Tag Archives: carbon dioxide

Not Your Parents’ Chem Labs

By Guest PostApril 25, 2012Educationacetone, anti-inflammatory, balance, benzene, borneol, carbon dioxide, carbon trachloride, catalyst, chalcone, chemical industry, chemistry, cloves, cookbook chemistry, cylindrical container, deane morrison, density, environmental problem, extract, fluid, general chemistry labs, graduated cylinder, grams per milliliter, greener, hazardous, industry, inorganic chemistry, james wollack, jane wissinger, josh jansen, lindsay nevalainen, liquid, marc hillmyer, michelle driessen, molecule, oil, organic chem, organic molecule, plastic, renewable resources, scale, sodium bromide, solution, solvent, university of minnesota, volume

‘Greener’ and more engaging experiments draw students in

As a college student, Michelle Driessen had an all-too-typical experience.

“I hated general chemistry,” she says. “I thought it was terribly boring.”

She had plenty of company. Experiments were all laid out in advance, and the goal seemed to be to get to a predetermined result without blowing up the glassware.

In the old days, “very few students appreciated the point of most general chemistry labs,” adds Driessen. “With cookbook chemistry, you couldn’t have anything go wrong or deviate [from what’s supposed to happen], but I find those things to be the most interesting part of science.” (more…)

Ocean Acidification Linked With Larval Oyster Failure in Hatcheries

By Guest PostApril 13, 2012Environmentaslo, burke hales, carbon dioxide, chris langdon, co2 level, corrosive, david garrison, fluctuation, george waldbusser, larval mortality, national science foundation, netarts bay, noaa, North America, ocean acidification, ocean water, oregon, oregon state university, osu, oyster, oyster hatchery, oyster production, pacific northwest, pathogenic bacteria, richard feely, seed production, whiskey creek shellfish hatchery

*Increase in ocean acidification led to collapse of oyster seed production at Oregon hatchery*

Marine researchers have definitively linked the collapse of oyster seed production at a commercial oyster hatchery in Oregon to an increase in ocean acidification.

Larval growth at the hatchery declined to a level considered by the owners to be “non-economically viable.”

A study by the scientists found that increased seawater carbon dioxide (CO₂) levels, resulting in more corrosive ocean water, inhibited the larval oysters from developing their shells and growing at a pace that would make commercial production cost-effective. (more…)

Which Plants Will Survive Droughts, Climate Change?

By Guest PostApril 9, 2012Environmentagaves, alahee, cacti, california, carbon dioxide, cell level loss, chaparral shrubs, China, christine scoffoni, climate change, desert plants, drought tolerance, ecosystems, extinction, faith inman narahari, hawaiian drought, lawren sack, megan bartlett, photosynthesis, plant species, psydrax odorata, sandalwood, santalum paniculatum, stiff cell wall, stomata, sunflower, tropical botanical gardens, turgor loss point, turgor pressure, xishuangbanna, yuccas, yunnan

New research by UCLA life scientists could lead to predictions of which plant species will escape extinction from climate change.

Droughts are worsening around the world, posing a great challenge to plants in all ecosystems, said Lawren Sack, a UCLA professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and senior author of the research. Scientists have debated for more than a century how to predict which species are most vulnerable.

Sack and two members of his laboratory have made a fundamental discovery that resolves this debate and allows for the prediction of how diverse plant species and vegetation types worldwide will tolerate drought, which is critical given the threats posed by climate change, he said. (more…)

UCLA Engineering Researchers Use Electricity to Generate Alternative Fuel

By Guest PostApril 3, 2012Sciencecar, carbon dioxide, carbon source, chemical batteries, chemical energy, CO2, co2 fixation, dark reaction, electric vehicle, electrical energy, electricity, electro bioreactor, hydraulic pumping, hydrogen, isobutanol, james liao, liquid fuel, lithoautotrophic microorganism, photosynthesis, ralstonia eutropha h16, solar panels

Imagine being able to use electricity to power your car — even if it’s not an electric vehicle. Researchers at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have for the first time demonstrated a method for converting carbon dioxide into liquid fuel isobutanol using electricity.

Today, electrical energy generated by various methods is still difficult to store efficiently. Chemical batteries, hydraulic pumping and water splitting suffer from low energy-density storage or incompatibility with current transportation infrastructure. (more…)

Mesquite Trees Displacing Southwestern Grasslands

By Guest PostMarch 21, 2012Environment, Natureatmosphere, biochemical pathway, bouteloua eriopoda, carbon dioxide, catalina mountains, changing climate, climate, climate data, desert, ecohydrology, ecosystems, eddy covariance tower, grama grass, grassland, greg barron gafford, groundwater, groundwater pool, mesquite tree, muhlenbergia porter, muhly, photosynthesis, predictions, prosopis velutina, rainfall, root system, san pedro river riparian area, santa rita mountains, seasonal precipitation, southeastern arizona, southwest, southwestern climate, sugars, temperature, university of arizona, warming climate, water resource, woody shrub

Mesquite trees and woody shrubs are better adapted than grasslands to a Southwestern climate predicted to shift toward higher temperatures and greater variability in rainfall, UA ecologists have discovered.

As the desert Southwest becomes hotter and drier, semi-arid grasslands are slowly being replaced by a landscape dominated by mesquite trees, such as Prosopis velutina, and other woody shrubs, a team of University of Arizona researchers has found.

In a “leaf-to-landscape” approach, the team combined physiological experiments on individual plants and measurements across entire ecosystems to quantify how well grasslands, compared to mesquite trees and woody shrubs, cope with heat and water stress across seasonal precipitation periods. (more…)

Sailing in a Sea of Microbes

By Guest PostMarch 4, 2012Sciencealgae, Arctic, atmospheric chemistry, bacteria, biogeochemical cycles, biomass, carbon dioxide, Chile, climate, daniel stolte, easter island, Environment, food production, genome, Germany, global warming, grassroots initiative, greenhouse gas, matt sullivan, melissa duhaime, microbe, ocean water, oceans, oxygen production, pacific ocean, research vessel, saguaro cacti, sequence, tara oceans, ua, university of arizona, wolves, world of viruses, world of webs

Researchers led by Matt Sullivan at the UA are among the first to dive into the world of viruses drifting through the world’s oceans.

Surrounded by the deep blue of the Pacific Ocean stretching from horizon to horizon, a lonely dot is glinting in the sun. It is the aluminum hull of a sailboat, a 118-foot schooner with white sails billowing from two masts.

On the deck, crewmembers and scientists are milling about. Commands are flying back and forth, and soon a strange contraption consisting of tubes clustered around an array of sensors dangling from a crane is lowered into the water, until it disappears in the clear blue depths. (more…)

Evolution of Earliest Horses Driven by Climate Change

By Guest PostFebruary 24, 2012Environment, Nature, Scienceaaron wood, atmosphere, bighorn basin, body size, cabin fork area, carbon, carbon dioxide, cause and effect, climate model, clydesdale, concentration, doug boyer, dwarfing phenomenon, earliest horse, evolution, florida museum of natural history, fossil, geochemical analysis, global temperature, h richard lane, horse teeth, industrial revolution, jonathan bloch, mammal, national science foundation, natural selection, North America, nsf, ocean, ornithologist, oxygen levels, paleocene-eocene thermal maximum, petm, prediction, ross secord, sifrhippus sandae, stephen chester, temperature, university of florida, university of nebraska lincoln, worland, yale

*The hotter it gets, the smaller the animal?*

When Sifrhippus sandae, the earliest known horse, first appeared in the forests of North America more than 50 million years ago, it would not have been mistaken for a Clydesdale.

It weighed in at around 12 pounds–and it was destined to get much smaller over the ensuing millennia.

Sifrhippus lived during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), a 175,000-year interval of time some 56 million years ago in which average global temperatures rose by about 10 degrees Fahrenheit. (more…)

Global Extinction: Gradual Doom as Bad as Abrupt

By Guest PostFebruary 8, 2012Environment, Sciencebrooks ellwood, canadian arctic, carbon dioxide, charles henderson, coal deposit, dead zone, earth, ellesmere island, extinction, factor, fossil, geologic history, geology, global extinction, greenhouse, greenhouse gas, h richard lane, harry rowe, indian ocean, katherine freeman, marine life, mass extinction, national science foundation, ocean, permian period, permian triassic boundary, sedimentary rock, siberian traps, siberian volcanic activity, south china, steven bates, tethys, the great dying, thomas algeo, timothy lyons, united states, university of calgary, university of cincinnati, volcanic deposit, volcanic rock, volcanism in siberia, warming, west blind fiord

*In “The Great Dying” 250 million years ago, the end came slowly*

The deadliest mass extinction of all took a long time to kill 90 percent of Earth’s marine life–and it killed in stages–according to a newly published report.

It shows that mass extinctions need not be sudden events.

Thomas Algeo, a geologist at the University of Cincinnati, and 13 colleagues have produced a high-resolution look at the geology of a Permian-Triassic boundary section on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic. (more…)