COP27's 'loss and damage' fund for developing countries could be a breakthrough—or another empty climate promise
Developing nations were justifiably jubilant at the close of COP27 as negotiators from wealthy countries around the world agreed for the first time to establish a dedicated "loss and damage" fund for vulnerable countries harmed by climate change.
Opinion: How the fossil fuel lobby crowded out calls for climate justice at COP27
COP27 has just wrapped up. Despite much excitement over a new fund to address "loss and damage" caused by climate change, there is also anger about perceived backsliding on commitments to lower emissions and phase out fossil fuels.
Researchers evaluate performance of MODIS land reflectance products in water monitoring
Satellite ocean color instruments are used to characterize physical, chemical, and biological variabilities in oceanic, coastal, and inland waters. However, the massive loss and large uncertainty of remote sensing reflectance data result in difficulty in monitoring nearshore coastal and inland waters.
Scientists say chemicals could undercut global plastics treaty
Next week the United Nations intergovernmental negotiating committee will meet in Uruguay to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution. There is concern brewing among scientists that the negotiations will overlook the diversity and complexity of chemicals present in plastics. This would severely undermine the treaty's effectiveness, according to a new article...
Green stormwater control measures clean up urban streams
Catching urban runoff in raingardens and rainwater capture tanks improves the water quality of nearby streams and rivers and lowers water temperatures that have risen in the region due to climate change and the urban heat island effect, according to a new report spanning two decades in the greater Melbourne metropolitan area of Australia.
Researchers introduce a Persian language tool for evaluating aesthetic responsiveness
Some people have strong reactions to art and music, others hardly any. In 2020, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics (MPIEA) in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, developed a method that scientists can use to predict the general receptivity of potential study participants to aesthetic stimuli. Initially, the Aesthetic Responsiveness Assessment (AReA) was available only in...
Researchers find decrease in crucial trace element preceded ancient mass extinction
A decline in the element molybdenum across the planet's oceans preceded a significant extinction event approximately 183 million years ago, new research from Florida State University shows.
Researchers working to improve and simplify models for how PFAS flow through ground
As a growing number of communities are forced to confront PFAS contamination in their groundwater, a key hurdle in addressing this harmful group of chemicals lies in unraveling how they move through a region of the environment called the unsaturated zone—a jumble of soil, rock and water sandwiched between the ground's surface and the water table below.
Secretion secrets revealed: Pathogen effector characterization for a devastating plant disease
Sometimes the most niche plant pathogens pack the greatest punch. Such is the case for the Florida citrus industry, which has seen a 70% decline in its orange production since the introduction of Huanglongbing (citrus greening) in 2005.
Opinion: COP27 will be remembered as a failure—here's what went wrong
Billed as "Africa's COP", the 27th UN climate change summit (otherwise known as COP27) in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, was expected to promote climate justice, as this is the continent most affected but least responsible for the climate crisis. Negotiations for a fund that would compensate developing countries for the loss and damage that climate change has wrought dominated the negotiations. In the...
New insights into how long-banned PCBs unleash their toxicity inside the body
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have been widely used in industrial and commercial products including plastics, paints, electronic equipment and insulating fluids. Their manufacture was extensively banned from the late 1970s onwards due to their toxicity, but large amounts still remain in our environment and accumulate inside animals' bodies.
Researchers use low-cost 3D printer to develop new method for creating microspheres
Researchers use powerful microchannel droplet generation equipment to create uniform polymer microsphere materials, which have high economic values. These microspheres are spherical microparticles that can be used in many applications including medical devices, biotechnology, the construction industry, veterinary science, and environmental studies.
New way to synthesize mRNAs could enhance effectiveness of mRNA drugs and vaccines
A team of synthetic biologists at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has recently discovered a way that could increase synthetic mRNA's protein production efficiency by up to 10 times, which means the effectiveness of mRNA vaccines and drugs—such as those used against cancer, COVID-19 or other genetic diseases, will be greatly boosted with even less dosage of the mRNAs.
It is still too early to use artificial intelligence for criminal justice, claims new paper
Artificial intelligence is poised to reshape our world in countless ways and in almost every field. This includes the criminal justice system. Algorithm-based, data-driven decision-making is being increasingly used in pre-trial risk assessments in the United States as a tool to calculate a defendant's risk of reoffending. Proponents argue that this removes inherent bias present in criminal justice...
Experiment demonstrates nanoscale structures can improve reverse osmosis seawater desalination
A multinational team of researchers have developed a process that builds on the success of current reverse osmosis processes that remove salt from seawater. Researchers led by Professor Heqing Jiang, of the Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences published their findings Nov. 18, 2022 in Nano Research.
NOAA's GOES-U completes thermal vacuum testing
NOAA's GOES-U, the final satellite in the GOES-R Series of advanced geostationary environmental satellites, recently completed thermal vacuum (TVAC) testing as part of a rigorous assessment program to ensure the satellite can withstand the harsh conditions of launch and orbiting 22,236 miles above Earth's equator. The testing is taking place at Lockheed Martin Space's Littleton, Colorado,...
NASA, ESA reveal tale of death, dust in Orion constellation
A new image combining previously released data from three telescopes shows a region that includes the Orion Nebula, named after the mighty hunter from Greek mythology who was felled by a scorpion's sting. But the story of how this dusty region came to be is just as dramatic.
Limiting global warming now can preserve valuable freshwater
Snowcapped mountains not only look majestic, they're also vital to a delicate ecosystem that has existed for tens of thousands of years. Mountain water runoff and snowmelt flows down to streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans—and today, around a quarter of the world depends on these natural "water towers" to replenish downstream reservoirs and groundwater aquifers for urban water supplies,...
New microscope can take 3D images of cells while working in a natural environment
To observe living cells through a microscope, a sample is usually squeezed onto a glass slide. It then lies there calmly and the cells are observable. The disadvantage is that this limits how the cells behave and it only produces two-dimensional images.
Researchers construct high-resolution physical-biogeochemical model in Indo-Pacific ocean
The Indo-Pacific region is a convergence zone with the largest biodiversity in the global ocean. However, previous models were not refined enough to resolve the complex topography of main straits.
World's first industrial model of a flow photo-on-demand synthesis system that uses chloroform as the precursor
Various chemical products, such as polymers and pharmaceutical intermediates, are currently synthesized with phosgene as their precursor or raw material. However, phosgene is highly toxic and this usage poses safety risks. Thus, there is demand for the development of new methods and substitutes to replace phosgene.
James Webb Space Telescope reveals an exoplanet atmosphere as never seen before
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has just scored another first: a detailed molecular and chemical portrait of a distant world's skies.
US students lost decades of progress in math, reading. Could this strategy be the solution?
Joi Mitchell fell into tutoring largely by accident, but in retrospect it all makes sense. The 27-year-old grew up in a family of educators in Chicago. After college, where she majored in business administration, some of her roles involved mentoring teens.
How to test whether we're living in a computer simulation
Physicists have long struggled to explain why the universe started out with conditions suitable for life to evolve. Why do the physical laws and constants take the very specific values that allow stars, planets and ultimately life to develop? The expansive force of the universe, dark energy, for example, is much weaker than theory suggests it should be—allowing matter to clump together rather...
'Primordial super-enhancers' provide early snapshot of the mechanisms that allowed for multicellularity
New research at the University of Chicago has found that the same machinery used by mammalian cells to drive cellular differentiation also plays a critical role in activating genes in yeast in response to environmental stress.