With periods of extreme cold and heavy snowfall guaranteed throughout the winter months, Shriners Children’s Boston wants to remind parents about how to protect children and teens from getting frostbite. 

Numerical weather prediction (NWP) systems use large amounts of observational data gathered daily using satellite-based and ground-based instruments to make forecasts, but maintaining them is costly and time-consuming. Now, researchers from Japan have tested the feasibility of using drones equipped with meteorological sensors to complement NWP systems. The results highlight the potential of using commercial drones in densely populated urban areas and sparse meteorological observation areas, to make NWP data collection more convenient and inexpensive.  

A new study suggests that countries with stronger commitments to protect the natural environment—regardless of national oil dependence or other economic interests—are more likely to see the establishment of counter climate change groups that aim to obstruct climate change action. Jared Furuta and Patricia Bromley of Stanford University, U.S., present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS One on January 22, 2025.

In a paper published in National Science Review, a bottom-up isoprene emission inventory, including both biogenic and combustion sources, was developed and used to model the contributions of isoprene to secondary organic aerosol formation in China. The results show that emissions of isoprene from combustion sources contributed substantially to ambient secondary organic aerosol, particularly during winter.

A new review published in the Journal of Bioresources and Bioproducts highlights the latest advancements in using biomass-based macroporous scaffolds for wound healing. The study, led by Daqian Gao from Yale University, explores sustainable alternatives to traditional polymers, focusing on the potential of biomass materials derived from renewable sources. These materials, which include cellulose, lignin, and starch, offer biodegradability and environmental friendliness while supporting tissue regeneration.

Scientists studying pine trees and juniper shrubs in northern Scandinavia are revealing the weather of the past by looking at tree rings — which can tell us far more than just the trees’ age. ‘Blue’ tree rings, which indicate that the cell walls of that year’s growth never lignified properly, show us when a summer was too cold for the plants to grow. The scientists identified blue rings caused by particularly cold summers in 1877 and 1902, which could potentially have been caused by the eruptions of far-off volcanoes Cotopaxi in Ecuador and Mount Pelée in Martinique.