Lifeboat Foundation

Earth’s H₂O is 97 percent seawater, and most of the remaining 3 percent is inaccessible, frozen in glaciers or permafrost. Only a small portion, about half of a percent, exists as freshwater in aquifers and rivers that humans can tap into. A process called, however, allows us to dip into the oceans to satisfy our thirst.

Desal has been around for decades and is used to make both seawater and salty groundwater drinkable. But scientists think that it will become increasingly important in a warmer, drier future. In a recent UN-led review, researchers stated that “‘conventional’ sources of water such as rainfall, snowmelt and river runoff captured in lakes, rivers, and aquifers are no longer sufficient to meet human demands in water-scarce areas.”

During a media roundtable at the 2019 American Geophysical Union conference, Peter Fiske, director of the Water-Energy Resilience Research Institute at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, discussed why we might need to more strongly consider this technology—at times written off for its high costs and energy use—to stabilize water supplies in the future. Here’s what you need to know.

Discussion with Jeff Krehmer about his book Infinite Resources: How to sustainably develop the arctic, by supplying green hydrogen, fresh water and healthy food to the world, while mitigating the negative effects of anthropocentric climate change.

Links related to Infinite Resources:
The book Infinite Resources:
https://www.amazon.com/Infinite-Resou?tag=lifeboatfound-20…

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In late 2019, the previously unremarkable galaxy SDSS1335+0728 unexpectedly brightened, prompting astronomers to investigate the cause using data from various observatories, including the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT).

The study, recently published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, suggests an unprecedented event: the sudden awakening of the massive black hole at the galaxy’s core.

“Imagine you’ve been observing a distant galaxy for years, and it always seemed calm and inactive,” said Paula Sánchez Sáez, an astronomer at ESO.

The cosmos has always fascinated scientists, and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is now offering unprecedented views of supernovae from the early universe.

Recently, a team of researchers used Webb’s data to identify ten times more supernovae than were previously known, uncovering some of the most distant examples ever observed.

These findings, presented at the 244th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Madison, Wisconsin, are revolutionizing our understanding of the universe’s expansion.

Good health depends on a healthy diet and sufficient exercise and sleep. There are clear associations among these components; for example, good nutrition provides energy for exercise, and many people report that getting enough exercise is important to their ability to get enough sleep. So how might nutrition affect sleep?

A new study looks at the connection between fruit and vegetable intake and sleep duration. The research, by a team from Finland’s University of Helsinki, National Institute for Health and Welfare, and Turku University of Applied Sciences, is published in Frontiers in Nutrition.

Why sleep is important and how it works Sleep gives our bodies the chance to rest and recover from wakeful activity. Our hearts, blood vessels, muscles, cells, immune systems, cognitive abilities, and memory-making abilities depend on regular, healthy sleep for optimal functioning, and a 2019 study suggests that sleep is important for repairing DNA damage that occurs during wakefulness.

(NewsNation) — Researchers have found a significant source of geothermal energy underneath the U.S.-Mexico border along the Rio Grande, which could lead to promising clean energy development in the rural region.

The findings came after a monthslong study conducted by the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas at Austin, which discovered that the region of Presidio County in Texas, which shares a border with Mexico, has the conditions necessary for geothermal development.

“There’s a thin, 10-to 15-mile-wide region that runs parallel or along the Rio Grande that has very high heat by at least by most standards, and even in the interior part of the county, which is probably two-thirds of the county,” Ken Wisian, head of the research team, told NewsNation.

A research team led by Prof. Wu Zhengyan and Zhang Jia from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a new environmentally friendly way to deliver pesticides using porous microspheres made of halloysite nanotubes (HNTs).

A 3,300-year-old ship has been discovered at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, making it one of the oldest shipwrecks ever discovered and rewriting our understanding of sailing in the ancient world, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority.

The vessel is estimated to be from the 13th or 14th century BCE, the authority said in a statement. It was discovered 90 kilometers (around 56 miles) from the shore, in waters 1.8 kilometers (1.1 miles) deep, with hundreds of intact jars still on board, the statement added.

The ship’s remains were found during an environmental survey of the seabed by London-based natural gas production company Energean, according to Karnit Bahartan, the head of the company’s environment team.

A new study by Brown University researchers may help redefine how scientists map the surface of the Moon, making the process more streamlined and precise than ever before.

Published in the Planetary Science Journal, the research by Brown scholars Benjamin Boatwright and James Head describes enhancements to a mapping technique called shape-from-shading. The technique is used to create detailed models of lunar terrain, outlining craters, ridges, slopes and other surface hazards. By analyzing the way light hits different surfaces of the Moon, it allows researchers to estimate the three-dimensional shape of an object or surface from composites of two-dimensional images.

Accurate maps can help lunar mission planners to identify safe landing spots and areas of scientific interest, making mission operations smoother and more successful.