ScienceDaily: Earth & Climate News

New material captures carbon at half the energy cost Posted: 11 Mar 2015 03:58 PM PDT Capturing carbon from power plants will likely be necessary in the future to avoid the worst effects of climate change, but current technologies are very expensive. Chemists have now developed a new material, a diamine-appended metal-organic framework, that captures carbon dioxide with much reduced energy costs compared to today's technologies, potentially lowering the cost of capturing and sequestering this greenhouse gas.

Epoch-defining study pinpoints when humans came to dominate planet Earth Posted: 11 Mar 2015 01:04 PM PDT The human-dominated geological epoch known as the Anthropocene probably began around the year 1610, with an unusual drop in atmospheric carbon dioxide and the irreversible exchange of species between the New and Old Worlds, according to new research.

Rapid coastal population growth may leave many exposed to sea-level rise Posted: 11 Mar 2015 01:03 PM PDT The number of people potentially exposed to future sea level rise and associated storm surge flooding may be highest in low-elevation coastal zones in Asia and Africa.

Highly evolved bacteria found near hydrothermal vents: Iron-oxidizing bacteria found along Mid-Atlantic Ridge Posted: 11 Mar 2015 01:03 PM PDT Bacteria that live on iron were found for the first time at three well-known vent sites along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. These bacteria likely play an important role in deep-ocean iron cycling, and are dominant members of communities near and adjacent to sulfur-rich hydrothermal vents prevalent along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. This group of iron-oxidizing bacteria, Zetaproteobacteria, appears to be restricted to environments where iron is plentiful, suggesting they are highly evolved to utilize iron for energy.

Scientists reconstruct evolutionary history of whale hearing with rare museum collection Posted: 11 Mar 2015 01:03 PM PDT Scientists CT scanned fetal whale specimens from the museum's marine mammal collection to trace the development of fetal ear bones in 56 specimens from 10 different whale families. Their findings confirmed that changes in the development of ear bones in the womb paralleled changes observed throughout whale evolution, providing new insight about how whales made the dramatic evolutionary shift from land to sea and adapted to hearing underwater.

Saharan 'carpet of tools' is earliest known human-made landscape Posted: 11 Mar 2015 01:02 PM PDT A new intensive survey of the Messak Settafet escarpment, a massive outcrop of sandstone in the middle of the Saharan desert, has shown that stone tools occur "ubiquitously" across the entire landscape: averaging 75 artefacts per square meter, or 75 million per square kilometer.

Physics of clouds: Long-held ideas about turbulence disproven Posted: 11 Mar 2015 11:09 AM PDT In 1941, Russian physicist Andrey Kolmogorov developed a theory of turbulence that has served as the basic foundation for our understanding of this important naturally occurring phenomenon. Turbulence occurs when fluid flow is characterized by chaotic physical changes. Kolmogorov's theory has been interpreted to imply that transitions from one state of turbulence to another must be a smooth evolution because very intense fluctuations that are part of the process itself would smooth out anything sharp. Now, however, a new experiment disproves this interpretation of Kolmogorov's theory.

Saturn moon's ocean may harbor hydrothermal activity, spacecraft data suggest Posted: 11 Mar 2015 11:08 AM PDT NASA's Cassini spacecraft has provided scientists the first clear evidence that Saturn's moon Enceladus exhibits signs of present-day hydrothermal activity which may resemble that seen in the deep oceans on Earth. The implications of such activity on a world other than our planet open up unprecedented scientific possibilities.

Geologists urge preparation for landslides Posted: 11 Mar 2015 11:06 AM PDT As the anniversary of the most fatal landslide in the history of the continental United States approaches, we are reminded of the importance of evaluating geologic hazards and communicating that information to communities that may be at risk.

News coverage of Fukushima disaster minimized health risks to general population Posted: 11 Mar 2015 09:42 AM PDT A new analysis finds that U.S. news media coverage of the Fukushima disaster largely minimized health risks to the general population. Researchers analyzed more than 2,000 news articles from four major U.S. outlets.

CT scanning shows why tilting trees produce better biofuel Posted: 11 Mar 2015 05:17 AM PDT Medical imaging techniques have been used to explore why making willow trees grow at an angle can vastly improve their biofuel yields. Using micro-CT scans, the team showed that the trees respond to being tilted by producing a sugar-rich, gelatinous fibre, which helps them stay upright.

Asian Monsoon rains drove mammal evolution Posted: 11 Mar 2015 05:15 AM PDT New research has shown that the Asian monsoon rains played a key role in the evolution of mammals.

Honey, I shrunk the ants: How environment controls size Posted: 11 Mar 2015 05:12 AM PDT Until now scientists have believed that the variations in traits -- such as our height, skin color, tendency to gain weight or not, intelligence, tendency to develop certain diseases, etc., all of them traits that exist along a continuum -- were a result of both genetic and environmental factors. But they didn't know how exactly these things worked together. By studying ants, researchers have identified a key mechanism by which environmental (or epigenetic) factors influence the expression of all of these traits, along with many more.