ARCTIC MATTERS

Arctic Matters day, according to the National Research Council of the National Academies is January 14th.  Go to http://nas-sites.org/arctic/ to read about it.  Link to their Interactive web tool, or download a PDF of their 32-page, well-illustrated booklet or download a poster.  What happens in the Arctic, affects the whole globe.

Interactive web tool: see the global effects of changes in the arctic

Arctic Matters interactive web tool:
see the global effects of changes in the arctic

 

The Cambridge Structural Database has reached no. 800,000

“The Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre is delighted to announce that there are now over 800,000 entries in the Cambridge Structural Database. The 800,000th entry is a copper-containing metal-organic crystal structure determined by researchers in Spain and published in Crystal Growth & Design.

You can read more about this structure and the significance of this milestone at http://www.ccdc.cam.ac.uk/NewsandEvents/News/Pages/NewsItem.aspx?newsid=42 and in our blog post at http://www.ccdc.cam.ac.uk/Community/Blog/pages/BlogPost.aspx?bpid=58.

We take this opportunity to express our appreciation for the immense contribution made by researchers past and present to the continuing growth and success of the Cambridge Structural Database.”

As reported to the CHMINF-L on Oct. 23, 2015, by

Dr Ian Bruno: Director, Strategic Partnerships

The Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (CCDC)

Tel: +44-1223-336013   Email: bruno@ccdc.cam.ac.uk

Life on Earth, 4.1billion years old?

Life on Earth likely started 4.1 billion years ago, much earlier than scientists thought

Posted: 19 Oct 2015 12:41 PM PDT

“Geochemists have found probable evidence for life on Earth at least 4.1 billion years ago — 300 million years earlier than previously documented, pushing the origin of life close to when the planet formed, 4.54 billion years ago.

Zircons_1_540x360

Carbon in 4.1 billion year old zircon.
Credit: Stanford/UCLA.

University of California – Los Angeles. “Life on Earth likely started 4.1 billion years ago, much earlier than scientists thought: Evidence that early Earth was not dry and desolate.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 19 October 2015.

Go to <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151019154153.htm>. to read more about this, or see the journal reference.

Journal Reference:

  1. Elizabeth A. Bell, Patrick Boehnke, T. Mark Harrison, and Wendy L. Mao. Potentially biogenic carbon preserved in a 4.1 billion-year-old zircon. PNAS, October 19, 2015 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1517557112

Directory of Open Access Journals — DOAJ

This directory of OA journals is hosted by Lund University Libraries in Sweden.  From their homepage: http://www.doaj.org:

“DOAJ is an online directory that indexes and provides access to high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals.”   One can search by keywords or browse through broader and narrower subject headings.

These stats are from their website, accessed Sept. 28, 2015:

Seen in “Outstanding Websites of 2014”, Choice, Sept. 2015, p. 33

ProQuest full text of scholarly journal content soon indexed by Google Scholar

By Kurt Sanford, CEO

“ProQuest is enabling the full text of its scholarly journal content to be indexed in Google Scholar, improving discovery and research outcomes. Our goal is that by the third quarter of 2015, users starting their research in Google Scholar will be able to access full text via ProQuest.”

http://www.proquest.com/blog/pqblog/2015/Why-ProQuest-is-working-with-Google.html

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Tuesday, 18th August 2015

ProQuest Scholarly Content Now Discoverable in Google Scholar

By Africa S. Hands

From No Shelf Required:

ProQuest has marked another milestone in ease of access to its rich research content. The full text of its scholarly content – including journals and working papers – is now indexed in Google Scholar, enabling Google Scholar users to seamlessly discover and access their library’s ProQuest collections. Efficiency and productivity for both ProQuest and Google Scholar users is improved, while libraries benefit from increased usage for their subscribed collections.

Full story >>

http://www.libraries.wright.edu/noshelfrequired/2015/08/12/proquest-scholarly-content-now-discoverable-in-google-scholar/

Source via: ResourceShelf Newsletter – 8th September 2015

[ResourceShelf] Newsletter 643

New York Panel on Climate Change 2015

  • http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nyas.2015.1336.issue-1/issuetoc“With the bulk of scientific articles and reports placed behind a paywall, it’s always a welcome gift when good research is made available for free. This report on the New York Panel on Climate Change 2015 is loaded with excellent information – and it’s free and available to anyone with an Internet connection. As the introduction to the report notes, “The climate of the New York City metropolitan region is changing – annual temperatures are hotter, heavy downpours are increasingly frequent, and the sea is rising.” The rest of the report includes a knowledgeable forward by Mayor Bill de Blasio, an executive summary on the findings of the panel, an article outlining the panel’s climate observations and projections, and chapters on sea level rise, coastal storms, coastal flooding, public health impacts, and conclusions and recommendations. For inspired readers, there are also appendices to the report that feature infographics and technical details.” [CNH]
  • Source:  Scout Report, Univ. Wisc., July 17, 2015   (Vol. 21 no. 27)

mSphere — New OA journal, American Society for Microbiology

American Society for Microbiology announces 2016 launch of new OA journal – mSphere – 10 Jun 2015

The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) has announced plans to launch mSphereTM, a new pan-microbiology open-access journal, in early 2016. mSphere will create new opportunities for researchers in microbial sciences to share findings that are transforming our understanding of human health and disease, ecosystems, neuroscience, agriculture, energy production, climate change, evolution, biogeochemical cycling, and food and drug production.

mSphere will build on the success of mBio®, ASM’s first open access journal. Its scope will reflect the immense range of fields within the microbial sciences. An emphasis will be placed on bringing together these diverse fields to feature their common threads through the data, methods, and conceptual frameworks of original peer-reviewed research.

Dr. Michael Imperiale, Founding Editor in Chief of mSphere is the Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and Associate Chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Michigan Medical School and a member of the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Author of more than 135 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, Dr. Imperiale has served as an editor of ASM’s Journal of Virology® and mBio® and associate editor of Virology and PLoS Pathogens.

ASM journals have long been recognized as important venues for dissemination of significant, high-quality microbiological research. The launch of mSphere will complement the excellence of ASM’s 10 specialised primary research journals. mSphere™ will welcome submissions from authors around the world and will provide rapid decisions on publication, while carrying on ASM’s tradition for rigorous peer review. Like the rest of the ASM journals program, the new journals will be hosted on the HighWire platform at journals.asm.org.

A formal ‘Call for Papers’ will be issued in September 2015, and the journal launch is planned for early 2016.”

Click here

Source:  Knowledgespeak News, June 10, 2015

Greenhouse Gas Emissions have increased based on data from 32 global energy providers

US “Thomson Reuters releases greenhouse gas emissions data on Global Energy Providers – 21 May 2015

Thomson Reuters has released a new research Global 500 Greenhouse Gas Report: The Fossil Fuel Energy Sector, revealing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions data from 32 global energy companies, a key subset of the world’s largest publically traded businesses. The report, written in collaboration with global sustainability consultancy BSD Consulting, is the second in a series of GHG reports designed to create transparency and enable sound management of global GHG emissions.

Building on the previous report, the new report includes data around consumers’ use of a company’s products, called Scope 3 data, to present a fuller view of the business’s overall contribution to GHG emissions. Among the data included in the report, 31 percent of GHG emitted globally on an annual basis comes from 32 global energy companies and the population’s use of their products.

From 2010 to 2013, GHG emissions from the 32 energy companies and use of their products increased by 1.3 percent, a sharp contrast to the 2014 United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) Emissions Gap Report, which recommended a 4.2 percent reduction of GHG emissions over the same time period to keep global temperatures within manageable limits.

In addition to contributions from the Carbon Disclosure Project and the Climate Accountability Institute, self-reported GHG emissions data was gathered from energy sector businesses and combined with estimates pulled from Thomson Reuters ASSET4, a provider of environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) data. ASSET4 gathers standardised, objective, quantitative and qualitative ESG data on more than 4,800 publicly listed companies.”

Knowledgespeak Newsletter 21 May, 2015

National Science Foundation YouTube Channel

“National Science Foundation YouTube Channel

  • https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRuCgmzhczsm89jzPtN2Wuw

    Nearly 13,000 viewers have subscribed to the National Science Foundation’s YouTube channel. It’s not a secret why. These well-produced and often poignant presentations have managed to pack so much into such a small space. Nearly all the videos clock in at less than four minutes. Many of the clips are just two or three minutes long so readers can easily learn about the birth of planets, the details of the tropospheric ozone, and the wonders of biomedical engineering – all within the timespan of a quick coffee break. The hundreds of available videos are broken into categories such as Computer Science, Brain Research, and Education, among others. Whether you are looking for an interesting tidbit to add to your lecture on Geoscience or you are simply curious about conservation efforts in Central Africa, there is much to enjoy here. [CNH]

  • Source:  Scout Report, University of Wisconsin, Mar. 27, 2015, Vol. 21(12)

Climate change myths — addressed by John Cook, Climate Communication Fellow, Australia

Skeptical Science: Getting skeptical about global warming skepticism

  • http://www.skepticalscience.com

    “This website gets serious about addressing climate change skepticism. Using only peer-reviewed research, John Cook, the Climate Communication Fellow at the University of Queensland, Australia, takes the time to seriously consider the doubts that people might have about the state of the earth’s climate. Readers might like to start with the sidebar that addresses the ten most common climate myths, including the idea that the climate has changed before, that warming is due to the sun, that climate change isn’t bad, that there is no scientific consensus, that the earth is actually cooling, and five others. The site also offers a variety of interesting tabs to explore, including an excellent Resources page. [CNH]

  • Source:  The Scout Report, University of Wisconsin, Vol. 21(7), Feb. 20th