110 articles from FRIDAY 14.1.2022

Environmental disasters are fueling migration: Why international law must recognize climate refugees

When hurricanes Eta and Iota barrelled into Central America in November 2020, they flooded towns and cities, caused catastrophic losses in the agricultural sector and contributed to food insecurity. In all, 4.7 million Hondurans were affected, and tens of thousands decided to leave, forming migrant caravans in a desperate attempt to rebuild their lives in the United States.

The first AI breast cancer sleuth that shows its work

Researchers have developed an artificial intelligence platform to analyze potentially cancerous lesions in mammography scans to determine if a patient should receive an invasive biopsy. But unlike its many predecessors, the algorithm is interpretable, meaning it shows physicians exactly how it came to its conclusions.

Image: Dedicated satellites to collect solar energy

Sunlight up in Earth orbit is 10 times more intense than down on Earth's surface, so the idea is to fly dedicated satellites to capture solar energy, then beam it down to Earth—and potentially the Moon or other planets further into the future.

What COVID-19 can teach fish farms

When it comes to the business of seafood, COVID-19 hasn't been nearly as damaging as the ecological havoc caused by humans, a recent global survey of fish farms found.

Recovering mantle memories from river profiles

The continent of Africa has a distinctive physical geography—an "egg carton" pattern of basins and swells—that researchers attribute to plumes of mantle rocks rising beneath a tectonic plate. Marine fossils on mountaintops in African and Arabian deserts suggest that until about 30 million years ago, those portions of the landscape were at or below sea level. But the spatial and temporal...

Ocean heat is at record levels, with major consequences

The world witnessed record-breaking climate and weather disasters in 2021, from destructive flash floods that swept through mountain towns in Europe and inundated subway systems in China and the U.S., to heat waves and wildfires. Typhoon Rai killed over 400 people in the Philippines; Hurricane Ida caused an estimated US$74 billion in damage in the U.S.

Technological solutions to droughts

Perennial water shortages in California will likely only grow worse due to climate change. But emerging technologies offer hope—if Californians can stop taking water for granted, says David Feldman, UCI professor of urban planning & public policy and director of Water UCI.

Earth's interior is cooling faster than expected

Researchers at ETH Zurich have demonstrated in the lab how well a mineral common at the boundary between the Earth's core and mantle conducts heat. This leads them to suspect that the Earth's heat may dissipate sooner than previously thought.

New study shows novel crystal structure for hydrogen under high pressure

Elements in the periodic table can take up multiple forms. Carbon, for example, exists as diamond or graphite depending on the environmental conditions at the time of formation. Crystal structures that have been formed in ultra-high-pressure environments are particularly important as they provide clues to the formation of planets. However, recreating such environments in a laboratory is difficult,...