The ability of plants to turn sunlight into energy through photosynthesis has been successfully mimicked by scientists at the University of Southampton to produce a new generation of solar cells.

Multidisciplinary research from the International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2008 provides new evidence of the widespread effects of global warming in the polar regions. Snow and ice are declining in both polar regions, affecting human livelihoods as well as local plant and animal life in the Arctic, as well as global ocean and atmospheric circulation and sea level. These are but a few findings reported in “State of Polar Research”, released today by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the International Council for Science (ICSU). In addition to lending insight into climate change, IPY has aided our understanding of pollutant transport, species’ evolution, and storm formation, among many other areas.

Climate change will not be taken seriously until the media highlights its significance, say researchers at the University of Liverpool.

California was one of the first states to enact legislation to tackle global warming. But the state is also proving how hard it can be to carry out such laws, especially now.

(American Geophysical Union) Featured in this release are research papers on the following topics: “Sea level to rise at least 180 millimeters from melting glaciers and ice caps”; “Human environmental effects widen tropics”; “Ozone abundance underestimated in troposphere”; “How extra robust, intense hurricanes form”; “Sea level rise scars South Carolina marshes”; and “Monitoring open-ocean deep convection from space.”

(University of Southern California) Two scientists, from Penn State and Scripps, who found warning signs of climate change in the upper atmosphere and in the deepest ice sheets will share the 2009 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement. The award consists of a $200,000 cash prize and gold medals.

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn sees Darwin Initiative conservation films project in Kenya

The most violent gamma-ray burst ever observed has been detected by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. The total energy released, the ejection velocity of the explosion and the extremely high energy of the light emitted are exceptional. Five French teams from IN2P3/CNRS(1), CEA(2) and the Université Paris Diderot(2), and INSU/CNRS(3) took part in analyzing and interpreting these results, which were published in the 19 February 2009 issue of the journal Science Express.

Together with three colleagues Professor Peter Oppeneer of Uppsala University has explained the hitherto unsolved mystery in materials science known as ‘the hidden order’ – how a new phase arises and why. This is a discovery that can be of great importance to our understanding of how new material properties occur, how they can be controlled and exploited in the future. The findings are now being published in the scientific journal Nature Materials and of great importance to future energy supply.

Research by TU Delft proves that Dutch power stations are able to cope at any time in the future with variations in demand for electricity and supply of wind power, as long as use is made of up-to-date wind forecasts. PhD candidate Bart Ummels also demonstrates that there is no need for energy storage facilities. Ummels will receive his PhD on this topic on Thursday 26 February.