Missing heat 2000-2009 indeed deeper in ocean, says NCAR model

As a regular of Bitsofscience.org you may recall a publication on ocean warming [between 2003-2010] in Geophysical Research Letters from last July.

ocean warming global coolingThat one was little-noticed by the world’s media, but now its findings may receive more attention, as an independent study by NCAR, published yesterday in Nature Climate Change, has investigated the same subject and reaches a confirming conclusion: in recent years atmospheric warming has been delayed due to increased heat transport to the deeper ocean.

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Carbon nanotubes are too much for cells to swallow

carbon nanotubeImagine the cells in your body looking like game riddled with arrows lying in a field. That gory picture was what researchers found when they examined the harmful effects of asbestos on human cells.

But until now it was never really clear why exactly asbestos and similar materials like carbon nanotubes spell such trouble for human cells. As it turns out it is a case of cells biting off more than they can chew.

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Nigeria, Pakistan & Indonesia vs Russia: infographic shows state of population growth in 20 years

In our series comparing population growth for different sets of countries today we have a special: the new number 4, 5 and 6 of world populations – compared to the biggest decliner, set in the year 2031.
Population infographic Russia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Indonesia
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Inter-ocean transport before the age of globalisation

What happens on a daily basis now, used to occur just twice in millions of years – for this one horn snail at least.
Snails, biodversity and globalisation
Snail’s airlift chance before age of globalisation: mistaking heron’s leg for reed?
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Today’s paradox: coal is not worse for climate than natural gas

It´s basic chemistry: coal is mainly carbon, if you burn it you get lots of CO2. Natural gas is mostly methane, and that’s a different story. With methane just ’20 percent of the burned atoms’ are carbon, the rest is hydrogen, which transforms to pure, drinkable water if you force it to bind with oxygen.Coal natural gas climate effects

Although the energetic value of hydrogen is not as high as that of carbon, this by catch still helps to make the burning of natural gas considerably cleaner and less carbon-intensive, with fewer grams of CO2 per Joule of energy – hence gas is ‘better’ for the climate than coal.

Or so we thought.

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Scientific research suffers due to pressure for positive results

Scientific papersThe scientific community can be a dog-eat-dog world, with many scientists vying for the same jobs and grants. The researcher going home with the price is often the one with the most publications in high-ranking.

A study by the University of Edinburgh shows that this competition may hurt the quality of scientific research, since many scientists aim for positive research results, as those are most likely to be published.

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Arctic sea ice has reached new melting record – doesn’t NSIDC say

Today is September 14 2011, the day the Climate Reality Project makes a stand against the ‘new normal of climate denial.’ Over 24 times zones there will be 24 climate presentations in which public attention will be focused on the science behind climate change – and the state of the process. [Of these 23 will not be by Al Gore.]
Arctic sea ice melting record 2011
We’re of course all for that, so we’ll try to contribute our simple little bit by pointing to that one canary in the coal mine, coughing her little yellow lungs out, as indeed the Arctic sea ice has set a new record low.

That’s at least if we have to believe the new kid on the ice block.

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Tequila plant agave seems excellent source of biofuel

AgaveThe food versus fuel debate has put large-scale biofuel production in a squeeze in recent years, but competition with food crops is just one drawback for which biofuel crop production is criticised.

So far each biofuel crop has shown to have its own advantages and disadvantages. However new research now shows that agave, the main ingredient for tequila, may be the crop that takes all the positives of biofuel crops and puts them into one neat package.

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