There is plenty of sun in deserts and the Sahara is one of the biggest deserts in the world. Europe intends to import its first solar generated electricity from North Africa within the next five years, European Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger said in an interview on Sunday. The European Union is backing projects to turn…

Greening America’s Capitals is a project of the Partnership for Sustainable Communities between EPA, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to help state capitals develop an implementable vision of distinctive, environmentally friendly neighborhoods that incorporate innovative green building and green infrastructure strategies. This program will…

Water is vital for life and how it freezes is very important. For years water (ice) has been known to exist in 15 phases. Subjected to higher pressures and varying temperatures, ice can form in fifteen separate known phases. With care all these types can be recovered at ambient pressure. The types are differentiated by…

Though unseen the ocean floor is a volcanic hot bed where the tectonic plates collide and spread apart. New research reveals that when two parts of the Earth’s crust break apart, this does not always cause massive volcanic eruptions. The study, published today in the journal Nature, explains why some parts of the world saw…

Salt is a very common food ingredient and condiment. Many people enjoy the taste. Many doctors do not like because of the potential threat to health and heart attacks. Salt (good old Sodium Chloride) can mask bitter tastes and make food more palatable. Some people are more sensitive to bitter flavors and then tend to…

It is always nice to lie back and look up into the sky and watch the drifting patterns of clouds. However, some clouds are odder or weirder than others. Some were made by nature and some were made accidentally by the actions of man. As turboprop and jet aircraft climb or descend under certain atmospheric…

When observing the Sun, the most obvious visible features are usually its sunspots, which are well defined surface areas that appear darker than their surroundings because of lower temperatures. Sunspots are regions of intense magnetic activity where convection is inhibited by strong magnetic fields, reducing energy transport from the hot interior to the surface. The…

Biodiversity is starting to be become another buzz word like green products and carbon footprint. Biodiversity is the variation of life forms within a given ecosystem or on the entire Earth. Biodiversity is often used as a measure of the health of biological systems. The biodiversity found on Earth today consists of many millions of…

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. In its waters are abundant marine life but the environment is changing. The shells of young oysters in Chesapeake Bay are not getting as thick as they’ve been in the past, and higher…

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is taking action to end all uses of the insecticide endosulfan in the United States. Endosulfan, which is used on vegetables, fruits, and cotton, can pose unacceptable neurological and reproductive risks to farm workers and wildlife and can persist in the environment. Endosulfan has been used in agriculture around…