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En menos tiempo del necesario para crear una planta de energía nuclear, las baterías de litio-aire podrían estar ayudando a las fuentes eólicas y solares a hacer obsoletos al carbón, al petróleo y a la energía nuclear, dicen los científicos de Cambridge. Cinco veces más ligero y cinco veces más barato que las baterías de litio actuales, las baterías de Li-aire abrirían el camino a nuestro 100% renovable futuro.

Un nuevo estudio realizado por científicos del Reino Unido y Francia ha encontrado que el colapso del hielo antártico tendrá graves consecuencias en cuanto a la elevación del nivel del mar en los próximos doscientos años… aunque no tanto como algunos han sugerido.

Este estudio, publicado esta semana en la revista Nature, utiliza un modelo de capa de hielo para predecir las consecuencias de la retirada inestable del hielo, que estudios recientes sugieren que ha comenzado en la Antártida Occidental.

Mars is blanketed by a thin, mostly carbon dioxide atmosphere -- one that is far too thin to keep water from freezing or quickly evaporating. However, geological evidence has led scientists to conclude that ancient Mars was once a warmer, wetter place than it is today. To produce a more temperate climate, several researchers have suggested that the planet was once shrouded in a much thicker carbon dioxide atmosphere. For decades that left the question, "Where did all the carbon go?"

The solar wind stripped away much of Mars' ancient atmosphere and is still removing tons of it every day. But scientists have been puzzled by why they haven't found more carbon -- in the form of carbonate -- captured into Martian rocks. They have also sought to explain the ratio of heavier and lighter carbons in the modern Martian atmosphere.

The intensity of Earth’s geomagnetic field has been dropping for the past 200 years, at a rate that some scientists suspect may cause the field to bottom out in 2,000 years, temporarily leaving the planet unprotected against damaging charged particles from the sun. This drop in intensity is associated with periodic geomagnetic field reversals, in which the Earth’s North and South magnetic poles flip polarity, and it could last for several thousand years before returning to a stable, shielding intensity.

With a weakened geomagnetic field, increased solar radiation might damage electronics — from individual pacemakers to entire power grids — and could induce genetic mutations. A reversal may also affect the navigation of animals that use Earth’s magnetic field as an internal compass.

It’s never been easier for us to get where we want to go, but our growing transportation systems mixed with development are taking a serious toll on wildlife, from tiny amphibians to large mammals, and pushing some who are already in danger of disappearing even closer to the brink.

A new report from the Endangered Species Coalition, No Room to Roam: 10 American Species in Need of Connectivity and Corridor, focuses on imperiled species who need just what the title says: room to roam.