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By Nina Chestney LONDON (Reuters) - The world is close to reaching tipping points that will make it irreversibly hotter, making this decade critical in efforts to contain global warming, scientists warned on Monday. Scientific estimates differ but the world's temperature looks set to rise by six degrees Celsius by 2100 if greenhouse gas emissions are allowed to rise uncontrollably. As emissions grow, scientists say the world is close to reaching thresholds beyond which the effects on the global climate will be irreversible, such as the melting of polar ice sheets and loss of rainforests

(PhysOrg.com) -- A wide range of phenomena depend on ice – specifically, phase transitions during ice crystal surface melting. In this transition, which occurs near the melting point, the ice surface morphs into what is known as a quasi-liquid layer (QLL) – a thin layer of ice grains where the water molecules are not in rigid solid structure, yet not in the random order of liquid.

As workers race to stave off further melting at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors in Japan , several robots there are waiting on the sidelines for an opportunity to help. Questions remain, however, regarding how these units might assist in an ongoing emergency at a site contaminated with radiation and deluged with tons of corrosive seawater . [More]