IISER Thiruvananthapuram: Scooping out marine oil spills is now possible
The sorbent is able to absorb and congeal 16 times its own weight of oil. More efficient and quick absorption of crude oil from sea following marine spill has now…
Category: Environment
As another smog season looms, India must act soon to keep Delhi from gasping
Vijay Koul, CSIRO “Smog chokes Delhi”, declared the the New York Times on November 7, 2016, informing readers around the world that contaminating particulates in the air in the Indian…
Air pollutants reduce India’s solar power generation by 17%
In India, particulate matter deposited on solar panels and present in the ambient air is responsible for about 17% reduction in solar power generation. This translates to about 2 GW reduction in…
Probability of dying due to heat waves increases in India
The mean temperature across India has risen by 0.5 degree C during the period 1960 and 2009 and this has led to a significant increase in heat waves in the…
Scientists are accidentally helping poachers drive rare species to extinction
Benjamin Scheele, Australian National University and David Lindenmayer, Australian National University If you open Google and start typing “Chinese cave gecko”, the text will auto-populate to “Chinese cave gecko for…
With 18 million tonnes, a remote island turns into plastic junkyard
The beaches of Henderson Island, an uninhabited island in the South Pacific Ocean about 5,000 km away from the nearest population centre, are heavily littered with plastic waste. The beaches…
Euro VI diesel emission norms can avert nearly 174,000 premature deaths
Despite tighter nitrogen oxides (NOx) emission norms for diesel cars, buses and trucks in several countries, the actual amount of NOx emitted by diesel vehicles is far more during on-road…
Soon, plastic can be biodegraded more efficiently
Polyethylene, which is a widely used plastic and the toughest to be degraded, has met its match. Larvae of wax moth Galleria mellonella has been shown to degrade polyethylene into…
