https://phys.org/ en-us Latest news from Institute of Physics "Creativity for Scientists and Engineers: A practical guide" explores how scientists can enrich their individual and collective creativity, and so generate more, and better, ideas. https://phys.org/news/2022-10-eureka-moments-science-myth-ebook.html Other Wed, 12 Oct 2022 15:20:03 EDT news584806801 The poles are warming several times faster than the global average, causing record smashing heatwaves that were reported earlier this year in both the Arctic and Antarctic. Melting ice and collapsing glaciers at high latitudes would accelerate sea level rise around the planet. Fortunately, refreezing the poles by reducing incoming sunlight would be both feasible and remarkably cheap, according to new research published today in Environmental Research Communications. https://phys.org/news/2022-09-refreezing-earth-poles-feasible-cheap.html Environment Fri, 16 Sep 2022 09:46:07 EDT news582540363 A new study has revealed that exposure to pollutants from petroleum refineries has a strong link to stroke rates across the Southern United States. The results were published today in Environmental Research Letters. https://phys.org/news/2022-09-residential-exposure-petroleum-refining-southern.html Environment Thu, 08 Sep 2022 04:00:53 EDT news581828446 A new study out today in the first issue of Environmental Research: Ecology assessed effects of past and current climate variability on global forest productivity. The work highlights sensitive regions where forests may be most at risk as the planet warms and temperatures become more extreme. The framework can help set conservation priorities, support forest adaptation efforts, and improve carbon accounting. https://phys.org/news/2022-08-exposure-temperature-variability-forests-cope.html Earth Sciences Tue, 30 Aug 2022 13:06:04 EDT news581083561 Over half (53%) of physical science researchers want to publish open access (OA) but 62% say a lack of monies from funding agencies prevents them from doing so. https://phys.org/news/2022-08-lack-grants-funding-agencies-biggest.html Other Mon, 22 Aug 2022 15:39:32 EDT news580401570 A new study has found dry lightning outbreaks are the leading cause of some of the largest wildfire outbreaks in modern California history. Despite this, dry lightning has remained largely understudied across this region—until now. https://phys.org/news/2022-08-lightning-destructive-costly-wildfires-california.html Earth Sciences Mon, 08 Aug 2022 12:29:03 EDT news579180541 Over the past 60 years, the global forest area has declined by 81.7 million hectares, a loss that contributed to the more than 60% decline in global forest area per capita. This loss threatens the future of biodiversity and impacts the lives of 1.6 billion people worldwide, according to a new study published today by IOP Publishing in the journal Environmental Research Letters. https://phys.org/news/2022-08-global-forest-area-capita-decreased.html Environment Mon, 01 Aug 2022 04:11:29 EDT news578545883 A new global study from AIP Publishing, the American Physical Society (APS), IOP Publishing (IOPP) and Optica Publishing Group (formerly OSA) indicates that the majority of early career researchers (ECRs) want to publish open access (OA) but they need grants from funding agencies to do so. https://phys.org/news/2022-07-majority-early-career-physical-science.html General Physics Thu, 21 Jul 2022 15:24:01 EDT news577635838 The imbalance of energy on Earth is the most important metric in order to gauge the size and effects of climate change, according to a new study published today in the first issue of Environmental Research: Climate. https://phys.org/news/2022-07-earth-energy-imbalance-critical-global.html Environment Mon, 04 Jul 2022 03:51:59 EDT news576125512 Attribution science has led to major advances in linking the impacts of extreme weather and human-induced climate change, but large gaps in the published research still conceal the full extent of climate change damage, warns a new study released today in the first issue of Environmental Research: Climate. https://phys.org/news/2022-06-climate-affecting-extreme-weather-events.html Environment Tue, 28 Jun 2022 04:24:14 EDT news575609049 The top ten per cent most valuable homes in the western United States are 70% more likely to be in high wildfire hazard areas than median-value properties, measured by county, according to a new study published today in Environmental Research Letters.  https://phys.org/news/2022-05-wealthiest-homeowners-wildfire-hazard.html Environment Thu, 26 May 2022 05:01:56 EDT news572760081 Ceasing new oil, gas, and coal development is not enough—already built extraction facilities must be prematurely decommissioned—warns a new study released today in Environmental Research Letters. https://phys.org/news/2022-05-oil-gas-coal-sites.html Environment Tue, 17 May 2022 08:59:03 EDT news571996741 Banana peels hold the key to reducing tons of food waste. A new study released in Physical Biology reveals how the browning of this household staple can be explained and modeled. https://phys.org/news/2022-05-banana-tackle-food.html General Physics Wed, 11 May 2022 05:24:21 EDT news571465454 There are practical limits to the height at which aerosols may be deployed in the atmosphere to deflect incoming sunlight and countervail global warming. Very high-altitude injections might be more effective, but such climate intervention comes with substantially increased costs and safety risks, according to new research published today in Environmental Research Communications. https://phys.org/news/2022-03-sky-limit-solar-geoengineering.html Environment Mon, 14 Mar 2022 03:55:36 EDT news566448923 Aviation is responsible for more global warming than implied by its carbon footprint alone. According to new research published today, aviation could consume up one-sixth of the remaining temperature budget required to limit warming to 1.5˚C by 2050. The article, published in Environmental Research Letters, suggests that emissions produced by the aviation industry must be reduced each year if the sector's emissions are not to increase warming further. https://phys.org/news/2021-11-aviation-present-day-contribution-human-induced-global.html Environment Thu, 04 Nov 2021 05:00:01 EDT news555220706 Scientific support for the link between human activity and climate change has strengthened to the extent that there is now near universal agreement. Whereas in 1996, reports hedged statements with phrases such as "the balance of evidence suggests…" (Houston et al 1996), this evolved to "it is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century" (Qin et al., 2014) and the more recent observation that "human influence on the climate system is now an established fact" (2021 IPCC Technical Summary). https://phys.org/news/2021-10-scientific-agreement-anthropogenic-nature-climate.html Environment Wed, 20 Oct 2021 08:44:41 EDT news553938276 Researchers at the Stockholm Environment Institute (Somerville and Seattle, U.S.) and Earth Track, Inc. (Cambridge, MA, U.S.) examined 16 subsidies and environmental regulatory exemptions, providing one of the first estimates of how government subsidies will affect investment decisions for new gas fields in the coming decade. Their results are published on 29 July 2021 in the IOP Publishing journal, Environmental Research Letters. https://phys.org/news/2021-07-subsidies-boost-profits-oil-gas.html Environment Thu, 29 Jul 2021 05:39:30 EDT news546755965 A new study shows how urbanization has influenced anthropogenic CO2 and air pollutant emissions across all world regions, by making use of the latest developments in the Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR) developed by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. The results show that by 2015 urban centers were the source of a third of global anthropogenic greenhouse gases, and the majority of air pollutant emissions. https://phys.org/news/2021-07-long-term-urban-emissions-decrease-high-income.html Environment Tue, 06 Jul 2021 05:17:08 EDT news544767422 New research has shown that by injecting an alkalinizing agent into the ocean along the length of the Great Barrier Reef, it would be possible, at the present rate of anthropogenic carbon emissions, to offset ten years' worth of ocean acidification. https://phys.org/news/2021-06-acidification-great-barrier-reef-offset.html Environment Tue, 08 Jun 2021 04:00:01 EDT news542342852 Optimistic predictions expect reliable autonomous vehicles to be commercially available by 2030, at a time when mobility is undergoing a profound shift away from traditional modes of transportation and towards door-to-door services. Previous analysis suggested that public transport will lose market share to autonomous vehicles, but the environmental impact of changing transport use has hardly been considered. New research shows that the convenience of autonomous vehicles would likely come at an environmental cost. https://phys.org/news/2021-05-environmental-trade-offs-autonomous-vehicles.html Environment Tue, 18 May 2021 04:00:02 EDT news540526670 The building of new homes continues in flood-prone parts of England and Wales, and losses from flooding remain high. A new study, which looked at a recent decade of house building, concluded that a disproportionate number of homes built in struggling or declining neighborhoods will end up in high flood-risk areas due to climate change. https://phys.org/news/2021-04-homes-england-wales-disadvantaged-areas.html Environment Tue, 27 Apr 2021 05:00:01 EDT news538717480 A new study shows that if the population were fixed at current levels, the risk of population displacement due to river floods would rise by ~50% for each degree of global warming. However, if population increases are taken into account, the relative global flood displacement risk is significantly higher. https://phys.org/news/2021-03-degree-global-population-displacement.html Environment Wed, 24 Mar 2021 05:00:01 EDT news535778682 The research, by an international team from the Autonomous University of Madrid and the Technical University of Denmark, used 3D printing to create scaffolds for engineered flat brain organoids. The scaffolds allowed the brain organoid size to be significantly increased and after 20 days, self-generated folding was observed. Their results are published in the IOP Publishing journal Biofabrication. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-03-flat-brain-organoids-grown-3d-printed.html Neuroscience Tue, 16 Mar 2021 12:03:39 EDT news535115012 Effective governance and investment decisions need to be informed by reliable data, not only about where groundwater exists, but also the rate at which groundwater is replenished. For the first time using ground measurements, a recent study has quantified groundwater recharge rates across the whole of Africa—averaged over a fifty-year period—which will help to identify the sustainability of water resources for African nations. https://phys.org/news/2021-02-groundwater-recharge-africa.html Environment Tue, 16 Feb 2021 04:47:48 EST news532673260 A 30-year high in East African rainfall during 2018 and 2019 resulted in rising water levels and widespread flooding. The new study shows that emissions of methane—the second most important greenhouse gas—from flooded East African wetlands were substantially larger following these extreme rainfall events. https://phys.org/news/2021-02-huge-methane-emission-extreme-rainfall.html Earth Sciences Wed, 03 Feb 2021 10:35:25 EST news531570922 New research into this question shows that the second wave of an epidemic is very different if a population has a homogenous distribution of contacts, compared to the scenario of subpopulations with diverse number of contacts. https://phys.org/news/2020-12-phases-quarantine.html General Physics Wed, 23 Dec 2020 04:00:01 EST news527918156 In the far north, the swelling Arctic Ocean inundated vast swaths of coastal tundra and steppe ecosystems. Though the ocean water was only a few degrees above freezing, it started to thaw the permafrost beneath it, exposing billions of tons of organic matter to microbial breakdown. The decomposing organic matter began producing CO2 and CH4, two of the most important greenhouse gases. https://phys.org/news/2020-12-groggy-climate-giant-subsea-permafrost.html Earth Sciences Tue, 22 Dec 2020 04:00:01 EST news527779373 The impact on climate change would only be modest if countries in the process of development were to delay efforts to reduce their carbon emissions until they reach a certain level of economic growth. https://phys.org/news/2020-12-climate-goals.html Environment Tue, 15 Dec 2020 04:10:14 EST news527227806 China's success in improving air quality by cutting polluting emissions may have a negative knock-on effect on climate change overall, a new study has found. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-china-air-pollutant-reduction-success.html Environment Tue, 29 Sep 2020 03:47:55 EDT news520570069 A new global peer review study from IOP Publishing has found that the imbalance in the distribution of peer review continues to be felt by Western and more experienced reviewers. https://phys.org/news/2020-08-reveals-global-imbalance-peer.html Other Thu, 27 Aug 2020 09:30:02 EDT news517738759