In the midst of the 2016 presidential election season, headlines often tell the story of a polarized political climate in America. However, a recent national survey conducted by Penn State researchers found overwhelming bipartisan support for parks and recreation.
Small disturbances, like the flapping of a butterfly’s wings, don’t really matter for weather forecasts. What's more important is getting accurate observations at larger scales.
From the Yellow River in China to the Mississippi River in Louisiana, researchers are racing to better understand and mitigate the degradation of some of the world's most important river deltas, according to a University of Colorado Boulder faculty member.
Every year from March through October, something truly amazing happens: sea turtles make their way onto the beaches of South Florida to lay the eggs of the next generation.
Ithaca College is partnering with private developers, with the assistance of a grant from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, to build and operate an off-site solar array that will move the college closer to its goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.
Aggressive cuts in greenhouse gas emissions will translate into sizable benefits, starting in the middle of the century, for both the number and intensity of extreme heat events, according to a new study led by NCAR.
Two Virginia Tech researchers have discovered a way to maximize the amount of electricity that can be generated from the wastewater we flush down the toilet.
The types of beneficial fungi that associate with tree roots can alter the fate of a patch of tropical forest, boosting plant diversity or, conversely, giving one tree species a distinct advantage over many others, researchers report.
Researchers say a fully sequenced Z. marina genome is a valuable resource that can advance research in a variety of areas. It could be used to study how marine ecosystems adapt under climate warming or to unravel the mechanisms of salt tolerance that assist in the breeding of crop plants.
Tough emission controls have dramatically reduced the amount of toxic sulfate particles in air, but at least in the Southeast United States, they haven't reduced the acidity of the health-threatening particles.
Patented organic solar cell breakthrough could increase their efficiency to cost-effective levels. Buildings and rooftops could be wrapped in lightweight, flexible sheets of solar cells. Could also provide reliable power to isolated regions.
Imagine exploring a wooded site along an Alaska stream or lake for evidence of animals. Maybe you’ll see moose prints in the soil or a bit of wolf fur in a berry bush. But some species don’t leave footprints.
They still leave a clue. It’s their DNA.
Between 1947 and 1956, John Curtis and his colleagues and students conducted their prairie relic study, surveying more than 200 undisturbed prairie remnants in Wisconsin. Today [Feb. 19, 2016] UW-Madison graduate student Amy Alstad and a team of researchers have published a third survey based on Curtis’ legacy work. They found that human influence has accelerated the rate of species change in these prairies.
Laboratory rats who breathed Beijing's highly polluted air gained weight and experienced cardio-respiratory and metabolic dysfunctions after three to eight weeks of exposure.
In the February 18, 2016 issue of Science, researchers from UCSB and including a DOE JGI team report that anaerobic gut fungi perform as well as the best fungi engineered by industry in their ability to convert plant material into sugars that are easily transformed into fuel and other products.
A new study by a team of Thai and international scientists finds that a depleted tiger population in Thailand is rebounding thanks to enhanced protection measures.
A UCLA study has found that the state agency responsible for protecting Californians from the dangers of pesticides is failing to assess the health risks likely posed by pesticide mixtures, which are believed to be more harmful than individual pesticides.
Individuals subjected to chronic low-dose exposure to organochlorine pesticides show and increased risk to obtain a future diagnosis of cognitive impairment. This is shown in a study now published in Environmental International.
UB geologist Jason Briner can discuss the implications of a new climate science paper by Stokes et al in Nature. Briner was not part of the research project.
A spate of major earthquakes on small faults could overturn traditional views about how earthquakes start, according to a study from researchers at the Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior in Ensenada, Mexico, and the University of California, Davis.
A study at Oregon State University has concluded that significant outbreaks of viruses may be associated with coral bleaching events, especially as a result of multiple environmental stresses.
Coral reef islands and atolls in the Pacific are predominantly surrounded by vast areas of ocean that have very low nutrient levels and low ecological production. However, the ecosystems near these islands and atolls are often extremely productive and support an enhanced nearshore food-web, leading to an abundance of species and increased local fisheries.
The first of an American Cleaning Institute-sponsored webinar series on “Advancing the Science on Chemical-Induced Asthma” kicks off February 25 to help provide researchers with greater insights on an often mischaracterized topic.
Two new Cornell University studies show how diverse marine organisms are susceptible to diseases made worse by warming oceans.
The first study warns that warm sea temperatures in 2015 may increase the levels of epizootic shell disease in American lobster in the northern Gulf of Maine in 2016. The second provides the first evidence linking warmer ocean temperatures with a West Coast epidemic of sea star wasting disease that has infected more than 20 species and devastated populations since 2013.
Scientists at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) have used UAH’s Rocket-city Ozone (O3) Quality Evaluation in the Troposphere (RO3QET) Lidar to measure ozone produced by lightning in the United States.
Predicting the expected loss of ice sheet mass is difficult due to the complexity of modeling ice sheet behavior. To better understand this loss, a team of Sandia National Laboratories researchers has been improving the reliability and efficiency of computational models that describe ice sheet behavior and dynamics.
Understanding the complex geological processes that form supervolcanoes could ultimately help geologists determine what triggers their eruptions. A new study using an advanced computer model casts doubt on previously held theories about the Yellowstone supervolcano’s origins, adding to the mystery of Yellowstone’s formation.
If you’re enjoying a lovely day on the beach, there’s something you should do if the ground shakes, the water retreats or the ocean make a strange noise. “Run,” said Elena Suleimani, because those are signs that a tsunami is coming. “It’s a matter of minutes. Don’t return for at least twelve hours.”
Intentionally or unintentionally, many gardeners have left plants in their gardens over the winter. The Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) February 15 Soils Matter blog post explains this is actually a good thing… and something everyone should consider on a yearly basis.
Science can provide facts, but it is the business of the creative arts to envision the future, and how all of humanity will be impacted by man-made changes to our planet.
New Florida State University research appearing today in Scientific Reports, a Nature journal, challenges a 2007 study published in Scienceclaiming that shark declines led to rising populations of cownose rays, which were responsible for the collapse of oyster and shellfish industries along the Atlantic coast.
New research shows that more than 5.5 million people die prematurely every year due to household and outdoor air pollution. More than half of deaths occur in two of the world's fastest growing economies, China and India.
Following their release of a state-commissioned study on the potential public health impacts of fracking in Western Maryland, University of Maryland researchers are helping to inform the conversation about the potential risks associated with unconventional natural gas development and production.
It has been nearly half a century since scientists have collected extensive climate or atmospheric data from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS). But late last year, scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, working with a group led by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, embarked on a new project that will lead to a better understanding of how much of the sun’s light and the atmosphere’s heat radiation reach the Antarctic surface—variables that affect temperature patterns and ice melt throughout the region.
A research wildlife biologist for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and the executive director of Boise State University’s Intermountain Bird Observatory have teamed up with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game to create a series of motion-sensitive camera traps to monitor golden eagle migration and distribution in southwest Idaho.
The extremely complex geological history of New Guinea has allowed many of its animals and plants the chance to grow different enough to make a name for themselves. In the case of two newly described and unusually large gecko species - only a noble name would do. The two new species whose names respectively mean 'knight' and 'king' were discovered by a team led by Dr. Paul Oliver, The Australian National University and University of Melbourne, are described in the open-access journal ZooKeys.
At the rate humans are emitting carbon into the atmosphere, the Earth may suffer irreparable damage that could last tens of thousands of years, according to a new analysis published this week.