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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 27 | Nov 26 | Nov 23 | Nov 22 | Nov 21 |
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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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New insight into ocean-atmosphere interaction and subsequent cloud formation Sapporo, Japan (SPX) Nov 27, 2018
Organic compounds undergo drastic variations in their chemical composition as they transfer from the ocean's surface to atmospheric aerosols which act as nuclei to form clouds.
Aerosols, which are suspended fine solid particles or liquid droplets, play significant roles in triggering climate change by scattering or absorbing sunlight, while affecting the cloud formation and precipitation p ... more |
Beijing's space navigation BeiDou program seeks to dethrone US-owned GPS platform Beijing (Sputnik) Nov 28, 2018
Beijing has poured $9 billion into a space program called Beidou in an effort to eliminate China's dependence on the US-owned Global Positioning System (GPS).
A navigational program based on satellites orbiting the globe would allow China to be self-reliant for location data used in smartphones, car dashboards, guided missiles and more, reports Bloomberg. Tensions between China and the US ... more |
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In Lebanon, climate change devours ancient cedar trees Tannourine, Lebanon (AFP) Nov 28, 2018
High up in Lebanon's mountains, the lifeless grey trunks of dead cedar trees stand stark in the deep green forest, witnesses of the climate change that has ravaged them.
Often dubbed "Cedars of God", the tall evergreens hark back millenia and are a source of great pride and a national icon in the small Mediterranean country.
The cedar tree, with its majestic horizontal branches, graces t ... 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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Poland names coal companies partners for COP24 climate talks Warsaw (AFP) Nov 27, 2018 Poland on Tuesday named the EU's largest producer of high-quality coking coal among several coal-sector companies that it chose to partner with the UN's COP 24 global climate summit opening this weekend in the southern coal city of Katowice.
Polish Environment minister Henryk Kowalczyk told reporters in Warsaw that the state-owned JWS company along with coal-based energy companies PGE and Ta ... more |
Jack Ma, China's richest man, is a Communist Party member Beijing (AFP) Nov 27, 2018
Jack Ma, founder of Chinese tech giant Alibaba, is among the world's richest people but he has now emerged as a member of another club: China's 89-million-strong Communist Party.
The billionaire's Communist bona fides were revealed by the People's Daily, the party's official mouthpiece, in an article praising contributors to China's development.
He is not the first nor likely the last Ch ... more |
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Smarter AI: Machine learning without negative data Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Nov 27, 2018
A research team from the RIKEN Center for Advanced Intelligence Project (AIP) has successfully developed a new method for machine learning that allows an AI to make classifications without what is known as "negative data," a finding which could lead to wider application to a variety of classification tasks.
Classifying things is critical for our daily lives. For example, we have to detect ... 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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NASA Terra Satellite Outlines Burn Scar from California's Camp Fire Greenbelt MD (SPX) Nov 28, 2018
Just like the Woolsey Fire's scar which was highlighted on the NASA Fire page on November 16, the Camp Fire scar is visible from space in this image taken by the Terra satellite on November 26, 2018. California experienced large amounts of rain during a winter storm that began on November 21, 2018.
This helped to dampen the 153,336 acre fire and allowed firefighters to contain the area bur ... 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 believes 'good possibility' of China trade deal: advisor Washington (AFP) Nov 27, 2018
There is a "good possibility" President Donald Trump will reach an agreement later this week to resolve the trade dispute with China, a White House official said Tuesday.
As the trade tensions have escalated and engulfed hundreds of billions of products in retaliatory tariffs, Trump is due to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Buenos Aires later this week on the sidelines of the Group of 20 s ... 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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