I walked along a little path when suddenly the ground in front of me came alive in a whir of feathers. I reflexively jumped back as 20 California quail flushed before me. They flew rapidly away for a short distance, then set their wings as they glided into a patch of grass. Just as they … Read more
When it comes to global water scarcity, the primary cause isn’t climate change: it’s us. New research shows that by 2050, more than 70 percent of watersheds around the world will experience water scarcity driven by human activity, with a negligible proportion of water scarcity attributed mainly to climate change. The Gist The paper, “Humans … Read more
In the hierarchy of anecdotal strength, very little beats steel or Kevlar. And while they’re strong, they can’t stretch. Then there’s spider silk. Sure, a strand might break in a gust of wind or on your unsuspecting face. And a web can be brushed away with a broom. But ounce for ounce, milligram for milligram, … Read more
New Fish Tech to Help Manage Fisheries for Sustainability Gets a Greenlight These days, most headlines about the world’s fisheries are heavy on a vocabulary of loss and resignation. There’s overfishing, illegal fishing and the problems of bycatch. Then there are the results of those activities—collapsing fisheries, broken communities, lost livelihoods, poor nutrition and destruction … Read more
Conservancy NatureNet Science Fellow Mingliang Zhang recently published a paper in Nature Nanotechnology that marks an important step toward solving one of the challenges facing scientists working on next-generation smart nanoparticle systems: the ability to precisely engineer those systems in size, shape and composition to introduce multiple functionalities that would otherwise be unattainable from a … Read more
Update on the NatureNet Science Fellows: Won-Hee Ryu A new paper by Conservancy NatureNet Science Fellow Won-Hee Ryu may ultimately help scientists overcome one of the most intractable technological obstacles to wholesale adoption of clean energy: the development of technologies capable of storing that energy at larger and larger scales. Today rechargeable lithium-ion batteries power … Read more
Tungsten trisulfide. It sounds like something straight out of Tony Stark’s fictional lab, but fortunately for the future of grid-scale energy storage, it’s very real. As described in a recent paper published in ACS Nano, researchers in Andre Taylor’s lab at Yale University, led by NatureNet Science Fellow Won-Hee Ryu, are the first to report … Read more
“If it doesn’t get measured, it doesn’t get managed.” If the old adage is true for business, then it’s doubly true for global fish stocks. In fact, of the more than 10,000 fisheries in the world, fewer than 440 (mostly in upper-income countries and in top-traded fish like tuna) are regularly assessed — measured — with … Read more
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the U.S. beef industry could be reduced by up to 30 percent with the full adoption of selected mitigation measures, especially involving management practices. The Gist Examining the beef production supply chain, researchers modeled 42 emissions-reduction practices, including cover crops, variable irrigation, raising livestock and meat processing. Published in Nature … Read more
Jazmin Locke-Rodriguez has a new favorite flower in her South Florida garden. She’s looking at it as she explains her research process for the dissertation she recently defended at Florida International University in Miami. She describes the bold blooms with something close to awe. “I have gravitated toward the golden ones,” says Jazmin Locke-Rodriguez, Florida … Read more