New Atlas

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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 ...

Medical

Superbugs might meet their match in oxygen weaponized by light

Michael Irving August 20, 2018

To avoid a future where once-routine procedures become life-threatening again, new ways to fight bacteria need to be developed. A new study has now shown oxygen can be weaponized against antibiotic-resistant bacteria, by way of nanoparticles activated by light.

Researchers have developed a new weapon against antibiotic-resistant bacteria, where light is used to produce reactive ...

Physics

X-rays from deep space help track down the universe's missing matter

Michael Irving June 21, 2018

Ordinary (or baryonic) matter is relatively rare in the universe, and there seems to be a huge chunk of it missing. After 20 years of scouring the sky, astronomers using the ESA’s XMM-Newton observatory have now found clues to this missing matter hiding in intergalactic gas.

Astronomers have found evidence of the universe's "missing matter" lurking in intergalactic gas between filaments of ...

Space

Most distant breath of oxygen dates back to the Cosmic Dawn

Michael Irving May 16, 2018

Elements like oxygen, carbon and nitrogen weren’t very common until the first stars had fired up, burnt out and exploded. Now, astronomers using ALMA have detected the most distant – and hence, earliest – signature of oxygen, in a galaxy 13.28 billion light-years away.

"Cosmic Dawn" was the time when the first stars began lighting up the universe, ionizing the ...

Materials

Aluminum oxide coatings move like liquids to combat corrosion

Michael Irving April 9, 2018

Metals may seem tough, but given enough time even plain old air can be their undoing. An MIT team has found that aluminum can be protected from oxidation by a thin coating of aluminum oxide, which acts like a liquid, flowing to fill any gaps as they form.

Extremely thin layers of aluminum oxide (center) act like a liquid, protecting aluminum (bottom) from oxidation ...

Environment

Oldest "oxygen oasis" marks Earth's first breath of fresh air

Michael Irving January 19, 2018

Billions of years ago, the Great Oxygenation Event wiped out most life on Earth at the time. This ramped up about 2.5 billion years ago, but now scientists have discovered signs of the oldest known “oxygen oasis” in South Africa, showing that the process started almost half a billion years earlier.

Sediment studies of the Pongola Basin, South Africa, have now found that the area was home ...

Wearables

Humon Hex fitness tracker measures muscle oxygen levels

Rich Haridy January 7, 2018

What initially started out as a MIT research project has now become the Humon Hex, a fitness wearable that can measure how an athlete’s muscles are using oxygen in real time.

The Humon Hex can offer real-time muscle oxygenation levels allowing a person to adjust their exertion ...

Energy

MIT membrane produces fuel from CO2 emissions

Rich Haridy November 27, 2017

Researchers at MIT have developed a new membrane-based system that can convert carbon dioxide emissions into useful alternate fuels. The process has been effectively demonstrated on a small-scale and the researchers hope to ultimately adapt the system to conventional fossil fuel-based power plants.

A membrane developed by MIT researchers can isolate carbon monoxide from carbon dioxide, allowing polluting greenhouse ...

Medical

Oxygen therapy reverses brain damage in toddler saved from drowning

Michael Irving July 17, 2017

If help comes quickly enough, the heart can be restarted after a person has officially died, but the resulting brain damage can be devastating. Now doctors have successfully reversed the brain damage of a two-year-old drowning victim, using oxygen therapy techniques.

Doctors have used hyperbaric oxygen therapy, where a patient is administered pure oxygen in a pressure-controlled ...

Biology

Weak-hearted sea spiders pump blood with their guts

Michael Irving July 10, 2017

Sea spiders already look decidedly alien, like they’re about to latch onto your face, but now scientists have found they’re equally bizarre on the inside. With weak hearts, the crafty creatures instead use a sprawling system of guts to pump blood and oxygen throughout their bodies.

Researchers have found that sea spiders circulate oxygen through their bodies not with their hearts, but ...