Monday, July 25th, 2016
For the world’s coral reefs, the picture keeps getting gloomier. Although it’s widely assumed that both local and global factors are contributing to their decline, new research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill shows that isolated reefs far from human activities are in fact not healthier than those in more densely populated
Monday, July 25th, 2016
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today finalized a determination under the Clean Air Act that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from certain types of aircraft engines contribute to the pollution that causes climate change and endangers Americans’ health and the environment. The findings are for carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs),
Monday, July 25th, 2016
The Arctic SDI Board, which includes mapping executives from Canada, Kingdom of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States, recently met in Anchorage, Alaska to further development of a robust Arctic Spatial Data Infrastructure. The Arctic SDI is a cooperation based on a Memorandum of Understanding signed by the eight National Mapping
Thursday, July 14th, 2016
A researcher at Arizona State University has discovered how to control multiple robotic drones using the human brain. A controller wears a skull cap outfitted with 128 electrodes wired to a computer. The device records electrical brain activity. If the controller moves a hand or thinks of something, certain areas light up. “I can see
Thursday, July 14th, 2016
There are more different kinds of trees in the Amazon rainforest than anywhere else on earth, but the exact number has long been a mystery. In 2013, scientists estimated that the number of species was around 16,000–no one had ever counted them all up, though. In a new paper in Scientific Reports, the same scientists
Thursday, July 14th, 2016
Just as the summer is heating up, Florida Atlantic University’s Institute for Sensing and Embedded Network Systems Engineering (I-SENSE) and Dioxide Materials™ have formed a unique partnership to develop and evaluate a novel low-cost, low-power, wireless CO2 sensing system for heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) applications. The technology that emerges from this joint project will
Wednesday, July 13th, 2016
Washington, D.C.—Urban centers lie at the root of an important—and often neglected—source of emissions: deforestation. According to Senior Researcher Tom Prugh in Can a City Be Sustainable?, the latest edition of the annual State of the World series from the Worldwatch Institute, deforestation caused by growing urban consumption is contributing to massive emissions globally, despite increasing sustainability efforts
Tuesday, July 12th, 2016
MORGAN HILL, Calif., July 12, 2016— Aiming squarely at the emerging markets of drone mapping and mobile robotics, Velodyne LiDAR today announced a partnership agreement with Dibotics, a Paris-based pioneer in GPS-denied and infrastructure-less navigation. Under the agreement, Dibotics will provide consulting services to Velodyne LiDAR customers who require 3D SLAM software, while Velodyne will assist Dibotics
Tuesday, July 12th, 2016
The phrase “tipping point” passed its own tipping point and caught fire after author Malcolm Gladwell’s so-named 2000 book. It’s now frequently used in discussions about climate change, but what are “climate tipping points”? And what do they mean for society and the economy? Scientists at Rutgers University and Harvard University tackle the terminology and
Monday, July 11th, 2016
Climate change is already affecting inland fish across North America — including some fish that are popular with anglers. Scientists are seeing a variety of changes in how inland fish reproduce, grow, and where they can live, according to four new studies published this week in a special issue of Fisheries magazine. “Thanks to this synthesis,
