Environment news

• Freeze-dried foam soaks up carbon dioxide

  16-08-2017 23:55 via feedproxy.google.com
  Rice University materials scientists have created a light foam from two-dimensional sheets of hexagonal-boron nitride (h-BN) that absorbs carbon dioxide.They discovered freeze-drying h-BN turned it into a macro-scale foam that disintegrates in liquids. But adding a bit of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) into the mix transformed it into a far more robust and useful material.The foam is highly porous and its properties can be tuned for use in air filters and as gas absorption materials, accordin
  
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• Heavily used pesticide linked to breathing problems in farmworkers' children

  16-08-2017 23:49 via feedproxy.google.com
  Elemental sulfur, the most heavily used pesticide in California, may harm the respiratory health of children living near farms that use the pesticide, according to new research led by UC Berkeley.In a study of children in the Salinas Valley’s agricultural community, researchers found significant associations between elemental sulfur use and poorer respiratory health. The study linked reduced lung function, more asthma-related symptoms and higher asthma medication use in children living abo
  
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• Smart electrical grids more vulnerable to cyber attacks

  16-08-2017 20:39 via feedproxy.google.com
  Electricity distribution systems in the USA are gradually being modernized and transposed to smart grids, which make use of two-way communication and computer processing. This is making them increasingly vulnerable to cyber attacks. In a recent paper in Elsevier’s International Journal of Critical Infrastructure Protection, Dr. Sujeet Shenoi and his colleagues from the Tandy School of Computer Science, University of Tulsa, US, have analyzed these security issues. Their
  
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• Councils must put tree safety first | Letters

  16-08-2017 20:22
  Sheffield’s protesters need to be aware of the danger of trees falling over, writes Paul FaupelThe sudden collapse of a 200-year-old oak in Madeira, killing 13 and injuring many others (Report, 16 August), is a salutary warning to the tree protesters of Sheffield (Report, 16 August). Local authorities and other custodians of parklands and highways have a duty to ensure that trees do not endanger the public when they deteriorate through age or disease. Inspecting trees is a specialist task
  
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• Habitat destruction and poaching is threatening the Sungazer

  16-08-2017 20:05 via feedproxy.google.com
  The Sungazer (Smaug giganteus), a dragon-like lizard species endemic to the Highveld regions of South Africa, is facing an assault on two fronts as farming and industrialisation encroaches on its natural habitat – which already consist of only a several hundred square kilometres globally – while the illegal global pet trade is adding pressure on pushing the species into extinction.
  
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• An Inconvenient Sequel review – Trump looms over Al Gore's urgent climate-change doc

  16-08-2017 17:17
  New challenges – and a science-dismissing US President – make Gore’s sequel to his 2006 film feel both cinematic and compellingRelated: Al Gore: 'The rich have subverted all reason' Eleven record-breaking summers on from An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore doubles down. Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk’s galvanising documentary accompanies the former US vice-president throughout 2015 and 2016, by which point he had pivoted from touring pro-bono slideshows to addressing the Climate Re
  
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• Three wildlife rangers killed in attack by violent militia in DRC

  16-08-2017 16:58
  Three wildlife rangers at DRC’s Virunga national park were killed this week in an ambush by Mai Mai rebels, bringing this year’s fatalities to eight
  Three rangers have been killed and another is missing after an attack by violent militia in Virunga national park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, bringing the number of fatalities in the park this year to eight.
  The park rangers, Charles Paluku Syaira, Jonas Paluku Malyani and Pacifique Musubao Fikirini were murdered on the morn
  
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• Seafood for Thought

  16-08-2017 15:20 via feedproxy.google.com
  The world’s oceans possess vast, untapped potential for sustainable aquaculture, say UCSB marine scientists.
  
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• New process allows live look inside insects

  16-08-2017 15:09 via feedproxy.google.com
  Until now, live insects have been too wriggly to make good subjects for scientists wanting to understand more about insect innards. But an interdisciplinary team of biologists and imaging specialists from Western has worked out a novel micro-imaging solution that’s leading to unprecedented new ways of viewing insect development.
  
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• Rare Opportunity to Study the Critically Endangered North Pacific right whale in the Bering Sea

  16-08-2017 15:05 via feedproxy.google.com
  Even after so many years of doing field work, sometimes you are still left amazed. Because every now and then the stars all align, and everything works out exactly as you hoped it would. Today was one of those times, because we found that needle in the haystack.
  
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• Chimps can play rock-paper-scissors

  16-08-2017 13:42 via bbc.co.uk
  Japanese researchers have taught chimps the rules of rock-paper-scissors.
  
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• Why does the BBC still broadcast the shipping forecast?

  16-08-2017 12:30
  The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific conceptsWhy does the BBC still carry the shipping forecast, given the information available on line? Is it just an excuse to play Sailing By?Mike Walsh, London N3 Continue reading...
  
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• Scotland's largest solar farm gets green light

  16-08-2017 11:57 via bbc.co.uk
  Elgin Energy is granted planning permission for a 20MW project near Urquhart in Moray
  
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• Britons to throw away £428m worth of barbecue food in August, study reveals

  16-08-2017 11:36
  Exclusive: Nearly 12m barbecues in the UK likely to over-cater with food ranging from salads to burger rolls ending up in binsIt’s symbolised by dismal burgers and carbonised sausages served on paper plates with a splatter of ketchup. Yet with the great British summer well under way, Britons are this month set to throw away a staggering £428m worth of barbecue food, research reveals. In August the nation will brave the changeable weather to enjoy nearly 12m barbecues, with people on
  
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• Why do beavers build dams? You asked Google – here’s the answer | Jules Howard

  16-08-2017 09:00
  Every day millions of internet users ask Google life’s most difficult questions, big and small. Our writers answer some of the commonest queries
  Here is a beaver-based creation myth. It begins thus. God so loved the world that He seeded it with diligent rodents able to do the hard work of habitat creation – damming streams and creating ponds and lakes in which amphibian larvae thrived, providing food for water beetles and dragonfly nymphs and a host of other invertebrates which fed t
  
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• How will Brexit affect the environment? Brexit means podcast

  16-08-2017 08:00
  The topic we’re looking at this week is a big one, and a fundamentally important one, encompassing the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat. Jon Henley is joined by an expert panel to try to figure out what on earth Brexit will mean for our environmentSubscribe to us on iTunes, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Soundcloud and Acast and join the discussion on Facebook, Twitter and emailThe topic we are looking at this week is a big one, and a fundamentally important one – it boils d
  
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• Fish mistaking plastic debris in ocean for food, study finds

  16-08-2017 07:30
  Behavioural evidence suggests marine organisms are not just ingesting microplastics by accident but actively seeking them out as food
  Fish may be actively seeking out plastic debris in the oceans as the tiny pieces appear to smell similar to their natural prey, new research suggests.
  The fish confuse plastic for an edible substance because microplastics in the oceans pick up a covering of biological material, such as algae, that mimics the smell of food, according to the study published on Wedne
  
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• Fish confusing plastic debris in ocean for food, study finds

  16-08-2017 07:30
  Behavioural evidence suggests marine organisms are not just ingesting microplastics by accident but actively seeking them out as food
  Fish may be actively seeking out plastic debris in the oceans as the tiny pieces appear to smell similar to their natural prey, new research suggests.
  The fish confuse plastic for an edible substance because microplastics in the oceans pick up a covering of biological material, such as algae, that mimics the smell of food, according to the study published on Wedne
  
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• Hairsprayed cattle and sheep on parade

  16-08-2017 06:30
  Kennards House, Cornwall At the agricultural show white-coated exhibitors vie for prizes as the heavy horses are hitched and cocks crow in the poultry tent After noting the whereabouts of their parked cars relative to the windblown hedgerow trees, visitors converge on the entrance to Launceston’s one-day agricultural show. Cloud shrouds Kit Hill to the south but Caradon, Kilmar Tor and Hawk’s Tor on Bodmin Moor, as well as nearby wind turbines, are silhouetted against an increasing e
  
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• 'Frankenstein dinosaur' mystery solved

  16-08-2017 02:26 via bbc.co.uk
  A dinosaur that seemed to be an evolutionary mishmash turns out to have a key place in history.
  
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• Scientists discover a new flower of Shetland

  16-08-2017 02:08 via bbc.co.uk
  The Shetland Monkeyflower has a bigger flower with a wider throat than its ancestors.
  
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• Why Adani's planned Carmichael coalmine matters to Australia – and the world

  16-08-2017 00:49
  Proposals for one of the world’s largest mines in Queensland threatens not only the Great Barrier Reef, but also global efforts to reduce carbon emissionsAdani’s proposed Carmichael coalmine in Queensland would be the largest Australia has ever seen and the federal and state governments are keen to offer it financial support.Continue reading...
  
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