There are many strange and ordinary lights in the sky. There are the stars, moon, planets and the Aurora Borealis for example. High in the sky, 60 to 65 miles above Earth’s surface, winds rush through a little understood region of Earth’s atmosphere at speeds of 200 to 300 miles per hour. Lower than a…

Coal is one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the world. The good news is that coal’s share of monthly power generation in the U.S. decreased to below 40 percent in November and December 2011, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). The last time coal’s share of total generation fell…

Deciding between the Atkins Diet, Mediterranean diet or a traditional low-fat/high-carbohydrates diet? It really doesn’t make a lot of difference, says a team of Israeli nutrition experts. Your chances of losing weight with any of the three hinges on eating more vegetables and cutting down on sweets than on whether you consume lots of meat…

For the girl next store or the company down the street, sustainability can be a real head scratcher, especially when you factor in busy schedules, limited cash flow, and confusing choices. Further tensions arise when individuals and companies give in to overly formulaic or prescriptive sustainability strategies. What’s right for the single guy in Kentucky…

Hovensa, the U.S. Virgin Islands’ sole oil refinery, was forced to shut down last month due to economic losses, leaving over 2,000 people unemployed. This energy fiasco is devastating the islands’ economy, and showing the vulnerability caused by oil dependency. The once-prominent oil refinery closed February 21, keeping about 100 employees to run the facility…

NASCAR, best known for pushing the speed envelope, has launched a new traffic safety campaign with a sustainable twist. Rather than focusing narrowly on strategies to help drivers to look out for their own lives, the campaign deploys a broad message of taking responsibility for the safety of others. According to a press release launch,…

Solar power works best of course where the sun is brightest. However, another major factor is the capital cost for a solar installation. If your are poor, you cannot get started easily. One of the big opportunities positive climate action has presented the developing world is the chance to leapfrog a generation of energy technology…

The human genome is stored on 23 chromosome pairs and in the small mitochondrial DNA. Twenty-two of the 23 chromosomes belong to autosomal chromosome pairs, while the remaining pair is sex determinative. But that is human, what about one of our close relatives, the gorilla? Researchers announce today that they have completed the genome sequence…

A professional kite surfer and instructor from Poland recently survived two days of drifting in the Red Sea by fighting off sharks with a knife. With just a couple of energy bars and drinks and a small amount of water, the first kitesurfer to cross the Baltic Sea set off from El Gouna in Egypt…

It is true that some of the best lumber comes from Scandinavia. The wood there is strong and highly durable, having to survive the harsh conditions of the northern winter. A new study from the University of Copenhagen has hammered the point home even further. It stated that some Scandinavian evergreens actually survived the spectacularly…