Prof. Kerry Emanuel speaks with Radio Boston about a new study that finds solar geoengineering could mitigate some of the adverse effects of climate change. Emanuel notes that solar geoengineering “is sort of like an emergency alarm that you would sound or something you would keep in your back pocket to play if things get desperate.”
Prof. Aviv Regev speaks with the Associated Press about the Human Cell Atlas Consortium, which is aimed at cataloging all the cells in the human body in an effort to better understand human diseases. "This is not going to cure all disease immediately," she says, but "it is a critical stepping stone."
Prof. Nergis Mavalvala speaks with Ira Flatow of Science Friday about how she and her colleagues are working on a new technology called squeezed light, which could enable LIGO to see even more of the cosmos. Mavalvala explains that squeezed light is “a somewhat exotic quantum state of light that we engineer in our labs to improve the sensitivity of LIGO.”
A study by MIT researchers finds that climate change is causing pollution to linger longer over cities and making summer thunderstorms more powerful, reports Tanya Rivero for CBS News. “We found a way to connect changes in temperature in humidity from climate change to changing summer weather patterns that we are experiencing at our latitude,” explains graduate student Charles Gertler.
Bloomberg News reporter Eric Roston writes that a new study by MIT researchers finds that climate change is making summer thunderstorms more powerful and urban pollution more potent. “Summertime weather isn’t ventilating American cities at the rate that it did in the past,” explains graduate student Charles Gertler.
MIT researchers have found that climate change could cause more thunderstorms and stagnant air in the summer, reports Martin Finucane for The Boston Globe. “With temperatures rising globally, and particularly in the Arctic, the energy in the atmosphere is being redistributed,” writes Finucane. “The result is that more energy will be available to fuel thunderstorms.”
Prof. John Deutch proposes a demonstration project to show how renewable energy could provide 95 percent of electricity generation, reports Jeff McMahon for Forbes. Deutch suggests “setting up a competition between energy developers, allowing them to bid on a 20-year contract to provide a system that meets 95 percent of demand in an area using solar, wind and storage alone.”
Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, spotlights how MIT researchers have developed a new imaging technique that can “provide us with jaw-dropping views of a wide range of biological systems.” Collins writes that the new “imaging approach shows much promise as a complementary tool for biological exploration.”
Fast Company reporter Jesus Diaz writes that MIT researchers have developed a computer model that shows that rising water temperatures will cause the color of the world’s oceans to change.
MIT researchers have found that climate change will cause half of the world’s oceans to change color by 2100, reports Becky Ferreira for Motherboard. “Monitoring ocean color could yield valuable insights into the effects of climate change on phytoplankton,” Ferreira explains.
The Washington Post spotlights an MIT study examining how climate change will alter the color of the oceans. “Changes are happening because of climate change,” says principal research scientist Stephanie Dutkiewicz. “The change in the color of the ocean will be one of early warning signals that we really have changed our planet.”
BBC News reporter Matt McGrath writes that MIT researchers have found rising temperatures caused by climate change will cause the world’s oceans to become bluer, as the increased temperatures alter the mixture of phytoplankton. The color change “will likely be one of the earliest warning signals that we have changed the ecology of the ocean,” explains principal research scientist Stephanie Dutkiewicz.
A study by MIT researchers shows that climate change will have a significant impact on phytoplankton, which will cause the oceans to change color, reports Brett Molina for USA Today. The researchers “developed a model simulating how different species of phytoplankton will grow and interact, and how warming oceans will have an impact,” Molina explains.
CNN reporter Jen Christensen writes that a new study by MIT researchers finds that climate change will impact phytoplankton, causing the color of the world’s oceans to shift. “The change is not a good thing, since it will definitely impact the rest of the food web,” says principal research scientist Stephanie Dutkiewicz.
A new study by MIT scientists provides evidence that climate-driven changes in phytoplankton will cause more than half of the world’s oceans to shift in color by 2100, reports Barbara Moran for WBUR. Principal research scientist Stephanie Dutkiewicz explains that the color changes are important “because they tell us a lot about what's changing in the ocean.”