Category: News

  • Shake It Off: Earth’s Wobble May Have Ended Ice Age

    The last big ice age ended about 11,000 years ago, and not a moment too soon — it made a lot more of the world livable, at least for humans. But exactly what caused the big thaw isn’t clear, and new research suggests that a wobble in the Earth kicked off a complicated process that…

  • Martian Dust Devil

    A dust devil is a term for a relatively small swirl of air with dust trapped in it so that it is visible. They are normally not very big. A Martian dust devil roughly 12 miles high was captured whirling its way along the Amazonis Planitia region of Northern Mars on March 14. It was…

  • Wind Tops 10 Percent Share of Electricity in Five States

    A new picture is emerging in the U.S. power sector. In 2007, electricity generation from coal peaked, dropping by close to 4 percent annually between 2007 and 2011. Over the same time period, nuclear generation fell slightly, while natural gas-fired electricity grew by some 3 percent annually and hydropower by 7 percent. Meanwhile, wind-generated electricity…

  • Sustainable Seafood Guide: How to Save the Seas with Your Diet

    Maybe you have heard that eating beef is one of the biggest contributors to your carbon footprint, much more so than driving. However, if you are like many of us, you may not have thought about how eating seafood affects the environment. Whether you live by the coast or thousands of miles from the nearest…

  • Melting Arctic Ice May Usher in New Era of Geopolitical Conflict

    Countries of the Far North are set to be the new players in the emerging Arctic frontier. The polar ice cap is melting at much faster rates than previously predicted, and may be completely ice free by the summer of 2040 or sooner. There are vast untapped resources in the Arctic Ocean such as new…

  • The Sounds of Other Worlds

    We have pictures of other worlds but no sounds to date. This is not without trying but failing. In a world first, the sounds of Mars and Venus are revealed as part of a planetarium show in Hampshire this Easter. Despite many years of space exploration, we have no evidence of the sound of other…

  • Ocean Heating over the past hundred years

    In 1872 the HMS Challenger pulled out from Portsmouth, England to begin an unprecedented scientific expedition of the world’s oceans. During its over three year journey the HMS Challenger not only collected thousands of new species and sounded unknown ocean depths, but also took hundreds of temperature readings—data which is now proving invaluable to our…

  • Study Shows Coral Will Survive Warming Climate

    A new study has increased hope that some coral species will be able to survive gradual ocean acidification. According to new research published in the journal, Nature Climate Change, a team of international scientists have identified a specific internal mechanism that could permit some coral species and their symbiotic algae to offset the unfavorable effects…

  • Scientists Clone the Survivors of Dutch Elm Disease

    Dutch elm disease is a terrible affliction that destroyed elm trees throughout North America and Europe. It is a fungal infection that is spread by the elm bark beetle. It is believed to originate from feline feces in Asia. Unequipped to handle the invading pathogen, the disease devastated massive populations of elms, nearly wiping them…

  • Ford Focus EV Team Takes Steps to Avoid Chevy Volt’s Pitfalls

    Undoubtedly sobered by the plight of the Chevy Volt, which recently idled production for five weeks, furloughing 1300 workers in an effort to draw down excess inventory, the Ford Focus EV team has taken a number of innovative steps to avoid a similar plight.