Category Environment/Geology

Fans hail the smooth new velo routes as the answer to urban traffic jams and air pollution, and a way to safely get nine-to-fivers outdoors

It’s every cyclist’s dream: no red lights, no trucks, just a clear, smooth lane to zoom down with the wind in your face. Welcome to Germany’s first bicycle Autobahn. Fans hail the smooth new velo routes as the answer to urban traffic jams and air pollution, and a way to safely get nine-to-fivers outdoors. As a glimpse of a greener urban transport future, Germany has just opened the first 5km stretch of a bicycle highway that is set to span over 100 kilometres.

It will connect 10 western cities including Duisburg, Bochum and Hamm and 4 universities, running largely along disused railroad tracks in the crumbling Ruhr industrial region...

Raman micro-spectroscopy. A, B: Thin section photomicrographs (left) and corresponding Raman intensity maps (right) of the silicified cavities showing the downward-oriented accretion and the kerogenous composition of the dark laminae. Red colors indicate kerogen-rich areas. C: Representative first-order Raman spectrum of the kerogen with the characteristic disordered peaks for amorphous carbon (D and D’) and the graphite peak (G). Credit: Geology (2016). DOI: 10.1130/G37272.1

A team of researchers from Germany and Switzerland has found examples of microbial life from >3B yrs ago, that appeared to have evaded UV radiation hiding in subsurface cavities. Scientists believe that life first came to exist on planet Earth ~3...

Stephen LaVoie at the University of Georgia studies inorganic mercury, which is known to cause neurological, kidney and autoimmune diseases. Credit: Dorothy Kozlowski/University of Georgia

Inorganic mercury, which was previously thought to be a less harmful form of the toxic metal, is very damaging to key cell processes. This study is the first to compare the effects of inorganic and organic mercury compounds at the biochemical, physiological and proteomic levels in any model organism.

Inorganic mercury from the ore cinnabar was used for centuries against infections; in modern times, humans synthesized organic mercurials as antimicrobials, such as merthiolate...