The cloud is coming back to Earth with a bump. That ethereal place where we store our data, stream our movies, and email the world has a physical presence – in hundreds of giant data centers that are taking a growing toll on the planet.
articles
The Sahara Desert Has Grown 10 Percent Since 1920
The Sahara, the world’s largest desert, stretching more than 3.5 million square miles, has grown by 10 percent over the last century due to a combination of natural climate variations and global warming, according to new research published in the Journal of Climate.
Drained peatlands emit laughing gas
A global study lead by geographers at the University of Tartu has revealed that drained nitrogen-rich peatlands produce laughing gas, which degrades the ozone layer and warms the climate. To avoid this, swamp forests, fens and bogs need to be conserved.
Green technologies environmentally and profit friendly
Companies looking to reduce their environmental impact without negatively affecting profits may want to consider increasing their investment in green technology and other sustainable IT solutions, according to a new study on information technology and sustainability published in Production and Operations Management.
Facilitating Coral Restoration
Global declines of coral reefs — particularly in the Caribbean — have spurred efforts to grow corals in underwater nurseries and transplant them to enable recovery. However, current approaches rarely incorporate the key ecological reef processes critical to facilitating restoration and improving the odds of success.
‘Coffee filter’ helps make new cancer drug 1000 times cheaper
Making drugs cheaper doesn’t always require pricey investments. A joint initiative by researchers from TU Eindhoven, the Dutch company Syncom BV and the Antoni van Leeuwenhoek hospital proves just that. What started out as a Bachelor project at TU/e laid the foundation for a much cheaper production of the promising cancer drug Z-endoxifen.
