role in helping combat climate change, air pollution and soil erosion. A new study by a team of researchers from the Joint Research Centre, the European Commission' ... more
Macron eyes action against Chinese farm buyersParis (AFP) Feb 22, 2018 President Emmanuel Macron promised measures Thursday to help prevent foreign investors buying French farms amid concern that Chinese businesses are taking advantage of low land prices and distressed rural communities. ... more |
Reeling from earthquakes, Afghans fear coming winter
Typhoon flooding kills over 40, strands thousands in central Philippines Indonesia floods kill 15 Afghan govt says quake death toll rises to 27 Fierce mountain storms kill nine in Nepal Typhoon flooding kills 26, strands thousands in central Philippines Vietnam flood death toll hits 40 as Typhoon Kalmaegi looms Fierce mountain storms kill 9 in Nepal Indonesia rescuers search for 23 missing after floods Nepal avalanche kills seven |
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| Previous Issues | Feb 23 | Feb 22 | Feb 21 | Feb 20 | Feb 19 |
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Cape Town now faces dry taps by July 9Cape Town (AFP) Feb 20, 2018 Residents of drought-stricken Cape Town received good news Tuesday when city officials said they now face losing piped water to their homes by July 9 - a month later than last forecast. ... more
Giant London glasshouse to reopen with world's rarest plantsLondon (AFP) Feb 14, 2018 A gleaming monument to the ambition and creativity of its age, the world's largest Victorian glasshouse will once again welcome visitors to see some of the world's rarest plants following a lengthy facelift. ... more
Growing crops with crushed rocks could reduce CO2 emissionsWashington (UPI) Feb 19, 2018 Just add rocks. In a recent study, scientists at the University of Sheffield showed the addition of reactive silicate rocks to agricultural soil can boost crop production while limiting the amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere. ... more
Indonesians arrested for shooting an orangutan some 130 timesJakarta (AFP) Feb 19, 2018 Four Indonesian men have been arrested over the killing of an orangutan shot some 130 times with an air rifle, police said Monday, in the latest fatal attack on a critically endangered species. ... more
India's top court steps in to help thirsty tech hubNew Delhi (AFP) Feb 16, 2018 India's water-starved tech hub Bangalore received a much-needed boost on Friday when the country's top court altered a river-sharing arrangement in its favour, ruling on a bitter dispute that dates back more than a century. ... more |
![]() France to let wolf packs grow despite angry farmers
Myanmar farmers going against the grain with appsAye Ywar , Myanmar (AFP) Feb 18, 2018 A free app on farmer San San Hla's smartphone is her new weapon in the war against the dreaded stem borer moth that blighted her rice paddy in southern Myanmar for the last two years. ... more |
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Cover crops in nitrogen's circle of lifeWashington DC (SPX) Feb 15, 2018 A circle of life-and nitrogen-is playing out in farms across the United States. And researchers are trying to get the timing right. Some cover crops, such as hairy vetch or cereal rye, are not ... more
Intensive agriculture influences US regional summer climate, study findsBoston MA (SPX) Feb 15, 2018 Scientists agree that changes in land use such as deforestation, and not just greenhouse gas emissions, can play a significant role altering the world's climate systems. Now, a new study by research ... more
Rapid decompression key to making low-density liquid waterWashington DC (SPX) Feb 15, 2018 Water makes up more than 70 percent of our planet and up to 60 percent of our bodies. Water is so common that we take it for granted. Yet water also has very strange properties compared to most othe ... more
Tiny membrane key to safe drinking waterCanberra, Australia (SPX) Feb 15, 2018 Sydney's iconic harbour has played a starring role in the development of new CSIRO technology that could save lives around the world. Using their own specially designed form of graphene, 'Grap ... more
Drought forces Mozambique capital to ration waterMaputo (AFP) Feb 14, 2018 Mozambique authorities on Wednesday introduced water rationing to more than a million residents in the capital Maputo due to a severe drought. ... more |
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Swarm trio becomes a quartet Paris (ESA) Feb 23, 2018
With the aim of making the best possible use of existing satellites, ESA and Canada have made a deal that turns Swarm into a four-satellite mission to shed even more light on space weather and features such as the aurora borealis.
In orbit since 2013, ESA's three identical Swarm satellites have been returning a wealth of information about how our magnetic field is generated and how it prot ... more |
Why Russia is one step ahead of US Army's plans for future GPS Moscow (Sputnik) Feb 12, 2018
The Pentagon and Israel's Defense Ministry have launched 'Urban Navigation Challenge', a startup competition to create advanced 'counter-terror' navigation systems which don't use GPS. The project makes no mention of officially designated US "rivals" like Russia or China, but according to Russian experts, it would make no difference even if it did.
The project, officially dubbed the Combat ... more |
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Tropical trees use unique method to resist drought Riverside CA (SPX) Feb 22, 2018
Tropical trees in the Amazon Rainforest may be more drought resistant than previously thought, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Riverside.
That's good news, since the Amazon stores about 20 percent of all carbon in the Earth's biomass, which helps reduce global warming by lowering the planet's greenhouse gas levels.
In a study published Monday ... more |
Evolution plays many tricks against large-scale bioproduction Copenhagen, Denmark (SPX) Feb 26, 2018
The transition towards sustainable biobased chemical production is important for green growth, but productivity and yield of engineered cells frequently decrease in large industry-scale fermentation. This barrier to commercialization of more bioprocesses is largely ascribed to the physical inefficacies of large cubic-meter steel tanks.
Bioengineers have long debated whether it was realisti ... more |
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EU nations should seize chance to boost renewable energy: study Brussels (AFP) Feb 20, 2018 EU member states should take advantage of falling costs for renewable energy to invest more in the sector and make it account for a third of total energy output by 2030, an new report said Tuesday.
The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) study said the European Union could make renewables account for 34 percent of total production by 2030, up from the current target of 27 percent a ... more |
New wind farm construction starts in Italy Washington (UPI) Feb 19, 2018
In what would be its eleventh such project to date in the country, German utility company E.ON said construction started on a new wind farm in Italy.
The company started construction for the 19 wind turbines planned for the Morcone project in Naples, the largest project awarded during an Italian government auction in 2016.
The German company said the construction phase starts wit ... more |
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Michigan utility company to go zero coal Washington (UPI) Feb 20, 2018
Coal will no longer be used as an energy source for Michigan residents as more renewables come on stream in the decades ahead, a utility company said.
Public utility company Consumers Energy, which provides gas and electricity to about 60 percent of the state population, said it would no longer be using coal as a power source by 2040. By then, the company said it expects more than 40 pe ... more |
China rules out arson in Tibetan temple fire Beijing (AFP) Feb 22, 2018
Chinese authorities have ruled out arson as the cause of a recent fire at Tibetan Buddhism's holiest temple, state media reported Thursday, adding an important Buddha statue had emerged "intact" from the blaze.
The report is the first official account of Saturday's fire at the more than 1,300-year-old Jokhang Temple, after authorities suppressed social media accounts of the incident, leadin ... more |
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Artificial intelligence poses questions for nature of war: Mattis Washington (AFP) Feb 18, 2018
Artificial intelligence and its impact on weapons of the future has made US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis doubt his own theories on warfare.
A question on the subject prompted the retired Marine general to give an impromptu seminar on his theory of war Saturday to reporters returning with him from a week-long tour of Europe.
Recalling his own writings, he differentiated between the essent ... more |
German nights get brighter - but not everywhere Potsdam, Germany (SPX) Feb 26, 2018
The nights in the German federal states ("Bundeslander") have been getting brighter and brighter - but not everywhere at the same rate and with one peculiar exemption: light emissions from Thuringia decreased between 2012 and 2017. This is the result of a recent study by scientists Chris Kyba and Theres Kuster from the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences together with Helga Kuechly from " ... more |
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Rash of forest fires breaks out in Indonesia Pekanbaru, Indonesia (AFP) Feb 21, 2018
Indonesia was battling a rash of forest fires Wednesday as it raised an alert over the blazes which occur every year and emit choking smog that can envelop neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia.
Fires have broken out in four provinces - South Sumatra, Riau, West Kalimantan and Central Kalimantan - prompting them to declare "alert emergency" status, one notch below the most severe warning. ... more |
Temperatures to keep rising in Pacific Northwest, new climate models confirm Washington (UPI) Feb 23, 2018
No region will be immune to climate change, and new research suggests the Pacific Northwest is no exception.
To better predict how climate change will impact the northwest corner of the United States, scientists at Oregon State University and the U.S. Forest Service localized the predictions of 30 "general circulation" climate models.
General circulation models produce outputs at ... more |
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How cities heat up Boston MA (SPX) Feb 26, 2018
The arrangement of a city's streets and buildings plays a crucial role in the local urban heat island effect, which causes cities to be hotter than their surroundings, researchers have found. The new finding could provide city planners and officials with new ways to influence those effects.
Some cities, such as New York and Chicago, are laid out on a precise grid, like the atoms in a cryst ... more |
HSBC profits surge as CEO departs London (AFP) Feb 20, 2018 Profits at HSBC surged during 2017, in part thanks to a strong Asian performance, the global banking giant said Tuesday as it looks to the future without long-serving chief executive Stuart Gulliver.
Net profit ballooned to $9.7 billion (7.9 billion euros) last year, from $1.3 billion in 2016 when the Asia-focused bank was hit by huge restructuring charges and writedowns.
London-headquar ... more |
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NASA's SDO reveals how magnetic cage on the Sun stopped solar eruption Greenbelt MD (SPX) Feb 26, 2018 A dramatic magnetic power struggle at the Sun's surface lies at the heart of solar eruptions, new research using NASA data shows. The work highlights the role of the Sun's magnetic landscape, or topology, in the development of solar eruptions that can trigger space weather events around Earth.
The scientists, led by Tahar Amari, an astrophysicist at the Center for Theoretical Physics at th ... more |
Corporations key to rescuing nature, says WWF chief Paris (AFP) Feb 25, 2018
A generation ago, the idea of a veteran international banker leading a global organisation charged with saving the planet's dwindling and besieged wildlife would have seemed far-fetched.
For some, it still does.
Even Pavan Sukhdev - recently appointed president of World Wildlife Fund International after a quarter century at ANZ Banking and Deutsche Bank, followed by a decade working wi ... more |
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