/ en-us Â鶹ÒùÔº internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Â鶹ÒùÔºics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Billions upon billions of soot particles enter Earth's atmosphere each second, totaling about 5.8 million metric tons a year—posing a climate-warming impact previously estimated at almost one-third that of carbon dioxide. /news/2025-09-soot-climate-properties-hours-atmosphere.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 03 Sep 2025 13:25:04 EDT news676124701 A research team led by Prof. Chen Cheng from the Hefei Institutes of Â鶹ÒùÔºical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has retrieved global aerosol and surface properties using advanced polarization data from China's GF-5(02) satellite. /news/2025-09-dataset-atmospheresurface-interactions.html Earth Sciences Environment Tue, 02 Sep 2025 16:30:01 EDT news676048686 Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is responsible for approximately 74.5% of the reduction in rainfall and 16.5% of the temperature increase in the biome during the dry season. For the first time, researchers have quantified the impact of vegetation loss and global climate change on the forest. /news/2025-09-deforestation-rainfall-temperatures-amazon-dry.html Earth Sciences Environment Tue, 02 Sep 2025 15:22:05 EDT news676045321 Air pollution from secondary organic aerosols (SOA) has now become a greater problem in Chinese cities since 2013 because regulations have successfully reduced fine particulate matter (PM2.5) emitted directly from, for example, vehicles and industries, according to a study led by Prof. Huang Rujin at the Institute of Earth Environment of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Prof. Marianne Glasius at Aarhus University. /news/2025-09-scientists-unique-chemical-regime-secondary.html Earth Sciences Environment Tue, 02 Sep 2025 12:24:22 EDT news676034659 Every once in a while, you may look up toward the sun and see strange bright lights on either side of it. Or perhaps you'll be sitting in an aircraft, looking out the window at its shadow, and see a circle of light, like a halo below (known as glories). Or, if you're really adventurous, maybe you'll even be out on a midnight walk with a full moon lighting your way, and see what appears to be a rainbow encircling the moon. /news/2025-08-sun-dogs-rainbows-glories-celestial.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 28 Aug 2025 15:28:03 EDT news675613681 About 71% of Earth's surface is covered by the vast oceans. When winds blow over the sea surface, they transfer energy to the water, creating waves. Some of these waves, under the force of strong winds, break and produce tiny airborne droplets that become sea spray aerosols. This process happens across all oceans and is one of the world's largest sources of aerosols. Despite decades of research, scientists still do not fully understand the impact on the planet's climate, especially how much they contribute to particles that form clouds, known as cloud condensation nuclei. /news/2025-08-sea-spray-aerosol-highlights-fundamental.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 28 Aug 2025 15:02:04 EDT news675612121 For decades, the Tijuana River has carried millions of gallons of untreated sewage and industrial waste across the U.S.-Mexico border. The river passes through San Diego's South Bay region before emptying into the ocean, recently leading to more than 1,300 consecutive days of beach closures and water quality concerns. /news/2025-08-tijuana-river-toxic-pollutes-air.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 28 Aug 2025 14:00:04 EDT news675517126 QUT researchers have advanced the understanding of how to create tiny seawater droplets to form mist plumes that reflect sunlight to protect coral reefs. /news/2025-08-droplet-dynamics-spray-technology-coral.html Ecology Biotechnology Wed, 27 Aug 2025 11:54:04 EDT news675514442 Environmental scientists are increasingly using enormous artificial intelligence models to make predictions about changes in weather and climate, but a new study by MIT researchers shows that bigger models are not always better. /news/2025-08-simpler-outperform-deep-climate.html Earth Sciences Environment Tue, 26 Aug 2025 12:04:05 EDT news675428641 Volcanoes that blast gases high into the atmosphere not only change global temperatures but also influence flooding in unusual ways, Princeton researchers have found. /news/2025-08-tropical-volcanic-eruptions-rainfall-equator.html Earth Sciences Environment Tue, 26 Aug 2025 09:02:04 EDT news675417721 A typical morning hair-care routine can expose you to as much immediate nanoparticle pollution as standing in dense highway traffic, report Purdue University engineers. /news/2025-08-styling-hair-products-billions-nanoparticles.html Environment Wed, 20 Aug 2025 16:28:05 EDT news674926081 Heat waves—prolonged periods of abnormally hot weather—influence egg prices, energy bills and even public transit. And they're becoming more common as temperatures increase. /news/2025-08-africa-hotter-longer-years.html Earth Sciences Environment Tue, 19 Aug 2025 10:37:05 EDT news674818621 Heat waves are becoming more common, severe and long-lasting. These prolonged periods of hot weather are especially dangerous in already hot places like Texas. In 2023, more than 300 people in Texas died from heat, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services, the most since the state began tracking such deaths in 1989. Researchers found it may not only be temperatures that make heat waves unsafe but also the heat-related increase in airborne pollutants. /news/2025-08-texas-reveals-polluted-air.html Earth Sciences Environment Mon, 18 Aug 2025 05:00:04 EDT news674467754 Progress toward a legally binding global treaty on plastics pollution stalled and went into reverse this week. The United Nations Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, ran overtime. It's likely to conclude this evening, without agreement. /news/2025-08-global-plastics-treaty-fallen-flat.html Environment Sun, 17 Aug 2025 10:40:01 EDT news674469381 Since its emergence in US dairy cattle, highly pathogenic avian influenza (bird flu, H5N1) has defied control, spreading to other species and disrupting every stage of the dairy sector. A newly published invited review in the Journal of Dairy Science presents the most comprehensive look yet at the virus's impact and calls for a unified response. With current science pointing to complex transmission dynamics and broad consequences, the authors argue that only a One Health approach, taking into account the intersection of animal and human health with that of the environment, can effectively combat H5N1 and prevent future outbreaks. /news/2025-08-comprehensive-urges-health-approach-tackle.html Agriculture Thu, 14 Aug 2025 17:13:04 EDT news674410381 A new wave of climate research is sounding a stark warning: Human activity may be driving drought more intensely—and more directly—than previously understood. /news/2025-08-climate-reveal-human-southwest-permanent.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 13 Aug 2025 14:30:05 EDT news674314202 Researchers at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) have published a paper in Communications Earth & Environment that demonstrates for the first time that using data gathered on atmospheric particles from Chinese megacities to characterize air quality for U.S. urban centers leads to significant inaccuracies. /news/2025-08-air-quality-derived-megacities-significant.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 13 Aug 2025 11:56:04 EDT news674304961 Earth's atmosphere transports tiny forms of cellular life, such as fungal spores, pollen, bacteria, and viruses. On their journeys, these microorganisms encounter challenging conditions such as cold temperatures, UV radiation, and a lack of nutrient availability. /news/2025-08-microorganisms-earth-atmosphere-simply-survive.html Ecology Cell & Microbiology Thu, 07 Aug 2025 12:42:10 EDT news673789325 We all remember the advice frequently repeated during the COVID pandemic: maintain six feet of distance from every other human when waiting in a line to avoid transmitting the virus. While reasonable, the advice did not take into account the complicated fluid dynamics governing how the airborne particles actually travel through the air if people are also walking and stopping. Now, a team of researchers led by two undergraduate physics majors at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has modeled how aerosol plumes spread when people are waiting and walking in a line. /news/2025-08-line-feet-social-distancing-airborne.html Soft Matter Wed, 06 Aug 2025 14:00:04 EDT news673612981 A research team led by Dr. Shi Hailiang at the Hefei Institutes of Â鶹ÒùÔºical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a novel infrared imaging payload and AI-based retrieval framework capable of detecting carbon dioxide (COâ‚‚) and methane (CHâ‚„) emissions from space at a spatial resolution of approximately 100 meters. /news/2025-08-imaging-greenhouse-gas-emissions-space.html Earth Sciences Environment Tue, 05 Aug 2025 09:40:03 EDT news673605168 A new study shows that natural dust particles swirling in from faraway deserts can trigger freezing of clouds in Earth's Northern Hemisphere. This subtle mechanism influences how much sunlight clouds reflect and how they produce rain and snow—with major implications for climate projections. /news/2025-07-particle-pattern-reveals-ice-formation.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 31 Jul 2025 14:00:03 EDT news673171333 Chinese air quality improvements are likely to have contributed to accelerated global surface temperature warming, according to a research paper, with the Asian landmass warming at twice the global average. /news/2025-07-faster-global-linked-chinese-aerosol.html Environment Thu, 31 Jul 2025 09:53:41 EDT news673174416 A new study using data collected by NASA's Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) satellite established a novel method to determine how productive plants are worldwide. The findings were published in IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters. /news/2025-07-nasa-pace-enables-method-global.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 31 Jul 2025 06:20:58 EDT news673161652 Ice crystals in Earth's atmosphere sometimes align just right to create various striking visual effects, from a halo around the moon, to bright spots called sundogs on either side of the sun in a winter sky, or a rainbowed pillar, called a crown flash, above a storm cloud. /news/2025-07-sun-dogs-celestial-effects-alien.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 30 Jul 2025 11:52:03 EDT news673095121 The Trump administration is decreasing the attention federal regulators pay to pipeline leaks. But leaks from natural gas pipelines don't just waste energy and warm the planet—they can also make the air more dangerous to breathe. That air pollution threat grows not just in the communities where the leaks happen but also as far as neighboring states, as our analysis of gas leaks and air pollution levels across the U.S. has found. /news/2025-07-methane-leaks-gas-pipelines-hidden.html Environment Tue, 22 Jul 2025 13:40:04 EDT news672408953 A new study reveals an alarming number of mechanisms throughout the life-cycle of plastic that could enhance or spread antimicrobial resistance. /news/2025-07-plastic-pollution-antimicrobial-resistance.html Environment Tue, 22 Jul 2025 13:12:04 EDT news672408714 In September 2024, members of the United Nations adopted the Pact for the Future at the Summit of the Future, held in New York City. The pact, including its two annexes on the Declaration on Future Generations and the Global Digital Compact, builds on multilateral agreements following the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. /news/2025-07-ai-future-technologies-sufficient-pact.html Environment Tue, 22 Jul 2025 11:50:01 EDT news672401232 Heat waves are becoming more frequent around the world. And while rising temperatures caused by greenhouse gas emissions are part of the problem, the declining levels of aerosols—the small particles that make up smog and air pollution—may be driving the rise even more, particularly in populated areas. /news/2025-07-decline-aerosols-populated-areas.html Environment Wed, 16 Jul 2025 15:27:33 EDT news671898447 Antarctica's patterns of stark seasonal changes, with months of darkness followed by a summer of 24-hour daylight, prompted us to explore how a MÄ�ori lunar and environmental calendar (Maramataka) might apply to the continent and help us recognize changes as the climate continues to warm. /news/2025-07-antarctica-mori-lunar-calendar-track.html Environment Wed, 16 Jul 2025 12:00:01 EDT news671885536 Glaciers hold layers of history preserved in ice, offering unique insights into Earth's past that can also help us interpret the future. Trapped amidst the frozen water are microscopic deposits of dust, pollen, and even pollutants that scientists can use to examine environmental changes through time. /news/2025-07-scientists-ice-core-european-alps.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 16 Jul 2025 07:30:02 EDT news671868207