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Coal

Coal is a fossil fuel extracted from the ground by underground mining or open-pit mining (strip mining).

Note: The above text is excerpted from the Wikipedia article "Coal", which has been released under the GNU Free Documentation License.

For more information, see the following related content on ScienceDaily:

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Shallow-Water Mining Is Not a Sustainable Alternative to Deep-Water Mining, Scientists Argue

Sep. 13, 2022 — Shallow-water mining projects are already underway in Namibia and Indonesia, and projects have been proposed in Mexico, New Zealand, and Sweden, but the effects of these projects haven't been ...

Mining Precious Rare-Earth Elements from Coal Fly Ash With a Reusable Ionic Liquid

June 23, 2021 — Rare-earth elements are in many everyday products, such as smart phones, LED lights and batteries. However, only a few locations have large enough deposits worth mining, resulting in global supply ...

Bitcoin Mining Has 'Very Worrying' Impacts on Land and Water, Not Only Carbon

Oct. 24, 2023 — As bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have grown in market share, they've been criticized for their heavy carbon footprint: Cryptocurrency mining is an energy-intensive endeavor. Mining has ...

The Next 20 Are Years Crucial in Determining the Future of Coal

June 8, 2021 — Decisions made now will determine whether economies win or lose money as the coal industry changes over the next couple of ...

Bitcoin Mining Is Environmentally Unsustainable, Researchers Find

Sep. 29, 2022 — Taken as a share of the market price, the climate change impacts of mining the digital cryptocurrency Bitcoin is more comparable to the impacts of extracting and refining crude oil than mining gold, ...

New Study Reveals the Power of Railroads to Buffer Coal Plants from a Carbon Emissions Tax

Sep. 7, 2023 — A new study suggests that railroads are likely to cut transportation prices to prop up coal-fired plants if U.S. climate policies further disadvantage coal in favor of less carbon-intensive energy ...

Hydrogen Battery: Storing Hydrogen in Coal May Help Power Clean Energy Economy

May 26, 2023 — The quest to develop hydrogen as a clean energy source that could curb our dependence on fossil fuels may lead to an unexpected place -- coal. Scientists have found that coal may represent a ...

What Is Causing the Rise in Black Lung Disease?

Apr. 12, 2022 — Silica exposure is a driving force behind rising rates of coal workers' pneumoconiosis, according to a new study that compared the pathology and mineralogy of the disease across generations. The ...

Fair and Sustainable Futures Beyond Mining

Oct. 2, 2023 — Mining brings huge social and environmental change to communities: landscapes, livelihoods and the social fabric evolve alongside the industry. But what happens when the mines close? What problems ...

A Single Bitcoin Transaction Could Cost as Much Water as a Backyard Swimming Pool

Nov. 29, 2023 — Cryptocurrency mining uses a significant amount of water amid the global water crisis, and its water demand may grow further. Researchers provides the first comprehensive estimate of Bitcoin's ...

Matter & Energy News

December 9, 2023

Ancient Stars Made Extraordinarily Heavy Elements

Dec. 7, 2023 — How heavy can an element be? An international team of researchers has found that ancient stars were capable of producing elements with atomic masses greater than 260, heavier than any element on the periodic table found naturally on Earth. The ...

Printed Robots With Bones, Ligaments, and Tendons

Nov. 15, 2023 — For the first time, researchers have succeeded in printing a robotic hand with bones, ligaments and tendons made of different polymers using a new laser scanning technique. The new technology makes it possible to 3D print special plastics with ...

'Cooling Glass' Blasts Building Heat Into Space

Nov. 13, 2023 — Researchers aiming to combat rising global temperatures have developed a new 'cooling glass' that can turn down the heat indoors without electricity by drawing on the cold depths of space. The new technology, a microporous glass coating, can lower ...

Photonics Team Develops High-Performance Ultrafast Lasers That Fit on a Fingertip

Nov. 9, 2023 — Scientists demonstrate a novel approach for creating high-performance ultrafast lasers on nanophotonic chips. The new advance will enable pocket-sized devices that can perform detailed GPS-free ...

Latest Headlines

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Conjoined 'Racetracks' Make New Optical Device Possible

Dec. 8, 2023 — Kerry Vahala and collaborators from UC Santa Barbara have found a unique solution to an optics ...

Hybrid Device Significantly Improves Existing, Ubiquitous Laser Technology

Dec. 8, 2023 — Researchers have developed a chip-scale laser source that enhances the performance of semiconductor lasers while enabling the generation of shorter wavelengths. This pioneering work represents a ...

Engineers Design a Robotic Replica of the Heart's Right Chamber

Dec. 8, 2023 — Engineers developed a robotic replica of the heart's right ventricle, which mimics the beating and blood-pumping action of live hearts. The device could be used for studying right ventricle disorders ...

A Fork in the 'Rhod': Researchers Unveil Comprehensive Collection of Rhodamine-Based Fluorescent Dyes

Dec. 8, 2023 — After more than a decade of developing fluorescent probes, a research team has now released the culmination of their years of work: A comprehensive ...

Veins of Bacteria Could Form a Self-Healing System for Concrete Infrastructure

Dec. 8, 2023 — In hopes of producing concrete structures that can repair their cracks, researchers are putting a new twist on an old trick for improving the ...

Immersive VR Goggles for Mice Unlock New Potential for Brain Science

Dec. 8, 2023 — New miniature virtual reality (VR) goggles provide more immersive experiences for mice living in laboratory settings. By more faithfully simulating natural environments, the researchers can more ...

Revealing the Landscape of Software as a Medical Device Industry

Dec. 7, 2023 — There has been a surge in academic and business interest in software as a medical device (SaMD). It enables medical professionals to streamline existing medical practices and make innovative medical ...

Using Machine Learning to Monitor Driver 'Workload' Could Help Improve Road Safety

Dec. 7, 2023 — Researchers have developed an adaptable algorithm that could improve road safety by predicting when drivers are able to safely interact with ...

Magnetization by Laser Pulse

Dec. 7, 2023 — To magnetize an iron nail, one simply has to stroke its surface several times with a bar magnet. Yet, there is a much more unusual method: A team has discovered some time ago that a certain iron ...

Polaritons Open Up a New Lane on the Semiconductor Highway

Dec. 7, 2023 — On the highway of heat transfer, thermal energy is moved by way of quantum particles called phonons. But at the nanoscale of today's most cutting-edge semiconductors, those phonons don't remove ...