Peter Abrams is installing the B home that will be in place for one year. The B home is a hexagonal, interconnecting modular shelter system made of upcycled sustainable materials. "It represents a fast, cheap way to provide shelter and security for those in need," says the B home website. "It was inspired by the geometric efficiency and communal benefits of the honeycomb structure in beehives."
Archive – August 2013
Climate scientists are surer than ever that human activity is causing global warming, according to leaked drafts of a major UN report, but they are finding it harder than expected to predict the impact in specific regions in coming decades.
The damage scientists expect climate change to do to crop yields can differ greatly depending on which type of model was used to make those projections, according to research based at Princeton University.
Michael Oppenheimer is the Albert G. Milbank Professor of Geosciences and International Affairs in the Woodrow Wilson School and the Department of Geosciences at Princeton University. He is the Director of the Program in Science,Technology and Environmental Policy (STEP) at the Woodrow Wilson School and Faculty Associate of the Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences Program, Princeton Environmental Institute, and The Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies.
Earlier this year, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached 400 parts per million (ppm). The last time there was that much CO2 was three million years ago, when sea levels were 24 meters higher than they are today.
In two recent papers in the journals Nature Climate Change and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the researchers present a probabilistic assessment of the Antarctic contribution to twenty-first century sea-level change. A Princeton University release reports that their methodology folds observed changes and models of different complexity into unified projections that can be updated with new information. This approach provides a consistent means to integrate the potentia
Co-author Adam Wolf, from Princeton University's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, explained: "On today's planet, the supply of nutrients in the soil is determined by river deposits or nutrients that are airborne." Researchers say the model can also forecast the consequences of losing today's large animals. But Dr. Wolf added that their study suggested that things were once very different: "We believe that large animals once
George Philander, professor of geosciences at Princeton University, has been a pioneer in studying the complex relationship between oceans and the atmosphere. A South African by birth, he hopes that climate change will foster a science renaissance in Africa. “Instead of telling stories of doom and gloom, we should tell people what an amazing planet we live on,” Philander said, “because it is so amazing.”
DAVIS — Two species of bacteria living on the ocean floor have teamed up in a unique symbiotic relationship to form a critical link in the Earth’s nitrogen cycle, reports a research team that includes two University of California, Davis, microbiologists. The scientists, led by researchers affiliated with the University of Southern California, will publish their findings about the novel bacterial partnership Aug. 8 in the journal Nature. At the heart of the study are the long, thin,