Month: May 2013

  • Bright Clouds with Added Pollution

    University of Manchester scientists, writing in the journal Nature Geoscience, have shown that some natural emissions and man made pollutants can have an unexpected cooling effect on the world’s climate by making clouds brighter. Clouds are made of water droplets, condensed on to tiny particles suspended in the air. When the air is humid enough,…

  • The world’s largest ‘waste dump’ is found in the Pacific Ocean

    If you were to travel from the United States of America to Japan, you would most likely encounter what could be described as the world’s largest waste dump: a 100,000 tonne expanse of debris floating around a large region of the Pacific Ocean. The total area of this phenomenon has been said to equal the…

  • Unconventional swine: how invasive pigs are helping preserve biodiversity in the Pantanal

    Ordinarily, invasive and exotic species are a grave threat to native wildlife: outcompeting local species, introducing parasites and disease, and disturbing local ecological regimes. A unique case in the Brazilian Pantanal, however, has turned the tables; here, an introduced mammal has actually aided the conservation of native wildlife. The impact of feral pigs (Sus scrofa)…

  • Gulf Killifish Affected by 2010 Oil Spill

    The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico happened over three years ago, but according to scientists, crude oil toxicity still continues to sicken a sentinel Gulf Coast fish species. Researchers from the University of California, Davis, teamed up with researchers from Louisiana and South Carolina to find that Gulf killifish embryos exposed…

  • Summer is coming, be aware of chemical hazards to children

    Hydrocarbons, a chemical compound commonly found in household items from cleaning products to gasoline, are among the top 10 causes of pediatric poisoning deaths in the United States. A new study by researchers at the Central Ohio Poison Center and the Center for Injury Research and Policy, both at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, found these injuries…

  • Robot Flies

    Science often imitates life. Insects are common in the world. Tiny critters crawling and flying about. Now we are genuinely making them. In the very early hours of the morning, in a Harvard robotics laboratory last summer, an insect took flight. Half the size of a paperclip, weighing less than a tenth of a gram,…

  • Is it possible to reduce the impact of oil drilling in the Amazon rainforest?

    Oil extraction in the Amazon rainforest has been linked to severe environmental degradation — including deforestation and pollution — which in some areas has spurred violent social conflict. Yet a vast extent of the Colombian, Peruvian, Ecuadorian, Bolivian, and Brazilian Amazon is currently under concession for oil and gas exploration and production — hundreds of…

  • The Human Brain Rivals Google Maps

    Have you ever wondered how you remember how to get to places you have only gone to once? How does the brain generate a map of your route that allows you to retrace your steps another time, perhaps weeks or months in the future? Using virtual reality, neurophysicists determine how environmental stimuli and brain rhythms…

  • Concerns grow over effects of solar geoengineering

    The latest studies on solar geoengineering to tackle climate change are reinforcing the case for a global governance system and further study before deployment, as they show that the approach may have little effect on preventing rainfall changes in the tropics — and may even lead to widespread drought in Africa. Several geoengineering initiatives plan…

  • Atlantic Cup Race Now Carbon-Neutral

    The 2013 Atlantic Cup presented by 11th Hour Racing has announced its final plans and competition field for the third annual running of the premier Class 40 sailing event in the country. The event will feature seven boats; six from the USA and one from Great Britain, with race organizers once again making a strong…