Scientists have discovered a reliable way to extract renewable energy from ordinary seawater. The research team, from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne’s Laboratory of Nanoscale Biology in Switzerland, employed a natural process called osmosis, where a fluid permeates through a membrane from one side to another.
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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has announced that June of 2016 was the hottest month of June on record for the contiguous United States, since temperature records began in 1880. The average temperature seen in the Lower 48 over the month was 71.6ºF (22.1ºC), a full 3.3ºF (1.83ºC) above the 20th century average, and breaking the previous record of 71.6ºF (22.0ºC), set in 1933.
Alaska followed the continuing trend of northern regions seeing the largest gains, seeing an average temperature of a whopping 9ºF (5.0ºC) above average, handily beating the 1981 record of 6.5ºF (3.6ºC) over average.
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A international group of scientists have proposed that humankind’s impact on the planet has been profound enough, with enough manmade materials deposited in the geological record, to re-define our current era as one shaped by humanity. The proposed name for this new epoch is "the Anthropocene".
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