Earth Sciences

Understanding how catalytic organic polymers emerged on prebiotic Earth is vital to understanding the origin of life. Now, a team of scientists at Tohoku University have recently found a potential environment for the reaction that produced catalytic organic polymers.

Researchers from The University of Tokyo find a new approach to successfully identify areas at risk of flooding that can be missed by historical hazard maps.

地球外生命が発見されれば、宇宙における私たちの存在意義に変化をもたらすだろう。しかしその探索に関する報道の在り方は、科学者やメディアにとって未だに大きな課題である。

東京工業大学地球生命研究所（ELSI）のサイエンスコミュニケーションコースでは、大学院生が多様な対象に研究を伝えるための実践的なスキルの習得を目指す。

Lingnan University (LU) kickstarted their Bug Wars against Food Waste Project on 27 March in order to both reduce food waste and turn it into a useful asset. The campaign aims to inspire students, faculty members and the whole community to adopt a low-carbon lifestyle, using black soldier flies to convert food waste collected from student hostels and canteens into organic fertiliser for the Lingnan Gardeners Project and plants on the campus, as well as quality feed for campus animals. Staff, students and the elderly are signing up as low-carbon ambassadors to develop and apply innovative ideas to resolve community issues and promote a more sustainable lifestyle.

Scientists restore impaired kidney for the first time, How fibre composite fails when wet, Cleaner fish recognize themselves in pictures 🖼️🐟& The source of black carbon in the sea. Read all in the latest Editor's Choice. Plus our magazine Asia Research News 2023 is out now 🎉!

Finding extra-terrestrial life would transform how we view our place in the Universe, but reporting on the search for it poses challenges for scientists and the media.

A science communication course at the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) in Japan provides graduate students with practical skills to communicate research to a diverse audience.

Naturally formed iron oxides on the surface of plastic tubes offer an inexpensive and sustainable method to reduce arsenic contamination in crops.

Tree rings forecast extreme weather in central Asia, Squid 🦑and chemistry make versatile hydrogels, James Webb telescope reveals the earliest galaxies & Reducing negative effects of screen time. Read all in the latest Editor's Choice. Plus our latest journalist resource "Experts for Media: Antimicrobial Resistance "🦠.

Hydrothermal vents have been identified as a previously undiscovered source of dissolved black carbon in the oceans, furthering the understanding of the role of oceans as a carbon sink.

Data stored in ice cores dating back 55 years bring new insight into atmospheric levels of a molecule that can significantly affect weather and climate.

A “back-projection” technique reveals new details of the volcanic eruption in Tonga that literally shook the world.

Overeating mechanism: why "eating just one chip"🍟 is impossible, Measuring hidden energy of gamma-ray bursts, Marine species that can adapt to ocean acidification & A rough start can lead to a strong bond, Read all in our first Editor's Choice of 2023. Plus our interview on what dengue vaccine approval in EU💉means for global dengue protection.

- DGIST Professor Park Chi-Young's team developed photothermal porous polymer capable of ultra-fast adsorption and removal of phenolic microplastics and VOC contaminants in water - Showing the potential as a next-generation water purification material made of inexpensive raw materials, and ultra-high removal efficiency through solar-based purification process - Selected as the cover paper for the 50th edition of ‘Advanced Materials,’ the most prestigious academic journal in the field of materials in 2022

Sound velocities of superhydrous phase B and the presence of water in the Earth’s mantle

Reef corals provide an accurate, high-resolution record of the influence of the El Niño Southern Oscillation on rainfall, flooding and droughts in the Mekong River Delta, Vietnam.

Giants in History: Chinese palaeontologist, archaeologist and anthropologist Pei Wenzhong (January 19, 1904 – September 18, 1982) is regarded as a founder of Chinese anthropology.

We don’t know much about the Earth’s inner core because recreating its conditions in a laboratory setting remains fraught with difficulties. Based on tracking seismic waves, scientists theorize that the area in and around the core comprises mostly of iron. But the values extracted from these indicators differ from how pure iron typically behaves. Now, a collaborative research group has succeeded, for the first time, in measuring the speed of sound of pure iron under pressures similar to the Earth’s inner core boundary.

A new model explains that water evaporating from the Arctic Ocean due to a warming climate is transported south and can lead to increased snowfall in northern Eurasia in late autumn and early winter. This information will allow for more accurate predictions of severe weather events.

Microplastics already at the bottom of Beppu Bay by 1960!

The Natural Disasters Expo will be held in Asia this year on the 7th & 8th December at the Singapore Expo, welcoming experts from around the globe to showcase the latest revolutionary solutions to natural disaster management and mitigation.

Small neighboring galaxy filled with dark matter detected with gamma rays, How a virus induces heart inflammation, Shedding light on the happy hormone, Microfossils may hold key evolution clues. Read all in the October's Editor's Choice plus Upcoming event KNOWLEDGE MARKETPLACE – Bangkok 2022: Exchanging of ideas for a Democratic Myanmar.

Scientists have uncovered new details of how ice forming below the ocean surface in Antarctica provides cold dense water that sinks to the seabed in an important aspect of global water circulation.

Pyroxenes are a major group of rock-forming minerals. Osaka Metropolitan University scientists investigated the iron ion status of a calcium-rich pyroxene, using Mössbauer spectroscopy on thin sections of single crystals. The study revealed that in pyroxene crystals consisting of roughly 50% calcium, the tensor that determines the ratios of iron ions at the Mössbauer spectral peaks in the M1 sites—one of two types of cation positions in the pyroxene crystal structure—is independent of the iron content but dependent on the calcium content. The research findings have clarified one of the physical properties of pyroxenes, facilitating detailed future analysis of iron using Mössbauer spectroscopy on mineral flakes.

The Malaysia Technology Expo (MTE) 2022: SDG International Innovation Awards & Expo (SDGIIAE) returns for its 2nd edition and the awards encourage the development of innovative solutions for local and global challenges.

—For acceleration of social implementation of wastewater-based epidemiology—

Only satellites were watching when the world's fourth-largest proglacial lake suddenly drained in 2020. Hokkaido University researchers now uncovered the event and analysed the cause—the collapse of a sediment bump at the outlet of the lake.

The activity of deep-focus earthquakes, which increases with depths from ~400 km to a peak at ~600 km, is enigmatic because conventional brittle failure is unlikely to occur at elevated pressures. Our experiments showed that formation of thin weak layers filled with nano-crystalline olivine/wadsleyite, upon the pressure-induced phase transition of olivine, is the major cause of deep-focus earthquakes on the metastable olivine wedge in deep slabs.

Researchers develop a new integrated framework that factors in the many variables relevant to accurate carbon emissions modeling in the transportation sector, allowing for policymakers to choose the best path to achieve carbon neutrality.