news 2021

Techniques used by online microfinance platforms to spur user involvement could be useful in helping organisations to persuade people to behave in ways that benefit both society and environment. Microfinance platforms have popularised the idea that ordinary people can become bankers to the poor. Communities of lenders get together every day to crowdfund microloans to disadvantaged micro-entrepreneurs by investing small sums of around only 25 dollars.

Scientists have identified a new mechanism to account for the drastic aridification in eastern Africa over the past two million years, with likely implications for understanding the evolution and dispersal of our early human ancestors. In a study , a team led by scientists at Cardiff University propose that roughly 2.1 million years ago, changes in the speed of Indian Ocean waters through the Mozambique Channel were synchronized with the onset of the east-to-west atmospheric circulation pattern along the Pacific Ocean.

Cambridge scientists have used downscaled laboratory models to show how sand dunes move through a landscape, revealing the conditions that determine whether they will pass through hurdles in their path - like pipelines or walls - or get stopped in their tracks.

A new study led by the and based on public attitudes expressed in 36,000 Facebook posts, has found that consumer uptake of electric vehicles (EVs) can be boosted by promoting the social justice and health aspects of the technology. The researchers found that effective communication of social and health benefits of EV ownership can be a motivating factor for influencing higher EV uptake.

Climate 'tipping points' can be better understood and predicted using climate change data taken from the ancient past, new research shows. Current understanding of tipping points, in which the climate system exceeds a threshold beyond which large and often irreversible changes occur, is limited. This is because such an event has not occurred in recent times and certainly not since scientists started to record climate data.

An innovative way of identifying contaminated drinking water could reduce the spread of deadly diarrhoeal diseases by enabling communities to take action more quickly to limit exposure, a new study co-led by UCL academics has found. The paper, published in Water Research , shows how a technique exploiting the fluorescent properties of microbiological materials in water can instantly detect faecal contamination and is a more reliable indicator of the risk of impurities than previous testing methods.

An asteroid strike 66 million years ago wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs and devastated the Earth's forests, but tree-dwelling ancestors of primates may have survived it, according to a new study published in the journal Ecology and Evolution . The recovery of terrestrial vertebrate life following the end-Cretaceous asteroid impact was one of the most important events in the history of life on Earth Daniel Field Overall, the study supports the h

New data curated by scientists at The University of Manchester has found that the main culprit for aviation emissions across the connected continent of Europe is countless short journey flights. The research, recently published in journal Transportation Research , identified that a large number of flights over distances of less than 300 miles between city pairs with existing public transport connections are a key contributor of harmful emissions.

Certain invasive, non-native species can disrupt lakes to the point of rapid ecosystem collapse, contaminating water for drinking, aquaculture and recreation, a new study has found. Simply undoing the circumstances that triggered a tipping point will not restore the ecosystem - the road to recovery is slow and steep.

Mature oak trees will increase their rate of photosynthesis by up to a third in response to the raised CO2 levels expected to be the world average by about 2050, new research shows. The results, published in Tree Physiology , are the first to emerge from a giant outdoor experiment, led by the University of Birmingham in which an old oak forest is bathed in elevated levels of CO2.

Almost one-in-three people around the world will still be mainly using polluting cooking fuels and technologies- a major source of disease and environmental destruction and devastation - in 2030, new research warned. This rises to more than four-in-five in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the number of people mainly using polluting fuels is growing at an alarming rate.

Researchers have identified a key mechanism responsible for the lower efficiencies of organic solar cells and shown a way that this hurdle might be overcome. Organic solar cells can do lots of things that inorganic solar cells can't, but their commercial development has plateaued in recent years, in part due to their inferior efficiency Alexander Gillett The researchers, led by the , identified a loss pathway in organic solar cells which makes them less efficient than silicon-based cells at converting sunlight into electricity.

The rise of dinosaurs coincided with environmental changes driven by major volcanic eruptions over 230 million years ago, a new study reveals. The Late Triassic Carnian Pluvial Episode (CPE) saw an increase in global temperature and humidity - creating a major impact on the development of animal and plant life, coinciding with the establishment of modern conifers.

Making food more affordable for ethnic minority groups is crucial to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from our diets, scientists have suggested. According to a new study of food habits in the US, a healthy diet with lower environmental impacts is achievable for a large portion of the population. But it is unaffordable for up to 38% of Black and Hispanic individuals in the lowest income and education groups, twice the percentage of white individuals in the same group.

Research from the Milner Centre for Evolution suggests modern snakes evolved from a handful of ancestors that survived the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs. Last updated on Tuesday 14 September 2021 A new study suggests that all living snakes evolved from a handful of species that survived the giant asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs and most other living things at the end of the Cretaceous.

A 170 m record of marine sediment cores extracted from Adélie Land in Antarctica by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Programme is yielding new insights into the complicated relationship between sea ice and climate change. In a new study published , researchers at the University of Birmingham, have collaborated in an international project to identify how fluctuations in sea ice levels have interconnected with both algae blooms and weather events linked to El Nino over the past 12,000 years.

Nearly 60% of both oil and fossil methane gas and almost 90% of coal must remain in the ground by 2050 in order to keep global warming below 1.5°C, finds a study by UCL researchers. Global oil and gas production must decline by 3% annually until 2050 in order to reach this target. Many fossil fuel extraction projects, both planned and operational, are not conducive to meeting internationally agreed target limits on global warming, as set out by the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015.

Global grasslands are a source of biodiversity and provide a host of benefits to humans, including food production, water supply, and carbon storage. But their future looks bleak without action to halt their degradation and promote their restoration, according to the authors of a new paper published in the journal Nature Reviews Earth & Environment .

New research published today details a breakthrough in the creation of evolved enzymes to support a renewable process to make one of the key building blocks of the chemical industry used in everything from beauty products to fuel. The newly published findings are the result of collaborative work between Global Bioenergies and the team of Dr. David Leys at The University of Manchester, and have been published today .

Levels of air pollutants in cities in India are on the rise, according to scientists using observations from instruments on satellites that scan the global skies every day. Researchers used a long record of data gathered by space-based instruments to estimate trends in a range of air pollutants for 2005 to 2018, timed to coincide with well-established air quality policies in the UK and rapid development in India.