A Brief History of Plastic’s Conquest of the World
May 31, 2011 Space
In the post–World War II world, where lab-synthesized plastics have virtually defined a way of life, we’ve come to think of plastics as unnatural, yet nature has been knitting polymers since the beginning of life.
Mind Reading: The Researchers Who Analyzed All the Porn on the Internet
May 31, 2011 Space
Searching all the porn on the Internet might not seem like the most scientifically productive activity, but computational neuroscientists Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam did it anyway.
West Valley Panorama from the Spirit Rover on Mars (PIC)
May 31, 2011 Space
What does Mars look like from here? Last September, before hiking across rugged and slippery terrain to reach its winter hibernation point, the robotic Spirit rover climbed a small plateau known as Home Plate and captured the spectacular vista pictured above.
Sea Levels Will Rise By Over A Meter In The 21st Century
May 31, 2011 Space
Sea levels are set to rise by up to a metre within a century due to global warming, a new Australian report said Monday as it warned this could make ‘once-a-century’ coastal flooding much more common.
Mercury, PCBs widespread in sport fish in California’s urban coastal waters
May 31, 2011 Space
Traces of mercury and PCBs are widespread in sport fish in California ’s urban coastal waters, a survey released last week by the state water board found.
Is that what they mean by a sunseeker? World’s largest solar-powered yacht stops in Brisbane during round-the-world voyage
May 31, 2011 Space
Tûranor PlanetSolar is currently on a voyage to set a round-the-world record – and promote the use of sustainable energy. In doing so it would be the first fully solar-powered vessel to circumnavigate the globe.
Cross your arms to relieve pain
May 31, 2011 Space
People feel less pain in one hand if they cross it to the other side of their body
How NASA’s OSIRIS-REx probe got its name
May 31, 2011 Space
OSIRIS-REx is the acronym for the vessel that, NASA just announced, will launch in 2016, travel four years to an asteroid, chip off some rock samples and bring them back to Earth.
Your Allergy Meds Could Be Making You Fat
May 31, 2011 Space
Allergy season is upon us, and the record pollen levels we’re experiencing this year may have you heading to the allergy relief aisle at your local drugstore. But what you take to alleviate your symptoms could have unpleasant side effects on your waistline.
Significant role played by oceans in ancient global cooling
May 31, 2011 Space
Thirty-eight million years ago, tropical jungles thrived in what are now the cornfields of the American Midwest and furry marsupials wandered temperate forests in what is now the frozen Antarctic. A debate has long been raging in the scientific community on what changes in our global climate system led to such a major shift from the more tropical, greenhouse climate of the Eocene to the modern and much cooler climates of today. Researchers have now found some of the strongest evidence to date that the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) played a key role in the major shift in the global climate that began approximately 38 million years ago.