It was a scorcher last year. Land and sea temperatures were up to 0.2 °C higher every single month in the second half of 2023, with these warm anomalies continuing into 2024. We know the world is warming, but the sudden heat spike had not been predicted. As NASA climate scientist Gavin Schmidt wrote in Nature recently: “It’s humbling and a bit worrying to admit that no year has confounded climate scientists’ predictive capabilities more than 2023 has.” As Schmidt went on to explain, a spell of record-breaking warmth had been deemed “unlikely” despite 2023 being an El Niño year, where the relat ..read more

As computing power continues to grow, theoretical physicists have been able to do larger and more complicated simulations. Running these models consumes a growing amount of energy, and for the time being, this results in more greenhouse-gas emissions that contribute to climate change. Indeed, doing an intensive supercomputer simulation can result in emissions that are on par with taking a long-haul flight. In this episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast, Alejandro Gaita and Gerliz Gutiérrez  of Spain’s University of Valencia tell Physics World’s Margaret Harris how the physics communi ..read more

Growth prospects Rare-earth permanent magnets are vital for the “green economy”, but with more than 99% scrapped, the potential market for HyProMag’s recycled magnets stretches from wind turbines and computer hard drives to motors in electric cars. (Courtesy (from left): Shutterstock/pedrosala; iStock/madsci; iStock/Aranga87) I recently went on a trade mission to Canada funded by Innovate UK, where I met Allan Walton – a materials scientist who co-founded a company called HyProMag. Spun off from the University of Birmingham in 2018, HyProMag has developed a technique for recycling rare-earth m ..read more

The book Limits to Growth delivered a clear warning for our planet. Published way back in 1972 by Universe Books, it contained 12 scenarios for the world based on simulations carried out two years earlier by a group of scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US. Despite selling millions of copies and being translated into 30 languages, the book was heavily criticized by industry leaders and economists for being unrealistic. Their reaction was surprising given that the “do nothing” MIT simulation scenario – “business as usual” – envisaged global collapse through a d ..read more

The collapse of the main ocean current that keeps Europe warmer than other regions at similar latitudes is a real possibility, say researchers at Utrecht University in the Netherlands – though they remain unsure when it might happen. The researchers based their conclusions on a modern complex physics-based climate model that incorporates the gradual melting of ice sheets, and they say that the collapse, when it occurs, could have far-reaching consequences not only for Europe, but for the southern hemisphere, where temperatures could rise without the current’s heat-distributing effects. Led by ..read more

Jellyfish have a very simple, yet very effective way of swimming – and this has attracted the attention of the aeronautics engineer John Dabiri at the California Institute of Technology. In this episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast, Dabiri talks about his work on the artificial enhancement of jellyfish. He also explains how fluid dynamics can be used to boost the efficiency of windfarms, and explores the possibility that swimming organisms play important role in the mixing of the oceans. Dabiri and Caltech’s Simon Anuszczyk describe their bionic jellyfish in a paper that has been accept ..read more

The Duke of Edinburgh visited the headquarters of the Institute of Physics (IOP) in London yesterday to hear about the role that physicists are playing in supporting the “green economy”. The event included members of the IOP and representatives of some of the UK’s leading physics-based businesses and organizations, who showcased their role in making energy generation and industry more sustainable. Tom Grinyer, group chief executive of the IOP, said afterwards it had been “fantastic to speak to his Royal Highness about the role physics and physicists are having in the green transition and the w ..read more

Hydrogen can be used as a carbon-free source of energy in a wide range of applications including home heating, transportation and industry. However, there are significant challenges that must be overcome to ensure the safe and efficient storage and transportation of the gas. In this episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast, the materials expert Krzysztof Koziol explains why he is developing graphene-based materials and polymers to facilitate a hydrogen economy. Based at the UK’s Cranfield University, he chats about how existing national infrastructure for distributing natural gas can be ret ..read more

Geologists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US have discovered a connection between two important theories of Earth’s long-term climate history. The first is that exposure of fast-weathering rocks called ophiolites correlates with the climate getting colder. The second is that as mountains erode into the sea, carbon becomes buried under the water. Both phenomena can cause large-scale cooling, and the MIT team’s findings suggest that the combination not only triggered the four major ice ages in Earth’s history, it is also continuing to cool the planet today, providing a ..read more

The electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2R) is a strategic approach aimed at completing the carbon cycle for chemical production. Traditionally, this field has predominantly focused on conducting electrolysis on CO2 under standard atmospheric pressure. However, in industrial applications, CO2 is typically pressurized during its capture, transportation, and storage, often existing in a dissolved state. A significant discovery has been unveiled: subjecting aqueous CO2 to a pressure of 50 bar alters the CO2R pathways, favouring the formation of formate. This phenomenon ..read more