New Atlas

Environment Audio available

Quarter of West Antarctic glacier ice unstable, says 25-year satellite study

Michael Irving May 16, 2019

A new study has examined 25 years of satellite data to get a sense of the extent of ice loss across Antarctica. According to the findings, warming waters have destabilized as much as a quarter of the glacier ice in West Antarctica.

Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica is one of the places hardest hit by ice loss

Environment Audio available

Forests that live fast and die young may help speed up climate change

Michael Irving May 15, 2019

New research led by the University of Cambridge has found that forests may not be as useful a carbon sink as we thought. The team found that a warming climate makes trees grow faster and die younger, releasing their captured carbon back into the air sooner.

Researchers examined samples taken from trees in the Spanish Pyrenees and found that faster-growing trees tend ...

Energy

Notorious Three Mile Island nuclear power station to shut down

David Szondy May 10, 2019

The Three Mile Island nuclear power station in Pennsylvania is scheduled to close in September according its owner, Exelon Generation. The site of the worst nuclear disaster in US history, the still functioning TMI-1 reactor will be deactivated on September 30, 2019.

Three Mile Island was the site of the worst nuclear accident in US history

Environment

Radioactive carbon from nuclear bomb tests finds its way to deepest ocean trenches

David Szondy May 8, 2019

A new study led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Guangzhou indicates that radioactive carbon-14 produced by above-ground nuclear weapons tests in the mid-20th century has been found in the muscle tissues of crustaceans in the deepest parts of the ocean.

Carbon-14 from above ground nuclear testing in the 20th century has been found in the deepest ...

Science Audio available

New desalination method could get industry – and the environment – out of a very salty pickle

Matt Kennedy May 7, 2019

"Hypersaline brine" is industrial waste-water with salt levels that exceed even that of seawater. It’s a big, expensive, destructive problem which a team of engineers at Columbia University in New York City hope to solve with their solvent-based method of desalination.

The researchers believe that the temperature swing solvent extraction desalination method could be transformational for the ...

Environment Audio available

Fancy some grubs in your grub? You might if you can't see them

Matt Kennedy May 2, 2019

Researchers in Australia are looking into maggot sausages as meat alternative. This is seen as a first step in conditioning Westerners to accept insects and grubs as normal, everyday food sources.

Australian researchers have begun looking into insect-based pre-prepared food – such as sausages – as a ...

Environment

Stalled waves in the jet stream blamed for last year's extreme weather events

Michael Irving April 30, 2019

The summer of 2018 was marked by extreme weather events like droughts and floods. A new study has pinned the blame on stalled giant waves in the jet stream, and unfortunately they’re expected to only get worse with the changing climate.

Climate researchers have blamed stalled giant waves in the jet stream for some of last year's ...

Biology

Scientists seek genetic answer to predatory nature of invasive lionfish

David Szondy April 28, 2019

The lionfish is an invasive species that is currently wreaking havoc in the warm waters of the Bahamas, the Caribbean, and the US southwestern Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts. NCSU scientists initiated a study of lionfish genetics to learn more about their origins and how to control them.

Genetics help to identify the origins of the lionfish that are devastating warm American waters

Environment Audio available

Giant iceberg enters "final phase" of breaking away from Antarctica

Michael Irving April 7, 2019

A huge iceberg, roughly twice the size of New York City, is set to soon break off from the Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica. With two large cracks due to meet within the next few months, a research station has already been relocated as scientists watch the rifting event enter its “final phase.”

The Halloween Crack, discovered in October 2016, is threatening the Brunt Ice Shelf

Environment Audio available

DNA study shows bacteria mixing and matching genes to survive

Michael Irving March 7, 2019

You can check the health of an environment by taking a census of the microorganisms that call it home. Researchers at Berkeley Lab have developed a new way to get a larger snapshot of what’s going on, looking specifically at the genes bacteria pass around to help each other adapt to a changing world

Researchers have found a new way to study the genes that bacteria swap to give each ...