Earth Sciences

As 2017 comes to a close, TWAS has named the winners of some its most prestigious prizes. One is a geoscientist whose works supports awareness of geological hazards in the Andes. Others focus on health, medicinal plants and novel theories of human economic behaviour.

A group of researchers from University of Malaya, Malaysia and Plymouth Marine Laboratory, United Kingdom are working on a 2-year project entitled “Using Nexus Thinking to Empower Community-based Management of Mangrove Fisheries”, which aims to advance the application of nexus thinking for sustainable management of mangrove fishery resources.

Entomologist Gets First-ever Footage of the Lost Species in Primeval Jungles of Malaysia.

The InterAcademy Partnership for Science, representing the world’s academies of science releases, a ‘Statement on Climate Change and Education’ endorsed by the majority of its member academies

A new soil classification, and tools to implement it, helps understanding of the properties of the ground underpinning geo-engineering projects.

The InterAcademy Partnership (IAP) today releases a Statement ‘Science and Technology for Disaster Risk Reduction’. Developed by a working group of experts nominated by academies of science from around the globe, the Statement itself has been endorsed by IAP's member academies.

China’s measures to improve air quality are working, but more stringent policies should be put in place to safeguard public health, a new study has shown.

Promising electrochemical technologies for cleaning wastewater are boosted by discovery of extremophilic microbes in the Red Sea.

A method for creating nanoparticles without using solvents could lead to environmentally friendly electronics.

The world’s warmest sea is heating up faster than the global average, which could challenge the ability of the Red Sea’s organisms to cope.

A powerful statistical tool could significantly reduce the burden of analysing very large datasets.

Researchers to Explore Swampy Wetland in the First Search for Lost Species Expedition.

Microbes are dispersed widely over the oceans with islands acting as stepping-stones to help transport of land-based organisms.

A statistical technique for modeling large datasets improves interpretation of climate and environmental data.

Researchers at the University of Malaya, Malaysia, investigated the perceptions of Antarctic values among Malaysian working adults, contributing to the overall strategies and policies as well as regional-based future planning especially in education and public awareness.

Ice analogs mimicking interstellar ice behave like liquids at temperatures between –210°C and –120°C according to Hokkaido University researchers. This liquid-like ice may enhance the formation of organic compounds including prebiotic molecules and the accretion of dust to form planets.

Researchers from Malaysia, United Kingdom and China teamed up to investigate the effect of human activities such as expansion of cities and oil palm plantations on the diet of the most common fruit bat in Peninsular Malaysia.

South Korea's Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) has embarked on a research project to develop a new type of tracking device, capable of monitoring the migration routes of wild birds.

A study on 22–18 million-year-old tidal deposits reveals insights on the significance of mangrove organic carbon sequestration in the South China Sea at geological time scales.

A new statistical approach for environmental measurements lets the data determine how to model extreme events.

The Asia Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN) invites proposals under the Collaborative Regional Research Programme (CRRP) and the capacity development programme (CAPaBLE) for funding from September 2018.

Quantitative analysis has evidenced the acceleration system of melting ice: dark water surfaces absorb more heat than white ice surfaces, thus melting ice and making more water surfaces in the Arctic Ocean.

Researchers have found evidence that near-ground biogenic emissions of organics suppress cloud formation in cool-temperate forests in autumn, providing clues to how global warming will affect cloud formation and the overall climate.

Researchers in Japan and China believe they have found new molecular fossils of archaea using a method of analysis commonly used in forensic science.

Observations by Japan’s Venus climate orbiter Akatsuki have revealed an equatorial jet in the lower to middle cloud layer of the planet’s atmosphere, a finding that could be pivotal to unraveling a phenomenon called superrotation.

Metallic nanostructures that slow down light dramatically can triple the efficiency of solar-based hydrogen fuel generation.

Surface wettability has little effect on atmospheric water gathering, but edge structure is crucial.

Researchers from the Zoological & Ecological Research Network (ZEN), and Tropical Infectious Diseases Research & Education Centre (TIDREC), University of Malaya have successfully discovered 111 new species of black flies belonging to five subgenera of the genus Simulium in the Oriental Region.

Mangrove trees, particularly their leaf litter, filter copper out of soil and water in Indonesia.

A team at Nagoya University, Japan, has shed light on how distinct sensory neural pathways function in “feeling” changes in temperature in the environment on the one hand, and actually responding to these changes, such as seeking a cooler or warmer site, on the other.