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How green is your research? These scientists are cutting their carbon footprints

As the effects of climate change grow, scientists from fields spanning astronomy to biology are trying to decarbonize their research.
  1. Myriam Vidal Valero
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Michael Inouye, a computational biologist at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute in Melbourne, Australia, has always worried about the carbon emissions that his research was generating. But it was the unprecedented wildfires in Australia in 2019 and 2020, which were made more likely by climate change and shut down his laboratory, that pushed him to take action. In 2020, he began collaborating with two PhD students to measure the carbon emissions of their computational research. The project created Green Algorithms, a free online calculator that allows users to estimate the carbon footprint of their research projects, in a bid to ultimately reduce emissions.

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Nature 616, 16-17 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00837-0

References

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