Being too overweight is known to be detrimental to one’s health. But for postmenopausal women, keeping the weight down, and not letting it come back up is just as critical. A new study From Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, NC found that gaining weight back AFTER an intentional weight loss is associated with…

Animal fats and margarine consumption in the United States have been largely replaced by palm oil, a plant-based oil that has similar cooking properties, but may not be as environmentally-friendly as commonly believed, argues a researcher in this week’s issue of Nature.

When one examines the roots of a plant, one sees a tangled mess of tendrils. It is well known that plant growth patterns are influenced by a variety of stimuli, gravity being one amongst many. On Earth plant roots exhibit characteristic behaviors called waving and skewing, which were thought to be gravity-dependent events. This is…

Chevrolet Volt owners collectively have driven more than 100 million all-electric miles since the vehicle went on sale two years ago this month. The average Volt owner travels more than 65 percent of the time in pure electric mode as the car was designed – only using the gasoline-powered generator for longer trips. By charging…

Oceanographers at the University of Rhode Island have analyzed long-term data from several anemometers in southern New England and found that average wind speeds have declined by about 15 percent at inland sites while speeds have remained steady at an offshore site.

Like all great cities, Paris has the power to draw in food and resources from all corners of the Earth. And with every meal, this food-lovers’ paradise unwittingly sketches the fate of its countryside and seashores, near and far.

As the UN climate change talks continue in Doha, Qatar, several reports over the past month have highlighted a sombre picture of the Earth’s changing climate, raising alarm bells in particular for the world’s poorest regions. A report from the World Bank launched last month (18 November) warns that the planet “is on track for…

Planets are warmed by their sun. Planets also has their own internal warmth that drives local volcanism and tectonics and helps keep water liquid and not frozen. Scattered around the Milky Way are stars that resemble our own sun—but a new study is finding that any planets orbiting those stars may very well be hotter…

The worst potential scenario for sea level rise around the US coastline this century is more than two meters, says an authoritative report issued today by NOAA’s Climate Program Office. Regardless of how much warming occurs over the next 100 years, sea level rise is not expected to stop in 2100. More than 8 million…

Heavy rainfall and the problems of flooding in towns have never been far from peoples’ minds or the news headlines over the past few weeks. Now scientists say that new research will help to accurately pinpoint which individual streets are most at risk from flooding during severe rainstorms.