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) —Researchers at Brown and Yale have demonstrated a new "enabling technology" that could use excess carbon dioxide to produce acrylate, a valuable commodity chemical involved in the manufacture of everything from polyester cloth to disposable diapers. http://phys.org/news283101037.html Chemistry Thu, 21 Mar 2013 16:10:55 EST news283101037 Understanding how and why diversification occurs is important for understanding why there are so many species on Earth. In a new study published on 19 February in the open access journal PLOS Biology, researchers show that similar—or even identical—mutations can occur during diversification in completely separate populations of E. coli evolving in different environments over more than 1000 generations. Evolution, therefore, can be surprisingly predictable. http://phys.org/news280514939.html Biology Tue, 19 Feb 2013 17:10:04 EST news280514939 Now that President Obama has put climate change back on the table in his second inaugural address, a new national poll finds growing public support for regulating greenhouse gas emissions and requiring utilities to switch to lower-carbon fuel sources. http://phys.org/news279463755.html Space & Earth Thu, 07 Feb 2013 12:49:33 EST news279463755 German scientists in the joint research project "FUNgraphen" are pinning their hopes for new technologies on a particular form of carbon: They have developed new carbon macromolecules and molecular carbon composite materials with special properties. The molecules are derived from graphene, a substance that consists of individual layers of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb-like pattern. The process previously necessary to make use of this substance was complex and expensive and thus of little value for most plastics applications. http://phys.org/news278929564.html Nanotechnology Fri, 01 Feb 2013 08:26:36 EST news278929564 Unexpectedly, some crops such as maize or rapeseed have been found to act as carbon sinks, extracting CO2 from the atmosphere. However, others like sunflower and silage maize are carbon sources. These are the main conclusions of a study carried out by a research team from the Centre d'études spatiales de la biosphère. Over seven years, researchers measured the carbon and water fluxes of two experimental field plots. Their results show that the environmental impact of agriculture can be reduced by the right cropping practices, making it possible for agriculture to reconcile environmental and agronomic objectives. This work was published in Agricultural and Forestry Meteorology on 15 January 2013. http://phys.org/news278328288.html Space & Earth Fri, 25 Jan 2013 09:25:01 EST news278328288 Developers of renewable energy and shale gas must overcome fundamental geological and environmental challenges if these promising energy sources are to reach their full potential, according to a trio of leading geoscientists. Their findings will be presented on Dec. 4, at 5:15 p.m. (PT), at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in San Francisco in Room 102 of Moscone Center West . http://phys.org/news273513258.html Space & Earth Fri, 30 Nov 2012 15:54:28 EST news273513258 (Phys.org)—The increased use of renewable energy sources, particularly sunlight, is highly desirable, as is industrial production that is as CO2-neutral as possible. Both of these wishes could be fulfilled if CO2 could be used as the raw material in a system driven by solar energy. Japanese researchers have now introduced an approach to this type of process in the journal Angewandte Chemie. Their method is based on a principle similar to natural photosynthesis. http://phys.org/news272537881.html Chemistry Mon, 19 Nov 2012 08:58:28 EST news272537881 University of Notre Dame researcher Robert Nerenberg can tell you many things you might not know about wastewater treatment plants, including their significant carbon footprint, energy demands and chemical costs. His past research has addressed ways to drastically improve the energy efficiency of wastewater treatment. He now is telling the wastewater treatment industry about his promising new line of research that has the capability of significantly decreasing chemical costs and carbon footprint. http://phys.org/news272301420.html Space & Earth Fri, 16 Nov 2012 15:17:38 EST news272301420 A research team that includes a University of California, Davis, plant scientist has identified a source of carbon emissions that could play a role in understanding past and future global change. http://phys.org/news271335445.html Space & Earth Mon, 05 Nov 2012 15:00:09 EST news271335445 (Phys.org)—A new study reveals that a significant amount of carbon released into the atmosphere from lakes and rivers in Southern Québec, Canada, is very old – approximately 1,000 to 3,000 years old – challenging the current models of long-term carbon storage in lakes and rivers. http://phys.org/news268577680.html Space & Earth Thu, 04 Oct 2012 13:54:57 EST news268577680 (Phys.org)—A low-cost new material that could lead to innovative technologies to tackle global warming has been discovered by scientists at The University of Nottingham. http://phys.org/news267692336.html Chemistry Mon, 24 Sep 2012 07:59:10 EST news267692336 New research shows that in a bid to derive energy from iron, bacteria may be directly responsible for kicking off a cascade of reactions that reduce rocks to soil and free biologically important minerals. http://phys.org/news267433131.html Biology Fri, 21 Sep 2012 07:59:27 EST news267433131 The U.S. federal government is significantly underestimating the costs of carbon pollution because it is using a faulty analytical model, according to a new study published in the Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences. http://phys.org/news267104153.html Space & Earth Mon, 17 Sep 2012 12:39:16 EST news267104153 (Phys.org)—Like tiny ships finding port in a storm, carbon atoms dock with the greater island of graphene in a predictable manner. But until recent research by scientists at Rice University, nobody had the tools to make that kind of prediction. http://phys.org/news265981713.html Nanotechnology Tue, 04 Sep 2012 12:48:47 EST news265981713 (Phys.org)—Millions of people are in danger of going hungry if the construction of dams on the lower Mekong River in South-East Asia goes ahead, according to research from The Australian National University. http://phys.org/news265277974.html Space & Earth Mon, 27 Aug 2012 09:50:01 EST news265277974 (Phys.org) -- Moqui marbles, unusual balls of rock that can be found rolling around the southwestern U.S. sandstone regions, were formed roughly 2 million years ago with the help of microorganisms. This discovery by a University of Nebraska-Lincoln research team has implications for finding life on Mars and for better understanding Earth's past. http://phys.org/news264319002.html Space & Earth Thu, 16 Aug 2012 06:56:59 EST news264319002 (Phys.org) -- To reduce fossil fuel consumption while simultaneously improving the carbon footprint of fuels and chemical products, the use of carbon dioxide as a carbon source could be an attractive option. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, German researchers have now introduced a method by which carbon dioxide can be catalytically hydrogenated to make formic acid. In this process, carbon dioxide is not only a starting material; it also acts—in a supercritical state—as the solvent for separation of the product. This integrated approach makes it possible to directly obtain free formic acid as the product in a single step for the first time. http://phys.org/news263467069.html Chemistry Mon, 06 Aug 2012 10:18:35 EST news263467069 (Phys.org) -- Fossil-based resources are declining and their use releases the greenhouse gas CO2. Both of these problems could be significantly mitigated if we could use CO2 as a carbon source for the production of fuels and chemical feedstocks. Various different approaches are currently being explored for the catalytic conversion of CO2 to methanol (CH3OH). In the journal Angewandte Chemie, German researchers have now introduced a new possibility to conduct this stepwise reaction of CO2 in solution with help of a homogeneous catalyst. http://phys.org/news262356019.html Chemistry Tue, 24 Jul 2012 13:41:06 EST news262356019 No matter how you drill it, using natural gas as an energy source is a smart move in the battle against global climate change and a good transition step on the road toward low-carbon energy from wind, solar and nuclear power. http://phys.org/news261140156.html Space & Earth Tue, 10 Jul 2012 11:57:18 EST news261140156 (Phys.org) -- During photosynthesis, plants capture solar energy and use it to drive chemical reactions. Their carbon source is the CO2 in air. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, American scientists have now proposed a new reaction mechanism that binds CO2 and strongly resembles photosynthesis. In this process, light energy is captured by silicon nanowires. It was successfully used to synthesize two precursors of the anti-inflammatory, pain reducing drugs ibuprofen and naproxen. http://phys.org/news258718211.html Chemistry Tue, 12 Jun 2012 12:00:02 EST news258718211 In a new study reported in Nature, climate scientist Rob DeConto of the University of Massachusetts Amherst and colleagues elsewhere propose a simple new mechanism to explain the source of carbon that fed a series of extreme warming events about 55 million years ago, the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), and a sequence of similar, smaller warming events afterward. http://phys.org/news252759620.html Space & Earth Wed, 04 Apr 2012 13:00:13 EST news252759620 Studies of bacteria first found in Yellowstone's hot springs are furthering efforts at the Department of Energy's BioEnergy Science Center toward commercially viable ethanol production from crops such as switchgrass. http://phys.org/news248455703.html Biology Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:28:36 EST news248455703 (PhysOrg.com) -- Under better conditions coastal ecosystems might be the ace in the hole to mitigate climate change, but human activity is significantly weakening their ability to naturally dampen the impacts of rising CO2 levels according to a new study by Sydney environmental scientists. http://phys.org/news240657522.html Space & Earth Wed, 16 Nov 2011 09:18:51 EST news240657522 (AP) -- The global output of heat-trapping carbon dioxide jumped by the biggest amount on record, the U.S. Department of Energy calculated, a sign of how feeble the world's efforts are at slowing man-made global warming. http://phys.org/news239551651.html Space & Earth Thu, 03 Nov 2011 15:30:01 EST news239551651 Scientists can make graphene out of just about anything with carbon -- even Girl Scout Cookies. http://phys.org/news231675539.html Nanotechnology Thu, 04 Aug 2011 11:24:44 EST news231675539 A new approach to growing graphene greatly reduces problems that have plagued researchers in the past and clears a path to the crystalline form of graphite's use in sophisticated electronic devices of tomorrow. http://phys.org/news230227532.html Nanotechnology Mon, 18 Jul 2011 17:05:45 EST news230227532 Physicists at The University of Texas at Austin have designed a new system that, when fully developed, would use fusion to eliminate most of the transuranic waste produced by nuclear power plants. http://phys.org/news152284917.html Physics Tue, 27 Jan 2009 13:22:37 EST news152284917