| Better Materials Could Build a Green Construction Industry The construction industry consumes truckloads of basic materials, the manufacture of which consumes massive quantities of energy, producing prodigious emissions of greenhouse gases. If materials scientists and entrepreneurs can devise materials that can be fabricated with less energy, climate change could be slowed and many new manufacturing jobs could be created, fulfilling a much-anticipated promise of clean-tech innovation. [More] rss.sciam.com |
What Explains Past Climate Change? Roughly 1,000 years ago, Europe enjoyed several centuries of balmier average temperatures. Dubbed the "Medieval Warm Period," it was the last time before the present that agriculture could flourish in Greenland. This era also shows yet again that changes to natural systems can drive local climate change--and provided fodder for countless misunderstandings about the nature of present day global warming. But new research shows that the MWP, as it is affectionately known in acronym-happy science circles, as well as the "Little Ice Age" that almost immediately followed it (and spelled doom for the Greenland Norse) were likely the result of fluctuations in the sun's strength and the frequency of volcanic eruptions, among other natural causes. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Bad news for bats: Deadly white-nose syndrome still spreading The bat-killing fungal infection known as white-nose syndrome (WNS) has spread into Tennessee for the first time. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) has confirmed that infected bats were found in Worley's cave in Sullivan County, where they had been hibernating. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Handmade Hoops Put Clang Into New York Courts The unbending rims used on New York’s outside basketball courts might seem like a remnant of an earlier era, but blacksmiths are still making them. nytimes.com |
Recipe for High BPA Exposure: Canned Vegetables, Cigarettes and a Cashier Job Pregnant women who eat canned vegetables daily have elevated levels of bisphenol A, an estrogenic chemical found in food containers and other consumer products, according to new research published today.More than 90 percent of pregnant women have detectable levels of bisphenol A, according to the study, and a variety of sources of the chemical were identified. Pregnant women who were exposed to tobacco smoke or worked as cashiers also had above-average concentrations in their bodies. [More] rss.sciam.com |