Recent Comments

    Category Environment/Geology

    First Evidence that Air Pollution Particles and Metals are Reaching the Placenta

    September 28, 2020, Categories  Environment/Geology, Health/Medical

    Black inclusions in placental cells resembling inhaled particulate matter

    Pollution particles, including metals, have been found in the placentas of fifteen women in London, according to research led by Queen Mary University of London.

    The study, funded by Barts Charity and published in the journal Science of The Total Environment, demonstrate that inhaled particulate matter from air pollution can move from the lungs to distant organs, and that it is taken up by certain cells in the human placenta, and potentially the fetus.

    The researchers say that further research is needed to fully define the direct effect that pollution particles may have on the developing fetus.

    Lead author Professor Jonathan Grigg from Queen Mary University of London said: “Our study for the first time shows that ...

    Read More

    Researchers track slowly splitting ‘Dent’ in Earth’s Magnetic Field

    August 19, 2020, Categories  Astronomy/Space, Environment/Geology

    Earth’s magnetic field acts like a protective shield around the planet, repelling and trapping charged particles from the Sun. But over South America and the southern Atlantic Ocean, an unusually weak spot in the field – called the South Atlantic Anomaly, or SAA – allows these particles to dip closer to the surface than normal. Currently, the SAA creates no visible impacts on daily life on the surface. However, recent observations and forecasts show that the region is expanding westward and continuing to weaken in intensity. The South Atlantic Anomaly is also of interest to NASA’s Earth scientists who monitor the changes in magnetic strength there, both for how such changes affect Earth’s atmosphere and as an indicator of what’s happening to Earth’s magnetic fields, deep inside the globe...
    Read More

    Early Mars was covered in ice sheets, not flowing rivers, researchers say

    August 4, 2020, Categories  Astronomy/Space, Environment/Geology

    UBC researchers have concluded that early Martian landscape probably looked similar to this image of the Devon ice cap. Credit: Anna Grau Galofre.

    A large number of the valley networks scarring Mars’s surface were carved by water melting beneath glacial ice, not by free-flowing rivers as previously thought, according to new UBC research published today in Nature Geoscience. The findings effectively throw cold water on the dominant “warm and wet ancient Mars” hypothesis, which postulates that rivers, rainfall and oceans once existed on the red planet.

    To reach this conclusion, lead author Anna Grau Galofre, former PhD student in the department of earth, ocean and atmospheric sciences, developed and used new techniques to examine thousands of Martian valleys...

    Read More

    Engineers develop Near-Zero Emissions Engine Technology

    May 28, 2020, Categories  Environment/Geology, Physics, Technology/Electronics

    Southwest Research Institute engineers have developed the next generation of clean diesel engine technology to reduce hazardous nitrogen oxides (NOx) and carbon dioxide emissions while minimizing fuel consumption. Working with regulatory agencies, vehicle manufacturers and suppliers, SwRI combined engine modifications with integrated aftertreatment technology and control strategies to reach near-zero emissions levels. SwRI developed the technology for the California Air Resources Board (CARB), a state organization charged with combatting air pollution.

    “Through the continued efforts of a multidisciplinary team, SwRI has developed one of the most fuel-efficient, low-emission diesel engines in the world,” said SwRI Research Engineer Bryan Zavala, a member of the low NOx development t...

    Read More