Planet Earth, features and articles | Educational Science

Oct 31, 2007

Plant Extinctions Reduce Ecosystem Productivity

As plant species go extinct, natural habitats will have less greenery overall, a new study suggests, which could allow more heat-trapping carbon-dioxide to remain in the atmosphere. The study, detailed in the Nov. 5 online issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, summarized the results of...

Oct 31, 2007

Yellowstone Volcano Rises at Unprecedented Rate

Yellowstone’s ancient volcanic floor has been rising since mid-2004 because a blob of molten rock the size of Los Angeles infiltrated the system 6 miles beneath the surface, scientists say, but there is no risk of an eruption. Yellowstone National Park is the site of North America's largest volcanic field,...

Oct 31, 2007

10 Ways to Green Your Spending

Fair is Fair Photo (Image credit: www.transfairusa.org)As our parents were only too eager to point out, life isn't fair. Buying fair-trade-certified products, however, helps ensure that impoverished third-world producers pocket their rightful share of the profits, not watch their hard-earned funds get whittled away by predatory middlemen. Coffee and tea...

Oct 31, 2007

320 Million Trees Lost to Katrina, Fuels Global Warming

Major hurricanes may not only be fueled by global warming, they may also contribute to it, according to a new study that puts the Hurricane Katrina death toll for trees at 320 million. Recent research suggests that in our warming world, devastating hurricanes, like Katrina, may become more common. The...

Oct 31, 2007

Qatar Leads New Research into Cleaner Jet Fuel

Four Qatar-based organizations are partnering with Airbus, Rolls-Royce and Shell International Petroleum to research the potential benefits of using synthetic, cleaner jet fuel in commercial aircraft engines. At this week's Dubai Airshow, Qatar Airways, Qatar Petroleum, Qatar Fuel Company and the Qatar Science and Technology Park signed an agreement with...

Oct 31, 2007

Technology Won't Stop Global Warming, Economists Say

Greenhouse gas emissions in the United States may grow faster in the next 50 years than they have in the past 50, and higher energy prices will curb the problem better than technology, two economists say. Despite many technological advances in the past half-century, the rates of growth of energy...

Oct 31, 2007

Christmas Trees to Bear 'Green' Tags

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP)—Picking a Christmas tree is typically a matter of taste. Is the shape right? Is it too tall? Too short? Now a handful of growers in the top Christmas tree producing state of Oregon want people to consider another factor—how green'' a tree is. They've created a system...

Oct 31, 2007

Evolutionary 'Big Bang' Created Florist's Paradise

From the ubiquitous daisy to the fantastical orchid, flowering plant species are as diverse as they are numerous. Turns out, these bloomers went through an evolutionary Big Bang of sorts some 130 million years ago, a brief era of explosive floral diversification at a time when dinosaurs walked the Earth....

Oct 31, 2007

Pre-Human Dating Scene Revealed

Humans basically court each other one-on-one today, but 2 million-year-old skulls tucked away in South African caves suggest that our ancient male relatives dated troops of females. The bones belonged to Paranthropus robustus hominids, mostly males. These extinct human relatives split away from our evolutionary track about 2.5 million years...

Sep 30, 2007

Human Ancestors Walked Upright, Study Claims

The ancestors of humanity are often depicted as knuckle-draggers, making humans seem unusual in our family tree as upright apes. Controversial research now suggests the ancestors of humans and the other great apes might have actually walked upright too, making knuckle-walking chimpanzees and gorillas the exceptions and not the rule....

Sep 30, 2007

Something to Sweat: Earth Gets Steamier

It’s not the heat, but the humidity that will get you. Not only is the planet getting hotter, but it's also becoming more humid, as a result of human-induced global warming, a new study finds. A steamier Earth could mean more extreme precipitation and sweatier days for humans. Scientists had...

Sep 30, 2007

Why Males Die Before Females

In humans and many other animals, males age faster and die earlier than females. New research suggests this might happen because of intense competition over sex. Scientists compared monogamous species with polygynous species, in which each male mates with many females. Males in monogamous species, such as the barnacle goose...

Sep 30, 2007

Prehistoric Humans Hit the Beach During Cold Spell

A band of early Homo sapiens survived an ancient bout of global cooling by hunkering down in a cave on the coast of South Africa and living off shellfish plucked from nearby tide pools, a new study suggests. The cave overlooks the Indian Ocean, and inside it, scientists have found...

Sep 30, 2007

Is Global Warming Fueling Forest Fires?

Wildfires that raged in Southern California this week and forced more than half a million people from their homes spread so rapidly in part because the landscape was parched by a hot, dry summer—conditions that may become more of a norm for the Southwest, thanks to global warming. But can...

Sep 30, 2007

Some Neanderthals Were Redheads

Like bringing to life a naked mannequin, scientists are using genetic and physical evidence found in fossils to clothe the skeletal remains of our closest hominid relatives, the Neanderthals. More and more, they seem familiar. Bones from two Neanderthals yielded valuable genetic information that adds red hair, light skin and...