New Atlas

Environment Audio available

Carbon reservoirs in the ocean floor may have ended the last ice age – and could bubble up again

Michael Irving February 14, 2019

A study has found a huge new potential source of carbon emissions: reservoirs of gases trapped at the seafloor, which could be released as the oceans warm up. And the team suggests that these gases belched up from the deep thousands of years ago and put an end to the last ice age.

Researchers have found that deep sea gas reservoirs could be a huge source of carbon dioxide ...

Energy Audio available

Real-world-ready artificial leaf can pluck carbon dioxide out of thin air

Michael Irving February 13, 2019

Over the last few years humans have tried to mimic nature with artificial leaves, but they’re never quite up to scratch. Now, researchers have designed a new version that could work under real-world conditions, sucking carbon dioxide out of the air and creating oxygen and synthetic fuels.

Researchers have developed a new design of artificial leaf that's able to pull carbon dioxide out ...

Environment Audio available

Clingy carbon capture substance can be reused indefinitely

Michael Irving January 31, 2019

Fossil fuel-fired power plants will be pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere for a long time to come. Now researchers at ORNL have developed a new substance that could effectively soak up carbon from coal-fired power plant emissions, using much less energy than existing methods.

A new substance can scrub carbon dioxide from power plant emissions more efficiently than existing technology

Energy Audio available

Carbon capture system turns CO2 into electricity and hydrogen fuel

Michael Irving January 21, 2019

Inspired by the ocean’s role as a natural carbon sink, researchers at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) and Georgia Tech have developed a new system that absorbs CO2 and produces electricity and useable hydrogen fuel.

Scientists have developed a new device that can absorb CO2 and produce electricity and hydrogen fuel

Environment Audio available

Huge ancient ice wall across the Bering Strait may have triggered Ice Age

Michael Irving December 20, 2018

Most climate change events can be linked to specific causes, but the cause of the last major shift, which occurred about a million years ago, has remained a mystery. By taking samples from the ocean floor of the Bering Sea, a new study may have uncovered the mechanism behind this outlier event.

A new study suggests the last ice age was caused by an ice wall across the ...

Materials Audio available

Artificial photosynthesis breakthrough could turn CO2 into plastics on the cheap

Nick Lavars November 29, 2018

Researchers at Rutgers University have made an exciting breakthrough, describing a new method of artificial photosynthesis that can convert carbon dioxide into the building blocks for plastics and other materials, and do so with greater efficiency and much more cheaply than ever before.

A look inside the lab at Rutgers University, where scientists have discovered cheap new catalysts to ...

Environment

The seafloor is dissolving, thanks to human activity

Michael Irving November 6, 2018

As the seas get warmer and more acidic, all kinds of havoc is wrought, and now a new study has identified yet another symptom. Researchers at Princeton and McGill Universities have found that the seafloor is beginning to dissolve as a result of human activity.

A new study has found that human activity is dissolving the seafloor

Environment Audio available

New study finds oceans are warming up much faster than previously thought

Michael Irving November 5, 2018

The oceans are heating up at an alarming rate, and it turns out that the problem may be worse than we initially thought. A new study has used a more accurate technique to measure the rate of ocean warming, and found that it could be 60 percent higher than the current worst-case scenario suggests.

A new study has found that the rate of ocean warming as a result of climate ...

Biology

Microbial "spacesuits" help bacteria convert CO2 to useful chemicals

Michael Irving October 1, 2018

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley have now developed “spacesuits” that wrap around bacteria to not only protect them from the elements, but turn them into biohybrids that capture carbon dioxide and turn it into useful chemicals.

A diagram of the metal organic framework (MOF) structure (left) and how it interacts with bacteria ...

Energy

MIT's lithium-carbon dioxide battery generates power and solidifies carbon

Michael Irving September 24, 2018

As the world warms up, we can’t just keep belching all our carbon dioxide out into the atmosphere. Now researchers at MIT have found another way to reuse this unwanted element – build lithium-carbon dioxide batteries.

A scanning electron microscope image of the carbon cathode of MIT's new lithium-carbon dioxide battery. Over ...