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This Saturday at a conference in Quebec, Canada an international research team will present the first online data portal on global permafrost. In the Global Terrestrial Network for Permafrost researchers first collect all the existing permafrost temperature and active thickness layer data from Arctic, Antarctic and mountain permafrost regions and then make it freely available for download. This new portal can serve as an early warning system for researchers and decision-makers around the globe. A detailed description of the data collection is published today in an open access article on the Earth System Science Data portal.

Although the world's permafrost is one of the most important pieces in Earth's climate-system puzzle, to date it has been missing in most climate models. The reason: data on temperature and the active layer thickness were neither comprehensive nor were they available in a standard format suitable for modelling. With the new Global Terrestrial Network for Permafrost (GTN-P), scientists from 25 countries have now filled this gap in the data.

Rutgers engineers have developed a breakthrough device that can significantly reduce the cost of sophisticated lab tests for medical disorders and diseases, such as HIV, Lyme disease and syphilis.

The new device uses miniaturized channels and valves to replace “benchtop” assays – tests that require large samples of blood or other fluids and expensive chemicals that lab technicians manually mix in trays of tubes or plastic plates with cup-like depressions.

“The main advantage is cost – these assays are done in labs and clinics everywhere,” said Mehdi Ghodbane, who earned his doctorate in biomedical engineering at Rutgers and now works in biopharmaceutical research and development at GlaxoSmithKline.

Sometimes it is good to take stock, sit back and take a look at the wider picture in relation to the electric car market. Each day seems to bring yet another raft of criticism, concerns and cheap shots at an industry which has come on in leaps and bounds over the last decade. While where we are today is certainly some way from the finish line there is no doubt that amazing progress has been made with the likes of Tesla pushing the industry to new highs.

So, why are people so negative about electric cars and unable or unwilling to appreciate the technology which it has created?

Al igual que las hojas de los maples de Nueva Inglaterra, el fitoplancton, las microalgas en la base de la mayor parte de las cadenas alimenticias oceánicas, realizan la fotosíntesis cuando se exponen a la luz solar. En el proceso, absorben dióxido de carbono de la atmósfera, convirtiéndolo a hidratos de carbono y oxígeno. Muchas especies de fitoplancton también liberan sulfuro de dimetilo (DMS) a la atmósfera, donde forma aerosoles de sulfato, que pueden reflejar la luz del sol directamente o aumentar la cobertura de nubes y la reflectividad, lo que resulta en un efecto de enfriamiento. La capacidad del fitoplancton para eliminar el dióxido de carbono (CO2) de la atmósfera y producir aerosoles que promueven el enfriamiento adicional ha hecho de la fertilización de los océanos, mediante la dispersión masiva de sulfito de hierro y otros nutrientes que estimulan el crecimiento del fitoplancton, un método de geoingeniería atractiva para reducir el calentamiento mundial.