Silver nanoparticles used as antimicrobials in fabric can leach out of clothes as they are being washed. One brand lost over half of its silver content from the fabric with just two washings.
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A group of scientists tested how well silver nanoparticles stayed in treated fabrics under conditions similar to a washing machine. They considered mechanical [...]
Several recent studies now confirm what had been feared so far — the toxicity of a chemical present in feeding bottles and other plastic products. As reports by P. Hari
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Bisphenol A or BPA is a compound that is found in many plastic products around the world. It has been in use since 1891, and known [...]
The U.S. government is encouraging farmers to spread a chalky waste from coal-fired power plants on their fields to loosen and fertilize soil.
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The material is produced by power plant “scrubbers” that remove acid-rain-causing sulfur dioxide from plant emissions.
The substance is a synthetic form of the mineral gypsum, and it also contains mercury, arsenic, lead [...]
From a carbon emissions point-of-view, is it better to buy products online or in a store? You probably guessed the former — and if so, you’re right, according to a new study.
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The National Retail Federation conducted a survey late last month in which it asked consumers about their anticipated spending over the Thanksgiving weekend.
The [...]
A burst oil pipeline in north China has spewed thousands of gallons (litres) of diesel into a major tributary of the Yellow River, state media said.
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The spill occurred on Wednesday last week on the Chishui river in Shaanxi province when a pipeline operated by the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) ruptured, a statement on the [...]
Far from Copenhagen’s turbulent climate talks, the sea lions, harbor seals and sea otters reposing along the shoreline and kelp forests of Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary marine area, stand to gain from any global deal to cut greenhouse gases. These foragers of the sanctuary’s frigid waters, flipping in and out of sight of California’s [...]
According to the Met Office, man-made climate change will be a factor and natural weather patterns would contribute less to 2010’s temperature than they did in 1998, the current warmest year in the 160-year record.
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El Niño effect, the cyclical heating of the Pacific Ocean, is much weaker than it was in 1998, but the Met [...]
Japan is the latest country to capture carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and store it in deep geo logical formations, oceans or as mineral carbonates. There is good reason. The Land of the Rising Sun is the fifth largest emitter of greenhouse gases on the planet. It faces the weighty task of cutting them [...]
The Arctic ice cap will disappear completely in summer months within 20 to 30 years, a polar research team said as they presented findings from an expedition led by adventurer Pen Hadow.
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It is likely to be largely ice-free during the warmer months within a decade, the experts added.
Veteran polar explorer Hadow and two [...]
More than 80% of the world’s major conflicts have taken place in the most biologically rich and diverse places on earth, a new study says.
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These hotspots are considered top conservation priorities because they house more than half of all plant species and at least 42% of all vertebrates, and are highly threatened.
The [...]
A collaborative study has lent more force to the suggestion that water pollution is triggering male fertility problems. The study involving researchers from Brunel University, the Universities of Exeter and Reading and the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology has revealed that a group of testosterone-blocking chemicals is finding its way into UK Rivers, affecting [...]
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Water conservation is one most important issue out of many environmental issues, that with only a slight awareness, we can make a dramatic reduction in our everyday consumption. Better to cut back now, than pay through the nose in the near future.
If we consider the cycle that brings us fresh water. Rain falls [...]
According to the principles of Feng Shui, strategic placement of objects can mean the difference between health and illness. Placing houseplants in the main living areas of a house, for example, can enhance the flow of energy through the entire structure. Similarly, placing houseplants in the bedroom can mean better sleep for the occupants of [...]
Image via Wikipedia
Humans are diurnal creatures, with eyes adapted to living in the sun’s light. Because of this, we’ve engineered the night for our own comfort by filling it with light.
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Light pollution is largely the result of poor lighting design, which allows artificial light to shine outward and upward into the sky. Wherever human light [...]
Image by Getty Images via Daylife
An Oxford electrical engineer has come up with a refrigerator that runs without electricity. Not his own idea. He has based it on a model invented by Albert Einstein in 1930.
Einstein and his colleague, Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard, patented a fridge that had no moving parts and used only [...]
Image by pingnews.com via Flickr Global warming is likely to boost the power of the strongest tropical cyclones, a study released on Wednesday says.
An additional 1°C in sea temperatures in tropical regions where cyclones breed could lead to a nearly one-third rise in the number of the most powerful storms, it says. “As the [...]
By identifying a new way to wrestle fluorine from carbon compounds, chemists may now be able to break down certain types of greenhouse gases before they reach the atmosphere.
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Some of the most potent manmade greenhouse gases are also among the most difficult chemicals to destroy, and the most persistent once released into the environment. [...]
Scientists claim to have found a workable way of reducing CO² (Carbon dioxide) levels in the atmosphere to pre-industrial levels — by adding lime to seawater.
The oceans are already the world’s largest carbon sink, absorbing 2 billion tonnes of carbon every year. Increasing absorption ability by just a few per cent could dramatically increase CO² [...]
A small company in the US is developing an alternative for carbon sequestration that takes carbon dioxide (CO²) and tailings from mining operations and turns the mix into materials of a “higher order” for use in a variety of industrial, agricultural, and environmental applications, which has been dubbed as ‘green carbon’.
According to a report in [...]
Young Dragonfly could soon be the aquatic version of the canary in a coalmine, a researcher said in a published report on Sunday.
Just as the singing birds were used by miners to warn them of toxic air, young dragonflies that live in reservoirs and ponds hold the potential of alerting humans to water pollution, The [...]
Increasing carbon dioxide emissions could leave species such as coral and sea urchins struggling to survive by the end of the century because they are making the oceans more acidic, research led by British scientists suggests.
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The study of how acidification affects marine ecosystems has revealed a striking impact on animal and plant life. The findings, [...]
For years, sensitive measuring devices have confirmed that the earth — as well as all life — radiates as a natural process, and that this radiation can be affected by underground water sources and earth dislocations.
There are also zones where radiation intensity differs greatly from the norm.
Much information can be gleaned from an examination of [...]
Homeowners eager for green ways to keep their houses cool in the summer and warm in the winter may soon have an alternative to the pink fiberglass insulation they have used for decades. Troy, N.Y.,-based Ecovative Design is testing the ability of its Greensulate—a sustainable building material made from mushroom fibers, rice hulls and recycled [...]
Image via WikipediaCarbon dioxide spewed by human activities has made ocean water so acidic that it is eating away at the shells and skeletons of starfish, coral, clams and other sea creatures, scientists said on Thursday.
Marine researchers knew that ocean acidification, as it’s called, was occurring in deep water far from land. What they called [...]
Image via WikipediaThe current bamboo flowering cycle has wrought much misery on the people of Mizoram, in India with humans and rats fighting over what little there is.
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The bamboo seeds trigger an exponential growth in the rat population
Flowering trees don’t always signal prosperity. At least not in Mizoram. For the blossoming bamboo — the [...]
Image via WikipediaBreathing in air pollution from traffic fumes can raise the risk of potentially deadly blood clots, a US study says.
Exhaust fumes contain small particulates
Exposure to small particulates – tiny chemicals caused by burning fossil fuels – is known to increase the chances of heart disease and stroke.
But the Harvard School of Public [...]
The disastrous hurricanes of recent years have become the poster children of global warming.
But Roger A. Pielke Jr., an environmental policy expert at the University of Colorado at Boulder, wondered whether the billions of dollars of damage was caused by more intense storms or more coastal development.
Is warming a clear danger for Tahoe?
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Reducing hurricane damage
After [...]
A US scientist has devised a carbon filter to clear the atmosphere of carbon emissions, albeit at a fabulous cost.
Here’s a simple solution to global warming: vacuum carbon dioxide out of the air.
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Klaus Lackner, a physicist at Columbia University, said placing enough carbon filters around the planet could reel the world’s atmosphere back toward the [...]
About 500 US colleges have pledged to achieve zero carbon emissions, reports Jeffrey Thomas
A class apart: Dartmouth College in New Hampshire won an A for being sustainable
The “greening†of US campuses is gaining momentum. Many college and university presidents are committing their institutions to a reduction in their carbon footprint — the amount of carbon [...]
Inhaled diesel exhaust triggers a stress response in the brain. This could have damaging long-term effects on brain function in people living in areas with high traffic pollution.
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Small particles of soot, or nanoparticles, can travel up the nose and lodge in the brain. It is conceivable that this could interfere with normal brain function and [...]