Author Archives: Jorn van Dooren

Some corals resistant to ocean acidification

With atmospheric and oceanic CO2 levels rising and the consequent acidification of the oceans, marine life has to adapt rapidly if they want to stay around. Especially calcium carbonate skeleton building organisms are affected by the rapidly dwindling seawater pH … Continue reading →

Not recession but gas prices responsible for reduction in US carbon emissions

When the economic recession hit the US in 2009, at least one good thing seemed to have come from it: a reduction in carbon emissions to levels not seen since 1996. But as it turns out, the recession wasn’t the … Continue reading →

Nanotech helps make plastics without oil

Nearly all chemical products ranging from antifreeze and medicine to plastics and paint are currently made from petroleum. But since it became apparent that the petroleum supply was not as reliable and unending as many had hoped, several techniques have … Continue reading →

Mercury: a new culprit in end-Permian mass extinction event

Volcanic eruptions have already been appointed as the main culprit of the Permian-Triassic mass extinction. Previous research indicated that the resulting rise in atmospheric and oceanic carbon lead to the Great dying. But new findings in the journal Geology point to a … Continue reading →

African trees dying due to climate change

The Sahel, one of the hottest regions on Earth ranging from the Atlantic coast south of the Sahara Desert to the Red Sea to the east and the Horn of Africa to the southeast, is getting drier and drier and … Continue reading →

E. coli produces commonly used biofuels

Cellulose is the major combustible component of non-food energy crops. Recently ways have been devised to turn it into bioethanol. An important step in a more widespread use of food-friendly biofuels. But as it turns out, besides Brazil and the … Continue reading →

Drop in CO2 heralded the onset of Antarctic glaciation

For about 100 million years all sorts of animals roamed the then subtropical North and South poles. But then suddenly some 34 million years ago during the Eocene everything changed when temperatures fell dramatically in only a 100,000 year timespan, … Continue reading →

Marine biodiversity driven by environmental changes

Our most important source for knowledge about past life is the fossil record. But how exact is it in telling us about the history of life? According to a new study in Science the evolution of marine life over the … Continue reading →

Sustainable energy possibilities rarely find their way to consumers

Test projects in which governments and companies demonstrate sustainable energy and material inventions are not adopted by the market and other companies. Research by the VU University of Amsterdam shows many such inventions are done, but the amount that ends … Continue reading →