Marchouch, Morocco (AFP) May 2, 2024
In the heart of sun-soaked Morocco, scientists are cultivating a future where tough crops defy a relentless drought, now in its sixth year.
"Look at these beautiful ears of wheat," said Wuletaw Tadesse Degu, the head of wheat breeding at the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA).
"The difference in quality between our field and others is striking," he said
Paris (AFP) May 3, 2024
The United Nations said Friday it had introduced new rules to allow people harmed by projects under the global carbon credit market it is designing to file a formal appeal.
Under the Paris climate agreement, the UN was tasked with creating a credible mechanism to allow for the trade in credits earned from projects that reduce or avoid carbon dioxide emissions.
These projects could for ex
London, UK (SPX) May 06, 2024
Researchers from the University of East Anglia (UEA) have identified a significant shortfall in global carbon dioxide removal efforts needed to meet the Paris Agreement's 1.5 C warming limit. The study, a collaborative effort led by the Berlin-based Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change, was published in Nature Climate Change.
Since 2010, the UNEP's annual emissi
Paris (AFP) May 2, 2024
The world's largest carbon credit programme Verra took a step toward working under a new quality standard aimed at helping rebuild confidence in the scandal-hit offsets market.
Verra was approved "after making significant changes to its procedures", said the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM), which governs this nonbinding label for the sector.
A Washington DC-base
Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 06, 2024
A recent study reveals that U.S. households using gas or propane stoves are exposed to unhealthy levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), significantly impacting indoor air quality.
Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability Professor Rob Jackson, the senior author of the study published on May 3 in Science Advances, expressed surprise at the findings. "I didn't expect to see pollutant concentration
Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 06, 2024
Recent research from Michigan State University has revealed significant overestimations in the carbon-capture potential of reforestation models. The study, led by Professor Runsheng Yin from the Department of Forestry, suggests that these models, pivotal for assessing reforestation's role in mitigating climate change, could be off by as much as three times the actual capability.
"The clima
Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 06, 2024
The narrative of a childless future, once relegated to dystopian fiction, resonates eerily in today's societal context, where declining birth rates present a quiet crisis. In response, University of Pennsylvania neuroscientists Michael Platt and Peter Sterling investigate the roots of this trend in their recent publication in Nature Mental Health. They attribute the phenomenon not to biological
Washington (AFP) May 2, 2024
Japan and India are struggling economically because they are "xenophobic," US President Joe Biden told a campaign event, lumping the American allies in with rivals China and Russia as countries rejecting immigrants.
"Why is China stalling so badly economically? Why is Japan in trouble? Why is Russia in trouble? And India? Because they're xenophobic. They don't want immigrants," Biden said on
Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 03, 2024
Satellogic Inc. (NASDAQ: SATL) has made public a substantial open dataset from its collection. This dataset is composed of approximately 3 million unique location images, doubling to 6 million with revisits, and is designed to enhance the training of AI foundation models. Each 384x384 pixel image contributes to the overall 900 Gigapixels, covering diverse land uses, objects, geographies, and sea
Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 03, 2024
Einstein's theory of general relativity describes gravity as a result of space and time curving. This theory accounts for the Earth's gravity, which anchors us and causes objects to fall.
In contrast, high-energy physics investigates subatomic particles that follow the principles of quantum mechanics, notable for their random fluctuations and the inherent uncertainty in particle positions
Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 06, 2024
Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have developed an advanced stretchable electronic skin (e-skin) that could potentially give robots and other devices human-like touch sensitivity. This innovation overcomes the limitations of existing e-skin technologies which lose sensing accuracy when stretched.
"Much like human skin has to stretch and bend to accommodate our movements, so
Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 06, 2024
The longstanding saying, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend," has been quantitatively validated by researchers at Northwestern University using principles of statistical physics.
Scheduled for publication in Science Advances on May 3, the study revisits social balance theory, first posited by Austrian psychologist Fritz Heider in the 1940s. This theory posits four fundamental rules for so
Sydney, Australia (SPX) May 06, 2024
Researchers at The University of Adelaide have developed a model that delineates the most economical approach for transitioning Australia's electricity grid to full renewable energy. Led by Raheel Ahmed Shaikh, the team investigated various scenarios involving the integration of solar and wind energy across Australia's eastern and western grids. Their analysis incorporated elements like short-to
Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 06, 2024
On May 1, 2024, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) hosted the third workshop of the High DER Future Grid Study, which assembled stakeholders and experts virtually to develop solutions for enhancing grid operations with a high volume of distributed energy resources (DERs). The workshop aimed to align California's grid modernization initiatives with its climate and equity goals.
Wenchang, China (AFP) May 03, 2024
China launched a probe on Friday to collect samples from the far side of the Moon, a world first as Beijing pushes ahead with an ambitious programme that aims to send a crewed lunar mission by 2030.
A rocket carrying the Chang'e-6 lunar probe blasted off from the Wenchang Space Launch Centre in southern China's Hainan province just before 5:30 pm (0930 GMT), AFP journalists near the site s
Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 02, 2024
Researchers from the University of Waterloo, in collaboration with the University of British Columbia, have observed what they term a "cosmic glitch," indicating a deviation in gravity's behavior on a vast cosmic scale.
For a century, Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity has been the cornerstone of our understanding of gravity, asserting its influence across not just three physic
Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 01, 2024
Over the course of its elliptical orbit, the moon Enceladus is squeezed unevenly by Saturn's gravitational pull and deforms from a spherical shape into a football shape and back again. This cyclic stress causes a phenomenon called "tidal heating" within Enceladus and dissipates enough energy to maintain what is believed to be a global ocean underneath the moon's icy crust.
At Enceladus's s
Sydney, Australia (SPX) May 06, 2024
Following the recent return of the Shenzhou-17 spacecraft, seeds that experienced space radiation for nearly a year aboard China's space station have arrived back on Earth. These seeds are now part of critical breeding experiments.
The seeds, including alfalfa and oats, were exposed to space radiation on the space station's biology exposure equipment for 11 months, provided by the Lanzhou
Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 06, 2024
White dwarfs, remnants of stars like the Sun, pack a mass equivalent to the Sun's but are as small as Earth, making up 97% of our galaxy's stars. The transformation of a star into this dense state marks the stellar lifecycle's end, rendering our galaxy a celestial necropolis.
The chemical composition of white dwarfs, especially the unexpected presence of heavy metals like silicon, magnesiu
Paris, France (SPX) May 06, 2024
Recently, ESA's EarthCARE satellite was removed from its transport container at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, beginning an intensive period of preparation for its upcoming launch. The team conducted detailed inspections and testing to ensure the satellite was in optimal condition for its mission.
Ensuring the cleanliness of EarthCARE was a critical step in optimizing the perform
Washington DC (SPX) May 02, 2024
Continuing from Phase I, researchers are expanding on the development of a power source that transforms the paradigm of thermal power conversion. The thermoradiative cell (TRC), operating analogously to a solar cell but in reverse, converts heat from a radioisotope source into infrared light, which is then emitted into space, generating electricity. Initial studies demonstrated a potential gener
Washington DC (UPI) May 2, 2024
SpaceX successfully launched the Maxar 1 mission carrying two next-generation WorldView Legion satellites Thursday in California.
The mission launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base at approximately 11:36 a.m. local time. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was used.
The 20th launch and landing of the Falcon 9 first stage was completed by 11:45 a.m. Pacific Time.
The two satellites
Paris, France (SPX) May 02, 2024
Gravity, a fundamental force in our everyday lives, continues to puzzle scientists: Is it a geometric force as Einstein suggested, or does it follow quantum mechanics? Researchers from the University of Amsterdam and Ulm have introduced an innovative experiment to explore this, avoiding the challenges of previous methods that required entangling massive objects, which often lose their quantum pr
Washington (AFP) May 4, 2024
Throughout the annals of American space exploration, a select few spacecraft have had the distinction of carrying human beings beyond Earth.
Next week, Boeing is poised to join this elite group with the long-awaited launch of its Starliner capsule, just the sixth class of vessel built in the United States for NASA astronauts.
Here's a recap of their storied past, marked by groundbreaking
An 18-year-old is being held without bond after new information emerged in a court hearing on Saturday detailing a shooting at Dunbar High School that left one student in the hospital.