Environment

Erosion Linked To Monsoon Intensity In Himalayas

Throughout history, the changing fortunes of human societies in Asia have been linked to variations in the precipitation resulting from seasonal monsoons. A new paper published in the British journal Nature Geoscience suggests that variations in monsoon cl ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 9 2008 - 5:55pm

Putting Aside One Size Fits All Global Warming Blame, What Is Really Killing The Frogs?

Evidence that global warming is causing the worldwide declines of amphibians may not be as conclusive as previously thought, according to biologists whose findings contradict two widely held views and could help reveal what is killing the frogs and toads- ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 12 2008 - 11:37am

Cap And Trade Program Can Cut Greenhouse Gases, Says MIT Study

Researchers at MIT's Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research have produced a report concerning key design issues of proposed "cap-and-trade" programs that are under consideration in the United States as a way of curbing greenhous ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 13 2008 - 1:54pm

Conservation Breakthrough- First Live Birth From Frozen Rhinoceros Semen

There may be less than 20,000 rhinoceros in the world, with one species perhaps already extinct and another with possibly only four animals remaining in the wild. As the populations of these animals age and become infirm, successful breeding becomes increa ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 13 2008 - 4:28pm

Corralling The Carbon Cycle

Scientists may have overcome a major hurdle to calculating how much carbon dioxide (CO2) is absorbed and released by plants, vital information for understanding how the biosphere responds to stress and for determining the amount of carbon that can be safel ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 13 2008 - 6:47pm

Mysterious New Algae Forces Rethink In Ocean's Carbon And Nitrogen Cycles

An unusual microorganism discovered in the open ocean may force scientists to rethink their understanding of how carbon and nitrogen cycle through ocean ecosystems. A research team led by Jonathan Zehr, a marine scientist at the University of California, S ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 14 2008 - 3:48pm

New Catalyst Means More Environmentally Friendly Research

A new class of exceptionally effective catalysts that promote the powerful olefin metathesis reaction has been discovered by a team of Boston College and MIT scientists, opening up a vast new scientific platform to researchers in medicine, biology and mate ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 16 2008 - 8:19pm

WaterBoxx Grows Forests In The Desert

A new Dutch invention makes it possible to reforest large desert and rocky areas in the coming years, they say. Experiments in the Sahara desert have shown that the WaterBoxx allows trees to grow under harsh conditions and can provide them with sufficient ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 23 2008 - 11:19am

Slovakia Gives A Current Peek At The Future Of Soil Acidification

You wouldn't ordinarily think of soil as a non-renewable resource, but it is.    Healing damage to soil takes geologic time, not human time.    And increasing levels of nitrogen deposition that are associated with industry and agriculture are driving ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 17 2008 - 2:12pm

Forests Overlooked In Climate Control

In a study to be published next week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists show that forests may influence the Earth's climate in important ways that have not previously been recognized. When sunlight reaches the Earth ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 17 2008 - 5:37pm