Month: August 2012

  • As Susquehanna Nears Sediment Capacity, Chesapeake Bay Likely to Suffer

    The Susquehanna is a mighty river in the northeastern United States which feeds into the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. The river meanders through the Appalachian Mountains of Pennsylvania and into upstate New York. It is the longest river on the American east coast which drains into the Atlantic, and its watershed is the 16th largest…

  • Food shortages could force world into vegetarianism, warn scientists

    Water scarcity’s effect on food production means radical steps will be needed to feed a population expected to reach nine billion by 2050, warns Stockholm International Water Institute.

  • Small or Large Families

    There are many logical (and illogical) reasons to have a large or a small family. Scientists have taken a step closer to solving one of life’s mysteries – why family size generally falls as societies become richer. Evolutionary biologists have long puzzled over this because natural selection is expected to have selected for organisms that…

  • American Meteorological Society confirms Climate Change and Man’s Role

    Weathercasters in the U.S. not only tend to not ever mention climate change, but the majority of them do not even believe it is human-caused, as an article I recently wrote shows. However, that may change. The American Meteorological Society (AMS) released an official position statement on climate change this week which not only said…

  • Methane Under Antarctica Ice

    There is a lot of stored Methane in the environment and numerous natural sources. Well add a sort of new one that may be bigger than previously supposed. A new study demonstrates that old organic matter in sedimentary basins located beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet may have been converted to methane by micro-organisms living under…

  • Study vs. Sleep: Which is more beneficial to your academic success?

    Studying is a key contributor to academic achievement, but after sports practice, then your music lesson, dinner with your family, and homework that is due tomorrow, it’s already 1 am and you are just starting to study for that US History midterm. But you’re exhausted. Should you go to sleep and hope that Roosevelt’s New…

  • Black Hole Bonanza

    A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravity prevents anything, including light, from escaping. There are none to see nearby but their effects are massive when they are found. NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission has led to a bonanza of newfound supermassive black holes and extreme galaxies called hot DOGs, or…

  • Wild Fires and Heat Trapping

    When the Fourmile Canyon Fire erupted west of Boulder in 2010, smoke from the wildfire poured into parts of the city including a site housing scientists from the University of Colorado Boulder’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Being scientists they then scrambled about to test what…

  • More Bad News for Young Smokers: Arterial Damage

    Teen smokers have thicker artery walls, indicating the early development of atherosclerosis, which is a chronic condition that remains asymptomatic for decades. Advanced atherosclerosis can lead to catastrophic events such as the slowing or stopping of blood flow, which then leads to the death of whatever body tissue that artery is feeding. If that artery…

  • Methane Making An Appearance In Pa. Water Supplies

    Mike and Nancy Leighton’s problems began on May 19, just as Mike was settling in to watch the Preakness Stakes. A neighbor in Leroy Township, Pa., called Mike and told him to check the water well located just outside his front door. Typically, there’s between 80 to 100 feet of headspace between the top of…