EarthScape

Earth’s global temperature has been rising gradually over the last decades, but the warming has not been the same everywhere. Scientists are therefore trying to pin down how the warming has affected regional climates because that is what really matters to people, and to adaptation and mitigation strategies. Their efforts, however, had hit a roadblock…

Thawing permafrost is triggering mudslides onto a key road traveled by busloads of sightseers. Tall bushes newly sprouted on the tundra are blocking panoramic views. And glaciers are receding from convenient viewing areas, while their rapid summer melt poses new flood risks. These are just a few of the ways that a rapidly warming climate…

The discontent behind recent protests in Egypt carries lessons for how both science and journalism are handled across the Arab world. For most Egyptians protesting vociferously — and ultimately successfully — in Cairo’s Tahrir Square and elsewhere over the past two weeks, the state of the nation’s science will have been far from the top…

Flying the nest, as all teenagers know can be one of the most exciting but also nerve-wrecking times of a young persons life. And it’s at this time of year that the Cape Gannet chick goes through exactly that. After approximately three months, they have put on enough weight – making them even heavier than…

A new alloy promises to lessen welders’ risk of breathing toxic fumes on the job. The alloy is a welding “consumable” – the material that melts under the welder’s torch to fill the gap between parts that are being joined. The new nickel alloy consumable is more expensive compared to those already on the market,…

LED lighting is the newest, most efficient form of lighting to hit the markets. It blows away even the most efficient compact fluorescent bulb, and is therefore, a much more expensive option. However, the benefits to the environment from LED’s efficiency come with another environmental cost. A new study from the University of California (UC)…

After months of speculation, the coveted iPhone 4 is now available through Verizon. Market observers believe that Verizon could sell as many as 25 million of these gadgets in 2011 alone, as almost one-third of the company’s subscribers indicate that they will definitely switch to the iPhone this year.

Yesterday the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Justice Department announced that Cemex, Inc., one of the largest producers of Portland cement in the United States, has agreed to pay a $1.4 million penalty for Clean Air Act violations at its cement plant in Fairborn, Ohio. In addition to the penalty, Cemex will…

Fleas, the annoying parasites that are the bane of a dog’s existence, are very interesting creatures. They are tiny and have no wings but amazingly have no problems climbing onto the backs of creatures and sometimes on people’s heads. This is because of their long hind legs that make the flea perfectly suited for jumping.…

Space weather is the concept of changing environmental conditions in near-Earth space. It is distinct from the concept of weather within a planetary atmosphere, and deals with phenomena involving ambient plasma, magnetic fields, radiation and other matter in space. “Space weather” often implicitly means the conditions in near-Earth space within the magnetosphere and ionosphere, but…