Over-fertilization of agricultural fields is a huge environmental problem. Excess phosphorus from fertilized cropland frequently finds its way into nearby rivers and lakes. A resulting boom of aquatic plant growth can cause ...
Biotechnology
Sep 2, 2019
0
247
Clues from Canadian rocks formed billions of year ago reveal a previously unknown loss of life even greater than that of the mass extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, when Earth lost nearly three-quarters of ...
Earth Sciences
Aug 29, 2019
5
1957
Water is everywhere on Earth, but maybe that just gives it more space to hide its secrets. Its latest surprise, Stanford researchers report Aug. 26 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is that microscopic droplets ...
Materials Science
Aug 26, 2019
5
4786
Using rare oxygen molecules trapped in air bubbles in old ice and snow, U.S. and French scientists have answered a long-standing question: How much have "bad" ozone levels increased since the start of the Industrial Revolution?
Earth Sciences
Jun 12, 2019
3
218
Science fiction stories are chock full of terraforming schemes and oxygen generators for a very good reason—we humans need molecular oxygen (O2) to breathe, and space is essentially devoid of it. Even on other planets with ...
Materials Science
May 24, 2019
2
1192
It is well known that life on Earth and the geology of the planet are intertwined, but a new study provides fresh evidence for just how deep—literally—that connection goes. Geoscientists at Caltech and UC Berkeley have ...
Earth Sciences
May 10, 2019
8
578
Extreme fluctuations in atmospheric oxygen levels corresponded with evolutionary surges and extinctions in animal biodiversity during the Cambrian explosion, finds new study led by UCL and the University of Leeds.
Earth Sciences
May 6, 2019
3
551
Modern life relies on plastic. This lightweight, adaptable product is a cornerstone of packaging, medical equipment, the aerospace and automotive industries and more. But plastic waste remains a problem as it degrades in ...
Polymers
Apr 10, 2024
4
115
Research has uncovered important new insights into the evolution of oxygen, carbon, and other vital elements over the entire history of Earth—and it could help assess which other planets can develop life, ranging from plants ...
Astrobiology
Apr 10, 2024
0
86
Photosynthesis is the central process by which plants build up biomass using light, water, and carbon dioxide from the air. Gaining a detailed understanding of this process makes it possible to modify and thus optimize it—for ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Apr 8, 2024
0
50
