Spire: the Maine Journal of Conservation and Sustainability invites submissions for the fifth issue of the online journal planned for spring 2021. Issue 4, released in April 2020, is online. Editor Clinton Spaulding, a University of Maine communication and media ecology doctoral student, says the editorial staff seeks to include voices from a diverse range […]
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University of Maine toxicologist Julie Gosse spent a decade unearthing the medical harm posed by the germ-fighting agent triclosan (TCS). Manufacturers had included the synthetic chemical in soap, toothpaste, facial cleansers, sanitizer and other common products since the 1970s, when no research delved into its health and toxicological effects. Products containing the antimicrobial agent filled […]
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“Forever chemicals” used in water-repellant outdoor gear have been found in snow from the top of Mount Everest. Kimberley Miner says these human-made per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) — which have been linked to birth defects, high cholesterol and increased risk of kidney and testicular cancer — could eventually pose a risk for trekkers, climbers […]
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Paul Mayewski and Mariusz Potocki are included in the Eos story “An Ice Core from the Roof of the World” about the 2019 National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Everest Expedition. Mayewski, director of the Climate Change Institute, was the expedition leader and lead scientist. Potocki, a Ph.D. candidate, collected the highest ice core in […]
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Four University of Maine graduate students will help communities that rely on natural resources for recreation and tourism prepare for the ramifications of climate change. The team will provide stakeholder municipalities data to help them adapt to the changing climate and assist them with developing climate adaptation frameworks using ‘scenario planning’— a method of forecasting […]
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Daniel Regan, a Ph.D. candidate in the Graduate School of Biomedical Science and Engineering (GSBSE), is conducting research focused on the development of platforms for the detection and deterrence of biological threats. A year into his work in assistant professor Caitlin Howell’s Biointerface and Biomimetics Lab, Regan had an idea for a new type of […]
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The Maine Climate Council released its four-year plan for climate action Tuesday, the same day 60-mph wind gusts were battering the state. As Council member Ivan Fernandez remarked during the public release of the report that the five hottest years in Earth’s recorded history were the last five, the temperature in a number of communities […]
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A gene known for helping facilitate communication between neurons in the nervous system has been discovered to be connected with Alzheimer’s dementia and cognitive decline, according to a national research team led by The Jackson Laboratory and University of Maine. Catherine Kaczorowski, associate professor and Evnin family chair in Alzheimer’s research at The Jackson Laboratory […]
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Kimberley Miner co-wrote the opinion piece “Deep Frozen Arctic Microbes Are Waking Up” in Scientific American. The assistant professor at the Climate Change Institute writes that in Siberia and northern Canada, the abrupt thaw has created sunken landforms, or thermokarst — where the oldest and deepest permafrost is exposed to the warm air for the […]
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New findings from the most comprehensive scientific expedition to Mount Everest in history are in today’s interdisciplinary scientific journal One Earth. The collection of research papers and commentaries about Mount Everest, known locally as Sagarmatha and Chomolangma, identifies critical information about the Earth’s highest-mountain glaciers and the impacts they’re experiencing due to climate change. As […]
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