Month: February 2011

  • Why Do People Always Overestimate Slope?

    “Holy Crap” is a very common phrase among mountain hikers when confronted by an intimidating slope. After plodding along at a nice five degree incline, a sudden rise in elevation can seem like either a daunting task or an irresistible challenge. I personally like sharp inclines because it means you can get more of the…

  • Serengeti World Heritage Site in Grave Danger as Tanzanian Government Moves Forward With Highway

    Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete directly contradicted his own government’s study by claiming that a planned highway in the Serengeti National Park will not be the environmental disaster conservationists and scientists are claiming it to be.

  • New from BBC Earth: The Albatross: A life in the air

    A bird that lives as long in legends as it does life: The Albatross remains one of most majestic of all of the Antarctic birds. This rather stunning bird can be traced as far back as the time of the first modern mammals, over 50 million years. And with an average life span of 50…

  • Monarch butterfly count bounces back from bad year

    Monarch butterfly colonies in Mexico more than doubled in size this winter after bad storms devastated their numbers a year ago, conservationists said on Monday although the migrating insect remains under threat. Millions of butterflies make a 2,000-mile journey each year from Canada to winter in central Mexico’s warmer weather but the size of that…

  • Arizona Haze and NOx

    Four Corners Power Plant is one of the largest coal-fired generating stations in the United States. The plant is located on Navajo land in Fruitland, New Mexico, about 25 miles west of Farmington. It is located to the west of the Grand Canyon and many other national parks. It was the first mine-mouth generation station…

  • Simple changes in fishing gear can save tens of thousands of endangered marine turtles in the Coral Triangle

    Thousands of endangered marine turtles could be saved in the Coral Triangle region if the fishing industry started using innovative and responsible fishing gear, a WWF analysis shows. Towards the Adoption of Circle Hooks to Reduce Fisheries Bycatch in the Coral Triangle Region makes a strong case for governments, fishing organizations and fisheries to start…

  • Are Anti-oxidants Keeping You Young and Infertile?

    It’s a tale with two endings, a conundrum for consumers of antioxidant-rich foods, drinks and facial products. What has been touted as a natural way to slow the aging process by minimizing cell damage via oxidation may be one culprit in female infertility. So suggests Professor Nava Dekel of the Weizmann Institute of Science in…

  • Earth Warming Unevenly: Tropical Atlantic Sees Weaker Trade Winds and More Rainfall

    Earth’s global temperature has been rising gradually over the last decades, but the warming has not been the same everywhere. Scientists are therefore trying to pin down how the warming has affected regional climates because that is what really matters to people, and to adaptation and mitigation strategies. Their efforts, however, had hit a roadblock…

  • Climate change keenly felt in Alaska’s national parks

    Thawing permafrost is triggering mudslides onto a key road traveled by busloads of sightseers. Tall bushes newly sprouted on the tundra are blocking panoramic views. And glaciers are receding from convenient viewing areas, while their rapid summer melt poses new flood risks. These are just a few of the ways that a rapidly warming climate…

  • Big Changes in Egypt: a wake-up call for Arab science

    The discontent behind recent protests in Egypt carries lessons for how both science and journalism are handled across the Arab world. For most Egyptians protesting vociferously — and ultimately successfully — in Cairo’s Tahrir Square and elsewhere over the past two weeks, the state of the nation’s science will have been far from the top…