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The saddening story of global warming continues in 2016 like it did in 2015. According to NASA, this January was the warmest January on record, in more than 150 years.
This Friday, the tiny island nation of Fiji put up a big flag on the map by becoming the first country in the world to ratify the UN climate deal put together last December at the Paris COP21.
Following ISIS's attack and destruction of the oldest Christian monastery in Iraq, Italy and the United Nations have joined forces to protect cultural heritage sites in conflict zones.
Mantis shrimp are probably best known for the dazzling colors that adorn their shells. The second thing they're best known for is their tendency to violently murder anything they come into contact with.
Between 2,500 and 4,000 so-called 'extremists' have been killed by drone strikes and kill squads in Pakistan since 2004. Maybe as early as 2007, the NSA has targeted terrorists based on metadata supplied by machine learning program named Skynet. I have no idea who would find naming Skynet a machine designed to list people for assassination a bright idea, but that's besides the point. The real point is that the inner workings of this software, as revealed in part by Edward Snowden from his leaks, suggest that the program might be targeting innocent people.
Today, sea levels rise at a rate double that recorded in the 20th century. That's a lot, but not nearly as much as climate scientists expected. Researchers at NASA claim they now know why: thirsty continents absorb a great deal of the extra water coming from melting glaciers. They warn, however, that the system will become saturated at one point and the water will be returned to the oceans, as part of the global water cycle.
A Nebraskan entrepreneur brought his own take on greenhouses, creating one that's powered by green, geothermal energy.
To find its way home to the nest, a wasp will leave its own visual 'breadcrumps'. The wasp will ever so often fly backwards to see its environment as if it were traveling to the nest, and use this information later to make its way safely back.
The day has come and passed, but the impact could be felt for a long time; that thrilling date, the memories created and the carbon emissions will linger long after Valentine’s day has passed. According to a survey by the National Retail Federation, 36 percent of Americans (58% men; 16% women) will buy flowers for […]
One landmark study suggests that the tundras are shifting their role as a result of climate change turning into carbon sources, with a net positive release of carbon into the atmosphere.
Almost 50% of all new wind turbines in 2015 were built in China. Considering that, it’s no surprise that the country has become the biggest producer of wind energy. But China is showing that its determination in greening its economy is real and it’s not slowing down. According to statistics released by the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) on […]
While around 97% of active climate change researchers (the most qualified) agree that global warming is real and caused by humans, the same can't be said about the general populace. One study surveyed 1,500 middle school and high school teachers across all 50 states and found only 67 percent agreed that "global warming is caused mostly by human activities," which is strikingly similar to how the average American feels. You'd think school teachers should know better, though.
Wisdom, the 65-year old albatross from the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands is breaking record after record.
When Fukushima’s nuclear accident unfolded, people fled the area without looking back. But one man realized that humans aren’t the only victims of the tragedy. Naoto Matsumura went back to Fukushima’s 12.5-mile exclusion zone to care for the abandoned animals. In 2011, one of the biggest earthquakes in recorded history struck Japan. The 9.1 temblor took even […]
The 160-megawatt concentrated-solar already has 100,000 mirrors in place, focusing sunlight to create steam and generate clean energy.
A team of researchers performed the most extensive study of howling made by canid species. This includes wolves, jackals and familiar domesticated dogs. The findings suggest that each species and subspecies has its distinct vocal fingerprint, with a specific pitch, fluctuation and timbre.
In the wake of calamities like hurricanes or tornadoes, you'll find trees leveled to the ground. But observations suggest that all trees seem to break at the same wind speed, with parameters like the type of tree, height or diameter barely affecting the outcome.
A new study analyzes how much Arctic ice can melt before its grounded portion also starts sliding into the ocean.
A period of significant cooling from 536 to 660 AD brought forth massive societal changes in Europe and Asia, a new study found. The cooling, caused by volcanic activity, coincided with a massive plague, the decline of the Byzantine Empire and the spread of Slavic and Arabic people. It is well known that volcanic activity can […]
The transplant community has established a new committee to address the recent Zika virus outbreak, and protect organ transplant patients from the potential dangers of the virus.
CO2 interferes with neuroreceptors in the brain of fish, causing them to behave as if drunk. By 2100, fish in half of the world's water might be intoxicated in this way.
A few months after it was proposed, the law was approved in December and it's now official.
These bizarre creatures are called Xenoturbella, and can be found at the bottom of the ocean. For years scientists have being trying to figure out which proverbial foot these fit in. Now, it seems like their place in the tree of life has been established. Not surprisingly, these are found near the base of the tree of bilaterally symmetrical animals. A fancy way of saying one half matches the other half. That's at least one thing these deep-sea sock creatures have in common with humans.
Some 50 million years ago, the world was in dire straits. Atmospheric CO2 levels were at over 1000 ppm, with some putting the level at 3500 ppm. Turtles and palm trees were thriving at the poles and sea levels were much higher than they were now as there was virtually no snow to be seen. […]
It's all about the topography of the terrain, and whether or not it allows for niches to become connected, researchers found when they tried to explain what drives the most biodiversity. The findings could prove extremely important in gauging the future impact of migrating species to higher elevation as a result of climate change.
German scientists have turned on a device called a stellerator, the largest of its kind. The machine could pave the way for nuclear fusion, a clean and safe type of nuclear power.
If you can see a person or an animal, then it is possible to be seen back. It's a basic caveat they train in the military when discussing camouflage. What's more, if you suspect you're being seen, you must minimize your movements. This level of abstraction was thought to be unique to humans. It's been recently shown that ravens too are capable of imagining someone is spying on them and take greater care hiding their food, as reported in Nature Communications.
Most people don't have that much of an issue with dying, like they do with being freaking old. Being old is a drag. You gain weight, the skin gets wrinkled, the mind and body weakens -- and it all gets gradually worse until you expire. Ants don't seem to share this human tragedy. By all accounts these particular ants don't seem to age and die in youthful bodies.
It may be possible to observe the presence of an advanced alien civilization by the effects produced if that civilization were to self-destruct through nuclear war, biological warfare, nanotechnological annihilation, or stellar pollution. Each case would generate unique detectable signs that could be identified by earth-based telescopes.
The French government announced its plan to build a 1,000 kilometer (621 mile) long stretch of solar panel-paved roads over the next five years. The locations for deployments have yet to be revealed. The fossil fuel tax is expected to bring in between 200 to 300 million euros ($220 to 440 million) of funding for the project coined "Positive Energy" .
In Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park poachers set thousands of snares to trap wildlife for meat. Inadvertently mountain gorillas -- listed as critically endangered -- get caught in the traps, and the young often die due to wounds or starvation. These sort of scenes are commonly witnessed by trackers working in the area to dismantle the snares, an uphill battle most of the time. What was startling though was a display of ingeniousness few cared to think was possible. Days after a young mountain gorilla was killed by a trap, trackers saw how a pair of four-year old gorillas worked together in coordination to dismantle a trap from the same area.
The moon does more than cause tides and delight lovers - according to a new study, it can also affect how much rainfall falls down on the ground.
A general trend was found: those animals with the highest brain/body size ratio were better at solving a problem they had never seen before.
Get it together, world – the top 10 greenest countries in the world are all European! The greenest countries The 2016 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) is a Yale-developed method to quantify the environmental performance of a state; it’s a measure of how ‘green’ a country is. Of course, like any index it has its pros […]
Right now coal accounts for 39% of all the world's generated electricity, with gas coming in second but still trailing behind at 22%. King coal is dying though, as ZME Science reported earlier. In less than 15 years, the International Energy Agency estimates renewable energy will become the dominant energy source in the world. Moreover, these estimates are conservative since the report assumes many coal plants will still be online in 2030, which is unlikely.
Marine biologists study microbes in the waters above natural oil seeps in the Gulf of Mexico stumbled upon something unexpected. They found phytoplankton, tiny organisms that comprise the bottom of the marine food chain, thrive in waters with low concentration oil. In some cases, the population is double that a couple miles off the oil seep sites.
Water pollution is a big issue, and so far there isn't one single system capable of reliably filtering toxic heavy metals. These are either too small, or selectively filter certain metals when polluted water often contains a mix. Researchers at ETH Zurich claim they've hit a breakthrough. Using cheap, readily available materials they designed a filter that can retain over 99% concentration of mercury, gold cyanide or toxic potassium, to name a few. It can also absorb radioactive waste and help recycle gold.
Before WWII, there weren't that many plastics around. Today, we use so much that we could literally plaster the planet in one giant clingfilm. A paper published in the journal Anthropocene reviews the state of plastic production, use and pollution and concludes that no place on Earth has been spared.
Authorities sealed off the area and are now investigating possible environmental pollution from the underground lake of acrid oil.
When the researchers analyzed some of the most cited contrarian climate change papers -- by other scientists or in the media -- they found these were riddled with methodological errors and not one one of them stood to scrutiny.
A study from Emory University looking into prairie voles' consoling behaviors provides new evidence in support of animal empathy. The tests had pairs of voles isolated from each other, one being exposed to mild electric shocks, to study how the rodents react to a distressed mate.
The Namib Desert Beetle lives in one of the most inhospitable and driest places on Earth, in the southwest coast of Africa. The beetle, however, employs a nifty trick: it can virtually make water out of thin air, thanks to its body whose geometry collects water droplets and directs them right into the insect's mouth. Now, engineers have adapted this design to keep ice bridges from forming and keep critical aircraft components freeze-free.
According to a report published by Amnesty International, half of the world's Cobalt, an important element used in lithium batteries, is mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by child miners. Most handheld electronics today (like smartphones or tablets) incorporate lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) based on lithium cobalt oxide (LiCoO2), which offers high energy density.
The Chinese government seems determined to phase out coal from their economy.
Plastic bags, bottle caps and plastic fibres are among the myriad of micro plastic debris that wash out into the Pacific Ocean. These get ingested by the marine life like fish, mammals and birds which are dying from choking, intestinal blockage and starvation. Moreover, some are toxic pollutants that are absorbed, transported, and consumed in the food chain eventually reaching humans. The most effective way to contain microplastics is to raise floating nets around Asia's coats, not around the Great Pacific Garbage patch, researchers reckon.
The global fish stocks are depleting at alarming rates, much faster than reported by the UN, a study found.
China just announced the deployment of the world's largest electric buses - in the city of Shenzen.
After they studied how much man-made heat got sucked by the world's oceans in the past 150 years, researchers found the heat content doubled since 1997. In other words, the oceans absorbed just as much heat in the past 20 years or so as they did in the prior 130 years. There's more bad news. The rate at which oceans soaked the heat rose sharply since the 2000s and hasn't faltered since. This can only mean a re-doubling that comes with unforeseeable consequences in the coming decades.
According to a study conducted by NASA in 2013, using nuclear energy instead of coal saved almost 2 million lives since 1979 - by allowing us to not use coal.
MIT scientists have developed a material that can absorb solar energy, stores and release it on demand to produce heat. Made from a film of polymer, the material could be used to used to tailor cold climate garments that charge up during the day and keep you pleasantly warm in the evening.
