An MIT analysis of how best to reduce fine particulate matter in the atmosphere has brought some surprising results. Due to past regulations, levels of key emissions that form those harmful particles are now lower than they were a decade ago, causing some experts to suggest that cutting them further might have little effect. Not true, concludes the MIT study. Using an atmospheric model, the researchers found that new policies to restrict the same emissions would be even more effective now than they were in the past. Further analysis elucidated the chemical processes — some unexpected — that explain their findings. Their results demonstrate the importance of tailoring air pollution policies to specific situations and of addressing a variety of emissions in a coordinated way.
articles
Después de décadas de intentos de limpieza, los lagos del mundo todavÃa sufren de la contaminación por fósforo
Destacados científicos advierten: la contaminación del fósforo es una preocupación importante. Tenemos que acelerar los tratamientos de recuperación de los lagos, o aceptar la mala calidad del agua dulce. En una serie de estudios publicados en un número especial de la revista Water Research, los principales científicos evalúan cómo controlar la contaminación por fósforo en los lagos.
Monkeys in Brazil have used stone tools for hundreds of years at least
New archaeological evidence suggests that Brazilian capuchins have been using stone tools to crack open cashew nuts for at least 700 years, and the new research paper asks whether human behaviour was influenced through watching the monkeys.
Researchers say, to date, they have found the earliest archaeological examples of monkey tool use outside of Africa. In their paper, published in Current Biology, they suggest it raises questions about the origins and spread of tool use in New World monkeys and, controversially perhaps, prompts us to look at whether early human behaviour was influenced by their observations of monkeys using stones as tools. The research was led by Dr Michael Haslam of the University of Oxford, who in previous papers presents archaeological evidence showing that wild macaques in coastal Thailand used stone tools for decades at least to open shellfish and nuts.
Los investigadores evalúan los riesgos asociados con la ola de calor del cambio climático
Combinando los datos del clima y la mortalidad, los investigadores han estimado que 315 muertes en Londres y 735 muertes en el centro de París pueden ser fuertemente vinculados a la ola de calor en 2003, con temperaturas récord en toda Europa. Tomando un paso más allá su análisis, se determina que 64 (± 3) muertes por el conjunto de datos de Londres y 506 (± 51) muertes por el conjunto de datos de París son atribuibles al cambio climático antropogénico
Fruit and veg give you the feel-good factor
University of Warwick research indicates that eating more fruit and vegetables can substantially increase people's later happiness levels.
Published in the prestigious American Journal of Public Health, the study is one of the first major scientific attempts to explore psychological well-being beyond the traditional finding that fruit and vegetables can reduce risk of cancer and heart attacks.
Happiness benefits were detected for each extra daily portion of fruit and vegetables up to 8 portions per day.
NASA camera catches moon 'photobombing' Earth
For only the second time in a year, a NASA camera aboard the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite captured a view of the moon as it moved in front of the sunlit side of Earth.
"For the second time in the life of DSCOVR, the moon moved between the spacecraft and Earth," said Adam Szabo, DSCOVR project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "The project recorded this event on July 5 with the same cadence and spatial resolution as the first 'lunar photobomb' of last year."
The images were captured by NASA's Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC), a four-megapixel CCD camera and telescope on the DSCOVR satellite orbiting 1 million miles from Earth. From its position between the sun and Earth, DSCOVR conducts its primary mission of real-time solar wind monitoring for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).