Locals worry wind and solar will gobble up forests and farms
Massachusetts has installed solar panels faster than almost any other state as it seeks to reduce its carbon emissions. But some activists say the state's transition to renewable energy has come at a cost......»»
NASA to hoist its sail: Solar sail mission gets ready for launch
A NASA mission testing a new way of navigating our solar system is ready to hoist its sail into space—not to catch the wind, but the propulsive power of sunlight. The Advanced Composite Solar Sail System is targeting launch on Tuesday, April 23 (We.....»»
Unique field study shows how climate change affects fire-impacted forests
During the unusually dry year of 2018, Sweden was hit by numerous forest fires. A research team led from Lund University in Sweden has investigated how climate change affects recently burned boreal forests and their ability to absorb carbon dioxide......»»
Migratory birds are on the move and nature-friendly farms can help them on their way
Every spring, hundreds of thousands of birds leave their winter habitat on Poyang, the largest freshwater lake in China, and fly north over the most densely populated region on Earth to reach their breeding grounds in Siberia. As with any long-distan.....»»
Saturn"s ocean moon Enceladus could support life—researchers are working out how to detect extraterrestrial cells there
Saturn has 146 confirmed moons—more than any other planet in the solar system—but one called Enceladus stands out. It appears to have the ingredients for life......»»
NASA observations find what helps heat roots of "moss" on sun
Did you know the sun has moss? Due to its resemblance to the earthly plants, scientists have named a small-scale, bright, patchy structure made of plasma in the solar atmosphere "moss." This moss, which was first identified in 1999 by NASA's TRACE mi.....»»
Apple hits 18 gigawatts of clean energy in its environmental push
Apple is continuing to step up its environmental efforts, revealing new projects to increase the use of clean energy, as well as to replenish fresh water it uses by 2030 ahead of Earth Day.An Apple solar farmApple made a pledge in 2020 to become comp.....»»
The history of the young cold traps of the asteroid Ceres
Ceres, the largest asteroid in our solar system, harbors a dark secret: extremely young ice deposits in permanently shadowed craters near its poles. If that sounds vaguely familiar, it's because our moon and planet Mercury also have such polar ice de.....»»
From tape measures to space lasers: Quantifying biomass of the world"s tallest forests
In this era of accelerating climate crisis, accounting for all aspects of Earth's carbon cycle is a crucial task. The magnitude of atmospheric carbon burden means trees and forests are limited but important instruments among a suite of mitigation opt.....»»
The big dry: Forests and shrublands are dying in parched Western Australia
Perth has just had its driest six months on record, while Western Australia sweltered through its hottest summer on record. Those records are remarkable in their own right. But these records are having real consequences......»»
Formation-flying spacecraft could probe the solar system for new physics
It's an exciting time for the fields of astronomy, astrophysics, and cosmology. Thanks to cutting-edge observatories, instruments, and new techniques, scientists are getting closer to experimentally verifying theories that remain largely untested. Th.....»»
How do trees survive dry and hot summers? Leaf lifespan and growth recovery are key
Climate change has an effect on forests and trees. They suffer from heat waves and periods of drought. But although we see tree mortality increase as a result, much is still unknown about the underlying mechanisms......»»
Giant rogue waves: Southern Ocean expedition reveals wind as key cause
A University of Melbourne expedition to the southernmost waters encircling Antarctica has discovered that wind drives the formation of colossal rogue waves, and that these unpredictable waves occur more frequently than scientists had previously thoug.....»»
It Takes Guts to Fix Wind Turbines for a Living
Want one of the fastest-growing jobs in the US? Get used to being high......»»
Tropical forests can"t recover naturally without fruit eating birds, carbon recovery study shows
New research from the Crowther Lab at ETH Zurich illustrates a critical barrier to natural regeneration of tropical forests. Their models—from ground-based data gathered in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil—show that when wild tropical birds move fre.....»»
This is how the world ends: swallowed or shredded by a dying sun
Researchers recently studied the status of dead stars called white dwarfs, giving a glimpse at what our own solar system will look like in 5 billion years......»»
See what the solar eclipse looked like from space
The astronauts on board the International Space Station caught a stunning glimpse of this week's solar eclipse, and NASA has shared some images......»»
Examining the blowtorch effect of satellite reentry through video
A reaction wheel—one of the heaviest parts of a space mission, its changing rotation used to shift a satellite's orientation—seen in a plasma wind tunnel belonging to the High Enthalpy Flow Diagnostics Group (HEFDiG) at the University of Stuttgar.....»»
A compact metasurface array-based system for single-shot spectroscopic ellipsometry measurement
Spectroscopic ellipsometry is widely adopted in semiconductor processing, such as in the manufacturing of integrated circuits, flat display panels, and solar cells. However, a conventional spectroscopic ellipsometer, as shown in Fig.1a, typically mod.....»»
Report links H&M, Zara to environmental destruction in Brazil
Fast fashion giants H&M and Zara have used cotton from farms linked to massive deforestation, land-grabbing, corruption and violence in Brazil, a report by the environmental group Earthsight said Thursday......»»
The Best Apps for the Solar Eclipse
Here are the best apps for viewing and learning about the 2024 solar eclipse. People all over the world are preparing for the total solar eclipse set to pass across Mexico, the U.S., and Canada on April 8. Many are set to t.....»»