New research has shown that traveling fires pose a risk to the structures of large open building spaces over 100m2. The lesser-known ‘travelling fires’, which travel within large building compartments rather than engulfing whole rooms at once, can cause at least as much structural damage and potential building collapse as typical fires. They are likely…

Using less material in floors is a viable strategy for improving sustainability in buildings, as it can reduce the structure’s environmental footprint. Prioritizing only this goal, however, can lead to unwanted effects — such as an echo in a room or noise traveling between floors, according to architectural engineers. Penn State researchers explored a method…

Scientists have developed a green way to create chitin, by using two forms of food waste — prawn shells and discarded fruit — and fermenting them. Chitin serves a wide variety of uses in the food industry, such as food thickeners and stabilisers, and as anti-microbial food packaging. The NTU method is more sustainable than…

Researchers who took a closer look at a 1995 tsunami in the Gulf of Elat-Aqaba, at the northeastern tip of the Red Sea, say that the gulf’s surrounding countries should prepare for future tsunami hazards in the economically developing vital region. A team of scientists led by Amos Salamon of the Geological Survey of Israel…

Southern Ontario wetlands provide $4.2 billion worth of sediment filtration and phosphorus removal services each year, keeping our drinking water sources clean and helping to mitigate harmful and nuisance algal blooms in our lakes and rivers. A new study from the University of Waterloo uses economic valuation to help us understand the importance of Southern…

Just how much carbon is in the soil? That’s a tough question to answer at large spatial scales, but understanding soil organic carbon at regional, national, or global scales could help scientists predict overall soil health, crop productivity, and even worldwide carbon cycles. Classically, researchers collect soil samples in the field and haul them back…

Geoscientists have successfully developed and tested a new high-tech shallow water buoy that can detect the small movements and changes in the Earth’s seafloor that are often a precursor to deadly natural hazards. The buoy, created with the assistance of an $822,000 grant from the National Science Foundation’s Ocean Technology and Interdisciplinary Coordination program, was…

Air pollution levels vary greatly between different places in a city. This is the finding of a new study which concludes that trees contribute to cleaner air in cities. That green spaces can improve the quality of life and create a better climate in our cities is well known, but how important is vegetation for…

Researchers have new evidence that could help rapidly boost efforts to scale-up the adoption of clean cooking with liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in sub-Saharan Africa. The new study suggests that supply-side interventions such as shortening the distance to LPG retail points and improving access to multi-burner LPG stoves could help increase the consumption of the…

The risk of transmitting the livestock virus PPRV, which threatens 80% of the world’s sheep and goats, increases with certain husbandry practices, including attendance at seasonal grazing camps and the introduction of livestock to the herd. The sheep and goat plague virus, formally known as peste des petits ruminants virus (PPRV) and now known as…