A new study led by Rutgers researchers reports long-term warming and shifts in salinity in the Caribbean Through‑Flow (CTF), a major ocean current that connects the tropics to the North Atlantic. The findings, published in Nature Scientific Reports, suggest that ongoing changes in this region may play a role in influencing broader ocean and climate dynamics. Using more than six decades of oceanographic …
A new study explores a smarter way to make small flying robots—called ornithopters—by mimicking how birds and insects flap their wings. Instead of using motors and gears, the authors designed wings that move using special materials that change shape when electricity is applied. Onur Bilgen, RCEI Affiliate, is a co-author of this study, which appears in the journal Aerospace Science …
In early June, RCEI affiliate Dario Pompili, a professor in the School of Engineering Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the director of the Cyber-Physical Systems Laboratory, and two of his team members, doctoral candidates Zhile Li and Songjun Huang, went to Bonn, Germany to compete as one of 12 finalist teams in the 2025 T Challenge. Sponsored by Deutsche …
Greenwashing—when companies make themselves look more eco-friendly than they really are—is becoming a serious problem as the world tries to tackle climate change. A new study helps people understand when a company is being honest about going green and when it’s just using “green” talk to distract or mislead. The study, published in Ecology and Society and available online here, …
Producing ammonia—a key ingredient in fertilizer and a promising hydrogen energy carrier—traditionally requires lots of energy and fossil fuels. But a new study offers a more efficient, greener method for making ammonia using only nitrogen from the air and water, with help from electricity. Huixin He, RCEI Affiliate, is one of the corresponding authors of this study, published in ACS …
The effects of climate change recently displayed themselves very clearly in New York, as a heatwave struck the Northeast with record breaking temperatures that were only observed to that level many decades ago. Central Park, 99 degrees, reported its highest June 24th temperature in recorded history, and as the scorching heat grew and maintained due to the “heat dome” phenomenon, …
In its ongoing campaign against climate change research, the Trump administration is proposing budget cuts of about 1.8 billion dollars per year from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), taking away 2,000 full time jobs and closing down the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) in Princeton. This laboratory, engaged in its mission since 1955, is a key center of …
A new study reveals that warmer oceans thousands of years ago slowed the growth of an important clam species in the Adriatic Sea—giving us a glimpse into how marine life might react to future climate change. Fiorella Prada, RCEI Affiliate, is a co-author on the study, which was published in the journal Scientific Reports. Read the full study here. The …
As the planet warms, salt is sneaking into the places we least expect it—our rivers. A new study warns that salt contamination of drinking water in tidal rivers is becoming a serious and global problem. Robert Chant, RCEI Affiliate, is a co-author on the study, which was published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters. Read the full study …
Clues as to how an environment changes over time can take many different forms; for a recent multi-university research team composed of professors and students from Rutgers, Arizona State University, and Purdue those forms manifested themselves as tiny seeds and sub-fossil insects as the group took on an investigation of man-made Lake Myosotis in New York’s Edmund Niles Huyck Preserve. …
