Planet Earth, features and articles | Educational Science

Aug 31, 2006

Town Let's Nature Deal with Nudity

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. (AP) -- Mother Nature, not an ordinance, will draw the covers over public nudity in Brattleboro. The town's Select Board decided Tuesday to take no action on an anti-nudity ordinance that was introduced in response to a clothing-optional movement launched by local teenagers this summer. Winter is coming....

Aug 31, 2006

Study: Earth and Space Weather Connected

Space weather in the upper reaches of the atmosphere is affected by weather conditions down here on Earth, a new study suggests. Using a combination of satellite imagery and computer simulations, researchers found that tides of air created by intense thunderstorms over South America, Africa and Southeast Asia are altering...

Aug 31, 2006

Tenacious Neanderthals Held Out in Pockets

Neanderthals might have held out in isolated refuges for thousands of years longer than previously thought, scientists reported today. Their survival at what seems to have been their last refuge in Gibraltar for far longer after the arrival of modern humans than once believed suggests our ancestors may not have...

Aug 31, 2006

Global Warming Takes a Break

Despite the long term warming trend seen around the globe, the oceans have cooled in the last three years, scientists announced today. The temperature drop, a small fraction of the total warming seen in the last 48 years, suggests that global warming trends can sometimes take little dips. In the...

Aug 31, 2006

Study: Global Warming Near Critical Level

Global temperatures are dangerously close to the highest ever estimated to have occurred in the past million years, scientists reported today. In a study that analyzed temperatures around the globe, researchers found that Earth has been warming rapidly, nearly 0.36 degrees Fahrenheit (0.2 degrees Celsius) in the last 30 years...

Jul 31, 2006

Weather Official: 'Alarming Increase' in Lightning Deaths

Lightning killed at least 14 people in the United States during the second half of July, a pace twice as deadly as in a typical year for the same two weeks. In the past two weeks, we've seen an alarming increase in the number of lightning deaths in this country,...

Jul 31, 2006

Antarctic Snow Constant for 50 Years

Contrary to expectations, there has been no increase in precipitation over Antarctica in the past half-century. Computer models assessing global climate change call for an increase in Antarctic precipitation as atmospheric temperatures rise. But the most precise record of Antarctic snowfall ever generated shows no change. But it's unclear what...

Jul 31, 2006

How Flowers Know Spring Has Sprung

A 10-year-old, 5-foot tall tropical corpse plant in Brooklyn flowered for the first time last week, emitting its powerful stench for three days. Luckily for Dutch tulip farmers, garden club members, and floral enthusiasts, many flowers in temperate regions of the world bloom each spring—and smell much sweeter. Flowering plants...

Jul 31, 2006

Americans Warm to Reality of Climate Change

A poll of more than 1,000 likely voters in the United States released this week showed that in the last two years Americans have become more convinced that global warming is happening. An increasing number also believe there is a link between the increase in temperature and severity of weather...

Jun 30, 2006

Age of the Sierra Nevada Revealed

California's Sierra Nevada, an impressive mountain range that includes the popular Yosemite National Park, has done a great job of keeping its age a secret. But now a new study provides evidence that it's at least 40 million years old. Scientists conducted a chemical analysis of ancient raindrops found in...

Jun 30, 2006

Drought Conditions Worsen in Parts of U.S.

Expansion of drought conditions across the upper Midwest caused NOAA's Climate Prediction Center to issue an unscheduled update Friday to its U.S. Seasonal Drought Outlook. Drought conditions that have worsened recently, affecting parts of the northern Plains and the Upper Mississippi Valley, should continue and may expand across eastern Montana,...

Jun 30, 2006

Flocking to the Coast: World's Population Migrating into Danger

New maps developed by investigating the relationship between human population and natural resources shows where people will most likely settle through 2025. Population will grow along various coastlines and in already densely populated developing countries. [Maps: The Americas | Africa, Asia & Europe] The number of people living within 60...

Jun 30, 2006

History Suggests Major Wind Shift Could Again Bring Drought to Great Plains

Nebraska's Sand Hills might look like a place fit only for cattle grazing, but to geologists the expanse of grasslands hide sand dunes that contain a valuable record of ancient climate. A crisscross pattern in the dunes serves as a record of changes in wind direction and shows that 800...

Jun 30, 2006

Sliding Cemetery: Now It's Really All Downhill

GREENFIELD, Mass. (AP)—The eternal slumbers of about 50 people—including a former Massachusetts governor—are about to be interrupted, either by nature or man. Directors of the Green River Cemetery are rushing against gravity in an attempt to exhume and rebury the remains before they slide down a steep slope into the...

May 31, 2006

The Truth About Toilet Seats

The paper toilet-seat cover can be a guardian angel for the backside, but only if the seat is dry to begin with. When the cover is placed onto a seat that's wet, it ferries bacteria and viruses from the toilet seat up to your bare skin. The good news is...