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Drinking water sucked from the dusty desert air![]() Thuwal, Saudi Arabia (SPX) Nov 27, 2018 A simple device that can capture its own weight in water from fresh air and then release that water when warmed by sunlight could provide a secure new source of drinking water in remote arid regions, new research from KAUST suggests. Globally, Earth's air contains almost 13 trillion tons of water, a vast renewable reservoir of clean drinking water. Trials of many materials and devices developed to tap this water source have shown each to be either too inefficient, expensive or complex for practica ... read more |
The tragedy of the commons - minus the tragedyColumbus OH (SPX) Nov 27, 2018 Sometimes, there is no "tragedy" in the tragedy of the commons, according to a new analysis that challenges a widely accepted theory. Scientists have long believed that when there is open acce ... more
Floods ravage rice production in Niger's Diffa regionNiamey Nov 26, 2018 Floods destroyed more than 400 hectares (1,000 acres) of rice in Niger's southeastern Diffa region, already beset by deadly attacks by Boko Haram jihadists, the local governor said. ... more
New biocontainment strategy controls spread of escaped GMOsHiroshima NJ (SPX) Nov 27, 2018 Hiroshima University (HU) researchers successfully developed a biocontainment strategy for genetically modified organisms, or GMOs. Their new method prevents genetically modified cyanobacteria from ... more
Escaping death and rebirth on Varanasi's sacred riverbanksVaranasi, India (AFP) Nov 23, 2018 Boats loaded with wood arrive almost constantly at the ghats of Varanasi for around 200 cremations per day on the banks of India's holy Ganges river. ... more |
Three Vietnam men survive 40 hours at sea after typhoon
Typhoon Fung-wong floods Philippine towns, leaves 5 dead in its wake Typhoon Fung-wong leaves flooded Philippine towns in its wake Typhoon exposes centuries-old shipwreck off Vietnam port Weakening Typhoon Fung-wong exits Philippines after displacing 1.4 million Super Typhoon Fung-wong makes landfall in Philippines Over 1 million evacuate as deadly Super Typhoon Fung-wong nears Philippines Dam reservoir levels drop below 3% in Iran's second city: media Philippines evacuates one million, woman dead as super typhoon nears Japan observes tiny tsunami following 6.7 magnitude quake |
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| Previous Issues | Nov 26 | Nov 23 | Nov 22 | Nov 21 | Nov 20 |
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Real-time feedback makes hotel guests slash shower powerParis (AFP) Nov 19, 2018 Providing hotel guests real-time feedback on the power they use in the shower sharply curbs the amount of energy consumed even though they do not pay for it, according to new research released Monday. ... more
Afghan opium producers hit hard by drought in 2018Kabul (AFP) Nov 19, 2018 Afghan opium producers were hit hard by the worst drought in living memory this year and excessive supply, with output and prices falling sharply as the area under poppy cultivation shrank, an annual survey said Monday. ... more
Competition for shrinking groundwaterSanta Barbara CA (SPX) Nov 16, 2018 Groundwater, which has been used to irrigate crops, satiate livestock and quench thirst in general for thousands of years, continues to be a vital resource around the world. But according to r ... more
Middle Eastern desert dust on the Tibetan plateau could affect the Indian summer monsoonCollege Park MD (SPX) Nov 16, 2018 More than a century ago, British meteorologist Henry Blanford noted a connection between springtime snow cover on the Tibetan Plateau and Himalaya mountain range and the intensity of the summer mons ... more
Drought-hit Cape Town should cut down 'alien' trees: studyCape Town (AFP) Nov 16, 2018 The South African city of Cape Town, which nearly ran out of water this year, could beat future droughts by cutting down non-native trees including pine, acacia and eucalyptus, according to a study released Friday. ... more |
![]() Activists board ship off Spain in palm oil protest: Greenpeace
US paves way to get 'lab meat' on platesNew York (AFP) Nov 17, 2018 US authorities on Friday agreed on how to regulate food products cultured from animal cells - paving the way to get so-called "lab meat" on American plates. ... more |
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Seismic study reveals huge amount of water dragged into Earth's interiorSaint Louis MO (SPX) Nov 15, 2018 Slow-motion collisions of tectonic plates under the ocean drag about three times more water down into the deep Earth than previously estimated, according to a first-of-its-kind seismic study that sp ... more
Scientists debunk potential link to crop cold toleranceUrbana IL (SPX) Nov 15, 2018 When temperatures drop, the enzyme Rubisco that fuels plant growth and yield gets sluggish. Many crops compensate by producing more Rubisco; however, scientists speculated that some crops may lack s ... more
The dawn of a new era for genebanksLeipzig, Germany (SPX) Nov 15, 2018 Biodiversity goes beyond species diversity. Another important aspect of biodiversity is genetic variation within species. A notable example is the immense variety of cultivars and landraces of crop ... more
Soil's history: A solution to soluble phosphorus?Washington DC (SPX) Nov 16, 2018 The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that around 45 million tons of phosphorus fertilizers will be used around the world in 2018. Much will be applied to soils ... more
Greenpeace Poland files legal complaint against minister over pesticide useWarsaw (AFP) Nov 15, 2018 Environmental activist group Greenpeace lodged a legal complaint against Poland's agriculture minister Thursday, accusing him of wrongly allowing the use of neonicotinoid pesticides restricted by the EU over fears that they imperil bee populations. ... more |
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Australia's spring brings fires, snow, wild winds and dust storms Sydney (AFP) Nov 23, 2018
Dust storms, raging bushfires, gale-force winds, heatwaves, thunder and snow, flash flooding and driving rain - Australia is enduring a bout of wild weather that's hit all parts of the vast continent in recent days.
Varied weather is not uncommon during spring in the southern hemisphere nation as summer beckons.
But rare and dramatic scenes of red dust storms shrouding towns and thunder ... more |
China expands use of BeiDou navigation system in transportation Beijing (XNA) Nov 26, 2018
China will expand the application of its home-grown BeiDou navigation system to cover all transportation fields, according to an official from the Ministry of Transport (MOT).
Over the past few years, over 6.17 million domestic vehicles nationwide and 35,000 vehicles of postal services or courier companies have installed or become compatible with the BeiDou navigation system, according to ... more |
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How we can get more out of our forests Bern, Switzerland (SPX) Nov 27, 2018
The main objective of forestry in Europe is normally timber production. That is why our forests mostly consist of a few economically valuable tree species growing in uniform stands, in which the trees are all roughly the same age.
Other forests are managed for values such as habitat conservation or recreation. All of these forests have something in common: they fulfill their main purpose, ... more |
How to convert carbon dioxide into plastics and other products New Brunswick NJ (SPX) Nov 23, 2018
Rutgers scientists have developed catalysts that can convert carbon dioxide - the main cause of global warming - into plastics, fabrics, resins and other products.
The electrocatalysts are the first materials, aside from enzymes, that can turn carbon dioxide and water into carbon building blocks containing one, two, three or four carbon atoms with more than 99 percent efficiency.
Two ... more |
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Explaining the plummeting cost of solar power Boston MA (SPX) Nov 23, 2018
The dramatic drop in the cost of solar photovoltaic (PV) modules, which has fallen by 99 percent over the last four decades, is often touted as a major success story for renewable energy technology. But one question has never been fully addressed: What exactly accounts for that stunning drop?
A new analysis by MIT researchers has pinpointed what caused the savings, including the policies a ... more |
Coordinated development could help wind farms be better neighbors Boulder CO (SPX) Nov 27, 2018
As onshore and offshore wind energy farms have proliferated globally in recent years, new research led by the University of Colorado Boulder highlights a previously underexplored consequence: a wake effect from upwind wind farms that can reduce the energy production of their downwind neighbors.
The study, undertaken in collaboration with the University of Denver (DU) and the National Renew ... more |
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Trump to nominate ex-coal lobbyist to head environment agency Washington (AFP) Nov 16, 2018
US President Donald Trump said Friday he intended to nominate a former coal and energy industry lobbyist to head the Environmental Protection Agency.
Andrew Wheeler has been acting head of the EPA since Scott Pruitt resigned in July amid a flurry of ethics scandals over his spending and conduct in office.
During an informal moment at a medal ceremony in the White House, Trump commended W ... more |
China bars US citizens from leaving over 'economic crimes' Beijing (AFP) Nov 26, 2018
China on Monday said that it has barred three reported US citizens - a woman and her two grown children - from leaving the country because they are suspected of "economic crimes".
According to the New York Times, Chinese-born mother Sandra Han and her children, Cynthia and Victor Liu, were prevented from leaving the country after they arrived in June.
The children say police are preve ... more |
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CODE demonstrates autonomy and collaboration with minimal human commands Washington DC (SPX) Nov 20, 2018
In a recent test series at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, DARPA's Collaborative Operations in Denied Environment (CODE) program demonstrated the ability of CODE-equipped Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs) to adapt and respond to unexpected threats in an anti-access area denial (A2AD) environment.
The UASs efficiently shared information, cooperatively planned and allocated mission objectives, ... more |
Mere sunlight can be used to eradicate pollutants in water Halle, Germany (SPX) Nov 27, 2018
Advances in environmental technology: You don't need complex filters and laser systems to destroy persistent pollutants in water. Chemists at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) have developed a new process that works using mere sunlight. The process is so simple that it can even be conducted outdoors under the most basic conditions. The chemists present their research in the journal ... more |
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California's deadliest wildfire finally tamed Los Angeles (AFP) Nov 26, 2018
The deadliest and most destructive fire in California's history was finally brought totally under control by firefighters, more than two weeks after it erupted, authorities said on Sunday.
The so-called Camp Fire, which broke out on November 8, is so far known to have killed 85 people.
The Butte County Sheriff's department said that they had mistakenly added two people to an earlier deat ... more |
Drinking water sucked from the dusty desert air Thuwal, Saudi Arabia (SPX) Nov 27, 2018
A simple device that can capture its own weight in water from fresh air and then release that water when warmed by sunlight could provide a secure new source of drinking water in remote arid regions, new research from KAUST suggests.
Globally, Earth's air contains almost 13 trillion tons of water, a vast renewable reservoir of clean drinking water. Trials of many materials and devices deve ... more |
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Extreme heat increasing in both summer and winter Washington DC (SPX) Nov 27, 2018
A new study shows extreme heat events both in the summer and in the winter are increasing across the U.S. and Canada, while extreme cold events in summer and winter are declining.
A new study in the in Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, a publication of the American Geophysical Union, examined absolute extreme temperatures - high temperatures in summer and low temperatures in wi ... more |
Trump says China tariff rates very likely to rise: report Washington (AFP) Nov 26, 2018
US President Donald Trump said Monday he expected to raise the punitive tariff rates on hundreds of billions in Chinese imports as scheduled next year.
Just days ahead of a planned meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trump also vowed to put tariffs on all remaining imports from China if the two sides failed to reach a deal, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Trump already has i ... more |
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Auroras help scientists study energy instabilities in space Washington (UPI) Nov 26, 2018
Scientists are using auroras to better understand the physics of explosive energy instabilities in space.
"An instability is a physical process whereby the energy output can essentially grow very quickly without limits," Colin Forsyth, physicist at the University College London's, told UPI in an email.
When a clean swell breaks and crashes on the beach, or when a pile of sand sud ... more |
Gigantic mammal 'cousin' discovered Uppsala, Sweden (SPX) Nov 26, 2018
During the Triassic period (252-201 million years ago) mammal-like reptiles called therapsids co-existed with ancestors to dinosaurs, crocodiles, mammals, pterosaurs, turtles, frogs, and lizards. One group of therapsids are the dicynodonts.
Researchers at Uppsala University in Sweden, together with colleagues in Poland, have discovered fossils from a new genus of gigantic dicynodont. The n ... more |
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