Earth and Human Activity
- Chemistry
Chemists win Nobel Prize for faster, cleaner way of making molecules
Both scientists independently came up with new process — asymmetric organocatalysis. That name may be a mouthful, but it’s not that hard to understand.
- Climate
Research on climate and more brings trio the 2021 physics Nobel Prize
Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselmann pioneered work on simulations of Earth’s climate. Giorgio Parisi probed complex materials.
- Earth
Scientists Say: Anthropocene
Humans are changing the world in profound ways. Some scientists think those changes have launched a new epoch in Earth’s history: the Anthropocene.
- Earth
Moon’s orbital wobble can add to sea-level rise and flooding
In a dozen years or so, the tide-enhancing effects of a wobble in the moon’s orbit should lead to dramatically higher sea levels in some coastal cities.
- Ecosystems
Cheatgrass thrives on the well-lit urban night scene
Middle-grade campers team up with ecologists at Denver University to show that streetlights boost the growth of a reviled invasive species.
- Materials Science
Tiny swimming robots may help clean up a microplastics mess
Big problem, tiny solution. Researchers in the Czech Republic have designed swimming robots that can help collect and break down microplastics.
- Animals
Tiny animals survive 24,000 years in suspended animation
Tiny bdelloid rotifers awake from a 24,000-year slumber when freed from the Arctic permafrost.
- Environment
Wildfire smoke seeds the air with potentially dangerous microbes
Studies now show that most wildfires don’t kill microbes. That’s fueling worries about what risks these smoke hitchhikers might pose to people.
- Tech
Let’s learn about artificial intelligence
Computers are getting smarter all the time. At some tasks, they can even outsmart people.
- Earth
Greece’s Santorini volcano erupts more when the sea level drops
Data showing this association go back at least 360,000 years.
- Climate
Warming cities may see more rain — and frequent flooding
Scientists are seeking to understand why and how to mop up excess precipitation.
- Climate
Explainer: Urban heat islands and how to cool them
Cities transform landscapes covered in plants to ones covered in heat-absorbing asphalt and concrete. But ways exist to cool these urban heat islands.
