For the first time, researchers have analyzed outdoor PM₁₀ from Milano Linate Airport and determined concentrations of Benzothiazoles (BTHs), tire-related additives. Not only concentrations were much higher than that of highly trafficked cities, but specific additives were proven to derive mostly from the airport area. Two of them were strongly correlated, suggesting a close link to the airport activities. The ecotoxicological assessment showed a low potential risk of occupational exposure to BTHs at Linate Airport.

An interdisciplinary team of scientists has uncovered new evidence showing that the health impacts of the Industrial Revolution varied more widely across England than previously believed. The findings, published in the journal Science Advances, challenge the longstanding narrative that industrial cities were uniformly polluted while rural communities remained comparatively untouched during the rise of polluting industries. 

Reciprocity matters--people were more supportive of climate policies in their country if they believed other countries were making significant efforts themselves, per survey of 4,000 Chinese, Indian, Japanese and US citizens.

Harvard atmospheric scientists directly sampled 5-day old wildfire smoke in the upper troposphere and found large particles that are not reflected in current climate models.

Asier Madarieta, a researcher in the EHU’s HGI (Water Environmental Processes) group, has analysed how the earth’s crust is being compressed and deformed in the field where Eurasia and Africa meet in the Western Mediterranean. His work contributes towards understanding this complex contact field better as well as opening the door to identifying the faults and structures that could lead to earthquakes or deformations on the peninsula.

In an article published in Science China Earth Sciences, two senior scientists at China University of Geosciences (Beijing) and University of Science and Technology of China present comprehensive arguments for the past and present of intracontinental orogens, developing a holistic model of mountain building from intracontinental reworking of fossil plate margins. The intracontinental orogeny involves dual dynamic mechanisms via either far-field compressional stress transmission from remote plate margins or near-field extensional stress focus from local plate bottom. This provides new insights into the formation and evolution of continental tectonics with respect to inheritance and development in both structure and composition from preceding plate margins.

Today, the Arabian Gulf is home to manatee-like marine mammals called dugongs that shape the seafloor as they graze on seagrasses. A newly described fossil site in Qatar reveals that ancient sea cows engineered aquatic ecosystems in a similar way more than 20 million years ago.