Guest Post – Page 518 – Shamskm: A site to exchange knowledge and solutions

Machen schlechte Luft: Outdoor-Jacken

By Guest PostDecember 12, 2013Environment, Healthanja franzenburg, arktis, blut, China, detox kampagne, ftoh, giftstoffe, Greenpeace, grenzwert, jack wolfskin, jacken von schoeffel, luft, mammut, manfred santen, mikrogramm pro quadratmeter, nonylphenole, outdoor jacken, per, pfc, pfc chemikalien, pfoa, pfos, phthalate, polyester, polyfluorierte chemikalien, polyurethan, schadstoffe, suedafrika, textilproduktion, trinkwasser, umwelt

Ob China, Arktis oder Südafrika – und vermutlich auch bei Ihnen zu Hause: PFC-Chemikalien lassen sich weltweit nachweisen. Sie gelangen in Hausstaub, Trinkwasser und Blut, weil sie in großen Mengen in der Textilproduktion eingesetzt werden. Greenpeace wollte wissen, wie viel davon in unserer Outdoor-Kleidung steckt und hat Jacken und Handschuhe ins Labor geschickt.

In allen 17 Produkten wiesen zwei unabhängige Labore per- und polyfluorierte Chemikalien (PFC) und andere Schadstoffe nach. An neun der 17 Proben hat Greenpeace erstmals testen lassen, ob die Giftstoffe aus den Textilien auch an die Luft abgegeben werden. Auch das ist der Fall. (more…)

UCLA researchers’ new technique improves accuracy, ease of cancer diagnosis

By Guest PostDecember 12, 2013Healthcancer diagnosis, deformability cytometer, diagnostic accuracy, new technique, pleural effusion, pleural fluid samples

‘Deformability cytometry’ can closely analyze more than 1,000 cells per second

A team of researchers from UCLA and Harvard University have demonstrated a technique that, by measuring the physical properties of individual cells in body fluids, can diagnose cancer with a high degree of accuracy.
(more…)

What are Future Climate Projections for Precipitation and Temperature for Your County?

By Guest PostDecember 12, 2013Environmentcharacterizing climate change, climate change, climate model, climate model simulations, future climate projections, hydrologic unit, intercomparison project, jay alder, map, matthew larsen, mitigation purpose, NASA, oregon state university, precipitation, steve hostetler, temperature, usgs, your county

USGS Website Lets You See

For the first time, maps and summaries of historical and projected temperature and precipitation changes for the 21^st century for the continental U.S. are accessible at a county-by-county level on a website developed by the U.S. Geological Survey in collaboration with the College of Earth, Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University.

The maps and summaries are based on NASA downscaling of the 33 climate models used in the 5^th Climate Model Intercomparison Project and the current Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Report. The resulting NASA dataset is on an 800-meter grid with national coverage. (more…)

Flaggschiff in schwerer See

By Guest PostDecember 11, 2013Environmentbackloading, co2 grenzwerte, deutschland, douglas robertson, emissionshandel, energiepolitik, eu emissionen, eu klimaschutzpolitik, europaparlamen, flaggschiff, frankreich, grossbritannien, koalitionsvertrag, kraftwerk frimmersdorf, regine günther, schwerer see, spd, union, wwf

EU-Parlament rettet Emissionshandel vorerst vor Untergang. / WWF: Deutschland bremst Reform weiter aus

Am Dienstag wurde im Europaparlament mit klarer Mehrheit das sogenannte „Backloading“ beschlossen. Damit sollen ab dem Jahr 2014 900 Million Zertifikate temporär aus dem Emissionshandelsmarkt herausgenommen werden. Der WWF lobt den Entschluss als „überfälligen kleinen Schritt in die richtige Richtung“, vor allem da Deutschland ein Jahr lang die notwenige Reform blockiert hatte. Ein Überschuss von zwei Milliarden Zertifikaten hatte die Emissionspreise zuletzt auf ein Ramschniveau gedrückt. (more…)

Model Suggests Ocean Currents Shape Europa’s Icy Shell in Ways Critical for Potential Habitats

By Guest PostDecember 11, 2013Scienceaustin, biological life, britney schmidt, chaos terrains, circulation patterns, current patterns model, europa, galileo spacecraft, georgia institute, icy shell, juice mission, jupiter, krista soderlund, magnetometer readings, max planck institute, model, moon europa, ocean currents, potential habitats, solar system, solar system research, subsurface ocean, Technology, three dimensional convection, university of texas

AUSTIN, Texas — In a finding of relevance to the search for life in our solar system, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin’s Institute for Geophysics, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research have shown that the subsurface ocean on Jupiter’s moon Europa may have deep currents and circulation patterns with heat and energy transfers capable of sustaining biological life.

Scientists believe Europa is one of the planetary bodies in our solar system most likely to have conditions that could sustain life, an idea reinforced by magnetometer readings from the Galileo spacecraft detecting signs of a salty, global ocean below the moon’s icy shell. (more…)

Coastal sea change

By Guest PostDecember 11, 2013Environmentanthropogenic factors, atmosphere, balance, carbon cycling, carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide sink, ceoe, climate change, coastal ocean functions, coastal sea change, global models, global warming, greenhouse gas, industrial age, industrial revolution, james bauer, ocean acidification, peter a raymond, sink, source, thomas s bianchi, variables, wei jun cai, yale university

UD oceanographer reports on human-caused changes to carbon cycling

Carbon dioxide pumped into the air since the Industrial Revolution appears to have changed the way the coastal ocean functions, according to a new analysis published this week in Nature.

A comprehensive review of research on carbon cycling in rivers, estuaries and continental shelves suggests that collectively this coastal zone now takes in more carbon dioxide than it releases. The shift could impact global models of carbon’s flow through the environment and future predictions related to climate change. (more…)

Stop-Motion-Film für den Walschutz

By Guest PostDecember 10, 2013Naturedeutschland, dolphin conservation, hannes jaenicke, kleinwale, kreativwettbewer, laura stattkus, menschen, motion film, nabu, oceancare, online voting, ostsee, ostseeschweinswal, stop, video, walschutz, wettbewer, whale, zukunft

15-Jährige gewinnt Wettbewerb zum Schutz des Ostseeschweinswals

Wussten Sie, dass es in Deutschland Wale gibt? Viele Menschen sind verblüfft, wenn Sie hören, welche außergewöhnlichen Wildtiere direkt vor ihrer Haustür anzutreffen sind. Doch der Ostseeschweinswal ist vom Aussterben bedroht – lediglich 300 sind in der zentralen Ostsee noch zu Hause. Um auf die besorgniserregende Situation der Tiere aufmerksam zu machen, haben der NABU, das Schutzabkommen für Kleinwale in Nord- und Ostsee, Whale and Dolphin Conservation und OceanCare zu einem Kreativwettbewerb aufgerufen. Siegerin des Wettbewerbs wurde Laura Stattkus, die mit ihrem Stop-Motion-Film „Hallo kleiner Wal“ überzeugt: (more…)

IBM Scientists Demonstrate Quantum Phenomenon for the First Time Using a Plastic Film

By Guest PostDecember 10, 2013Science, Technologyalbert einstein, bec, big data, bose einstein condensation, bosons, computer systems, energy efficient lasers, exabytes, Germany, ibm research, johannes d plumhof, lijian mai, luminescent polymer, macroscopic quantum phenomena, macroscopic scale, nanometers, non crystalline, optical switches, particles, petabytes, picoseconds, plastic, polymer film, polymeric layer, quantum mechanical phenomenon, quantum simulations, quantum world, rainer f mahrt, satyendranath bose, smartphones, thilo stoferle, ullrich scherf, university of wuppertal

Originally predicted in the 1920s by Satyendranath Bose and Albert Einstein, applications could include energy-efficient lasers and optical switches, critical components for future computer systems processing Big Data

ZURICH – 10 Dec 2013: For the first time, scientists at IBM Research have demonstrated a complex quantum mechanical phenomenon known as Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC), using a luminescent polymer (plastic) similar to the materials in light emitting displays used in many of today’s smartphones.

This discovery has potential applications in developing novel optoelectronic devices including energy-efficient lasers and ultra-fast optical switches — critical components for powering future computer systems to process massive Big Data workloads. The use of a polymer material and the observation of BEC at room temperature provides substantial advantages in terms of applicability and cost. (more…)

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