Wiping out all of Africa’s elephants could accelerate Earth’s climate crisis by allowing 7% more damaging greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, scientists say. But conserving forest elephants may reverse the trend, providing a service worth $43billion in storing carbon, the academics found. The research, published in Nature Geoscience, shows that …
In a world first, Chinese scientists have reported editing the genomes of human embryos. The results are published in the online journal Protein & Cell and confirm widespread rumours that such experiments had been conducted — rumours that sparked a high-profile debate last month about the ethical implications of such …
The Earth Statement, written by 17 members of the Earth League, clarifies in 8 essential points what the international climate agreement at Paris 2015, COP 21, should achieve to provide the world with a decent chance of avoiding dangerous climate change.
Rising temperatures across the planet have set more new records, as the US government announced Friday that the globe experienced its hottest month of March since record-keeping began in 1880. The period of January to March was also the warmest on record, said the monthly report by the National Oceanic …
Scientists have suggested a new way of safely disposing high-emission nuclear waste -- burying it deep down into the earth. The concept, called deep borehole disposal, has been developed primarily in England but is likely to see its first field trials in the United States next year. "Deep borehole disposal …
Last week, I reported on a serious but little discussed threat to the climate system: As the frozen Arctic soil known as “permafrost” thaws, it could release a large amount of carbon — in the form of both carbon dioxide and methane — to the atmosphere. And this new source …
Energy experts meeting in Washington have urged China and the United States to cooperate on the development of a "super-battery" that will promote the use of clean energy. "We are living in a more and more transparent world economy," said Jeffrey Chamberlain, executive director of the Joint Center for Energy …
There may be a new and better method for predicting the number of hurricanes in an upcoming season. Scientists have created a new model that improves on the accuracy of seasonal hurricane forecasts for the North Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico by an impressive 23 percent. Hurricanes can be …
For the first time scientists have been able to capture and document how the behaviour of wild animals changes prior to an earthquake - a development which may help with short-term seismic forecasting. The study, led by Dr Rachel Grant of Anglia Ruskin University, used data gathered from a series …
Feeding food to wild animals may just impact their risk of disease. Scientists have found that supplemental feeding of wildlife can actually increase the spread of some infectious diseases and decrease the spread of others. Giving food to wild animals is becoming more and more common. As people move into …
A rapid Ebola diagnostic kit similar to a pregnancy kit has been developed by British military scientists and NHS medics in Sierra Leone. It can be administered at the bedside and return its first results within 20 minutes, slashing dramatically the normal 24-hour turnaround for lab results. Early bedside tests …
Imagine you are Sherlock Holmes bent on solving a mystery but the evidence is starting to crumble and eventually you will be left with worthless dust. This is the worry which haunts ice scientists delving into Earth’s threatened glaciers. Deep inside them, the slumbering ice slabs hold information about Earth's …
Scientists have bred 30 new varieties of "heat-beating" beans designed to provide protein for the world's poor in the face of global warming, researchers announced on Wednesday. Described as "meat of the poor", beans are a key food source for more than 400 million people across the developing world, but …
Obesity affects one in three Americans, and strongly increases the risk for developing several diseases and conditions, including heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes, as well as certain types of cancers. So finding a way to curb this epidemic other than simple diet and exercise is crucial, especially since …
Research published in journal Science shows local protection of three world heritage sites is too weak and leaves them at risk of ‘unfolding diaster’ The world’s most prized ecosystems, such as the Amazon rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef, require stronger local management to reduce the enormous global threat posed …
In a discovery that may pave the way for regeneration of damaged heart tissue, scientists have successfully stimulated the mouse heart to grow new cells. Researchers have shown that a subset of RNA molecules, called microRNAs, is important for cardiomyocyte cell proliferation during development and is sufficient to induce proliferation …
Russian scientists have now discovered seven giant craters in remote Siberia, a geologist told AFP on Thursday, adding that the mysterious phenomenon was believed to be linked to climate change. The discovery of an enormous chasm in a far northern region known to locals as “the end of the world” …
Swine flu has been claiming one life a day on an average in the city for the past one month. A 55-year-old woman from Thakurli was the latest in line to fall prey to the deadly H1N1 virus taking the toll of deaths to 24 since January this year. If …
Japanese scientists have succeeded in transmitting energy wirelessly, in a key step that could one day make solar power generation in space a possibility, an official said Thursday. Researchers used microwaves to deliver 1.8 kilowatts of power — enough to run an electric kettle — through the air with pinpoint …
By late January of this year, Elizabeth Radke figured she was pretty much done with Florida. She had already graduated from the University of Florida, where she had gotten her PhD in epidemiology. She had moved from the Sunshine State to the Washington area, where she took a job at …
Drawing one of the strongest links yet between global warming and human conflict, researchers said on Monday that an extreme drought in Syria between 2006 and 2009 was most likely due to climate change, and that it was a factor in the violent uprising that began there in 2011. The …
