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Environment

Tropical thunderstorm clouds are unique because they self-organise even when the conditions below and above them are uniform, and do so with 'memories' of past formations. Image credit - NASA Johnson Space Center
environment | frontier research
09 November 2020

Cloud shapes and formations impact global warming – but we still don’t understand them

Above the Atlantic Ocean, puffy white clouds scud across the sky buffeted by invisible trade winds. They are not ‘particularly big, impressive or extended’, says Dr Sandrine Bony, a climatologist and research director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research. ‘But they are the most ubiquitous clouds on Earth.’

Clouds are important from a climate point of view for how they reflect and absorb sunlight, according to Professor Pier Siebesma, an atmospheric physicist. Image credit - Pier Siebesma
environment | frontier research | interview
04 November 2020

Q&A: Why clouds are still ‘one of the biggest uncertainties’ in climate change

They might be beautiful at times, but clouds are still one of the biggest sources of uncertainty in understanding how the climate will change due to global warming, explains Professor Pier Siebesma, an atmospheric physicist at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Netherlands.

Making aviation sustainable is critical if the EU is to reach its goal of becoming climate-neutral by 2050. Image credit - Nur Andi Ravsanjani Gusma/ Pexels, public domain
environment | transport
02 November 2020

How hybrid electric and fuel aircraft could green air travel

With air traffic set to increase 5% every year until 2030, scientists are looking at how to make aeroplanes more sustainable. But with current batteries making electric aircraft far too heavy, hybrid fuel and electric models could point the way forward for greener air travel - and could become airborne within 15 years.

Mesophotic coral ecosystems, found 30-150m below the sea in tropical and subtropical regions, could make up half of all reefs worldwide but there is little known about them. Image credit - Gal Eyal
environment
19 October 2020

Understudied deeper water reefs could teach us how to better conserve corals

In three decades of diving at locations including the Red Sea and Great Barrier Reef, Gal Eyal has seen coral reefs transform in front of his eyes.

Lightning strikes are not continuous but proceed in steps - but we don't yet know why this is. Image credit - Bernardo de Menezes Petrucci/Wikimedia, licenced under CC BY-SA 4.0
environment | frontier research
14 October 2020

We are starting to crack the mystery of how lightning and thunderstorms work

Imagine lying on a green hill watching the clouds go by on a beautiful day. The clouds you’re probably thinking of are cumulous clouds, the ones that resemble fluffy balls of cotton wool. They seem innocent enough. But they can grow into the more formidable cumulonimbus, the storm cloud. These are the monsters that produce thunder and lightning. They are powerful, destructive and intensely mysterious. They may also be getting a lot more common, which makes understanding their workings – and their effects on the human world, including how we construct buildings or power lines – more important than ever.

Organic 'solar trees', demonstrated at Expo 15 in Milan, Italy, give a glimpse of lightweight, flexible solar cells in action. Image credit - ARMOR/GerArchitektur
environment | energy
12 October 2020

Lightweight, bendy, cheaper – the promise of organic solar panels

Today’s silicon solar panels are an industry standard, but these rigid, heavy blocks may be shunted aside by plastic rivals – lightweight, flexible solar panels that could be printed and stuck onto buildings or placed in windows or cars, turning light into electricity in locations inaccessible to their heavier cousins.

The life that grows underfoot accounts for 80% of the biodiversity in a temperate forest. Image credit - www.pikist.com/licenced under CC0
environment | frontier research
01 October 2020

Forest darkness helps stave off effects of nitrogen pollution – but this is set to change

Europe’s forests are sitting on a pollution timebomb which could rewrite their ecology when it explodes, say researchers.

If different industries share resources, data, and materials - an approach known as industrial symbiosis - then the whole ecosystem could become more sustainable. Image credit - Frans Berkelaar/Wikimedia, licensed under CC by 2.0
industry | energy | environment
28 September 2020

How waste CO2 is helping to turn renewable energy into liquid fuel

Storing power generated by strong winds or bright sunshine by turning it into liquid fuel such as methanol can help to ensure green energy does not go to waste, without having to rely on batteries.

During the coronavirus pandemic, railways have been used more heavily to transport Europe's freight. Image credit - Liberaler Humanist/Wikimedia, licensed CC BY 4.0 International
transport | coronavirus outbreak | environment
14 September 2020

Pandemic freight emissions reached 2030 target in just months. How do we make the changes stick?

The pandemic left a visible imprint on car, bus and bicycle use – and at its height brought about cleaner city air – but it also disrupted another, less obvious but highly polluting sector: freight transport. Coronavirus plunged millions of planes, trucks, trains and ships into a massive experiment, disrupting supply chains as national borders closed and industries shut down. Researchers and industry are now looking to see if any of the changes will stick.

A form of tiger mosquito birth control and drones may help stem the spread of some tropical diseases. Image credit - James Gathany/CDC, public domain
health | environment | frontier research
08 September 2020

Sterilised insects could help control mosquito-borne diseases

Aggressive tiger mosquitoes capable of spreading debilitating tropical diseases such as dengue and Zika are spreading through Europe, but scientists hope it may be possible to control these biting pests with a form of insect birth control and drones. 

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