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. (PhysOrg.com) -- Methane, a potent greenhouse gas, seeps naturally from the seafloor in many places around the planet, including in the Gulf of Mexico. http://phys.org/news225459593.html Space & Earth Tue, 24 May 2011 12:40:11 EST news225459593 Indiana University Bloomington scientists will use knowledge about methane production by cold-weather microbes on Earth to help NASA zero in on evidence for similar, carbon-based microbes that could have evolved on Mars, the Jovian moon Europa, or Saturn's Enceladus. http://phys.org/news224335428.html Space & Earth Wed, 11 May 2011 12:25:09 EST news224335428 Australian scientists are working to breed a sheep that belches less, as they look for ways to reduce harmful methane emissions from the country's woolly flocks, a researcher said Sunday. http://phys.org/news178722388.html Biology Sun, 29 Nov 2009 13:20:01 EST news178722388 Scientists from the Marine Biogeochemistry and Geology and Geophysics sections of the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) organized and led a team of university and government scientists on an Arctic expedition to initiate methane hydrate exploration in the Beaufort Sea and determine the spatial variation of sediment contribution to Arctic climate change. http://phys.org/news177948181.html Space & Earth Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:08:11 EST news177948181 A new study indicates that major chemicals most often cited as leading causes of climate change, such as carbon dioxide and methane, are outclassed in their warming potential by compounds receiving less attention. http://phys.org/news177679355.html Chemistry Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:23:18 EST news177679355 A dangerous level of carbon dioxide and methane gas haunts Lake Kivu, the freshwater lake system bordering Rwanda and the Republic of Congo. http://phys.org/news177606996.html Space & Earth Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:50:02 EST news177606996 It is currently estimated that natural gas resources will be exhausted in 130 years; however, those reserves where extraction is cost-effective will only flow for another 60 years or so. http://phys.org/news177164574.html Chemistry Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:00:01 EST news177164574 (AP) -- Bernice and Jerry Angely like to show visitors the singed T-shirt a friend was wearing when their water well exploded and shot flames 30 feet high. http://phys.org/news176354190.html Space & Earth Mon, 02 Nov 2009 03:17:21 EST news176354190 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the University of Washington and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have taken an important step in converting methane gas to a liquid, potentially making it more useful as a fuel and as a source for making other chemicals. http://phys.org/news175440723.html Chemistry Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:32:49 EST news175440723 An abundant greenhouse gas could someday help clean up the earth. Converting methane to liquid methanol could produce clean, low-cost fuel and prevent the potent greenhouse gas from entering the atmosphere. Exploiting methane in this way could also produce a hydrogen source for fuel cells and yield other industrial applications. http://phys.org/news175434422.html Chemistry Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:10:01 EST news175434422 (AP) -- The smell of manure hangs over Greeley as it has for half a century. These days it's more than just a potent reminder of the region's agricultural roots and the hundreds of thousands of cattle raised on the city's outskirts. The stench smells like an opportunity. http://phys.org/news175017016.html Technology Sat, 17 Oct 2009 17:00:02 EST news175017016 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have identified an unexpected metabolic ability in a symbiotic community of deep-sea microorganisms. It may help solve a lingering mystery about the world's nitrogen cycle. http://phys.org/news174842972.html Space & Earth Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:30:19 EST news174842972 The National Institute of Standards and Technology has developed a free, online collection of data on the properties of gas hydrates, naturally occurring crystalline materials that are a potential energy resource and also may affect the Earth's climate. http://phys.org/news174140874.html Chemistry Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:00:02 EST news174140874 With more than 2 million cows on 68,000 farms, Missouri is the third-largest beef producer in the nation. Due to rising feed prices, farmers are struggling to provide feed for the cows that contribute more than $1 billion to Missouri's economy. University of Missouri researcher Monty Kerley, professor of animal nutrition in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, is studying how cows might be able to gain more weight while consuming less, potentially saving farmers up to 40 percent of feed costs. http://phys.org/news173611731.html Biology Thu, 01 Oct 2009 10:40:02 EST news173611731 Worldwide, thousands of workers die every year from mining accidents, and instantaneous coal outbursts in underground mines are among the major killers. But although scientists have been investigating coal outbursts for more than 150 years, the precise mechanism is still unknown. http://phys.org/news173595012.html Space & Earth Thu, 01 Oct 2009 06:40:01 EST news173595012 A team of international scientists led by Mirjam Langhans, from the German Aerospace Center (DLR), will present first results of a global analysis of spatial patterns, occurrence and origin of river channels on Titan at the European Planetary Science Congress in Potsdam, Germany, on Wednesday 16 September. http://phys.org/news172306246.html Space & Earth Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:50:08 EST news172306246 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists worry that rising global temperatures accompanied by melting permafrost in arctic regions will initiate the release of underground methane into the atmosphere. Once released, that methane gas would speed up global warming by trapping the Earth's heat radiation about 20 times more efficiently than does the better-known greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide. http://phys.org/news171116588.html Space & Earth Wed, 02 Sep 2009 14:00:01 EST news171116588 (AP) -- Only a squawk from a sandhill crane broke the Arctic silence - and a low gurgle of bubbles, a watery whisper of trouble repeated in countless spots around the polar world. http://phys.org/news170863166.html Space & Earth Sun, 30 Aug 2009 15:10:02 EST news170863166 (PhysOrg.com) -- As a possible energy source for fuel cells or a substitute for gasoline, methanol is increasingly drawing attention beyond its importance as a feedstock for chemical industry. It can be stored much more efficiently and cheaply than hydrogen and could be distributed by way of the existing network of fuelling stations. The disadvantage is the truly complex synthesis of methanol from natural gas via a detour through synthesis gas. One interesting alternative that was pursued and then abandoned is known as the direct low-temperature oxidation of methane to methanol. http://phys.org/news170052907.html Chemistry Fri, 21 Aug 2009 05:58:15 EST news170052907 Scientists at the University of Calgary have found that methane emission by plants could be a bigger problem in global warming than previously thought. http://phys.org/news169733631.html Biology Mon, 17 Aug 2009 13:14:25 EST news169733631 The warming of an Arctic current over the last 30 years has triggered the release of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from methane hydrate stored in the sediment beneath the seabed. http://phys.org/news169466632.html Space & Earth Fri, 14 Aug 2009 11:04:26 EST news169466632 For all its similarities to Earth -- clouds that pour rain (albeit liquid methane not liquid water) onto the surface producing lakes and rivers, vast dune fields in desert-like regions, plus a smoggy orange atmosphere that looks like Los Angeles's during fire season -- Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is generally "a very bland place, weatherwise," says Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology. http://phys.org/news169302219.html Space & Earth Wed, 12 Aug 2009 13:33:26 EST news169302219 (PhysOrg.com) -- Carbon nanotubes — tiny, rolled-up tubes of graphite — promise to add speed to electronic circuits and strength to materials like carbon composites, used in airplanes and racecars. A major problem, however, is that the metals used to grow nanotubes react unfavorably with materials found in circuits and composites. But now, researchers at MIT have for the first time shown that nanotubes can grow without a metal catalyst. The researchers demonstrate that zirconium oxide, the same compound found in cubic zirconia “fake diamonds,” can also grow nanotubes, but without the unwanted side effects of metal. http://phys.org/news169130384.html Nanotechnology Mon, 10 Aug 2009 13:40:20 EST news169130384 Mars may not be as dormant as scientists once thought. The 2004 discovery of methane means that either there is life on Mars, or that volcanic activity continues to generate heat below the martian surface. ESA plans to find out which it is. Either outcome is big news for a planet once thought to be biologically and geologically inactive. http://phys.org/news169120520.html Space & Earth Mon, 10 Aug 2009 11:10:03 EST news169120520 Saturn's haze-enshrouded moon Titan turns out to have much in common with Earth in the way that weather and geology shape its terrain, according to two pieces of research to be presented at the XXVII General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Wind, rain, volcanoes, tectonics and other Earth-like processes all sculpt features on Titan's complex and varied surface in an environment more than 100 C colder on average than Antarctica. http://phys.org/news168791012.html Space & Earth Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:10:02 EST news168791012 A previously unrecognized player in the process by which gases produced by trees and other plants become aerosols—microscopically small particles in the atmosphere—has been discovered by a research team led by scientists at the California Institute of Technology. http://phys.org/news168786970.html Space & Earth Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:17:13 EST news168786970 The oil and gas that fuels our homes and cars started out as living organisms that died, were compressed, and heated under heavy layers of sediments in the Earth's crust. Scientists have debated for years whether some of these hydrocarbons could also have been created deeper in the Earth and formed without organic matter. Now for the first time, scientists have found that ethane and heavier hydrocarbons can be synthesized under the pressure-temperature conditions of the upper mantle —the layer of Earth under the crust and on top of the core. The research was conducted by scientists at the Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory, with colleagues from Russia and Sweden, and is published in the July 26, advanced on-line issue of Nature Geoscience. http://phys.org/news167835116.html Space & Earth Sun, 26 Jul 2009 14:10:01 EST news167835116 (PhysOrg.com) -- As energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions continually rise in the United States, unconventional natural gas sources coupled with advances in carbon sequestration may be the solution, according to Stanford University scientists. http://phys.org/news166808069.html Space & Earth Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:35:28 EST news166808069 A runaway spurt of global warming 55 million years ago turned Earth into a hothouse but how this happened remains worryingly unclear, scientists said on Monday. http://phys.org/news166715232.html Space & Earth Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:47:39 EST news166715232 Iron and manganese compounds, in addition to sulfate, may play an important role in converting methane to carbon dioxide and eventually carbonates in the Earth's oceans, according to a team of researchers looking at anaerobic sediments. These same compounds may have been key to methane reduction in the early, oxygenless days of the planet's atmosphere. http://phys.org/news166367681.html Space & Earth Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:15:22 EST news166367681