Planet Earth, features and articles | Educational Science

Jul 31, 2011

Beyond Irene: Future Hurricanes Will Get Worse

NEW YORK — Hurricane Irene battered the East Coast this weekend, blasting buildings and trees that hadn't felt such strong winds in decades, and flooding subways, tunnels and entire coastal neighborhoods. Thankfully, Irene diminished in strength before making landfall on the Mid-Atlantic Coast and New England; though she is estimated...

Jul 31, 2011

Why New York City Was Lucky

New York City largely dodged a bullet as Hurricane Irene did relatively little damage to the city. The same can't be said for areas further inland, such as Vermont and upstate New York, which are battling historic flooding. In New York City, where transit was shut down citywide and coastal...

Jul 31, 2011

Turning Tadpole Against Tadpole to Fight Toxic Toad

It's a tadpole-eat-tadpole world out there — and that's exactly what Australian scientists are hoping will control the spread of a giant invasive toad with toxic flesh. The cane toad (Bufo marinus), which can weigh up to 3 pounds (1.4 kg), is a scourge in Australia. Introduced in the 1930s...

Jun 30, 2011

Warming Oceans Will Melt Glaciers Quicker than Expected

Ice sheets simmering in warmer ocean waters could melt much quicker than realized. New research is suggesting that as oceans heat up they could erode away the ice sheets much faster than warmer air alone, and this interaction needs to be accounted for in climate change models. Ocean warming is...

Jun 30, 2011

WWII Bombing Raids Altered English Weather

Allied bombing raids during World War II turned the English sky white with contrails, providing a case study for modern scientists studying how the weather is affected by these long, feathery lines of condensation that form behind aircraft. Researchers focused on larger bombing raids between 1943 to 1945 after the...

Jun 30, 2011

Stunning Sands Gallery: A Rainbow of Beaches

A Rainbow of Sands (Image credit: Alainlee | sxc.hu)Summer brings to mind images of beaches with warm yellow sand, but there's actually an entire rainbow of unique-colored beaches. Let's start with red … Cabot Beach, located near Malpeque at the northern shore of Canada's Prince Edward Island, boasts clay-red sands....

Jun 30, 2011

Season for Mysterious 'Night-Shining' Clouds Is Here

Every summer since the late 19th century, Earth's polar skies have lit up with eerie blue-white glowing clouds, slowly twisting and undulating in the twilight sky. These mystifying clouds are referred to as night-shining clouds, or noctilucent clouds. Such clouds form in an upper layer of the Earth's atmosphere called...

Jun 30, 2011

Climate Change Debunked? Not So Fast

New research suggesting that cloud cover, not carbon dioxide, causes global warming is getting buzz in climate skeptic circles. But mainstream climate scientists dismissed the research as unrealistic and politically motivated. It is not newsworthy, Daniel Murphy, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) cloud researcher, wrote in an email...

May 31, 2011

Radar Reveals Fjords Hidden Beneath Antarctic Ice

A dramatic new landscape of fjords hidden under miles of ice in Antarctica has been revealed. The fjords reveal how disruptions related to ice here could dramatically affect global sea levels, the researchers said. A team of scientists from the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia made the discovery...

May 31, 2011

Photos: Madagascar's Treasure Trove of Species

Madagascar Frogs (Image credit: Axel Strauss/WWF Madagascar.)Since 1999, scientists have discovered 615 new species of animals and plants on the island of Madagascar. Here we take a look at some of the amazing creatures revealed on the historically isolated island. This new species of frog, Boophis lilianae, was formally identified...

May 31, 2011

War's Cost: To Gain Cooperation, People Punish Others

War. What is it good for? Getting people to work together, a new study finds. People are more willing to reward collaborators and punish lone wolves in an effort to force cooperation in times of conflict, according to the research, which was conducted during the 34-day Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006....

May 31, 2011

Pinatubo Flashback, June 11, 1991: Before the Storm

On June 15, 1991, the largest land volcano eruption in living history shook the Philippine island of Luzon as Mount Pinatubo, a formerly unassuming lump of jungle-covered slopes, blew its top. Ash fell as far away as Singapore, and in the year to follow, volcanic particles in the atmosphere would...

May 31, 2011

2011 Fifth Deadliest Tornado Season on Record

This year's tornado season is now tied for the fifth deadliest on record. That ranking could climb even higher by the year's end, one meteorologist said. It's possible that by the end of the year we'll be the second deadliest on record, said meteorologist Harold Brooks, of the National Severe...

May 31, 2011

Sea Level Is Rising Faster Than Ever Seen

Sea levels are rising faster than they have been in the last two millennia, new research shows. The swelling seas match up well with historical temperature data, suggesting the warmer it is, the more the sea level rises. Sea-level rise is a potentially disastrous outcome of climate change, study researcher...

May 31, 2011

Melting Arctic Ice Marks Possible Sea Change in Marine Ecosystems

A single-celled alga that went extinct in the North Atlantic Ocean about 800,000 years ago has returned after drifting from the Pacific through the Arctic thanks to melting polar ice. And while its appearance marks the first trans-Arctic migration in modern times, scientists say it signals something potentially bigger. It...