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Jun 30, 2013

Solar Plane Makes Dramatic Landing in NYC to End Cross-Country Flight

NEW YORK — A solar-powered airplane that was set to complete an historic cross-country journey across the United States this weekend made a dramatic early landing late Saturday (July 6), when damage was observed on one of the aircraft's wings. The plane, called Solar Impulse, touched down here at John...

Jun 30, 2013

55-Carat Diamond Dazzles at NYC Museum

The dazzling 55-carat Kimberley Diamond makes its debut at the American Museum of Natural History in New York Thursday (July 11). The champagne-colored cape diamond was originally cut from a 490-carat stone found sometime before 1868 in the Kimberley Mine in South Africa. (A carat is a unit of weight...

Jun 30, 2013

If A Network Is Broken, Break It More

(ISNS) -- From the World Wide Web to the electrical grid, networks are notoriously difficult to control. A disturbance to just one part of the system can spread quickly and affect the whole thing. But this problem is its own solution: by selectively damaging part of the network, we can...

Jun 30, 2013

What the Heck Is ... Heat Stroke?

Dr. Eric Adkins is the Medical Director of the Emergency Medicine Department at The Ohio State University (OSU) Wexner Medical Center. He contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Heat stroke is the most severe form of heat illness and is a life-threatening emergency. The elderly, infants,...

Jun 30, 2013

Earthquakes Burp Up Methane Bubbles

The long-suspected link between earthquakes and underwater methane bursts has finally been confirmed, reports a study published today (July 28) in the journal Nature Geoscience. Though the temblor wasn't caught in the act, the strong shaking left clues in methane-rich mud and sand offshore of Pakistan, where two of Earth's...

May 31, 2013

Scaling Up Solar Power May Demand Updated Electric Grid

(ISNS) -- One hour's worth of global sunlight would be enough to power the world's energy requirements for an entire year. But even if humankind can someday harness solar power to meet global energy needs, there is another problem engineers will have to tackle: integrating solar power with existing electrical...

May 31, 2013

Lost World Locked in Stone at Fossil Lake

With just two inhabited buildings and a population of five, Fossil, Wyo., is all but a ghost town today. But as far as ghosts go, the ones at Fossil are pretty remarkable — 50-million-year-old monitor lizards, stingrays and freakishly long-tailed turtles among them. Fossil showed promise of becoming a train-stop...

May 31, 2013

Image of the Day: May 2013

Rainbow Soars Over Black Canyon (Image credit: U.S. Department of the Interior)Black Canyon, of the Gunnison National Park, has some of the steepest cliffs, oldest rocks and craggiest spires in North America. It also has some of the most spectacular rainbows, as the above image shows. Over two million years,...

May 31, 2013

Precision Farming Gains Global Foothold (Op-Ed)

Lloyd Treinish leads the environmental science team in the Industry Solutions Department at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center. A co-developer of IBM's Deep Thunder precision agriculture system, he contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Our world is getting larger … and hungrier … with...

May 31, 2013

Another 1930s Dust Bowl Drought Possible This Century (Op-Ed)

Marlene Cimons of Climate Nexus contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Drought has beset the Earth since before farming began. In developing nations, it brings suffering and death. In wealthier countries like the United States, it brings economic devastation when crops wither and die, and forests...

May 31, 2013

Voices: Experts & Analysts Weigh in on Obama's Climate Change Plan

President Barack Obama announced a sweeping plan to tackle climate change today (June 25), outlining measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote the development of clean energy technologies. The new strategy, which was revealed before an audience at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., identifies three key objectives: cut the...

May 31, 2013

Hot Enough to Fry an Egg on the Sidewalk This Weekend?

PHOENIX, AZ — It’s so hot today … Actually, it’s only 112 degrees Fahrenheit here today, nothing compared to Death Valley, Ca., which the National Weather Service says will see high temperatures near 130 through Monday. The hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth was 134 degrees Fahrenheit (56.7 degrees Celsius)...

May 31, 2013

Massive Earthquakes Make Volcanoes Sink

The biggest earthquakes also move mountains. The massive earthquakes that struck Japan and Chile in 2011 and 2010, respectively, sank several big volcanoes by up to 6 inches (15 centimeters), two new studies report. This is the first time scientists have seen a string of volcanoes drop after an earthquake....

Apr 30, 2013

Best Earth Images of the Week May 3, 2013

A mission close to home (Image credit: Gabriel Trisca, Boise State University) NASA's newest rover won't be exploring another planet, but will take a look at part of our own. Named Grover (short for Goddard Remotely Operated Vehicle for Exploration and Research), the rover will explore Greenland's ice sheets to...

Apr 30, 2013

Macho Men May Not Have Survival Advantage in War

Despite a known link between a masculine-looking face and aggression in men, macho-faced soldiers didn't survive Finland's World War II Winter War in greater numbers than recruits with less masculine faces. The macho-looking men did, however, have more children in their lifetimes than thinner-faced guys, suggesting that face shape is...