Karla Lant

Officials: Electric Police Hoverbikes Will Soon Patrol Dubai

Police Hoverbikes At the 37th Gitex Technology Week at the Dubai World Trade Centre, the Dubai police force announced that officers will soon be speeding around the city’s skies on electric police hoverbikes. The Star Wars-style, battery-powered…

Re-engineered Immune System Cells Show Early Promise Against HIV

Fighting HIV By refining previous research, scientists are developing a new strategy that could be used to fight HIV. The technique would allow doctors to re-engineer a patient’s own T-cells, which are produced by the immune system to battle the…

REASON Project Puts Water Quality Instrumentation in Dams

Where and how to monitor water quality is always a challenge, particularly in complex aquatic ecosystems. The new REASON Project from a team at Clarkson University is working to demonstrate the utility of using water quality instrumentation in dams…

A Lesson in Persistence: Taking On Cyanobacteria in Florida

As we hear more and more about algal blooms of different kinds across the United States, teams of scientists are working hard to ensure that they don’t become our new normal. One project in Florida is taking a multi-disciplinary approach to the…

Keeping TABS on the Texas Gulf Coast

From extreme weather such as Hurricane Harvey to spills and other accidents, the Gulf Coast of Texas is no stranger to dangerous situations. This is where the data provided by the Texas Automated Buoy System (TABS) comes into the picture. Among the…

Watchful Eyes on One of Maine’s Crown Jewels: Jordan Pond

Formed by a glacier, Jordan Pond is among Maine’s clearest, most beautiful bodies of water. It’s also a critical freshwater resource, and watchful eyes are protecting it. EM spoke with Dr. Rachel Fowler, Friends of Acadia’s aquatic scientist, about…

River Management On a Changing Planet

River management is inherently complex, demanding mastery of constantly dynamic conditions even when the climate is stable. As the climate changes, however, river management will become even more difficult and unpredictable—and old models and…

A Floating Environmental Stewardship Classroom Visits Ohio

This summer a new way to learn about water recreation—and environmental stewardship—paddled into Ohio. With the help of the Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments (TMACOG), the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (US EPA’s) Urban Waters…

Restoring Native Brook Trout in North Carolina

The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission’s Inland Fisheries Division has been working to restore brook trout in the state. Coldwater research coordinator Jacob Rash, who works with the brook trout team technicians on this project, spoke to EM…

Robotic Fish May Reduce Live Fish Testing Near Hydroelectric Plants

Each year in Germany, as many as 450,000 living fish undergo live animal experiments to test how fish-friendly hydroelectric power plants in the country are. The idea is to discover how readily the fish can move through hydroelectric turbine…

Mobile HAB Lab, Citizen Scientists Building Awareness

Dr. Jeanetts Schnars (red shirt) and RSC Lab Technician, Morgan Schnars at Pymatuning State Park’s 1st Annual Onion Festival where the Mobile HAB Lab (MHL) educated 243 visitors. Notice the side of the Mobile HAB Lab is a “selfie station” which…

Handheld Cyanotoxin Detection Technology Prototype

In the battle against harmful algal blooms (HABs), time is important. The need for laboratory equipment and testing is a serious challenge for water managers. This issue caught the eye of Qingshan Wei, an assistant professor of chemical and…

Assessing Cumulative Risk From Water Pollutants

New research from scientists at the Environmental Working Group (EWG) shows that an approach that assesses cumulative risk from water contaminants could save lives. EWG senior scientist Tasha Stoiber spoke with EM about how the team developed the…

Custom ROV Helps Protect Rockfish in Puget Sound

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) scientists are using a customized underwater robotic vehicle (remotely operated vehicle or ROV) called the Saab Seaeye Falcon on a critical conservation study of threatened and imperiled rockfish. Dr.…

Monitoring Wilson Lake All Year Long from Underwater

Since the summer of 2018, Wilson Lake in Maine hosted a data buoy that contains a set of long-term environmental data loggers. The rugged buoy was specially designed for year-round use, monitoring dissolved oxygen and temperature even when it’s…

Government Officials Ignore Health Risks Associated with E. coli in Boulder Creek

Since 2003 harmful bacteria Escherichia coli (E. coli) levels have created a health risk to recreational users in Boulder Creek. Boulder Creek has been designated as an impaired stream and is not meeting an EPA health-based water quality…

New Monitoring Site for Ocean Acidification in American Samoa

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System (PacIOOS) at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, in collaboration with other partners, recently deployed a new ocean acidification (OA)…

Extreme Wave Heights, Ocean Winds Increasing Globally

Around the world, extreme wave heights and ocean winds are increasing. The greatest increase is happening in the Southern Ocean, according to recent research from the University of Melbourne, and Dr. Ian Young corresponded with EM about what inspired…

Measuring Rising Floodwaters with the USGS

All year long the US Geological Survey (USGS) in North Dakota and South Dakota monitors water levels, but during times of flooding, all eyes are on the team. EM spoke to USGS data chief Chris Laveau about the monitoring efforts. “The US Geological…

Tide Gauge Data Reveal Multiple US Meteotsunamis Annually

Say the word “tsunami” and images of tremendous waves engulfing homes or masses of debris might come to mind. Those tsunamis that are triggered by massive landslides and earthquakes are in fact at that scale. But weather can trigger more localized…