Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Climate scientists suggest the introduction of a Category 6 to the Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale due to a trend towards more intense hurricanes in a warming climate. Their research highlights the need for better risk communication regarding the increased potential for devastating hurricanes, with findings pointing to a significant rise in the likelihood of such extreme storms in the future. Credit: SciTechDaily.comFor over half a century, the National Hurricane Center has employed the Saffir-Simpson Windscale to convey the…

Microbe models leverage extensive genomic data to power soil-carbon simulations. Credit: Illustration by Victor O. LeshykScientists are using the DNA from soil microbes to model how they function and use carbon, ultimately helping to advance the accuracy of climate models.Climate models are essential to predicting and addressing climate change, but can fail to adequately represent soil microbes, a critical player in ecosystem soil carbon sequestration that affects the global carbon cycle. A team of scientists led by the…

A groundbreaking new study introduces a twisted multilayer crystal structure with potential implications for future materials in technology, leveraging a novel “twisted epitaxy” method that could revolutionize semiconductor applications and quantum electronics.Scientists have discovered that crystals can twist when they are sandwiched between two substrates – a critical step toward exploring new material properties for electronics and other applications.Researchers from the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator…

A view of an eddy covariance tower, capable of measuring the release of greenhouse gases, located in Alaska. Credit: Sigrid Dengel Berkeley Lab scientists show decadal increases in wetland methane emissions in Arctic and Boreal ecosystems.Wetlands are Earth’s largest natural source of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that is about 30 times more powerful than carbon dioxide at warming the atmosphere. A research team from the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) analyzed wetland…

This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here.Stay in Your Seats, It's Gonna Be a Bumpy Flight | Extreme EarthA super-hurricane is brewing in the Atlantic Ocean in the opening pages of The Displacements, a novel by Bruce Holsinger published in 2022. “This is the one the climatologists have been warning us about for 20 years,” one character declares. Forty pages in, so-called Hurricane Luna makes a surprise turn for Miami and ends up demolishing Southern Florida with a wall of…

Our mouths and guts are teeming with mysterious somethings that are unknown to science, new research suggests. A team says they’ve discovered distinct virus-like structures hanging out among the bacteria that live in our bodies. The researchers have coined these structures “obelisks,” and they might further redefine what it means to be a living thing.Alex Winter on the Most Important Modern Horror Movie Viruses are small packages of genetic material made of either DNA or RNA enclosed inside a protective protein shell.…

A breakthrough in hybrid supercapacitors has been achieved by increasing the active material in electrodes through a novel method involving β-Ni(OH)2 and NH4F. This innovation leads to more efficient energy storage, opening new possibilities for advanced energy systems. Credit: SciTechDaily.comNew research enhances hybrid supercapacitors by creating more efficient electrodes, marking a significant step forward in energy storage technology.Like batteries, supercapacitors are a type of energy-storage device. However, while…

In an energy-efficient future, homes may be heated and cooled by pumping from giant pools of water stored underground. A study published this month in Applied Energy looks at how underground aquifers could help significantly reduce reliance on fossil fuels and help store energy produced by renewables.This Summer’s Hottest UmbrellaThe research deals with a technology known as aquifer thermal energy storage, or ATES. Water is a great way to store thermal energy, and the Earth is an efficientinsulator. ATES is simply the…

In a bid to understand even more about our mysterious and massive universe, NASA is partnering with the Department of Energy on an ambitious lunarproject. The two agencies announced that they will develop and deploy a radio telescope, called the Lunar Surface Electromagnetics Experiment – Night (LuSEE-Night), on the far side of the Moon as part of a larger effort to study the Dark Ages of the universe.Temperatures on the Moon’s surface can oscillate between 250 degrees Fahrenheit (120 degrees Celsius) and -280 F (-173…

T. magnifica filaments next to a dime for scale.Gif: Tomas TymlA team of scientists discovered a macroscopic species of bacterium living in the waters off Guadeloupe in the Caribbean, shifting the scales of how big we thought bacteria could be. The newly discovered species is named Thiomargarita (sulfur pearl) magnifica, and it is so large that its single cells are visible to the naked eye.Besides its superlative size, T. magnifica shows signs of increased complexity in bacteria. Instead of its DNA just floating around in…