A new study led by the University of Oxford has overturned the view that natural rock weathering acts as a CO2 sink, indicating instead that this can also act as a large CO2 source, rivaling that of volcanoes. The results, ...
Earth Sciences
Oct 4, 2023
3
2031
PFAS, a group of manufactured chemicals commonly used since the 1940s, are called "forever chemicals" for a reason. Bacteria can't eat them; fire can't incinerate them; and water can't dilute them. And, if these toxic chemicals ...
Analytical Chemistry
Aug 18, 2022
1
7717
MIT engineers have discovered a new way of generating electricity using tiny carbon particles that can create a current simply by interacting with liquid surrounding them.
Nanophysics
Jun 7, 2021
5
18398
Around 4 billion years ago there lived a microbe called LUCA: the Last Universal Common Ancestor. There is evidence that it could have lived a somewhat 'alien' lifestyle, hidden away deep underground in iron-sulfur rich hydrothermal ...
Evolution
Dec 18, 2018
38
464
Organic compounds called thiophenes are found on Earth in coal, crude oil and oddly enough, in white truffles, the mushroom beloved by epicureans and wild pigs.
Space Exploration
Mar 5, 2020
36
5483
For the first 2 billion years of Earth's history, there was barely any oxygen in the air. While some microbes were photosynthesizing by the latter part of this period, oxygen had not yet accumulated at levels that would impact ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 14, 2022
2
874
Under pressure from frequent flyers alarmed over climate change, the airline industry says it is "hellbent" on reducing emissions—but the technology needed to drastically reduce its carbon footprint is still out of reach.
Environment
Jun 9, 2019
22
454
(Phys.org)—A group of US researchers studying some of the oldest rocks in the world in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, say they have found the oldest traces of life on Earth, dated at 3.49 billion years old.
Every so often, the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud throw galactic snowballs made up of ice, dust and rocks our way: 4.6-billion-year-old leftovers from the formation of the solar system.
Astronomy
Dec 20, 2021
4
1220
MIT geologists have found that a clay mineral on the seafloor, called smectite, has a surprisingly powerful ability to sequester carbon over millions of years.
Earth Sciences
Nov 30, 2023
1
2910
