Unprecedented Levels of High-Severity Fire Burn in Sierra Nevada Forests

A firefighter helps containment efforts during the Creek Fire response in 2020.
Photo Credit: USDA, Pacific Southwest Forest Service

High-severity wildfire is increasing in Sierra Nevada and Southern Cascade forests and has been burning at unprecedented rates compared to the years before Euro-American settlement, according to a study from the Safford Lab at the University of California, Davis, and its collaborators. Those rates have especially shot up over the past decade. 

For the study, published in the journal Ecosphere, scientists analyzed fire severity data from the U.S. Forest Service and Google Earth Engine, across seven major forest types. 

They found that in low- and middle-elevation forest types, the average annual area that burned at low-to-moderate severity has decreased from more than 90% before 1850 to 60-70% today. 

At the same time, the area burned annually at high severity has nearly quintupled, rising from less than 10% to 43% today. (High-severity burns are those where more than 95% of aboveground tree biomass is killed by fire.)

Getting under your skin for better health

UC College of Engineering and Applied Science professor Jason Heikenfeld in his Novel Devices Lab.
 Photo Credit: Andrew Higley/UC Marketing + Brand

The next frontier of continuous health monitoring could be skin deep.

Biomedical engineers at the University of Cincinnati say interstitial fluid, the watery fluid found between and around cells, tissues or organs in the body, could provide an excellent medium for early disease diagnosis or long-term health monitoring.

In a paper published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering, they outlined the potential advantages and technological challenges of using interstitial fluid.

“Why we see it as a valuable diagnostic fluid is continuous access. With blood, you can’t easily take continuous readings,” said UC doctoral graduate Mark Friedel, co-lead author of the study.

“Can you imagine going about your day with a needle stuck in your vein all day? So, we need other tools.”

RUDN University chemist creates nanocatalysts for vanillin synthesis

Illustration Credit: RUDN University

RUDN University chemist proposed a new method to create catalysts on a porous silicon matrix with metal nanoparticles. Efficient catalysts for organic reactions are obtained, for example, for the synthesis of vanillin, which is in demand in the food and perfume industry.

Only 1% of the annually produced worldwide 20 thousand tons of vanillin is made from natural vanilla. Almost all vanillin in seasonings, pastries, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics is synthesized by chemical protocols. Usually, petrochemical raw materials are used for this, but synthesis from inexpensive plant biomass is also possible. The main ingredient is lignin. This polymer is widely available as it is part of the trees, and it is obtained in the production of paper as a by-product. It is easy to isolate eugenol and other substances suitable for the synthesis of vanillin from lignin, but the next step is challenging. In oxidation reactions, along with vanillin, several by-products similar to it in structure are formed. It is difficult to separate them. The RUDN University chemist proposed a number of eco-friendly nanocatalysts that will allow obtaining more vanillin from plant raw materials than traditional methods.

MIT researchers develop an AI model that can detect future lung cancer risk

Caption:Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital and MIT stand in front of a CT scanner at MGH, where some of the validation data was generated. Left to right: Regina Barzilay, Lecia Sequist, Florian Fintelmann, Ignacio Fuentes, Peter Mikhael, Stefan Ringer, and Jeremy Wohlwend
 Photo Credit: Guy Zylberberg.

The name Sybil has its origins in the oracles of Ancient Greece, also known as sibyls: feminine figures who were relied upon to relay divine knowledge of the unseen and the omnipotent past, present, and future. Now, the name has been excavated from antiquity and bestowed on an artificial intelligence tool for lung cancer risk assessment being developed by researchers at MIT's Abdul Latif Jameel Clinic for Machine Learning in Health, Mass General Cancer Center (MGCC), and Chang Gung Memorial Hospital (CGMH).

Lung cancer is the No. 1 deadliest cancer in the world, resulting in 1.7 million deaths worldwide in 2020, killing more people than the next three deadliest cancers combined. 

"It’s the biggest cancer killer because it’s relatively common and relatively hard to treat, especially once it has reached an advanced stage,” says Florian Fintelmann, MGCC thoracic interventional radiologist and coauthor on the new work. “In this case, it’s important to know that if you detect lung cancer early, the long-term outcome is significantly better. Your five-year survival rate is closer to 70 percent, whereas if you detect it when it’s advanced, the five-year survival rate is just short of 10 percent.” 

Ionic Liquids' Good Vibrations Change Laser Colors with Ease

Shooting a green laser through a tube filled with a particular ionic liquid (right side of photo) can easily convert the green laser light to orange (upper left)—a long-sought color for medical applications. The method can be tailored for different color shifts by choosing different ionic liquids.
Photo Credit: Brookhaven National Laboratory

Lasers are intense beams of colored light. Depending on their color and other properties, they can scan your groceries, cut through metal, eradicate tumors, and even trigger nuclear fusion. But not every laser color is available with the right properties for a specific job. To fix that, scientists have found a variety of ways to convert one color of laser light into another. In a study just published in the journal Physical Review Applied, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory demonstrate a new color-shifting strategy that’s simple, efficient, and highly customizable.

The new method relies on interactions between the laser and vibrational energy in the chemical bonds of materials called “ionic liquids.” These liquids are made only of positively and negatively charged ions, like ordinary table salt, but they flow like viscous fluids at room temperature. Simply shining a laser through a tube filled with a particular ionic liquid can downshift the laser’s energy and change its color while retaining other important properties of the laser beam.

Malformed seashells, ancient sediment provide clues about Earth’s past

A drone photo of the JOIDES Resolution in the Mentelle Basin, where Northwestern scientists drilled for ancient sediment.
Photo Credit: Gabriele Tagliaro, University Sao Paulo

Nearly 100 million years ago, the Earth experienced an extreme environmental disruption that choked oxygen from the oceans and led to elevated marine extinction levels that affected the entire globe. 

Now, in a pair of complementary new studies, two Northwestern University-led teams of geoscientists report new findings on the chronology and character of events that led to this occurrence, known as Ocean Anoxic Event 2 (OAE2), which was co-discovered more than 40 years ago by late Northwestern professor Seymour Schlanger. 

By studying preserved planktonic microfossils and bulk sediment extracted from three sites around the world, the team collected direct evidence indicating that ocean acidification occurred during the earliest stages of the event, due to carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the eruption of massive volcanic complexes on the sea floor.

In one of the new studies, the researchers also propose a new hypothesis to explain why ocean acidification led to a strange blip of cooler temperatures (dubbed the “Plenus Cold Event”), which briefly interrupted the otherwise intensely hot greenhouse period.

Algae Can Help Dispose of Hazardous Substances and Produce Bioethanol

Algae can absorb zinc, magnesium, iron, aluminum, silicon and lead.
Photo Credit: Rodion Narudinov

Scientists of the Ural Federal University have developed a technology for the production of environmentally friendly bioethanol fuel using waste heat from thermal power plants (TPP) and combined heat and power plants (CHPP) and freshwater algae produced in large quantities in cooling ponds. The use of this technology leads to a reduction in harmful emissions and makes energy production more efficient. The developers emphasize that the technology signifies a transition from hydrocarbon to green energy. An article describing the technology has been published in the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy.

TPPs and CHPPs are the main suppliers of heat, light, and hot water; at the same time, they are sources of greenhouse gas emissions generated during fuel combustion and saturated with carbon dioxide, soot, unburned particles, and various chemical substances. Another byproduct is the so-called waste heat - water heated during the cooling of superheated steam, rotating turbines of TPPs and CHPPs. The waste heat, in the form of steam, evaporates into the atmosphere in large quantities and is discharged together with industrial effluents into storage ponds. Process water containing solutions of hydrochloric acid, caustic soda, ammonia, ammonium salts, iron and other substances is discharged after flushing the flue gases and boiler units.

Researchers unravel the complex reaction pathways in zero carbon fuel synthesis

Chemical plant
Photo Credit: Robert Jones

When the eCO2EP: A chemical energy storage technology project started in 2018, the objective was to develop ways of converting carbon dioxide emitted as part of industrial processes into useful compounds, a process known as electrochemical CO2 reduction (eCO2R)

While eCO2R is not a new technique, the challenge has always been the inability to control the end products. Now, researchers from the University of Cambridge have outlined how carbon isotopes can be used to trace intermediates during the process, which will allow scientists to create more selective catalysts, control product selectivity, and promote eCO2R as a more promising production method for chemicals and fuels in the low-carbon economy. Their results are reported in the journal Nature Catalysis.

The project was led by Professor Alexei Lapkin, from Cambridge’s Centre for Advanced Research and Education in Singapore (CARES Ltd) and Professor Joel Ager, from the Berkeley Education Alliance for Research in Singapore (BEARS Ltd). Both organizations are part of the Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE) funded by Singapore’s National Research Foundation.

Tracing the flow of water with DNA

Oliver Schilling analyzing spring water at Mount Fuji.
Photo Credit: T. Schilling

Environmental DNA analysis of microbial communities can help us understand how a particular region’s water cycle works. Basel hydrogeologist Oliver Schilling recently used this method to examine the water cycle on Mount Fuji. His results have implications for Switzerland as well.

Where does the water come from that provides drinking water to people in a particular region? What feeds these sources and how long does it take for groundwater to make its way back up to the surface? This hydrological cycle is a complex interplay of various factors. A better grasp of the system allows us to understand, for example, why pollution is worse in some spots than others, and it can help us implement sustainable water management policies and practices.

Environmental DNA (eDNA) provides some important data to improve our understanding. In combination with the evaluation of other natural tracers – noble gases, for example – this microbial data provides important glimpses into the flow, circulation and functioning of complex groundwater systems. “It’s a vast toolbox that’s new to our field of research,” says Oliver Schilling, Professor of Hydrogeology at the University of Basel and at Eawag, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology. Quantitative hydrogeology maps out where and how quickly new groundwater will accumulate.

Coating bubbles with protein results in a highly stable contrast agent for medical use

Bacteria produce gas vesicles
Image Credit: Aalto University

Inspired by the bubbles bacteria create inside their cells, researchers developed a similar system by coating tiny gas vesicles with protein. The resulting bubbles are safe, highly stable, and function as contrast agent in medical applications. They could be used to diagnose, for example, cardiological issues, blood flow, and liver lesions.

Bacteria produce gas vesicles, tiny thin-walled sacs filled with air or fluid, to help them float. This phenomenon has captured the attention of scientists who see potential for similar bubble-based designs in fields like medicine. A team of researchers at Aalto University’s Department of Applied Physics, led by Professor Robin Ras, have now used the same idea to create a new kind of contrast agent for use in medical applications such as ultrasound imaging. The research was recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.