Graphenecarbon formed into sheets a single atom thicknow may be a promising base material for capturing hydrogen, as per recent research* at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Pennsylvania. The findings suggest stacks of graphene layers could potentially store hydrogen safely for use in fuel cells and other applications........

uke University scientists have devised a method to dry and preserve proteins in a glassified form that seems to retain the molecules' properties as workhorses of biology. They are exploring whether their glassification technique could bring about protein-based drugs that are cheaper to make and easier to deliver than current techniques which render proteins into freeze dried powders to preserve them........

The use of prescribed burns to manage western forests may help the United States reduce its carbon footprint. Results of a newly released study find that such burns, often used by forest managers to reduce underbrush and protect bigger trees, release substantially less carbon dioxide emissions than wildfires of the same size........

For the average college basketball fan looking for an edge in a March Madness office pool, a University of Illinois expert in statistics and data analysis has some advice on how to pick winners: After the Sweet Sixteen round of play, ignore a team's seeding, which is a statistically insignificant predictor of a team's chances of winning........

The increased frequency and intensity of oxygen-deprived "dead zones" along the world's coasts can negatively impact environmental conditions in far more than just local waters. In the March 12 edition of the journal Science, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science oceanographer Dr. Lou Codispoti explains that the increased amount of nitrous oxide (N2O) produced in low-oxygen (hypoxic) waters can elevate concentrations in the atmosphere, further exacerbating the impacts of global warming and contributing to ozone "holes" that cause an increase in our exposure to harmful UV radiation........

A team of researchers at MIT have discovered a previously unknown phenomenon that can cause powerful waves of energy to shoot through minuscule wires known as carbon nanotubes. The discovery could lead to a new way of producing electricity, the scientists say. The phenomenon, described as thermopower waves, "opens up a new area of energy research, which is rare," says Michael Strano, MIT's Charles and Hilda Roddey Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering, who was the senior author of a paper describing the new findings that appeared in Nature Materials on March 7. The main author was Wonjoon Choi, a doctoral student in mechanical engineering........

A recent discovery in understanding how to chemically break down the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into a useful form opens the doors for researchers to wonder what organism is out there - or could be created - to accomplish the task. University of Michigan biological chemist Steve Ragsdale, along with research assistant Elizabeth Pierce and researchers led by Fraser Armstrong from the University of Oxford in the U.K., have figured out a way to efficiently turn carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide using visible light, like sunlight........

"Green" labels do not pack the same wallop for California wines that they do for low-energy appliances, organically grown produce and other environmentally friendly products, but it's not because there's anything wrong with the wine, a new UCLA-led study has observed. In fact, wines made with organically grown grapes actually rate higher on a widely accepted ranking, said Magali Delmas, a UCLA environmental economist and the study's main author. And these wines tend to command a higher price than their conventionally produced counterparts, so long as wineries don't use the word "organic" on their labels........

An international team of researchers studying high-energy collisions of gold ions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), a 2.4-mile-circumference particle accelerator located at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, has published evidence of the most massive antinucleus discovered to date. The new antinucleus, discovered at RHIC's STAR detector, is a negatively charged state of antimatter containing an antiproton, an antineutron, and an anti-Lambda particle. It is also the first antinucleus containing an anti-strange quark. The results will be published online by Science Express on March 4, 2010........

Where does it come from? Researchers in Arizona are reporting a surprising answer to that question, which has puzzled and perplexed generations of men and women confronted with layers of dust on furniture and floors. Most of indoor dust comes from outdoors. Their report appears in the ACS' Environmental Science and Technology, a semi-monthly journal........

Call them oil droplets with a brain or even "chemo-rats." Researchers in Illinois have developed a way to make simple oil droplets "smart" enough to navigate through a complex maze almost like a trained lab rat. The finding could have a wide range of practical implications, including helping cancer drugs to reach their target and controlling the movement of futuristic nano-machines, the researchers say. Their study is in the weekly Journal of the American Chemical Society.......

Whether it's never-ending heat waves or winter storms, atmospheric blocking can have a significant impact on local agriculture, business and the environment. Eventhough these stagnant weather patterns are often difficult to predict, University of Missouri scientists are now studying whether increasing planet temperatures and carbon dioxide levels could lead to atmospheric blocking and when this blocking might occur, leading to more accurate forecasts........

Research presented in a paper by Morgan McGuire, assistant professor of computer science at Williams College, and co-author Dr. David Luebke of NVIDIA, introduces a new algorithm to improve computer graphics for video games. McGuire and Luebke have developed a new method for computerizing lighting and light sources that will allow video game graphics to approach film quality........

Dispelling the notion that urban "green" spaces help counteract greenhouse gas emissions, new research has found - in Southern California at least - that total emissions might be lower if lawns did not exist. Turfgrass lawns help remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and store it as organic carbon in soil, making them important "carbon sinks." However, greenhouse gas emissions from fertilizer production, mowing, leaf blowing and other lawn management practices are similar to or greater than the amount of carbon stored by ornamental grass in parks, a UC Irvine study shows. These emissions include nitrous oxide released from soil after fertilization. Nitrous oxide is a greenhouse gas that's 300 times more powerful than carbon dioxide, the Earth's most problematic climate warmer........

A study by University of Michigan scientists offers new insight into what happens to mercury deposited onto Arctic snow from the atmosphere. The work also provides a new approach to tracking mercury's movement through Arctic ecosystems. Mercury is a naturally occurring element, but some 2000 tons of it enter the global environment each year from human-generated sources such as coal-burning power plants, incinerators and chlorine-producing plants........

The drivers of tropical deforestation have shifted in the early 21st century to hinge on growth of cities and the globalized agricultural trade, a new large-scale study concludes. The observations starkly reverse assumptions by some researchers that fast-growing urbanization and the efficiencies of global trade might eventually slow or reverse tropical deforestation. The study, which covers most of the world's tropical land area, appears in this week's early edition of the journal Nature Geoscience........

A new University of California, Davis, study by a top ecological forecaster says it is harder than experts thought to predict when sudden shifts in Earth's natural systems will occur -- a worrisome finding for researchers trying to identify the tipping points that could push climate change into an irreparable global disaster........

The recent trend towards earlier UK springs and summers has been accelerating, as per a research studypublished recently (9 February 2010) in the scientific journal Global Change Biology The collaborative study, involving researchers from 12 UK research institutions, universities and conservation organisations, is the most comprehensive and rigorous evaluation so far of long-term changes in the seasonal timing (phenology) of biological events across marine, freshwater and terrestrial environments in the UK........

The fact that glaciers in the Himalayan mountains are thinning is not disputed. However, few scientists have attempted to rigorously examine and quantify the causes. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientist Surabi Menon set out to isolate the impacts of the most usually blamed culprit-greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide-from other particles in the air that appears to be causing the melting. Menon and her collaborators observed that airborne black carbon aerosols, or soot, from India is a major contributor to the decline in snow and ice cover on the glaciers........

Researchers in Texas are reporting that a technique used in the search for new drugs could also be used in the quest to discover new, environmentally friendly materials for fighting global warming. Such materials could be used to capture the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from industrial smokestacks and other fixed sources before it enters the biosphere. The newly released study appears in ACS' bi-monthly journal Energy and Fuels.......