When it comes to climate change, an important question is not simply how can humans stop emitting greenhouse gases, but how can we remove the greenhouse gases that we’ve already released? Many of Earth’s natural processes are already taking significant amounts of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, and our wetland ecosystems are some of the most effective at this work.
Read more »80 mph speed record for glacier fracture helps reveal the physics of ice sheet collapse
There’s enough water frozen in Greenland and Antarctic glaciers that if they melted, global seas would rise by many feet. What will happen to these glaciers over the coming decades is the biggest unknown in the future of rising seas, partly because glacier fracture physics is not yet fully understood. A critical question is how warmer oceans might cause glaciers to break apart more quickly.
Read more at UW News »Earth and Space Sciences professor Fang-Zhen Teng elected as a Geochemistry Fellow
Fang-Zhen Teng of the Department of Earth and Space Sciences has been elected as a 2024 Geochemical Fellow of the Geochemical Society and the European Association of Geochemistry. This international award, established in 1996, is bestowed upon outstanding scientists who have made a major contribution to the field of geochemistry. Nearly 380 geochemists worldwide have been honored with this esteemed recognition.
Read more »UW spinoff Banyu Carbon nets millions in investments, on track for pilot testing of its low-cost carbon removal technology
University of Washington spinoff Banyu Carbon, which is developing an inexpensive and low-energy method for carbon removal, recently raised $6.5 million in seed round funding, putting the company on track to scale up its technology for pilot testing this year.
Read more »Video: Bringing stars back to the sea
At the Friday Harbor Laboratories, recovery is afoot. Scientists at this University of Washington facility in the San Juan Islands are working to help sunflower stars — a type of sea star — grow and thrive once again after their populations along the West Coast were devastated by a mysterious disease. “They’re gone in a lot of places, and a lot of what we’re doing here is testing out ideas for reintroduction,” said Jason Hodin, a researcher at the lab.
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