Tag Archives: element

Bergbau in der Tiefsee: Meereslebensräume mit Schürfwunden

By Guest PostMay 25, 2014Sciencealice auersperg, bene croy, biodiversitaet, element, flow of electricity, goffini kakadu, isabelle laumer, jerry, marktsituation, marshmallow experiment, midas, mybloglog, pazifik, spin electronics, tim armstrong, werkzeug, yahoo geocities, zukunft

Auf dem Meeresboden der Tiefsee (unterhalb von 200 m) lagern wertvolle Rohstoffe: Gashydrate, Sulfidablagerungen sowie metallreiche Krusten und Knollen – Mangan zum Beispiel, ein Element, das zur Herstellung von Mobiltelefonen oder Kraftfahrzeugen benötigt wird. Die Erschließung dieser Rohstoffquellen birgt neben den technischen Herausforderungen das Risiko, irreversible Umweltschäden zu verursachen. Lebensräume und Lebensgemeinschaften voller noch unbekannter Arten könnten zerstört werden. Gefördert durch das 7. EU-Rahmenprogramm für Forschung und Innovation studiert ein europäisches Team die Möglichkeiten und Gefahren des Rohstoffabbaus am Grund der Tiefsee. Das Ziel von MIDAS (Managing Impacts of Deep Sea Resource Exploitation) ist es, zusammen mit der Industrie und Regierungspartnern, Richtlinien für den schonenden Abbau von Rohstoffen zu erstellen, um den Lebensraum Tiefsee zu schützen. Drei Jahre haben die Beteiligten dafür Zeit. Das Deutsche Zentrum für Marine Biodiversitätsforschung (DZMB)/Senckenberg am Meer unter der Leitung von Prof. Dr. Pedro Martinez Arbizu bringt biologische Kompetenz und langjährige Erfahrung aus früheren Tiefseeuntersuchungen ein. Da die Untersuchungsgebiete nicht nur tief unten, sondern auch weit draußen auf dem Meer liegen, sind die Forscher regelmäßig auf Expedition. Die Wissenschaftlerin Stefanie Kaiser macht sich gerade zusammen mit vier weiteren Senckenbergern wieder auf den Weg nach Hawaii, um von dort aus zu den Manganknollenfeldern im Pazifik zu fahren. (more…)

Der Speisezettel von Neandertalern und den Vorfahren heutiger Menschen unterschied sich vermutlich kaum

By Guest PostMarch 18, 2014Sciencebison, de tayac, der speisezettel, dorothee drucker, element, herve bocherens, isotopenanalysen der knochen, les eyzies, mammut, neandertalern, palaeobiologe, stephane madelaine, tuebinger forscher, universitaet tuebingen

Tübinger Forscher und ihr französischer Kollege hinterfragen frühere Deutung von Isotopenanalysen der Knochen

Hinter das Rätsel, warum die Neandertaler vor rund 40.000 Jahren von dem anatomisch modernen Menschen verdrängt wurden, müssen Forscher ein noch größeres Fragezeichen setzen als zuvor. Einer verbreiteten Hypothese zufolge sollten die Neandertaler im Nachteil gewesen sein, weil ihr Nahrungsspektrum gegenüber dem der Vorfahren heutiger Menschen eingeschränkt war. Diese Annahme beruht auf Isotopenanalysen der Knochen, die Rückschlüsse auf die Ernährung zulassen. Forscher der Universität Tübingen unter Leitung von Professor Hervé Bocherens vom Fachbereich Geowissenschaften und ein Kollege vom Urgeschichtlichen Museum im französischen Les Eyzies-de-Tayac haben diese Befunde überprüft. Sie fanden nun Hinweise darauf, dass die unterschiedlichen Isotopensignaturen weniger auf verschiedene Speisezettel als vielmehr auf einen Wandel der Umweltbedingungen wie zum Beispiel erhöhte Trockenheit in den Gebieten, in denen sich die anatomisch modernen Menschen aufhielten, zurückzuführen sind. (more…)

Scientists solve a 14,000-year-old ocean mystery

By Guest PostJuly 30, 2013Environmentabundance of isotopes, amoeba like foraminifera, bering sea, carbon dioxide, chaetoceros diatom, China, climate change, element, fossil record, ggc 37, iron hypothesis, kamchatka peninsula, ken buesseler, last ice age, loess plateau, melting glaciers, neodymium, north pacific ocean, norway, ocean mystery, ocean with iron, pacific, perfect storm, phoebe lam, phytoplankton, post ice age, russia, sediment cores, spore, strontium, university of bergen, university of bristol, whoi

At the end of the last Ice Age, as the world began to warm, a swath of the North Pacific Ocean came to life. During a brief pulse of biological productivity 14,000 years ago, this stretch of the sea teemed with phytoplankton, amoeba-like foraminifera and other tiny creatures, who thrived in large numbers until the productivity ended—as mysteriously as it began—just a few hundred years later.

Researchers have hypothesized that iron sparked this surge of ocean life, but a new study led by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) scientists and colleagues at the University of Bristol (UK), the University of Bergen (Norway), Williams College and the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University suggests iron may not have played an important role after all, at least in some settings. The study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, determines that a different mechanism—a transient “perfect storm” of nutrients and light—spurred life in the post-Ice Age Pacific. Its findings resolve conflicting ideas about the relationship between iron and biological productivity during this time period in the North Pacific—with potential implications for geo-engineering efforts to curb climate change by seeding the ocean with iron. (more…)

Next Scientific Fashion Could be Designer Nanocrystals

By Guest PostDecember 6, 2012Sciencealternative, array, assisted, bioluminescence, chemical bonds, Chicago, chromophores, correlation, crystalline arrays, david mazziotti, designer atoms, dmitri talapin, electric charges, electronic glue, electrons, element, functional materials, gradient, grape, greg engel, helium, hydrogen, magnetic semiconductors, molecular systems, nanocrystals, phenomena, photon echo, properties, quantum computing, semiconductor nanocrystals, solar energy, spectroscopy, superior oil company, technique, trajectories, university

Three University of Chicago chemistry professors hope that their separate research trajectories will converge to create a new way of assembling what they call “designer atoms” into materials with a broad array of potentially useful properties and functions.

These “designer atoms” would be nanocrystals—crystalline arrays of atoms intended to be manipulated in ways that go beyond standard uses of atoms in the periodic table. Such arrays would be suited to address challenges in solar energy, quantum computing and functional materials. (more…)

Small Organisms Could Dramatically Impact World’s Climate

By Guest PostOctober 26, 2012Environment21st century, atmospheric, carbon, carbon dioxide, christopher klausmeier, climate change, colin kremer, cycle, david garrison, diversity, element, elena litchman, equatorial water, evolutionary adaptation, food chain, global climate, impact, level, marine microorganism, michigan, mridul thomas, nitrogen, ocean, ocean floor, organism, phosphorous, photosynthesis, phytoplankton, population, science express, state university, temperature, tropical water, warmer

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Warmer oceans in the future could significantly alter populations of phytoplankton, tiny organisms that could have a major impact on climate change.

In the current issue of Science Express, Michigan State University researchers show that by the end of the 21st century, warmer oceans will cause populations of these marine microorganisms to thrive near the poles and may shrink in equatorial waters. Since phytoplankton play a key role in the food chain and the world’s cycles of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous and other elements, a drastic drop could have measurable consequences. (more…)

A Welcome Predictability

By Guest PostOctober 9, 2012Scienceadam arkin, adaptor, advanced phase, bacteria, bacterial, berkeley lab, carbon, cell, chang liu, code, composability, computer hardware, criteria, denise wang, dna nucleotides, element, energy fuel, Environment, escherichia coli, fluorescence microscopy, function, gene, genetic engineering, global cycle, higher order, image, julius lucks, lei qi, medical drug, microbial component, molecules, non coding, plasmid pair, radioactive waste, rna, sustainable production, synthesize protein, synthetic biology, synthetic circuit, thomas segall shapiro, toxic, transcriptional elongation, translational regulator, utrs, vivek mutalik

Berkeley Lab Researchers Develop New Tool for Making Genetic Engineering of Microbial Circuits Reliably Predictable

Synthetic biology is the latest and most advanced phase of genetic engineering, holding great promise for helping to solve some of the world’s most intractable problems, including the sustainable production of energy fuels and critical medical drugs, and the safe removal of toxic and radioactive waste from the environment. However, for synthetic biology to reach its promise, the design and construction of biological systems must be as predictable as the assembly of computer hardware.

An important step towards attaining a higher degree of predictability in synthetic biology has been taken by a group of researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) under the leadership of computational biologist Adam Arkin. Arkin and his team have developed an “adaptor” that makes the genetic engineering of microbial components substantially easier and more predictable by converting regulators of translation into regulators of transcription in Escherichia coli. Transcription and translation make up the two-step process by which the coded instructions of genes are used to synthesize proteins. (more…)

Sediment Sleuthing

By Guest PostMarch 23, 2012Environmentchristopher sommerfield, coast, contaminant, delaware bay, delaware river, element, environmental science, epa, fukushima nuclear disaster, i 131, Japan, non radioactive, ocean, radiation, radioactive iodine, radioactive medicine, radioiodine, radionuclide, river, schuylkill river, sea floor, sediment, suspended particle, teresa messmore, university of delaware, wastewater

Radioactive medicine being tracked through rivers

A University of Delaware oceanographer has stumbled upon an unusual aid for studying local waterways: radioactive iodine. Trace amounts of the contaminant, which is used in medical treatments, are entering waterways via wastewater treatment systems and providing a new way to track where and how substances travel through rivers to the ocean.

“This is a really interesting convergence of medicine, public health and environmental science,” said Christopher Sommerfield, associate professor of oceanography in UD’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment. (more…)

Prehistoric Greenhouse Data from Ocean Floor Could Predict Earth’s Future, MU Study Finds

By Guest PostOctober 29, 2011Environmenta jimenez berrocoso, atlantic ocean temperatures, atmosphere, atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide, biosphere, c basak, circulation in the deep ocean, circulation patterns, climate, e e martin, element, fish teeth and bones, geological climate cycles, greenhouse climate, greenhouse climate on earth, isaza londono, kenneth macleod, late cretaceous epoch, late cretaceous greenhouse interval, modern increases in greenhouse gases, natural tracking system for water masses, neodymium, ocean floor, oceans, salty water mass, south atlantic, tropical atlantic, university of missouri

*Evidence of water mass moving south 70 million years ago shows how warmth was distributed*

COLUMBIA, Mo. – New research from the University of Missouri indicates that Atlantic Ocean temperatures during the greenhouse climate of the Late Cretaceous Epoch were influenced by circulation in the deep ocean. These changes in circulation patterns 70 million years ago could help scientists understand the consequences of modern increases in greenhouse gases.

“We are examining ocean conditions from several past greenhouse climate intervals so that we can understand better the interactions among the atmosphere, the oceans, the biosphere, and climate,” said Kenneth MacLeod, professor of geological sciences in the College of Arts and Science. “The Late Cretaceous Epoch is a textbook example of a greenhouse climate on earth, and we have evidence that a northern water mass expanded southwards while the climate was cooling. At the same time, a warm, salty water mass that had been present throughout the greenhouse interval disappeared from the tropical Atlantic.” (more…)