To view this protected post, enter the password below ..read more

Children pave the way to the future, but the parents need support. [credit: Suzi Kim at Unsplash.com] Trying to juggle teaching, advising, publishing, finding a new (or permanent) job, relocating, attending conferences, and actually doing research sometimes requires more hours in the day than exist (oh and that global pandemic situation is sticking around). Additionally, many scientists have children or are starting a family at the same time as maintaining and building a career. In this week’s blog post, we asked 15 scientists about their experience of parenting whilst maintaining a career i ..read more

Face masks have been widely advocated to mitigate the airborne transmission of viruses including the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (e.g., Lelieveld et al., 2020). They can reduce the emission and spread of respiratory viruses through airborne droplets and aerosols as well as the inhalation of airborne viruses. The effectiveness of masks, however, is still under debate. The high penetration rates (around ~30-70%) of surgical and similar masks means that the wearer may still emit and inhale a large number of particles, and even FFP2/N95 respirators cannot prevent p ..read more

To view this protected post, enter the password below ..read more

The number of women in science and academia drops with each career step in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM fields). This systematic under-representation of women towards the top of the academic career path is called the “leaky pipeline”. In Germany about 50% of the students in mathematics and natural sciences are women, but there are only 20% of female professors. Therefore, the STEM fields lack the richness of diversified population. This has significant consequences on the research system. Diverse workplaces have been shown to be more productive, more inn ..read more

In February 2021, two major Saharan dust events hit Europe. Because of the prevailing weather conditions in the first and last week of February, several million tons of Saharan dust blanketed the skies from the Mediterranean Sea all the way to Scandinavia. The sandy sky was observed almost everywhere in Europe (Fig. 1). Moreover, the stained cars and windows indicated the dust deposition (Fig. 2 – left panel). Environmental agencies also reported low air quality associated with these events (Fig. 2 – right panel). However, the story does not end with the degradation of visibility and air quali ..read more

As of 19 February 2021, the US officially re-joined the Paris Climate Agreement, a landmark international accord to limit global warming by 2°C (and ideally to 1.5°C) compared to pre-industrial levels. The Paris Climate Agreement aims to bring the world together to avoid catastrophic warming that will impact us all and to build resilience to the consequences of climate change that we are already starting to see. Philipp Pattberg, a professor of transnational environmental governance and policy at IVM, VU University Amsterdam, explained the significance of Biden signing an executive order to re ..read more

The last three decades were the warmest in the history of meteorological observations in Europe. Temperature rise is accompanied by an increase in the frequency and magnitude of extreme weather and climatic events, which are the main risks for population and environment associated with modern climate change. An important class of such phenomena includes severe rainfall, tornadoes, squalls, and thunderstorms. Given that extreme weather is expected to be the “new norm” in our rapidly changing climate, developing a forecast capability for extremes may end up becoming part of the standard predicti ..read more

To view this protected post, enter the password below ..read more

The genesis of the idea to explore the influence of papers on shaping the field of tropospheric chemistry came when editing a textbook chapter I had written a decade earlier.  As I edited it I thought, what really is new; text-book worthy over the last 10 years?  In some senses what is text-book worthy?    These type of questions inspired me to think about where atmospheric chemistry has got to as a subject and to wonder if one where to ask “Which published papers have transformed our understanding of the chemical processes in the troposphere, and shaped the field of a ..read more