Credit: UrFU / Ilya Safarov.
Military expenditures are highly counterproductive to green economic growth- documented by a recent study conducted by UrFU economist collaboration with an international research team. Sustainable economic development or green growth requires cleaner energy and green technology that can mitigate the negative externalities (e.g., carbon emission) of economic growth. The study utilized various macroeconomic indicators for 21 OECD countries over the year 1980-2016. This empirical study focusing on the dynamic impact of innovation, militarization and renewable energy on the green economy is published in the journal Environmental Science and Pollution Research .
On the one hand, the military-industry (land vehicles, aircraft, and sea-vessels) consume a gargantuan amount of fossil fuels. About 75% of the global non-renewable energy consumption (coal, gas, oil) is by military actions, economists claim. According to the BP report (without division by sectors
Research by a team of chemists at the University of Toronto, led by Nobel Prize-winning researcher John Polanyi, is shedding new light on the behaviour of molecules as they collide and exchange atoms during chemical reaction. The discovery casts doubt on a 90-year old theoretical model of the behavior of the transition state , intermediate between reagents and products in chemical reactions, opening a new area of research dubbed knock-on chemistry.
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IMAGE: A key contributor to how these halide perovskites create and transport electricity literally hinges on the way their octahedral atomic lattice twists and turns in a hinge-like fashion. view more
Credit: ORNL/Jill Hemman
DURHAM, N.C. Researchers at Duke University have revealed long-hidden molecular dynamics that provide desirable properties for solar energy and heat energy applications to an exciting class of materials called halide perovskites.
A key contributor to how these materials create and transport electricity literally hinges on the way their atomic lattice twists and turns in a hinge-like fashion. The results will help materials scientists in their quest to tailor the chemical recipes of these materials for a wide range of applications in an environmentally friendly way.
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IMAGE: MIT engineers have developed self-cooling fabrics from polyethylene, commonly used in plastic bags. They estimate that the new fabric may be more sustainable than cotton and other common textiles. view more
Credit: Image courtesy of Svetlana Boriskina
In considering materials that could become the fabrics of the future, scientists have largely dismissed one widely available option: polyethylene.
The stuff of plastic wrap and grocery bags, polyethylene is thin and lightweight, and could keep you cooler than most textiles because it lets heat through rather than trapping it in. But polyethylene would also lock in water and sweat, as it s unable to draw away and evaporate moisture. This antiwicking property has been a major deterrent to polyethylene s adoption as a wearable textile.
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LOWELL, Mass. - The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded UMass Lowell researchers $1.8 million to develop recyclable plastics and manufacturing technologies to help the country reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions and improve its environmental sustainability.
The grant is funded through the REMADE Institute, a public-private partnership created by the DOE to help the U.S. move toward what s known as a circular economy, in which waste is eliminated as much as possible by continually reusing and recycling resources.
The UMass Lowell project will seek ways to improve the recycling of plastic films from industrial and consumer goods that typically end up in landfills. The research aims to create new uses for the plastic waste and possibilities for the re-manufacturing of sustainable products. Innovative plastics-processing technologies developed by the researchers and industrial partners would create new opportunities for manufacturers across the country, according to UM