When two materials come into contact, charged entities on their surfaces get a little nudge. This is how rubbing a balloon on the skin creates static electricity. Likewise, water flowing over some surfaces can gain or lose charge. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Central Science have harnessed the phenomenon to generate electricity from rain-like droplets … Read more
Switching from diesel to electric trains dramatically improved the air quality aboard the San Francisco Bay Area’s Caltrain commuter rail line, reducing riders’ exposure to the carcinogen black carbon by an average of 89%, finds a new study published today in the journal Environmental Science and Technology Letters. The electrification of the system also significantly … Read more
Wildflowers growing on land previously used for buildings and factories can accumulate lead, arsenic and other metal contaminants from the soil, which are consumed by pollinators as they feed, a new study has found. The metals have previously been shown to damage the health of pollinators, which ingest them in nectar as they feed, leading … Read more
UC Santa Cruz Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Scott Winton has been wading through thick, smelly muck in the tropics for almost a decade. He wouldn’t have it any other way. As a wetland ecologist and biogeochemist, he’s been hard at work investigating an important and mysterious topic: peatlands. Peatlands are a special type of … Read more
Researchers at Washington State University have demonstrated a way to use corn protein to improve the performance of lithium-sulfur batteries, a finding that holds promise for expanding the use of the high-energy, lighter-weight batteries in electric vehicles, renewable energy storage and other applications. Lithium-sulfur batteries are lighter for the same amount of energy and more … Read more
Think only pets have a shedding season? Un-fur-tunately you’re wrong. If you’ve noticed more lashes on your cheeks, pillowcase or bathroom sink lately, you’re not alone. We’re in the throes of “eyelash-shedding season,” which most commonly occurs in the spring and fall. “Similar to how we shed more hair in the spring and fall, our … Read more
While serving as a visiting professor in Benevento, outside of Naples, Italy, Adrian Bejan noticed something about the local architecture: All the roofs looked the same. With what seemed like too-shallow peaks on smaller, older structures clustered together, perhaps it was just the style of the times. Or perhaps the ancient Roman builders were on … Read more
A new study has shed unprecedented light on the highly variable and climate-sensitive routes that substances from Siberian rivers use to travel across the Arctic Ocean. The findings raise fresh concerns about the increasing spread of pollutants and the potential consequences for fragile polar ecosystems as climate change accelerates. The international research, published today in … Read more
When you’re on a sandy beach or the banks of a river, transformed by rolling waves or slightly still waters, it’s likely you’re not thinking about what happens just beneath the surface, where dirt and pollution are swirling and traveling through to new destinations. But Hanadi Rifai does. The Moores Professor of Civil and Environmental … Read more
A novel paper led by Dr Ulrich Brose of the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and the Friedrich Schiller University Jena is widening understanding of how species interact within ecosystems via the so-called “Internet of Nature.” Published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, the paper reveals that species not only exchange matter and energy … Read more