A team of scientists have developed a robot, called SynRobo, to help care for a variety of plants growing beneath solar panels. The robot is designed to sow, prune and harvest crops, even in densely planted areas without interfering with nearby plants. The robot is designed to work with a Synecoculture system, which is a […]
The Arctic sea ice extent for the Northern Hemisphere winter of 2023 is the fifth lowest on record. The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) announced Wednesday that the Arctic sea ice likely reached its maximum extent on March 6 at 5.64 million square miles. That’s 398,000 square miles below the average maximum for […]
Samuel Taylor Coleridge first published the poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” in 1798, but, with the world running out of fresh water, the lines, “Water, water, every where, / Ne any drop to drink,” feel timely. Today, the planet is facing an unprecedented water crisis, with global freshwater demand predicted to exceed supply […]
Could floating solar panels be the energy source of the future? That’s what one team of researchers was determined to find out. As it turns out, floating solar panels covering portions of water reservoirs could provide enough energy to power thousands of cities around the world, according to a new study. The study, published in […]
Like something out of a classic sci-fi film, marine scientists are tracking a giant seaweed blob approaching Florida’s Gulf Coast. The 5,000-mile-wide swarm of seaweed — which scientists say could be the biggest in history — is so large it can be seen from space. The colossal seaweed mat was caused by a huge sargassum […]
U.S. grocery shoppers take note, it’s that time of year again. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) released on Wednesday its 2023 Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce, with its annual Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen lists of the conventional fruits and vegetables most and least likely to be contaminated with pesticides, and this year’s lists […]
For the first time, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed standards for limiting toxic forever chemicals in drinking water. The draft regulation, unveiled Tuesday, would target six types of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that are known to be found in drinking water, setting legal limits for their presence. “EPA’s proposal to establish […]
What countries emit the most net carbon dioxide? Up until now, this question has been answered by calculating the emissions of each sector in a nation’s economy via a “bottom up” approach. However, a new paper published in Earth System Science Data March 7 pilots a “top down” approach by using NASA satellite data to […]
Typically, the start of each new year aligns with peak breeding times for Antarctic seabirds, like the south polar skua, Antarctic petrel and snow petrel. Around this time, the birds will select sites and start building their nests and laying eggs. But a new study during the time period from December 2021 through January 2022 […]