http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. The STPSat-1, built for the Department of Defense (DoD) Space Test Program (STP) and operated by the DoD STP for the first year then transitioned to NRL for the last 16 months, was decommissioned on October 7th after completing almost 2 ½ years of successful on-orbit operation. The satellite's two payloads, both designed and built by the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), provided unique measurements of middle atmospheric hydroxyl, polar mesospheric clouds and the low latitude ionosphere. http://www.physorg.com/news179002593.html Space & Earth Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:00:02 EST news179002593 The first comprehensive review of the state of Antarctica's climate and its relationship to the global climate system is published this week by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR). The review - Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment - presents the latest research from the icy continent, identifies areas for future scientific research, and addresses the urgent questions that policy makers have about Antarctic melting, sea-level rise and biodiversity. http://www.physorg.com/news178867843.html Space & Earth Tue, 01 Dec 2009 06:00:01 EST news178867843 Popular thinking about how to improve food systems for the better often misses the point, according to the results of a three-year global study of salmon production systems. Rather than pushing for organic or land-based production, or worrying about simple metrics such as "food miles," the study finds that the world can achieve greater environmental benefits by focusing on improvements to key aspects of production and distribution. http://www.physorg.com/news178297283.html Space & Earth Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:16:35 EST news178297283 The oceans play a key role in regulating climate, absorbing more than a quarter of the carbon dioxide that humans put into the air. Now, the first year-by-year accounting of this mechanism during the industrial era suggests the oceans are struggling to keep up with rising emissions -- a finding with potentially wide implications for future climate. The study appears in this week's issue of the journal Nature. http://www.physorg.com/news177772960.html Space & Earth Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:23:43 EST news177772960 (PhysOrg.com) -- Current atmospheric ozone levels are already suppressing soybean yields, according to Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and university cooperators studying the effect of global climate change on crops. http://www.physorg.com/news177670316.html Biology Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:54:52 EST news177670316 The Antarctic system comprises of the continent itself, Antarctica, and the ocean surrounding it, the Southern Ocean. In a study for a doctoral degree by geophysicist Kai Rasmus, University of Helsinki, Finland, measurements were made during three Austral summers to study the optical properties of the Antarctic system and to produce radiation information for additional modeling studies. http://www.physorg.com/news177597461.html Space & Earth Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:38:39 EST news177597461 The Sun is a bubbling mass. Packages of gas rise and sink, lending the sun its grainy surface structure, its granulation. Dark spots appear and disappear, clouds of matter dart up - and behind the whole thing are the magnetic fields, the engines of it all. The SUNRISE balloon-borne telescope, a collaborative project between the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Katlenburg-Lindau and partners in Germany, Spain and the USA, has now delivered images that show the complex interplay on the solar surface to a level of detail never before achieved. http://www.physorg.com/news177164239.html Space & Earth Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:17:58 EST news177164239 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have found that acidic ozone water can deactivate H1N1 viruses very effectively, offering a promising disinfectant for the millions of people trying to avoid the disease. Acidic ozone water (AOW) is made from regular tap water mixed with a small amount of acid such as hydrochloric acid, along with an ozonized gas that can be produced in the lab. After deactivating the virus, the substance eventually decays into plain water, leaving no residue or harmful materials in the environment. http://www.physorg.com/news176991361.html Chemistry Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:18:10 EST news176991361 (PhysOrg.com) -- Every year, scientists learn something new about the inner workings of lightning. With satellites, they have discovered that more than 1.2 billion lightning flashes occur around the world every year. (Rwanda has the most flashes per square kilometer, while flashes are rare in polar regions.) Laboratory and field experiments have revealed that the core of some lightning bolts reaches 30,000 Kelvin (53,540 ºF), a temperature hot enough to instantly melt sand and break oxygen and nitrogen molecules into individual atoms. http://www.physorg.com/news175527058.html Space & Earth Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:32:40 EST news175527058 When world leaders meet in Copenhagen in December to hash out a treaty limiting carbon dioxide emissions, they should begin planning a future summit to address other pollutants - from soot to ozone - that don't remain in the atmosphere as long as carbon dioxide, but nevertheless are major contributors to global warming. http://www.physorg.com/news175442630.html Space & Earth Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:30:01 EST news175442630 By merging more than a decade of atmospheric data from European satellites, scientists have compiled a homogeneous long-term ozone record that allows them to monitor total ozone trends on a global scale - and the findings look promising. http://www.physorg.com/news172755429.html Space & Earth Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:50:01 EST news172755429 In the air, it is a serious pollutant. In the body, it plays a role in heart rate, blood flow, nerve signals and immune function. Nitric oxide, a gas well known to scientists for its myriad functions, has proven challenging to measure accurately outside the laboratory. http://www.physorg.com/news172497785.html Technology Fri, 18 Sep 2009 13:50:06 EST news172497785 (PhysOrg.com) -- The annual ozone hole has started developing over the South Pole, and it appears that it will be comparable to ozone depletions over the past decade. This composite image from September 10 depicts ozone concentrations in Dobson units, with purple and blues depicting severe deficits of ozone. http://www.physorg.com/news172335679.html Space & Earth Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:20:02 EST news172335679 The World Meteorological Organisation said Wednesday that the ozone hole is expected to be smaller in 2009 than a year ago. http://www.physorg.com/news172311361.html Space & Earth Wed, 16 Sep 2009 09:18:41 EST news172311361 (AP) -- Small island nations gained North America's powerful backing Tuesday for a plan to convert the U.N. ozone treaty into a tool for phasing out some of the globe's most powerful climate-warming gases. http://www.physorg.com/news172301294.html Space & Earth Wed, 16 Sep 2009 06:28:58 EST news172301294 The world faces a compounding series of crises driven by human activity, which existing governments and institutions are increasingly powerless to cope with, a group of eminent environmental scientists and economists has warned. http://www.physorg.com/news171883610.html Space & Earth Fri, 11 Sep 2009 10:40:01 EST news171883610 Ozone, the main component of air pollution, or smog, is a highly reactive, colorless gas formed when oxygen reacts with other chemicals. Although ozone pollution is most often associated with outdoor air, the gas also infiltrates indoor environments like homes and offices. Ozone can be released by ordinary copy machines, laser printers, ultraviolet lights, and some electrostatic air purification systems, all of which contribute to increased indoor ozone levels. Topping the extensive list of toxic effects of ozone on humans are pulmonary edema, hemorrhage, inflammation, and reduction of lung function. http://www.physorg.com/news171625287.html Space & Earth Tue, 08 Sep 2009 10:41:55 EST news171625287 (PhysOrg.com) -- Physicists at the University of Toronto have discovered that changes in the Earth's ozone layer due to climate change will reduce the amount of ultraviolet (UV) radiation in northern high latitude regions such as Siberia, Scandinavia and northern Canada. Other regions of the Earth, such as the tropics and Antarctica, will instead face increasing levels of UV radiation. http://www.physorg.com/news171462048.html Space & Earth Sun, 06 Sep 2009 13:21:18 EST news171462048 (PhysOrg.com) -- Global temperatures are increasing. Sea levels are rising. Ice sheets in many areas of the world are retreating. Yet there`s something peculiar going on in the oceans around Antarctica: even as global air and ocean temperatures march upward, the extent of the sea ice around the southern continent isn`t decreasing. In fact, it's increasing. http://www.physorg.com/news171129293.html Space & Earth Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:10:06 EST news171129293 Nitrous oxide has now become the largest ozone-depleting substance emitted through human activities, and is expected to remain the largest throughout the 21st century, NOAA scientists say in a new study. http://www.physorg.com/news170603626.html Space & Earth Thu, 27 Aug 2009 15:40:01 EST news170603626 (PhysOrg.com) -- The world could buy time to forestall disastrous environmental and geopolitical climate change effects by using existing technologies to curb emissions created through diesel and solid biomass fuel burning, according to an article co-authored by Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego climate and atmospheric scientist V. Ramanathan. http://www.physorg.com/news170006509.html Space & Earth Thu, 20 Aug 2009 17:30:02 EST news170006509 Imagine Earth without an atmosphere - without clouds, wind or air. Earth's atmosphere protects, transports, and reacts to life on Earth. http://www.physorg.com/news168707591.html Space & Earth Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:40:02 EST news168707591 Ozone exposure, even at levels deemed safe by current clean air standards, can have a significant and negative effect on lung function, according to researchers at the University of California Davis. http://www.physorg.com/news167588868.html Medicine & Health Thu, 23 Jul 2009 18:00:01 EST news167588868 (PhysOrg.com) -- Burning of fossil fuels pumps chemicals into the air that react on surfaces such as buildings and roads to create photochemical smog-forming chlorine atoms, UC Irvine scientists report in a new study. http://www.physorg.com/news167329080.html Space & Earth Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:21:22 EST news167329080 (PhysOrg.com) -- Forty years ago, Apollo astronauts set out on a daring adventure to explore the Moon. They ended up discovering their own planet. http://www.physorg.com/news167323008.html Space & Earth Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:50:03 EST news167323008 (PhysOrg.com) -- On July 15, 2004, NASA's Aura spacecraft launched from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base on a mission to study Earth's ozone layer, air quality and climate. Aura's data are helping scientists address global climate change issues such as global warming; the global transport, distribution and chemistry of polluted air; and ozone depletion in the stratosphere, the layer of Earth's atmosphere that extends from roughly 15 to 50 kilometers (10 to 30 miles) in altitude. http://www.physorg.com/news166979911.html Space & Earth Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:21:19 EST news166979911 Through a recent modeling experiment, a team of NASA-funded researchers have found that future concentrations of carbon dioxide and ozone in the atmosphere and of nitrogen in the soil are likely to have an important but overlooked effect on the cycling of water from sky to land to waterways. http://www.physorg.com/news166357620.html Space & Earth Thu, 09 Jul 2009 12:00:01 EST news166357620 With rising ozone levels scientists have found that high ozone conditions cause a 30 percent decrease in yield and an increase in the concentration of a group of compounds with toxic effects to livestock, but anticarcinogenic effects for humans, within oilseed rape plants. Maarten de Bock will present his findings at the Society for Experimental Biology meeting on Monday, June 29. http://www.physorg.com/news165474218.html Biology Mon, 29 Jun 2009 07:10:01 EST news165474218 To stretch a supply of salt generally means using it sparingly. http://www.physorg.com/news165054350.html Nanotechnology Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:26:36 EST news165054350 Does ozone have an impact on the ocean's role as a "carbon sink"? Yes, according to researchers from France. Using original simulations, they have demonstrated that the hole in the ozone layer reduces atmospheric carbon uptake in the Southern Ocean and contributes to the increase in ocean acidity. These results, which are published online in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, should have a considerable impact on future models of the IPCC, which, for the moment, do not take ozone variations into account. http://www.physorg.com/news165045115.html Space & Earth Wed, 24 Jun 2009 06:52:21 EST news165045115