Climate Change: Humans Pumped Out 10 Billion Tonnes of Carbon Emissions in 2010

New research has found global carbon emissions surged by a record amount in 2010 after falling during the international financial crisis.

The Global Carbon Project published its yearly analysis of carbon dioxide emissions in the journal Nature Climate Change today.

The report found that global carbon dioxide emissions increased by a record 5.9 per cent in 2010. The report says the overall atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide is now at its highest level in 800,000 years.

“At current rates, including the increase in emissions that has been occurring over the last few years and continuing and even accelerating this year, we have about 35 to 40 years to go, before we hit that limit of a total of 1 trillion tonnes” Read the full article »»»»

Sexually Transmitted Infections Epidemic: Is Sex Education the Answer?

A community based sexual health group has raised the alarm about the level of risky sexual behaviour among young people, saying ignorance on the subject could make young Australians vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. Alischa Ross, the founder of Youth Empowerment Against HIV AIDS – YEAH - says her group sends volunteers into schools and public events such as music festivals to educate young people about safe sex. There has been a 20 per cent increase in the rate of infection among young people in the last three years, with chlamydia and gonorrhoea among the biggest culprits. Ms Ross says the trend points to more risky behaviour and widespread complacency. Ross says although HIV is not a huge problem in Australia, it will become more of an issue in the near future, looking at the trends of HIV and what we’ve seen happen worldwide for the last 30 years, is that where there are high incidents of Sexually Transmitted Infections, HIV follows D★D  READ MORE

Global Warming Atmospheric CO2 Link Questioned

High levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere may have less of an impact on the rate of global warming than previously feared, a new study suggests.

Associate Professor Schmittner notes that many previous studies only looked at periods spanning from 1850 to today, thus not taking into account a fully integrated palaeoclimate data on a global scale.

The authors of the study stress that global warming is real and that increases in atmospheric CO2, which has doubled from pre-industrial standards, will have multiple serious impacts.

But more severe estimates that predict temperatures could rise up to an average of 10 degrees Celsius are unlikely, the researchers report in the journal Science.

The new study suggests temperatures will rise on average 2.3 degrees under the same conditions :: Read the full article »»»»

A Century of Extreme Storms

As the Earth’s climate warms, United Nations scientists are predicting an increase in heat waves, rainfall and flooding, stronger cyclones and more intense droughts across the globe this century.

In a report released last week in Uganda, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – IPCC – urged countries to rapidly adopt disaster management plans to adapt to the growing risk of extreme weather. The report gives differing probabilities for weather events, but the thrust is that extreme weather is likely to increase and that the likely cause is humans.

The IPCC defines “likely” as a 66-100 per cent probability, while “virtually certain” is 99-100 per cent. The report says it’s virtually certain that increases in the frequency and magnitude of warm daily temperature extremes will occur on the global scale in the 21st century.

A 1-in-20 year hottest day is likely to become a 1-in-2 year event by the end of the 21st century in most regions. It is very likely that the length, frequency and intensity of heat waves will increase.  Heat waves would likely get hotter by 1-3 degrees Celsius by mid-21st century and by 2-5 degrees by late-21st century :: Read the full article »»»»

World First Supercomputer H1N1 Flu Virus Simulated

Our  understanding of the universe is expanding in all directions, expanding outwards as we see more and more of the cosmos and inwardly as we learn more about the nano world. In the nano world the tools for capturing the action shots are improving but there are still a number of destinations we are unable to explore. Organic organisms - for example, influenza virus - are too delicate for the standard tools of nano exploration. Powerful x-rays and laser illumination used in modern microscopes simply disintegrate such delicacies. In these situations scientists have been turning to simulations - computer models - for answers.  Until now, studying viruses has been challenging in laboratories, this new technology not only allows for greater offline research, it belies the complexity associated with simulating billions of particles in the correct conditions to create such simulations

Dr. Ying Ren along with a team of researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Process Engineering have also been searching for answers using simulators, in the process they have developed the Computational Microscope, a breakthrough in simulation technology :: Read the full article »»»»

The Great Dying

Throughout the history of our planet, there have been a number of mass extinction events. The largest was the “Great Dying,” which occurred at the cusp of the Permian and Triassic periods. Over half of the species on Earth at the time became extinct.

A recent find in China has allowed researchers  to pinpoint the events that appear to have precipitated the ‘Great Dying’ Scientists working in South China have pinpointed the timing of the Earth’s most dramatic extinction, an event that killed 96 per cent of all marine species, and 70 per cent of those on land.

Their findings show the so-called end-Permian mass extinction, sometimes referred to as the ‘Great Dying’, peaked just before 252 million years ago and took place very quickly, over a period of less than 200,000 years.

 This precise timing should help scientists settle the contentious issue of what exactly stripped so much biodiversity from the face of the planet, says study author Sam Bowring, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Other researchers have proposed several mechanisms for the extinctions, including an asteroid impact, an enormous volcanic event, or a shift in ocean circulation driven by climate change. So far no hypothesis has gained widespread support among scientists. One obstacle has been a lack of precise information about the timing and length of the event :: Read the full article »»»»

Flexible Organic Small-Molecule Solar Cells

We’ve raved about solar cells previously: here, and here, the technology has taken several quantum leaps over the past decade. Paintable  crystalline and printable solar cells seem to be the way of the future, the fight now is for real solar efficiency. Solar panels that can be simply printed have inched a step closer with the development of an energy efficient, organic, small-molecule solar cell. The solar cell, which was developed by a team from the University of California, Santa Barbara, has energy efficiencies of 6.7 per cent, which rivals the best polymer-based solar cells. Most polymer-based designs have reached the 6 to 8 range for efficiency.

“These results provide important progress for solution-processed organic photovoltaics and demonstrate that solar cells fabricated from small donor molecules can compete with their polymeric counterparts,” the authors, including Nobel Prize winner Professor Alan Heeger, wrote in Nature Materials. Read the full article »»»»