Planet Earth, features and articles | Educational Science

Jul 31, 2007

Life Resurrected From Glaciers

Germs long frozen in glaciers may resurrect as Earth's warming climate melts ice, potentially speeding up the evolution of microbes, research now reveals. Although Earth germs can apparently survive up to millions of years on ice, scientists added the harsh rigors of space make it unlikely that alien life or...

Jul 31, 2007

Coral Reefs Disappearing Faster Than Thought

Coral reefs in the central and western Pacific are disappearing twice as fast as rainforests are on land—faster than was previously thought, a new study says. The reefs in this region, called the Indo-Pacific, are disappearing at a rate of 1 percent per year—nearly 600 square miles of reef have...

Jul 31, 2007

California Farm Town Is Nation's Smoggiest

ARVIN, Calif. -- Lying in a rich agricultural region dotted with vineyards and orange groves, this central California community seems an unlikely place for a dubious distinction: the most polluted air in America. Hemmed in by mountains, Arvin is the final destination for pollutants from cities as far away as...

Jul 31, 2007

Study: Cities Make Storms More Fierce

Cities make summer thunderstorms more intense than they would be in the countryside, a new study suggests. Scientists have noted before that urban environments seem to alter the behavior of storms, but had not made observations of specific storms. Researchers at Princeton University consulted models and observations of an extreme...

Jul 31, 2007

New Paper Batteries Powered by Blood

Sheets of paper can be made to work like batteries and power electronics, research now reveals. The paper sheets could even get power from sweat or blood and, in the future, energize devices implanted within people, scientists said. “When we get this technology down, we'll basically have the ability to...

Jul 31, 2007

Mount Everest Deadlier for Older Hikers

When it comes to trekking up Earth's tallest peak, age matters. New research reveals 60-year-olds lag behind 40-year-olds in reaching Mount Everest's summit. And for those who make it, the 60-and-overs are more likely to die on the descent. On Everest, youth and vigor trump age and experience, the study...

Jul 31, 2007

Warmer Ocean Fuels Hurricane Dean

A new NASA animation shows the rise in sea surface temperatures that helped to spawn Hurricane Dean in the central Atlantic and Tropical Storm Erin in the Gulf of Mexico this week. Sea surface temperatures are a key ingredient for hurricane and tropical storm formation and they were warming up...

Jul 31, 2007

Astronauts See Hurricane Dean: 'Scary'

The looming threat of Hurricane Dean will force NASA's shuttle Endeavour to land Tuesday, one day earlier than planned, mission managers said Friday. Meanwhile, spacewalkers Clayton Anderson and Dave Williams paused in their work outside the International Space Station to gaze at the monster storm. Hoo man, you can't miss...

Jul 31, 2007

Autumn Snow Predicts Winter Weather

A new weather-forecasting model based on autumn snowfall in Siberia could help meteorologists predict winter temperatures and snowfall in the United States and Europe. The model results, reported this week in the Journal of Climate, could help make climate prediction more accurate and reliable for fields such as agriculture, water...

Jul 31, 2007

Take a Deep Breath, and Thank a Volcano

Volcanoes are partly to thank for the air you’re breathing right now, a new study shows. Billions of years ago, Earth had very little oxygen in its atmosphere, in part because most of the volcanoes on our planet were undersea. The mixture of gases and lavas that erupted from these...

Jun 30, 2007

Scientists: Use Golf Courses as Wildlife Sanctuaries

Golf courses could serve as important wildlife sanctuaries, scientists say. There are more than 17,000 golf courses in the United States, and approximately 70 percent of that land is not used for playing, said Ray Semlitsch, a biologist at University of Missouri-Columbia. These managed green spaces aren't surrogates for protected...

Jun 30, 2007

Scientists Monitor Freak Mudflow

A mudflow that recently burst through the banks of a volcanic lake in New Zealand gave scientists an up-close and personal view of the freak event and a chance to test their disaster warning systems. The mudflow was of a type called a lahar, in which water and sediments flow...

Jun 30, 2007

Possible Link to Lucy's Ancestors Found

New jaw fossils might suggest a direct line of descent between two species of early humans, including the one to which Lucy belongs. The 3.2 million-year-old Lucy, the earliest known adult hominid, was found in Ethiopia in 1974 by U.S. paleontologists Donald Johanson and Tom Gray. Lucy and her kind,...

Jun 30, 2007

Strange New Microbe Harvests Sunlight

Yellowstone's hot springs are known to harbor extreme creatures that paint the water shades of red, orange and green. Now scientists have discovered a new type of bacteria with light-harvesting antennae. The oddity among oddities adds to a short list of microbes that can transform light into chemical energy, a...

Jun 30, 2007

More Hurricanes Forming Today than Century Ago

More hurricanes are forming in the Atlantic now than a century ago, most likely because of warmer ocean temperatures and changing wind patterns associated with global warming, a new study finds. Previous research has indicated storms are stronger nowadays, but this is the first study to show a long-term increase...