Berkeley Lab scientists and their colleagues have discovered the properties that made ancient Roman concrete sustainable and durable
The chemical secrets of a concrete Roman breakwater that has spent the last 2,000 years submerged in the Mediterranean Sea have been uncovered by an international team of researchers led by Paulo Monteiro of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.
Analysis of samples provided by team member Marie Jackson pinpointed why the best Roman concrete was superior to most modern concrete in durability, why its manufacture was less environmentally damaging – and how these improvements could be adopted in the modern world. (more…)
Most people today look at diet plans to help them lose weight; however, these plans can also serve other purposes such as keeping heart disease and diabetes at bay. With all the different diet plans on offer, choosing the one that is right for you can be a tough job. Take a look at these plans that were evaluated by health experts and received high rankings in a recent survey by U.S. News, and make your decision.
The Mediterranean Diet
Like the Mayo Clinic Diet, the Mediterranean Diet plan helps to achieve and maintain a healthy weight and also prevent or control diabetes, brain and heart disorders and even cancer. Drawing inspiration from the diet of people in the European countries around the Mediterranean Sea, this diet focuses on eating more of nuts, herbs and spices, whole grains, vegetables and fruits, seafood and fish, and cutting down on red meat, saturated fat foods and sugar. With its emphasis on mono- and polyunsaturated fats and avoidance of saturated fat, this diet is effective at reducing bad cholesterol and keeping blood pressure low. Although it is one of the top diet programs, the only possible weakness lies in the fact that the plan is not a structured one and so, the onus lies on you to come up with a calorie chart to follow. (more…)
The colorful images chronicle the seasonal stirrings of our salty world: Pulses of freshwater gush from the Amazon River’s mouth; an invisible seam divides the salty Arabian Sea from the fresher waters of the Bay of Bengal; a large patch of freshwater appears in the eastern tropical Pacific in the winter. These and other changes in ocean salinity patterns are revealed by the first full year of surface salinity data captured by NASA’s Aquarius instrument.
“With a bit more than a year of data, we are seeing some surprising patterns, especially in the tropics,” said Aquarius Principal Investigator Gary Lagerloef, of Earth & Space Research in Seattle. “We see features evolve rapidly over time.” (more…)
PASADENA, Calif. – Scientists with NASA’s Cassini mission have spotted what appears to be a miniature, extraterrestrial likeness of Earth’s Nile River: a river valley on Saturn’s moon Titan that stretches more than 200 miles (400 kilometers) from its “headwaters” to a large sea. It is the first time images have revealed a river system this vast and in such high resolution anywhere other than Earth.
Scientists deduce that the river, which is in Titan’s north polar region, is filled with liquid hydrocarbons because it appears dark along its entire length in the high-resolution radar image, indicating a smooth surface. (more…)
MENLO PARK, Calif. – 100 years ago, in June 1912, the most powerful volcanic eruption of the 20th century took place in what is now Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve. This massive volcanic event once again comes alive for scholars and enthusiasts in a new centennial volume by two U.S. Geological Survey scientists whose work has made major contributions to volcano science.
“The Novarupta-Katmai Eruption of 1912 – Largest Eruption of the Twentieth Century: Centennial Perspectives,” by Wes Hildreth and Judy Fierstein, is the most comprehensive study of a geographically remote but huge and devastating volcanic event. The eruption’s dynamics mystified researchers for decades. Today, study of Novarupta and Katmai volcanoes sheds light on how future events in Alaska’s volcanic regions could affect air quality and air-transportation safety locally and across the globe.(more…)
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — A wave of reptile extinctions on the Greek islands over the past 15,000 years may offer a preview of the way plants and animals will respond as the world rapidly warms due to human-caused climate change, according to a University of Michigan ecologist and his colleagues.
The Greek island extinctions also highlight the critical importance of preserving habitat corridors that will enable plants and animals to migrate in response to climate change, thereby maximizing their chances of survival.(more…)
It may take years before scientists determine the full impact of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. But, utilizing the human-occupied submersible Alvin and the autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) Sentry, researchers are about to investigate—and view first-hand—the possible effects of the spill at the bottom of the Gulf.
And, from Dec. 6-14, the mission will be relayed to the public as it happens on the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s (WHOI) Dive and Discover website (https://divediscover.whoi.edu). (more…)
The biblical account of the parting of the Red Sea has inspired and mystified people for millennia. A new computer modeling study by researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU) shows how the movement of wind as described in the book of Exodus could have parted the waters.
