Month: October 2010

  • Corals Discovered Where None Were Expected

    An area of deep-sea coral reefs has just been discovered off the coast of Israel, the first such reef to be found in what is generally considered a region with sparse sea life. The area stretches over a few miles, roughly 2,297 feet (700 meters) under the ocean surface and some 19 to 26 miles…

  • Climate talks failing to make headway

    The United States said on Wednesday U.N. climate talks were making less progress than hoped because of a rift over poorer nations’ emission goals, and that other avenues might be needed to tackle climate change. Negotiators from 177 governments are meeting this week in the north Chinese city of Tianjin trying to agree on the…

  • Scientists warn of livestock greenhouse gas boom

    Soaring international production of livestock could release enough carbon into the atmosphere by 2050 to single-handedly exceed ‘safe’ levels of climate change, says a study. Scientists combined figures for livestock production in 2000 with Food and Agriculture Organization projections for population growth and meat consumption by 2050. They found that the livestock sector’s emissions alone…

  • Sleep and Diet

    Sleep is sleep. Diet is diet. Then again cutting back on sleep reduces the benefits of dieting, according to a study published October 5, 2010, in the Annals of Internal Medicine. When dieters in the study got a full night’s sleep, they lost the same amount of weight as when they slept less. When dieters…

  • America’s Food Waste Equates to Wasted Energy

    America is certainly the land of plenty. This country has been blessed with an overabundance of natural resources and some of the world’s most fertile agricultural land. However, every year millions of tons of food is wasted. According to a new study published in the journal, Environmental Science & Technology, the amount of food wasted…

  • West Virginia Is a Geothermal Hot Spot

    Researchers have uncovered the largest geothermal hot spot in the eastern United States. According to a unique collaboration between Google and academic geologists, West Virginia sits atop several hot patches of Earth, some as warm as 200˚C and as shallow as 5 kilometers. If engineers are able to tap the heat, the state could become…

  • Obama science advisor wields evidence to undercut climate change deniers

    US President Barack Obama’s science advisor, John Holdren, took on climate change deniers in a comprehensive, data-heavy speech last month at the Kavli Science Forum in Oslo, Norway. Proclaiming that “the earth is getting hotter”, Holden went on to enumerate on the causes of climate change (human impacts) and its overall effect (not good), discussing…

  • Alumina sludge spill in Hungary kills three

    Hungary declared a state of emergency in three western counties on Tuesday due to spill of toxic alumina sludge which has killed three people and injured more than 100 others, the news agency MTI reported. The counties of Veszprem, Gyor-Moson-Sopron and Vas counties were covered by the state of emergency. The disaster began on Monday…

  • The Future of Aviation: Confusion or Sanity

    All industries across the world face the same regulatory maze and misdirection. In some cases it has led to industry leaving and going to China where laws are more permissive, That is not an option for the aviation industry which flies everywhere. All aviation stakeholders, including manufacturers, airlines, airports and navigation service providers, have issued…

  • Ancient Colorado River

    Geologists have found evidence that some 55 million years ago a river as big as the modern Colorado River flowed through Arizona into Utah in the opposite direction from the present-day river. Writing in the October issue of the journal Geology, they have named this ancient northeastward-flowing river the California River, after its inferred source…