Planet Earth, features and articles | Educational Science

Sep 30, 2013

Who's Your Daddy? Probably Your Daddy

Despite the popularity of paternity tests and the guest lineup of the Maury Povich show, most men are not being duped into raising children who are not their own, new research suggests. At least in Flanders, Belgium, about 1 to 2 percent of children have been raised by men who...

Sep 30, 2013

NASA's IceBridge Readies 1st Antarctica-Based Research Flights

In a few weeks, NASA's Operation IceBridge will take to the skies for another busy season of monitoring ice sheets, glaciers and sea ice from above. This year, the mission will be stationed in Antarctica for the first time, enabling scientists to conduct longer flights, and explore areas of the...

Aug 31, 2013

Swimmer Diana Nyad Wasn't at Big Risk of Shark Bite

The 64-year-old long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad made headlines for being the first woman to swim from Cuba to the Florida Keys without the aid of a shark cage. But that caveat — sans cage — implies she was at a significant risk of being bitten, and some media outlets wrote...

Aug 31, 2013

Hotspot Scorched Midwest, Leaving Legacy of Earthquakes, Rare Rocks

A seismic speed trap that stretches from Missouri to Virginia suggests a hotspot scorched the Midwest during the Mesozoic Era, a new study finds. Hotspots are scalding plumes of hot rock rising toward Earth's surface from the mantle, the layer that sits under Earth's crust. Though tectonic plates constantly shift,...

Aug 31, 2013

Exaptation: How Evolution Uses What's Available

Exaptation is a term used in evolutionary biology to describe a trait that has been co-opted for a use other than the one for which natural selection has built it. It is a relatively new term, proposed by Stephen Jay Gould and Elisabeth Vrba in 1982 to make the point...

Aug 31, 2013

Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions Could Prevent Premature Deaths

Reducing the flow of the greenhouse gases that spur global warming could prevent up to 3 million premature deaths annually by the year 2100, a new study suggests. Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide trap heat, helping warm the globe. The surge in carbon dioxide levels due to human activity...

Aug 31, 2013

Warming Could Heat Up Storms Over Eastern US

In May, residents of Tornado Alley braced themselves as the region's usual spring thunderstorms began popping up across the plains, bringing heavy rainfall that caused flash floods, high winds, hail and tornadoes. On May 20, the town of Moore, Okla., seemingly a perennial tornado target, was struck by a monster...

Aug 31, 2013

Earthquake Detection: Smartphone Tech Could Improve Response

Small sensors found in most smartphones and laptops are sensitive enough to detect the movement of moderate and large earthquakes, and could vastly expand the information gathered during seismic events in densely populated cities, new research suggests. The devices, called micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) accelerometers, measure movement in three dimensions and...

Jul 31, 2013

7 Amazing Places to Visit with Google Street View

Cool Google street views (Image credit: Google Maps.)Armchair exploration has never been easier. For those that don't have the money or physical stamina to make it to the world's highest mountains or to see its biggest underwater treasures, Google Street View is one of the tools available to bring panoramic...

Jul 31, 2013

Trove of Ancient Marsupial Fossils Discovered in Australia

Paleontologists have uncovered a fossil field in Australia that fills a large gap in the continent's environmental history, and contains several previously unknown ancient species of marsupials and bats. Researchers at the University of New South Wales discovered the site near the Riversleigh fossil field, an UNESCO World Heritage site,...

Jul 31, 2013

How Superstorm Sandy Changed Views of Weather Threats

NEW YORK — Superstorm Sandy provided a vivid demonstration not only of how extreme weather can affect heavily-populated areas, but also the sociological issue of how society views the risk such weather poses to people. The recent public focus on national security risks has come at the expense of preparation...

Jul 31, 2013

10 Years After Record Blackout, is U.S. Any Better Prepared? (Op-Ed)

Mike Jacobs is a senior energy analyst for the Climate & Energy program of the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). This artcile is adapted from a post that originally appeared on the UCS blog, The Equation. Jacobs contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Electricity grid operators...

Jul 31, 2013

One-Shot Volcanoes Can Be Explosively Dangerous

Volcanoes with multiple eruptions get all the glory, earning top spots on lists of the world's most dangerous and most famous fiery mountains. But monogenetic volcanoes, which erupt briefly and then die, are more common on land than volcanoes such as Mount St. Helens and Mt. Etna, which periodically outpour...

Jul 31, 2013

Giant Sequoias at Risk from California Fire

A raging forest fire sweeping toward Yosemite National Park in California may threaten giant sequoia trees. The massive Rim Fire is an intense crown fire, meaning it is burning and leaping in the tops of trees instead of crawling along the ground. The National Park Service has closed two of...

Jul 31, 2013

Atmospheric Pressure: Definition & Facts

Books on meteorology often describe Earth's atmosphere as a huge ocean of air in which we all live. Diagrams depict our home planet as being surrounded by a great sea of atmosphere, a few hundred miles high, divided into several different layers. And yet, that part of our atmosphere that...