Tag archives for science
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On our radar today: 1) People need to learn to farm to live on Mars; 2) A Japanese reactor lies on an active fault line; 3) Shocks to the brain may improve your math skills, and…
Carbon Dioxide Milestone Revised by NOAA
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on May 16, 2013 The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced last week that carbon dioxide concentrations at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii surpassed the milestone 400 parts per million for a sustained period. NOAA has since revised the figure—on the basis of computer analysis—saying its May 9 readings actually remained fractions of a point below the historic level, coming in at…
Posted by The top 10 stories on our radar today: Scientists have created stem cells from cloned human embryos, 1.5-billion-year-old water has been found in a deep Canadian mine, and…
The top 10 stories on our radar today: The citizens of a small town in Alaska have become America’s first refugees displaced by climate change, a new species of pit viper has been discovered in Honduras, and…
The top 10 headlines on our radar today: A new planet has been discovered thanks to Einstein’s relativity theory, new research suggests that humans’ middle ear bones evolved early, and…
The top 10 stories on our radar today: Researchers have pinpointed the bacteria responsible for mass deaths in the 6th century, the UN suggests people should eat more bugs, and…
The top 10 headlines on our radar today: Astronauts are dealing with a dangerous leak on the International Space Station, stunning timelapses of Earth show how the planet has changed in the last few decades, and…
Arctic Experiencing More Than Just Melt
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on May 9, 2013 Carbon dioxide emissions are soaking into Arctic waters and affecting the chemistry of the ocean, a new report by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program shows. Increasing carbon dioxide emissions and freshwater runoff challenge the ocean’s ability to neutralize acidification—an imbalance caused by absorption of the greenhouse gas from the air. The study said the Arctic’s cold water makes it more vulnerable to…
The top 10 stories on our radar today: Scientists discover that a moth has the best hearing in the animal kingdom, geologists study the mystery behind Earth’s ‘eternal flames,’ and…
The top 10 news stories on our radar today: A new dome-skulled dinosaur has been found in Canada, scientists have discovered what’s been dubbed a potential “Brazilian Atlantis,” and…
The top 10 news stories on our radar today: A volcano in the Philippines has erupted and taken the lives of at least five people, NASA telescopes caught a glimpse of the most powerful star explosion ever seen, and…
The top 10 new stories on our radar today: Small eruptions have been detected at a volcano in Alaska, moles in the UK are helping archaeologists dig up ancient Roman artifacts, and…
The top 10 headlines on our radar today: Scientists are developing a spacecraft that will propel towards the sun, a lunar real estate agent has already sold a chunk of land on the moon, and…
U.S. Oil Reserves Higher Than Previously Thought
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on May 2, 2013 According to a new U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) assessment, two formations in the central United States hold three times the amount of natural gas and two times the amount of oil than the federal government previously estimated. Concentrated in the Dakotas and Montana, the Bakken and Three Forks formations are expected to hold 7.4 billion barrels of recoverable oil and…
The top 10 stories on our radar today: Archaeologists find evidence of cannibalism at historic Jamestown, zombie worms munch on whale bones, and…
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National Geographic Channel has been running a number of programs on drugs and addictions, including the show Drugged (see 10 tips for recovering from addictions). Addiction is a strange beast that has devastated millions of people and families around the world. It’s also in the news a lot, from allegations of sex addict stars to the…
On National Geographic’s radar today: Scientists create world’s first glow-in-the-dark sheep, a newly developed skin may allow robots to feel, and…
We’ve written about artificial intelligence (AI) a fair amount in the past, from IBM’s Watson supercomputer, to AI-controlled space probes, and swarm theory. As futurist Ray Kurzweil pointed out in his book The Singularity Is Near, the public has a number of misconceptions about AI. Kurzweil argues that AI is proceeding much faster than people…
On our radar today: Predatory reef fish use sign language to communicate with fellow hunters, researchers have mapped the H7N9 avian flu outbreak’s current locations and its potential spread, and…
On our radar today: 1) Scientists discover a pair of Earth-like planets; 2) Hurricane Sandy shook more than just the East Coast; 3) A telescope in Chile sees more in an hour than older telescopes see in decades, and…
On our radar today: A ‘living fossil’ fish gets its genome sequenced, x-rays show remnants of an ancient supernova, and…
On our radar today: The Mars One organization is looking for astronauts and it could be you, 70 years later and the hunt is on to bring the last Nazis to justice, and…
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This battery-powered rover has all the toughness of an abominable snowman, surveying undetected hazards at scientific-research sites in Greenland and Antarctica.
On our radar today: The tragedy in Boston joins a number of other attacks on sporting events throughout history; a 7.8 magnitude quake rocks Iran, and…
On our radar today: The Supreme Court will debate whether we can—or should—patent genes; enormous, slimy snails are invading Florida; a lab-grown kidney has been successfully implanted into live animals; and…
