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76 articles from PhysOrg

How the humble woodchip is cleaning up water worldwide

Australian pineapple, Danish trout, and Midwestern U.S. corn farmers are not often lumped together under the same agricultural umbrella. But they and many others who raise crops and animals face a common problem: excess nitrogen in drainage water. Whether it flows out to the Great Barrier Reef or the Gulf of Mexico, the nutrient contributes to harmful algal blooms that starve fish and other...

Agricultural trade across US states can mitigate economic impacts of climate change

Agricultural producers deal firsthand with changing weather conditions, and extreme events such as drought or flooding can impact their productivity and profit. Climate change models project such events will occur more often in the future. But studies of the economic consequences of weather and climate on agriculture typically focus on local impacts only.

Environmental group sues over protections for 20 species

An environmental group filed a lawsuit Thursday alleging the federal government has failed to act on petitions to protect nine species under the Endangered Species Act and has failed to designate critical habitat for 11 other species that are already protected.

Global warming's extreme rains threaten Hawaii's coral reefs

As muddy rainwater surged from Hawaii's steep seaside mountains and inundated residential communities last month, the damage caused by flooding was obvious—houses were destroyed and businesses swamped, landslides covered highways and raging rivers and streams were clogged with debris.

Modelling ancient Antarctic ice sheets helps us see future of global warming

Last month saw the average concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) climb to almost 418 parts-per-million, a level not seen on Earth for millions of years. In order to get a sense of what our future may hold, scientists have been looking to the deep past. Now, new research from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, which combines climate, ice sheet and vegetation model simulations with...

Researchers establish the first entanglement-based quantum network

A team of researchers from QuTech in the Netherlands reports realization of the first multi-node quantum network, connecting three quantum processors. In addition, they achieved a proof-of-principle demonstration of key quantum network protocols. Their findings mark an important milestone toward the future quantum internet and have now been published in Science.

Study uses plankton genomes as global biosensors of ocean ecosystem stress

By analyzing gains and losses in the genes of phytoplankton samples collected in all major ocean regions, researchers at the University of California, Irvine have created the most nuanced and high-resolution map yet to show where these photosynthetic organisms either thrive or are forced to adapt to limited quantities of key nutrients, nitrogen, phosphorus and iron.

Deciduous trees offset carbon loss from Alaskan boreal fires, new study finds

More severe and frequent fires in the Alaskan boreal forest are releasing vast stores of carbon and nitrogen from burned trees and soil into the atmosphere, a trend that could accelerate climate warming. But new research published this week in the journal Science shows that the deciduous trees replacing burned spruce forests more than make up for that loss, storing more carbon and accumulating it...

Nuclear DNA from sediments helps unlock ancient human history

The field of ancient DNA has revealed important aspects of human evolutionary past, including relationships with Denisovans and Neandertals. These studies have relied on DNA from bones and teeth, which store DNA and protect it from the environment. But such skeletal remains are exceedingly rare, leaving large parts of human history inaccessible to genetic analysis.

While species come and go, their ecosystems persist over millions of years

Mammal communities underwent long periods of so-called functional stability despite the waxing and waning of their constituent species over tens of millions of years, even persisting through several environmental crises. This is the main conclusion of a new study published in the journal Science by an interdisciplinary team from Spain and Germany.

Investigating heavy quark physics with the LHCb experiment

A new review published in The European Physical Journal H by Clara Matteuzzi, Research Director at the National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) and former tenured professor at the University of Milan, and her colleagues, examines almost three decades of the LHCb experiment—from its conception to operation at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) - documenting its achievements and future...

Tracking the progress of fusion power through 60 years of neutral particle analysis

As the world's energy demands grow, so too does growing concern over the environmental impact of power production. The need for a safe, clean, and reliable energy source has never been clearer. Fusion power could fulfil such a need. A review paper published in The European Physical Journal H examines the 6-decade history of neutral particle analysis (NPA), developed in Ioffe Institute, Saint...