146 articles from TUESDAY 14.2.2023

Snow algae: Investigating how algal blooms impact mountain snowpack

Scott Hotaling, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Watershed Sciences in the Quinney College of Natural Resources, is exploring how the watermelon-tinted blooms of snow algae impact mountain snowpack—where they come from, what triggers a bloom, and what factors influence the size, scale and magnitude of snow algal blooms.

Could solar geoengineering cool the planet? U.S. gets serious about finding out

Any work on solar geoengineering—the notion of artificially making the atmosphere more reflective to cool an overheated planet—is fraught with controversy. Last year, for example, a tech entrepreneur claimed he launched two weather balloons from Baja California into the stratosphere, where they may have released a puff of sulfur dioxide that gave rise to a...

How does a drying Great Salt Lake affect carbon cycling?

As water levels at the lake continue to decline, the complex natural systems the lake supports are shifting, too. Ecohydrologist Erin Rivers from the Quinney College of Natural Resources is investigating how shifting water levels at the Great Salt Lake are altering the way it captures and stores carbon.

New study of continental margins could provide better understanding on the way to a carbon-neutral economy

Pangaea was the name Alfred Wegener gave to the supercontinent that existed on Earth 250 million years ago. Over the course of many millions of years, this supercontinent broke into different pieces, which became the landmasses we see on the globe today. Extensional forces on the tectonic plates causes continents to break apart—as Pangaea once did—creating new ocean basins. Large parts of...

Scientists find world's oldest European hedgehog

The world's oldest scientifically-confirmed European hedgehog has been found in Denmark by a citizen science project involving hundreds of volunteers. The hedgehog lived for 16 years, 7 years longer than the previous record holder.

Organizations should change cultures to support excellence and dismantle barriers created by systemic racism: Report

To increase diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEMM fields, higher education institutions and STEMM organizations should go beyond a focus on simply increasing the numeric participation of minoritized racial and ethnic groups and act to change their organizational cultures and environments, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

7 new spider species discovered in caves in Israel

In a new study conducted by researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and University of Madison-Wisconsin, seven new species of funnel web spiders (Agelenidae, Tegenaria), unique to caves in Israel, were discovered. These species join a large number of invertebrates recently found in Israeli caves that are new to science.

Complex subsurface of Mars imaged by Chinese rover Zhurong

Ground-penetrating radar from China's Martian rover Zhurong reveals shallow impact craters and other geologic structures in the top five meters of the Red Planet's surface. The images of the Martian subsurface are presented in a paper published in Geology.

Securing supply chains with quantum computing

The Russo-Ukrainian conflict and the COVID-19 pandemic have shown how vulnerable global supply chains can be. International events can disrupt manufacturing, delay shipping, induce panic buying and send energy costs soaring.

U.S. scientific leaders need to address structural racism, report urges

Leaders in the U.S. scientific community must dismantle the power structures that lead to racial inequities within their organizations and create an environment in which everyone feels supported, says a report released today by the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine . The 359-page report includes 12 recommendations for leaders who want to foster...

How to make hydrogen straight from seawater -- no desalination required

Researchers have developed a cheaper and more energy-efficient way to make hydrogen directly from seawater, in a critical step towards a truly viable green hydrogen industry. The new method splits the seawater directly into hydrogen and oxygen -- skipping the need for desalination and its associated cost, energy consumption and carbon emissions.

Four classes of planetary systems

Astronomers have long been aware that planetary systems are not necessarily structured like our solar system. Researchers have now shown that there are in fact four types of planetary systems.

Kangaroo fecal microbes could reduce methane from cows

Baby kangaroo feces might help provide an unlikely solution to the environmental problem of cow-produced methane. A microbial culture developed from the kangaroo feces inhibited methane production in a cow stomach simulator. After researchers added the baby kangaroo culture and a known methane inhibitor to the simulated stomach, it produced acetic acid instead of methane. Unlike methane, which...

New technique maps large-scale impacts of fire-induced permafrost thaw in Alaska

Researchers have developed a machine learning-based ensemble approach to quantify fire-induced thaw settlement across the entire Tanana Flats in Alaska, which encompasses more than 3 million acres. They linked airborne repeat lidar data to time-series Landsat products (satellite images) to delineate thaw settlement patterns across six large fires that have occurred since 2000. The six fires...