The satellite Envisat surprised a bench-shaped plankton growing, twisting and Sea of North off the coast of Scandinavia. Norway (left) and Sweden (right), part of the Scandinavian peninsula, are visible at the top of the image, while Denmark appears in the bottom right.
The plankton, which form the most abundant life in the oceans, is composed mainly of microscopic marine plants that drift on the surface of the sea or near it. The plankton was nicknamed “the grass of the sea” because it is the staple food on which all other forms of marine life.
As the plankton contain chlorophyll pigments for photosynthesis, these simple organisms also play a role similar to that of terrestrial green plants in the process of photosynthesis.
Plankton is capable of transforming inorganic compounds such as water, nitrogen and carbon in material organic complex. This ability to digest these compounds, it is estimated that the plankton contributes as much as terrestrial vegetation to extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
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A research team of Analytical Chemistry, University of Santiago (USC) led by Professor Maria Isabel Basadre Pampin, shows the possible occupational hazards of chemicals that exist in the Chemistry Department, in order to prevent the future . Currently, the studio is a new phase of hazard assessment by departments.
Chemical risk prevention seeks to eliminate the severity of the adverse effects of chemicals and the processes involved. So far, the work already delved into the situation of the Departments of Analytical Chemistry,
Organic, Inorganic and Physical Chemistry getting remove many of the risks identified.
In the evaluation, researchers follow a methodology that consists in explaining the risk, the Department places where it is located, associated regulations, survey involved and consequently to take measures to eliminate or reduce them, taking into account parameters such as the probability of damage and the severity of it.
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Germany is still searching for underground sites to store for thousands of years the high-level waste (HLW) of nuclear power plants. It is the time required for radioactive substances disintegrate and emit more radiation in the surrounding rocks. Through a partnership of research chemists at the University of the Saarland analyze how the rocks are transformed under the action of radioactive substances and the consequences of a possible infiltration of water into a storage site final nuclear waste.
The Federal Ministry of Economics (BMWi), which has provided support totaling 695,000 euros so far, has extended the research of Saarbrucken until 2011.
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Chemical risk prevention seeks to eliminate the severity of the adverse effects of chemicals and the processes involved. So far, the work already delved into the situation of the Departments of Analytical Chemistry, Organic, Inorganic and Physical Chemistry getting remove many of the risks identified.