http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (Phys.org) —On Saturday, an asteroid the size of one and a half football fields flew within 240,000 miles of Earth. If the space rock had hit land, it would have leveled an area the size of San Francisco Bay. If it had hit the Pacific Ocean, the impact would have sent a tsunami to every facing shore. http://phys.org/news282301175.html Space & Earth Tue, 12 Mar 2013 10:20:01 EST news282301175 Black carbon is the second largest man-made contributor to global warming and its influence on climate has been greatly underestimated, according to the first quantitative and comprehensive analysis of this issue. http://phys.org/news277472429.html Space & Earth Tue, 15 Jan 2013 11:40:41 EST news277472429 The small kerosene lamps that light millions of homes in developing countries have a dark side: black carbon – fine particles of soot released into the atmosphere. http://phys.org/news274377915.html Space & Earth Mon, 10 Dec 2012 16:05:27 EST news274377915 (Phys.org)—The primary source of light for more than a billion people in developing nations is also churning out black carbon at levels previously overlooked in greenhouse gas estimates, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Illinois. http://phys.org/news273346015.html Space & Earth Wed, 28 Nov 2012 17:27:06 EST news273346015 (Phys.org)—Scientists with a common goal, to figure out an alternative to the lithium ion battery, the main power source of choice, are not giving up. The quarrel is not with the lithium ion battery's performance but in its high price and looming scarcity. The objective is to be able to offer a realistic alternative to lithium ion batteries for energy storage. Numerous recipes are coming out of labs as research efforts continue. The latest team to make news in this effort is from Japan, which relies on imports for its entire supply of the rare metal lithium. The news-makers are a research group at the Tokyo University of Science, led by Associate Professor Shinichi Komaba. They have confirmed they are making progress with their focus on sodium ion batteries as a li-ion alternative. http://phys.org/news268028950.html Technology Fri, 28 Sep 2012 06:00:01 EST news268028950 The tropical cyclones in the Arabian Sea during the pre-monsoon season (May – June) have intensified since 1997 compared to 1979 - 1997. This has been attributed to decreased vertical wind shear due to the dimming effects of increased anthropogenic black carbon and sulfate emissions in the region. The decrease in vertical wind shear, however, is not the result of these emissions, but due to a 15-day on average earlier occurrence of tropical cyclones, according to a study spearheaded by Bin Wang at the International Pacific Research Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa and published in "Brief Communications Arising" in the September 20, 2012, issue of Nature. http://phys.org/news267696548.html Space & Earth Mon, 24 Sep 2012 09:09:17 EST news267696548 Glaciers in the eastern and central regions of the Himalayas appear to be retreating at accelerating rates, similar to those in other areas of the world, while glaciers in the western Himalayas are more stable and could be growing, says a new report from the National Research Council. http://phys.org/news266668304.html Space & Earth Wed, 12 Sep 2012 11:31:49 EST news266668304 Viewed as a potential target in the global effort to reduce climate change, atmospheric black carbon particles absorb significantly less sunlight than scientists predicted, raising new questions about the impact of black carbon on atmospheric warming, an international team of researchers, including climate chemists from Boston College, report today in the latest edition of the journal Science. http://phys.org/news265550726.html Space & Earth Thu, 30 Aug 2012 14:00:01 EST news265550726 (Phys.org)—City carbons and country carbons regularly mix in the atmosphere, but how do they get along? That is essentially the question being tackled by a team of scientists led by researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. In the 2010 Carbonaceous Aerosols and Radiative Effects Study (CARES) research campaign they amassed a rich data set that will shed light on key science questions: how do these carbons meet, mix, travel, grow old, and affect the Earth's climate? The scientific overview of the field research was published in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics in August 2012. http://phys.org/news265276977.html Space & Earth Mon, 27 Aug 2012 09:40:01 EST news265276977 For millions of the women around the world cooking the family meal is a daily, dangerous chore. Sweating over smoky open stoves, they put their lives and their children at risk every day. http://phys.org/news264933878.html Other Sciences Thu, 23 Aug 2012 10:00:03 EST news264933878 A coalition of countries and agencies seeking to curb Earth-warming pollutants like soot released by wood-fired ovens and methane from oil extraction, on Tuesday welcomed seven new members to its fold. http://phys.org/news262362604.html Space & Earth Tue, 24 Jul 2012 15:30:09 EST news262362604 Black carbon aerosols and tropospheric ozone, both manmade pollutants emitted predominantly in the Northern Hemisphere's low- to mid-latitudes, are most likely pushing the boundary of the tropics further poleward in that hemisphere, new research by a team of scientists shows. http://phys.org/news256391061.html Space & Earth Wed, 16 May 2012 13:00:29 EST news256391061 The first real-world, head-to-head comparison of "improved cookstoves" (ICs) and traditional mud stoves has found that some ICs may at times emit more of the worrisome "black carbon," or soot, particles that are linked to serious health and environmental concerns than traditional mud stoves or open-cook fires. The report, which raises concerns about the leading hope as a clean cooking technology in the developing world, appears in ACS' journal Environmental Science &Technology. http://phys.org/news252760480.html Space & Earth Wed, 04 Apr 2012 12:15:18 EST news252760480 Like testing the wind direction before taking flight, researchers led by scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory assessed the meteorological conditions during a large observational study of carbon-containing atmospheric particles in central California. Researchers documented the weather conditions during the study and gauged how these affected the sampled areas on a daily basis. This study provides a large body of foundational information of mixing patterns for future analysis of data from the Carbonaceous Aerosol and Radiative Effects Study (CARES). http://phys.org/news250245418.html Space & Earth Tue, 06 Mar 2012 09:20:01 EST news250245418 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new study from scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), published in Nature Climate Change, has quantitatively demonstrated that black carbon—also known as soot, a pollutant emitted from power plants, diesel engines and residential cooking and heating, as well as forest fires—reduces the reflectance of snow and ice, an effect that increases the rate of global climate change. http://phys.org/news250240329.html Space & Earth Tue, 06 Mar 2012 07:12:19 EST news250240329 New clues as to how the Earth's remote ecosystems have been influenced by the industrial revolution are locked, frozen in the ice of glaciers. That is the finding of a group of scientists, including Robert Spencer of the Woods Hole Research Center. The research will be published in the March 2012 issue of Nature Geoscience. http://phys.org/news248870006.html Space & Earth Sun, 19 Feb 2012 13:00:07 EST news248870006 Faulting the world for not doing enough to fight climate change, the United States on Thursday announced the formation of a coalition to cut short-lived pollutants that speed up warming and harm health. http://phys.org/news248621862.html Space & Earth Thu, 16 Feb 2012 13:38:26 EST news248621862 There are simple, inexpensive ways to cut back on two major pollutants -- soot and methane -- and taking action now could slow climate change for years to come, international scientists said Thursday. http://phys.org/news245601299.html Space & Earth Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:20:02 EST news245601299 Slovenian adventurer Matevz Lenarcic flew out of the capital Ljubljana on Sunday at the start of an eco-friendly trip around the world in an ultra-light plane boasting super-low fuel mileage. http://phys.org/news245263515.html Technology Sun, 08 Jan 2012 16:46:35 EST news245263515 For many people in the developing world getting enough food to eat is a persistent challenge. However the challenge does not stop there. A new issue of the international journal Energy Policy details the human and environmental cost of cooking food using the only energy source available to many people, woody biomass. http://phys.org/news241712354.html Space & Earth Mon, 28 Nov 2011 14:19:21 EST news241712354 Whether capturing xenon for security or industrial uses, a new material could be a valuable ally, according to scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Classified as a metal-organic framework or MOF, the material known as NiDOBDC has a honeycomb-esque framework and a lot of potential. Dr. Jay Grate and Dr. Praveen Thallapally compared NiDOBDC to a two other absorbents. One was a metal organic framework called MOF-5 and the other was activated charcoal. The nickel-based NiDOBDC did substantially better at capturing xenon than MOF-5, and about the same as the activated charcoal. However, NiDOBDC released xenon easily, a bonus for technological recovery systems and monitoring devices. http://phys.org/news239967265.html Chemistry Tue, 08 Nov 2011 09:50:01 EST news239967265 Cities release more heat to the atmosphere than the rural vegetated areas around them, but how much influence these urban "heat islands" have on global warming has been a matter of debate. Now a study by Stanford researchers has quantified the contribution of the heat islands for the first time, showing that it is modest compared with what greenhouse gases contribute to global warming. http://phys.org/news238235765.html Space & Earth Wed, 19 Oct 2011 09:36:13 EST news238235765 During the 2010 BP/Deepwater Horizon Gulf oil spill, an estimated one of every 20 barrels of spilled oil was deliberately burned off to reduce the size of surface oil slicks and minimize impacts of oil on sensitive shoreline ecosystems and marine life. In response to the spill, NOAA quickly redirected its WP-3D research aircraft to survey the atmosphere above the spill site in June. During a flight through one of the black plumes, scientists used sophisticated instrumentation on board, including NOAA's single-particle soot photometer, to characterize individual black carbon particles. http://phys.org/news235752279.html Space & Earth Tue, 20 Sep 2011 15:45:02 EST news235752279 A new study of dust-like particles of soot in the air — now emerging as the second most important -- but previously overlooked -- factor in global warming provides fresh evidence that reducing soot emissions from diesel engines and other sources could slow melting of sea ice in the Arctic faster and more economically than any other quick fix, a scientist reported here today. http://phys.org/news234026109.html Space & Earth Wed, 31 Aug 2011 16:30:31 EST news234026109 Sharply reducing emissions of soot and smog could play a critical role in preventing Earth from overheating, according to a UN report released on Tuesday. http://phys.org/news227254970.html Space & Earth Tue, 14 Jun 2011 07:23:44 EST news227254970 American scientists working on an island far above the Arctic Circle have been launching unmanned aircraft and digging snow samples to measure how soot helps melt Arctic snow and ice. http://phys.org/news224307728.html Space & Earth Wed, 11 May 2011 05:20:04 EST news224307728 An international research team is in the land of snow and ice, in search of soot. http://phys.org/news222529892.html Space & Earth Wed, 20 Apr 2011 14:51:50 EST news222529892 Scientists have known for decades that black carbon aerosols add to global warming. These airborne particles made of sooty carbon are believed to be among the largest man-made contributors to global warming because they absorb solar radiation and heat the atmosphere. New research from Carnegie's Long Cao and Ken Caldeira, along with colleagues George Ban-Weiss and Govindasamy Bala, quantifies how black carbon's impact on climate depends on its altitude in the atmosphere. Their work, published online by the journal Climate Dynamics, could have important implications for combating global climate change. http://phys.org/news221994100.html Space & Earth Thu, 14 Apr 2011 10:01:55 EST news221994100 A new air-quality measuring instrument invented by Pat Arnott and Ian Arnold of the University of Nevada, Reno that is more economical, more portable and more accurate than older technologies has been licensed for commercial development by Droplet Measurement Technologies of Boulder, Colo. http://phys.org/news220629815.html Space & Earth Tue, 29 Mar 2011 15:03:53 EST news220629815 In some cases, soot -- the fine, black carbon silt released from stoves, cars and manufacturing plants -- can pack more of a climatic punch than greenhouse gases, according to a paper published in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. http://phys.org/news218795614.html Space & Earth Tue, 08 Mar 2011 09:10:01 EST news218795614