Scientists create framework for evaluating environmental stopgap measures
Ending global environmental crises such as climate change and slowing the growing number of extinctions of plant and animal species will require radical solutions that could take centuries to implement. Meanwhile, the crises are...
Study: Making new materials using AI
There is an old saying, "If rubber is the material that opened the way to the ground, aluminum is the one that opened the way to the sky." New materials were always discovered at...
Research finds stronger links between automation and inequality
Modern technology affects different workers in different ways. In some white-collar jobs — designer, engineer — people become more productive with sophisticated software at their side. In other cases, forms of automation, from robots...
Study: Shape matters for light-activated nanocatalysts
Points matter when designing nanoparticles that drive important chemical reactions using the power of light.
Researchers at Rice University's Laboratory for Nanophotonics (LANP) have long known that a nanoparticle's shape affects how it interacts with...
Report: End of Antarctic field season 2020 – repatriation
Major disruption to international travel caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and restrictions imposed to limit the spread of the virus, has meant that BAS has had to find safe and secure solutions to bring...
Study: Cannibalism helps invading invertebrates survive severe conditions
A new study, published in Communications Biology, shows that the prolific comb jelly, a marine invertebrate invader from North America that now frequently washes up on Baltic shores, is able to expand their geographical...
Study: Reusing chicken litter shows benefits
Chicken is the most consumed protein in the United States. According to the National Chicken Council, the U.S. produced more than 9.2 billion broiler chickens in 2019. US consumers spent more than 95 billion...
Study: When methane-eating microbes eat ammonia instead
Some microorganisms, the so-called methanotrophs, make a living by oxidizing methane (CH4) to carbon dioxide (CO2). Ammonia (NH3) is structurally very similar to methane, thus methanotrophs also co-metabolize ammonia and produce nitrite. While this...
Study: Climate change could cause decline of some alpine butterfly species
The long-term effects of climate change suggests that the butterfly effect is at work on butterflies in the alpine regions of North America, according to a new study by University of Alberta scientists—and the...
Study: Lab makes 4D printing more practical
Soft robots and biomedical implants that reconfigure themselves upon demand are closer to reality with a new way to print shapeshifting materials.
Rafael Verduzco and graduate student Morgan Barnes of Rice's Brown School of Engineering...