ScienceDaily: Earth & Climate News

Sea otters are the smallest marine mammal. As cold-water dwellers, staying warm is a top priority, but their dense fur only goes so far. We have long known that high metabolism generates the heat they need to survive, but we didn't know how they were producing the heat -- until now.

To understand the connection between human activity and a type of tumorlike disease called growth anomalies (GAs) researchers have started using an emerging molecular profiling method to identify 18 small molecules that promise to help them better understand the series of molecular reactions that lead to the disease.

The world's largest study of global climate related mortality found deaths related to hot temperatures increased in all regions from 2000 to 2019, indicating that global warming due to climate change will make this mortality figure worse in the future. The international research team looked at mortality and temperature data across the world from 2000 to 2019, a period when global temperatures rose by 0.26C per decade.

Increased acidity in the atmosphere is disrupting the ecological balance of the oceans, according to new research. The study looks at acidity's impact on nutrient transport to the ocean and demonstrates that the way nutrients are delivered affects the productivity of the ocean and its ability to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere.

Scientists are homing in on a recipe that would enable the future production of entirely renewable, clean energy from which water would be the only waste product. Using their expertise in chemistry, theoretical physics and artificial intelligence, the team is now fine-tuning the recipe with the genuine belief that the seemingly impossible will one day be reality.