Insect eyes inspire new solar cell design from Stanford Packing tiny solar cells together, like micro-lenses in the compound eye of an insect, could pave the way to a new generation of advanced photovoltaics, say Stanford University scientists. In a new study, the Stanford team used the insect-inspired design to protect a fragile photovoltaic material … Continue reading New solar cell design is modeled after bugs eyes
via Watts Up With That?
September 2, 2017 at 03:27PM
by Judith Curry
A few things that caught my eye this past week.
Modulation of the seasonal cycle of Antarctic sea ice extent related to the Southern Annular Mode [link]
Extreme warming in the Kara Sea and Barents Sea during the winter period 2000 to 2016 [link]
New study links climate change in England to El Niño–Southern Oscillation cycle and the Hale sunspot cycle [link]
New Study Confirms Medieval Warm Period Was Indeed Global in China, And As Warm As Today [link]
On why climate model tuning is challenging but necessary; how approaches vary across models. @ClimateOfGavin et al. [link]
Extreme cyclone events in the Arctic: Wintertime variability & trends [link] …
Atmospheric eddies mediate lapse rate feedback and Arctic amplification[link]
Enhanced wintertime greenhouse effect reinforcing Arctic amplification and initial sea-ice melting [link]
Flooding Not Increasing In North America And Europe, New Study Confirms [link] …
New study: Rainfall intensities have increased in a warming world, but streamflow has actually decreased [link]
Origins of anomalous warming in California coastal ocean and San Francisco Bay during 2014-2016 [link]
10,000 To 5,000 Years Ago, Global Sea Levels Were 3 Meters Higher, Temperatures 4-6° C Warmer [link]
Is the choice of statistical paradigm critical in extreme event attribution studies? [link]
Improved Sea Ice Forecasting Through Spatiotemporal Bias Correction [link]
Why sea spray is making waves in the world of climate modeling: [link]
Assessing climate change impacts on extreme weather events: an alternative (Bayesian) approach [link]
New data set explores 90 years of natural disasters in the US [link]
Solar geoengineering reduces atmospheric carbon burden, Nature Climate Change [link] …
Weather-related disasters are increasing, But the number of deaths caused by them is falling [link]
Elevated CO2 and high temperature improve the growth of rice and Chinese yam [link] …
Social Benefits Of CO2 & Warming: Soviet-Era Grain Record Seen Tumbling on Bumper Russian Harvest [link] …
Spatial distribution of Southern Ocean mesozooplankton has been resilient to long-term surface warming [link]
3 ways nanomaterials cud help combat climate change & prevent pollution [link] …
CloudSat and CALIPSO within the A-Train: Ten years of actively observing the Earth system [link]
Policy and social science
Climate change and the re-evaluation of cost-benefit analysis [link]
Special issue: Expertise, Regulatory Science and the Evaluation of Technology and Risk [link] …
A Storm Without Rain: Yemen, Water, Climate Change, and Conflict « The Center for Climate & Security [link]
Economic development isn’t getting less energy-intensive over time: [link]…
About science
Expect experts to disagree on antibiotic resistance, and other scientific controversies [link] …
Dan Sarewitz: stop treating science denial like a disease. [link] …
A profound and provocative essay by Michael McIntyre on multi-level thinking and scientific understanding [link]
via Climate Etc.
September 2, 2017 at 12:41PM
Will Corals Survive, asks a group of “international scientists”. Corals first appeared 540 million years ago, but having made it through supervolcanoes, mass extinctions, and an asteroid impact equivalent to 10 billion Hiroshima A-bombs, it’s now likely they will be wiped out because a trace gas has risen from 20% up to 25% of levels common for half of the last 300 million years.
Source: http://www.geocraft, Scotese and Berner 2001
Having made it through the volatile last 65 million years, and multiple ice ages where the oceans rose and fell by as much as 125m repeatedly, it will be tragic if the current man-made warming phase wipes them out. According to one thousand tide gauges the worlds oceans are relentlessly rising by 1mm every year. While corals coped with the last 125,000mm of sea level rise, it’s not clear they will still be around in another 20mm.
…
The team of 22 researchers admit “there is still a lot to understand about corals,” and “there are major knowledge gaps”. But despite not knowing much, the experts on marine ecosystems advise that “our only real chance for their survival” is to control the global climate.
Looks like that’s it […]
via JoNova
September 2, 2017 at 12:14PM
Iowa Climate Science Education 