An influential group of geologists, ecologists, and biologists argue that humans have so changed the planet that it is entering another phase of geological time, called the Anthropocene, “the Age of Man.”
Many politically unstable areas of South Asia are “water-stressed,” meaning the areas are facing water scarcity due to poor infrastructure or simply lacking enough water to meet demand. The potential impacts of climate change on water scarcity could further inflame political tensions, finds a new report, “Himalayan Glaciers: Climate Change, Water Resources, and Water Security,”…
The males of many species impress potential mates with brilliant plumage, massive antlers, or expensive cars. Water striders, however, don’t go in for courtship. For these smoothly gliding pond insects, mating is a wrestling match in which the male grips the female’s head and pins her down while she struggles to throw him off. Now…
Five years ago, few people had heard the phrase “Big Data.” Now, it’s hard to go an hour without seeing it. In the past several months, the industry has been mentioned in dozens of New York Times stories, in every section from metro to business. (Wired has even already declared it passé: “STOP HYPING BIG…
It used to be sex ed that got science teachers into challenging situations once in awhile. Evolution, too, of course. Increasingly, the “C” word, climate, is creating challenges for educators trying to explore the heat-trapping properties of carbon dioxide and the implications for climate as concentrations of CO2 and other greenhouse gases rise. Teachers are…
Earth’s glaciers are seriously out of balance with the global climate and are already on their way to losing almost 40% of their volume. That is the assessment of scientists after studying a representative group of 144 small and large glaciers around the world. Their figures assume no further warming of the climate. However, if…
When fishermen returned to the deep reefs of the Gulf of Mexico weeks after BP’s gushing oil well was capped, they started catching grouper and red snapper with large open sores and strange black streaks, lesions they said they’d never seen and promptly blamed on the spill. Now, two years after the Deepwater Horizon rig…