Sustainability
13 Oct 2015
Advancing taste research to help solve global nutrition problems
Dr. Johannes le Coutre is a Senior Research Scientist and the Head of Perception Physiology at the Nestlé Research Center, in Lausanne, Switzerland.
321 news posts in Earth and beyond
Sustainability
08 Oct 2015
Smart physics models for designing new glass compositions
Frontiers Science Hero: John Mauro from Frontiers on Vimeo. Frontiers Science Hero, John Mauro is Frontiers’ Chief Editor of Glass Science. He is also Senior Research Manager in Glass Research at industrial glass company Corning Inc. in Corning, NY, USA. A Fellow of the American Ceramic Society, Mauro is also the co-inventor of several new glass compositions. “If it’s glass, I’m interested,” says Mauro, in an interview with Frontiers where he shares how his passion for glass initially started. “I first fell in love with glass when I was 6 years old,” he says. Better understanding the structure and the properties of matter, makes it possible to produce glass with better characteristics for industrial applications. “Glass is well known as one of the most difficult problems in condensed matter physics,” he says. As part of his job, John Mauro builds new glass models, together with colleagues, to understand the material’s behaviour. These models can, in turn, be used to efficiently design new glass compositions. But John Mauro is not only interested in the scientific aspect of the material. He also loves the artistic side of glass applications. In this interview, he tells us about Corning’s work with artists to help him “learn […]
Sustainability
22 Sep 2015
A new perspective on the deep sea world
Frontiers Science Here: Jon Copley – A new perspective on the deep sea world from Frontiers on Vimeo. Jon Copley is the first British person to dive further down than 5 km deep in the ocean. He is one of Frontiers’ Science Heroes. As a marine biologist, he dives and explores life in the depth of the oceans, across the world. Specifically, he studies colonies of animals in island-like habitats on the ocean floor, near hydrothermal vents. His goal is to investigate the distribution, dispersal and evolution of these species. He is a bit like a 19th century discoverer. “That’s an analogy I often like to use because these deep-sea vents are island-like colonies of marine life on the ocean floor,” he said. “It’s like going to a new continent.” Ultimately, learning from deep-sea species can lead to applications though potential new treatements from marine microbes and new design for wings and fan blades inspired from whales flippers, among others. Copley currently works at the University of Southampton, in the UK, as an associate Professor of Marine Ecology. He also is the principal investigator of the Chemosynthetic Environments Research Team. In a Skype interview, he shares his passion for discovering […]
Sustainability
17 Sep 2015
Preservation of the Ozone Layer: Years later and so much more to do
by Ben Stockton, Journal Operations Assistant In an interview with a former student, the late Frank Sherwood Rowland recalled the moment when, after returning home from the lab, his wife asked him how his work was going. He replied, “The work is going well, but it looks like the end of the world”. The frivolity of the prophesy in the early 1970s of Rowland, a former atmospheric chemist at the University of California, Irvine, is clear. Naturally it didn’t come to fruition, but there was the element of truth behind it. The research with his colleague Mario Molina (pictured below) created a new field of science and sparked major international intervention. Signing of the Montreal Protocol It is considered the most successful international agreement in history – by Kofi Annan, nonetheless. The signing of the Montreal Protocol on this day—September 16, 1987— showcased a worldwide unity of science, government and industry, the holy trinity of environmental lobbying. It instilled change that would transcend a generation of signatories. As if like a pebble dropped into calm waters, the surface has only just been disturbed. After almost 20 years, the benefits of that lie in the wake this agreement will continue to ripple outwards […]
Sustainability
09 Jun 2015
Healthy Oceans, Healthy Planet -World Oceans Day with Paul Rose
By Nina Rothe Former Vice President of the Royal Geographical Society and Chair of the Expeditions and Fieldwork Division, polar expert Paul Rose is currently Expedition Leader for the National Geographic Pristine Seas Expeditions. He was the Base Commander of Rothera Research Station , Antarctica, for the British Antarctic Survey for 10 years and was awarded HM The Queen’s Polar Medal. For his work with NASA and the Mars Lander project on Mt Erebus, Antarctica, (which he climbed, of course!) he received the US Polar Medal. And he has a mountain named after himself in Antarctica. Happy World Oceans Day, Paul! When you think about the sea, what’s the first image, smell and sound that comes to your mind? Freedom, simplicity, adventure, promise! What has been the most important achievement in terms of ocean conservation in the past year and what do you consider the 3 most pressing problem(s) facing the world’s oceans right now? Raising the level of awareness to the extent that this is now a genuine sweet-spot for ocean conservation is a real success. For the first time in history, people understand that human activities directly affect the ocean’s health. The there most rousing problems are: overfishing, […]
Sustainability
18 Feb 2015
Staff Pick: Scientists’ perspectives on global ocean research priorities
This is Nina Rothe, Journal Manager at Frontiers. Nina’s from Berlin and has a PhD in marine biology from the University of Southampton. We’ve invited her to highlight her personal favorite paper from Frontiers. Read the paper (OA): http://fron.tiers.in/go/eMyoEc Rudd MA (2014) Scientists’ perspectives on global ocean research priorities Frontiers in Marine Science 1:36 … Nina writes: “In this paper, Dr Murray Rudd, from the University of York Environment Department, presents a survey that asked 2,197 scientists from 94 countries, who ranged in background from marine geologists to anthropologists, to state what research was needed most urgently to help sustain global ocean health. Among the most pressing issues, declines in ocean productivity, increases in ocean acidification, and the cumulative effects of multiple stressors on ocean health ranked in the top five ocean research priorities by oceanographers and marine ecologists from around the globe. Social scientists thought that better communication between scientists, policy-makers and the public was the most important research priority.”