• Ammonia Emissions Unlikely To Be Causing Extreme China Haze

    As China struggles to find ways to remedy the noxious haze that lingers over Beijing and other cities in the winter, researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology have cast serious doubt on one proposed cause: high levels of ammonia in the air.

    The wintertime air pollution has gained attention in the scientific community in recent years, prompting some scientists to propose that ammonia, emitted into the air from agricultural activities and automobiles, could be a precursor that strongly promotes the formation of the haze.

    Georgia Tech researchers countered that theory in a study published September 21 in the journal Scientific Reports. The study was sponsored by the National Science Foundation.

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  • Road pricing most effective in reducing vehicle emissions

    Motor vehicles are a major source of air pollution in urban areas, and for decades municipal and regional governments have used various traffic management strategies in an effort to reduce vehicle emissions, alongside advancements like cleaner fuel and greener cars.

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  • Air Pollution Exposure on Home-to-School Walking Routes Reduces the Growth of Working Memory in Children

    A study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), an institute supported by the ”la Caixa” Banking Foundation, has demonstrated that exposure to air pollution on the way to school can have damaging effects on children’s cognitive development. The study, published recently in Environmental Pollution, found an association between a reduction in working memory and exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and black carbon during the walking commute to and from school.

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  • York University research ends 50-year speculation on mayfly biology

    Mayfly nymphs are prominent insects in freshwater ecosystems worldwide and an important food source for fish, amphibians, birds and mammals. Unfortunately they are also very sensitive to pollution.

    Researchers in the Faculty of Science have been interested in better understanding why mayfly nymphs are so vulnerable to environmental insult. They believe that the answer lies in the insects’ gills, which help them acquire oxygen from the surrounding water. But little is known about the physiology of these organs.

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  • International partnership aims to improve water quality in India

    A University of Windsor engineering professor is leading the way on an industry-academia collaboration that aims to improve drinking water quality in the capital of India.

    Rajesh Seth has obtained funding through the India-Canada Centre for Innovative Multidisciplinary Partnerships to Accelerate Community Transformation and Sustainability (IC-IMPACTS) — a Canadian Network of Centres of Excellence dedicated to the development of research collaborations between Canada and India.

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  • Are we at a tipping point with weed control?

    If farmers could no longer control weeds with existing herbicides, Americans would take notice pretty quickly

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  • University of Saskatchewan hydrologist Howard Wheater to advise on U.S. national water future

    The panel of leading water science experts is charged with identifying America’s highest-priority water science and resource challenges over the next 25 years, and making recommendations on the strategic water science and research opportunities to address those challenges. It will report its finding in 2018.

    “The loss of life and $180-billion damage from Hurricane Harvey is a wake-up call to the U.S. for the need to better manage water-related threats, including risks from climate change. And the hurricane’s effect on rising gas prices in Canada shows the far-reaching impacts of extreme events on the global economy,” said Wheater who attended the panel’s first meeting in Washington this week.

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  • Scientists Find New Source of Radioactivity from Fukushima Disaster

    Scientists have found a previously unsuspected place where radioactive material from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster has accumulated—in sands and brackish groundwater beneath beaches up to 60 miles away. The sands took up and retained radioactive cesium originating from the disaster in 2011 and have been slowly releasing it back to the ocean.

    “No one is either exposed to, or drinks, these waters, and thus public health is not of primary concern here,” the scientists said in a study published October 2 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. But “this new and unanticipated pathway for the storage and release of radionuclides to the ocean should be taken into account in the management of coastal areas where nuclear power plants are situated.”

     

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  • Stark Evidence: A Warmer World Is Sparking More and Bigger Wildfires

    On a single hot, dry day this summer, an astonishing 140 wildfires leapt to life across British Columbia. “Friday, July 7 was just crazy,” says Mike Flannigan, director of the wildland fire partnership at the University of Alberta. A state of emergency was declared. By the end of summer, more than 1,000 fires had been triggered across the Canadian province, burning a record nearly 3 million acres of forest—nearly 10 times the average in British Columbia over the last decade. As the fires got bigger and hotter, even aerial attacks became useless. “It’s like spitting on a campfire,” says Flannigan. “It doesn’t do much other than making a pretty picture for the newspapers.”

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  • World-First Optical Fiber Laser Promises To Revolutionise Detection Of Gases

    An international research group, led by Macquarie University scientists, has developed a world-first optical fiber technology which can help detect a wide range of gases with unprecedented sensitivity, with potential applications ranging from breath analysis to air-quality monitoring. The discovery, which has been published in the journal Optica, outlines the development of an optical fiber device which encompasses an invisible infrared laser coupled to an ultra-broadband supercontinuum generator – two elements that researchers have never managed to combine to a single optical system before.

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