Educational Science

Infographic: What's America's Emergency Oil Plan?

Political and economic unrest in the Arab world have sent gas prices skyrocketing in the United States in recent weeks, and some lawmakers are ready to tap into the country's emergency stash, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. [Full story] Just how much oil is in the reserve? How Does Oil Form?Why...

Oily Sheen Spotted Near Burning Gulf Oil Platform

Editor's Note: As of Friday, Sept. 3, Coast Guard officials have said no oil could be seen on the water near the Mariner Energy platform, contradicting an earlier report. An oil platform explosion in the Gulf of Mexico resulted in U.S. Coast Guard helicopters rescuing 13 people from the water....

Fracking, mountaintop removal and offshore oil drilling are just a few of the top concerns facing the southern United States in 2012. To call attention to these projects and the places they threaten, the Southern Environmental Law Center, the largest environmental advocacy group dedicated to protecting the Southeast, released its...

SOS! Major Oil Disasters at Sea

Mega Borg (Image credit: NOAA) The Mega Borg released 5.1 million gallons of oil as the result of a lightering accident and subsequent fire. The incident occurred 60 nautical miles south-southeast of Galveston, Texas, on June 8, 1990, while the Italian tank vessel Fraqmura was lightering (transferring oil to) the...

X Prize's $1.4 Million Contest Aims to Pump Up Oil Cleanup Tech

The Deepwater Horizon disaster that spilled almost 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico became a crude example of how drilling for oil is risky business, but that doesn't mean cleaning up future messes must remain business as usual. Ten teams have begun trial runs of new...

What Will Happen During the Next 100 Days of the Oil Spill?

Exactly 100 days after an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig sent an estimated 20,000 to 40,000 barrels of oil per day gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, officials say engineers are on the cusp of completing a final plug on the well. But scientists say it could...

Degraded Oil From BP Spill Coats Gulf Seafloor

NEW YORK - Now that BP's Deepwater Horizon oil well has been sealed, the long, hard work of assessing the damage begins even as the oil is dispersing throughout the Gulf. A research team from Columbia University in New York returned this past weekend (Sept. 17 to 19) from a...

A Grass-Fed Evolution? Altered Environment Fueled Human Change

NEW YORK — The arrival of a new variety of plants, particularly grasses, may have altered the environment in ways that could have helped push our ancestors to acquire traits that would come to define modern humans. Researchers have long pondered what prompted the emergence of upright posture, tool use,...