Whether a transformer catches fire in a power grid, a species disappears from an ecosystem, or water floods a city street, many systems can absorb a certain amount of disruption. But how badly does a single failure weaken the network?
Eco Resilience Games from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has released the first augmented reality (AR) game focusing on the growing issue of harmful algae blooms. Algae Bloom Dynamics uses AR technology to create a stylized photo-realistic, lake-island aquatic ecosystem where users walk around the immersive habitat to discover information that can help find solutions to the human behaviors and environmental factors that cause harmful algae blooms.
An ongoing project is helping people identify lead and arsenic pollution and enabling a novel approach to sociological research. Abby Kinchy, professor in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, describes her research approach as “ethnographic soil testing” — a novel method for studying how people encounter environmental hazards, reason through exposure risks, and take action to improve the health of their communities.
Faculty from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute served as experts in an exchange of information about developments in the field of sustainable energy, large-scale environmental change, and innovative and interdisciplinary research into energy storage and smart systems in the built environment on a recent visit by two members of the U.S. Congress.
The 2020 wildfires on the West Coast stymied planned research at the University of California Blue Oak Ranch Reserve, but also created a rare chance to catch the first link in the chain that connects fire-derived “black carbon” from a charred hillside with the deep ocean.
The Jefferson Project at Lake George is making real-time water quality and weather data from its unprecedented scientific monitoring and research program available directly to the public through a new digital Data Dashboard at jeffersonproject.live.
In a research project funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), Mariana Figueiro, a professor and the director of the Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, is investigating whether a tailored lighting intervention can lessen the impact of symptoms in older adults living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD).
An unexpected finding published today in Nature Communications challenges a long-held assumption about the origins of oceanic "black carbon," and introduces a tantalizing new mystery: If oceanic black carbon is significantly different from the black carbon found in rivers, where did it come from?
Although concentrations of chemicals and pollutants like salt and nutrients have increased in the deep waters of Lake George, they’re still too low to harm the ecosystem at those depths, according to an analysis of nearly 40 years of data published today in Limnology and Oceanography.
Increased solar radiation penetrating through the damaged ozone layer is interacting with the changing climate, and the consequences are rippling through the Earth’s natural systems, effecting everything from weather to the health and abundance of sea mammals like seals and penguins.