JON CARTWRIGHT – Page 32 – & THREE QUARKS EDITORIAL

Forests have ‘lagged’ response to extreme climate

Energy & EnvironmentJon Cartwright4 March, 2013

Published in ERW, 4 Mar 2013

Researchers in Europe have uncovered how forests dating back to the 16th century responded to extreme climate events such as droughts. The analysis, which reveals that an extreme event can affect the growth of trees for more than one year, should help scientists develop more accurate vegetation models.

An extreme climate event is one that falls outside normal climate variability. However, the precise definition depends on the time period covered. Over the short term, floods or storms can classify as extreme events. Longer-term events can include prolonged periods of high or low temperatures. Examples of these include the 2010 wildfires in Russia and the 2003 heatwave in southern and central Europe, which is estimated to have caused around 70,000 deaths. […]

The rest of this article is available here.

Cumbria rejects hosting nuclear-waste repository

Physics WorldJon Cartwright1 March, 2013

Published in Physics World, 1 Mar 2013

The UK government will have to look elsewhere to store its mounting nuclear waste after plans were rejected to assess sites in Cumbria for a £12bn underground nuclear-waste repository. On 30 January seven of the 10 members of Cumbria County Council cabinet voted against a proposal to build an underground laboratory in the region that would have acted as a testbed for a full-scale storage. District councils in west Cumbria are now hoping that the veto – the second in 14 years – will be overruled by the government.

The UK has been generating nuclear waste since its first nuclear power station fired up in 1956. Since then the country has accumulated some 470 000 m3 of waste, which could remain dangerously radioactive for up to a million years. Most of the high- and intermediate-level waste is currently in temporary above-ground storage at the Sellafield nuclear- reprocessing site in west Cumbria. The UK government, however, would like to find a permanent place to store the waste because of fears that the storage at Sellafield is deteriorating. Indeed, last year the UK’s National Audit Office reported that Sellafield’s storage posed an “intolerable risk” to people and the environment. […]

For the rest of this article, please contact Jon Cartwright for a pdf.

Crystals of polystyrene

Chemistry WorldJon Cartwright25 February, 2013

Published in Chemistry World, 25 Feb 2013

Chemists in Japan and Italy have created a polymer-based material that has a crystalline structure. The material, which achieves its crystallinity with crosslinks between its polymer chains, is expected to have a high mechanical strength that will lend itself well to engineering applications.

The structure of fibrous materials has a big impact on their properties; the high-performance material Kevlar, for instance, owes its high tensile strength to aligned polymers that are anchored together with numerous hydrogen bonds. For this reason, chemists have been keen to hone the structure of polymers that do not naturally crystallise. […]

The rest of this article is available here.

Synthetic ultramarine’s recipe revealed

Chemistry WorldJon Cartwright21 February, 2013

Published in Chemistry World, 21 Feb 2013

Camille Pissarro’s The Côte des Bœufs, Claude Monet’s Gare Saint-Lazare and Pierre-Auguste Renoir’sLes Parapluies all have one chemical constituent in common: synthetic ultramarine. This famous blue pigment dates back to the early 19th century, but its synthesis has always been shrouded in secrecy. UK chemists have been working to uncover the recipe, which could help in art restoration and identifying forgeries.

Ultramarine has always held an air of mystique. Its natural occurrence in the mineral lazurite is so rare that artists used it only for depictions of their most important religious subjects, such as the robes of the Virgin Mary or Saint Peter. In 1824, however, the Society for the Encouragement of National Industry, a French society promoting technological advance, offered a prize to anyone who could make the pigment for less than 300 francs per kilo. That prize went to the French chemist Jean Baptiste Guimet four years later, and several others went on to develop their own versions. […]

The rest of this article is available here.

Tundra fires become more widespread

Energy & EnvironmentJon Cartwright21 February, 2013

Published in ERW, 21 Feb 2013

Wildfires in Alaska have become more widespread over the past 50 years, according to scientists in the US. The result suggests that Arctic wildfires will have an important effect on the climate in years to come – although whether it will be positive or negative, the researchers cannot say.

Fires are well known to impact the climate by releasing sequestered carbon into the atmosphere. As the climate warms, scientists expect the number of wildfires to grow – and, as a result, more carbon to be released. […]

The rest of this article is available here.

Greater air stagnation could lead to more deaths

Energy & EnvironmentJon Cartwright25 January, 2013

Published in ERW, 25 Jan 2013

The late 21st century will see up to 25% more days with stagnant air conditions than the end of last century, claim researchers in the US. The worsening conditions will most affect the eastern US, the Mediterranean and eastern China, and could increase the number of deaths due to air pollution.

Stagnation tends to occur in areas where the temperature is fairly even, the atmosphere is stable and there is little rainfall. It is a serious issue for the climate because it allows ozone and particulate matter to accumulate near the Earth’s surface. […]

The rest of this article is available here.

Pico-gold clusters break catalysis record

Chemistry WorldJon Cartwright14 December, 2012

Published in Chemistry World, 14 Dec 2012

Chemists in Spain have shown that small clusters of gold atoms are excellent inorganic catalysts with record-breaking efficiency. The clusters, which have been used in the hydration of alkynes, exhibit catalytic turnover frequencies of up to 100,000 per hour at room temperature.

Interest in gold as a catalyst began 25 years ago when chemists realized that nano-sized gold particles could catalyse the oxidation of carbon monoxide better than anything previously known. Since then, gold has been found to catalyse a host of other important reactions, such as the formation of azo compounds, which are used as leather and textile dyes, or intermediates for the production of polyurethane. […]

The rest of this article is available here.

Uneven climate change due to atmospheric heat capacity

Energy & EnvironmentJon Cartwright10 December, 2012

Published in ERW, 10 Dec 2012

Much of the unevenness in warming due to climate change is a result of a variation in the atmosphere’s heat capacity. The claim, made by researchers in Norway, is likely to be seen as ammunition against climate sceptics who have questioned why some parts of the world are apparently not warming.

Most scientists agree that the world is getting warmer due to anthropogenic carbon emissions. Some areas, such as the Arctic, appear to be warming faster than others. The phenomenon is temporal as well as geographical: in general, night-time temperatures have increased more than daytime temperatures. […]

The rest of this article is available here.

Morning fog affects vehicle pollution

Energy & EnvironmentJon Cartwright4 December, 2012

Published in ERW, 4 Dec 2012

The presence of fog in the morning can affect the amount of ozone that lingers in the air during the combustion of ethanol, according to a US study. The result will make decisions trickier regarding the uptake of ethanol-based fuels, which some scientists already believe to be less clean burning than petrol.

The use of ethanol as a transport fuel has increased in recent years. Some countries, including Brazil, are already using high blends – up to “E100”, or 100% ethanol. Meanwhile, the US is expected to take on E85 – 85% ethanol and 15% petrol – in up to one in 10 vehicles by 2035, entailing an annual ethanol combustion of 9.5 billion gallons. […]

The rest of this article is available here.

Atmospheric discrepancies persist in climate models

Energy & EnvironmentJon Cartwright4 December, 2012

Published in ERW, 4 Dec 2012

Researchers in the US have failed to resolve discrepancies between the predictions of atmospheric models and temperatures measured in the tropical upper troposphere. Their latest effort imposed historical sea-surface temperatures as a “boundary condition” on the models, but the predictions for warming were still greater than satellite temperature measurements.

Scientists are concerned about discrepancies between model temperature predictions and actual measurements of the upper troposphere because they may affect the models’ sensitivity to increased carbon dioxide. Although the discrepancies do not necessarily suggest that estimates of surface global warming will be inaccurate, they may indicate inaccuracies in the predictions for atmospheric circulation. […]

The rest of this article is available here.