Nasa: Antarctic ice-shelf will be gone by 2020

According to a new study by Nasa, Antarctica’s Larsen B ice-shelf is on course to completely disintegrate within the next five years. Studies show that the 10,000-year-old ice shelf, after partially collapsing in 2002, is “quickly weakening.” “These are warning signs that the remnant is disintegrating,” said Ala Khazendar of Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. “Although it’s […]

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Grandma orcas know best

Like many human families, killer whales often rely on the wisdom of matriarchs to help them endure hardships and thrive, new research has found. Male orcas usually live for about 50 years, but females often survive well into their 90s, making them one of the few mammalsthat live for decades after they stop reproducing.   Marine scientists studied the behavior […]

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Evergreen Trees at risk in Southwest U.S.

Evergreen trees

A research paper published in Nature Climate Change predicts widespread death of needleleaf evergreen trees (NET) within the Southwest United States by the year 2100 under projected global warming scenarios. The research team that conducted the study, which includes University of Delaware’s Sara Rauscher, considered both field results and a range of validated regional predictions and global simulation models of […]

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Cleaning Up China’s Dirty Streets

“The Chinese need to learn that public spaces aren’t garbage dumps”, said Raymond Zhou. During a recent national holiday, visitors dropped a staggering 32 tons of litter in Tiananmen Square in just four days. Beijing’s army of street cleaners rushed in and quickly cleaned up the mess. But large areas of the country don’t have those resources, and by the […]

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When the Red Planet was partly blue

Astronomers have found the strongest evidence yet that ancient Mars had a massive ocean for millions of years— an indication that the Red Planet once had everything necessary to support life. Shortly after Mars formed 4.5 billion years ago, NASA scientists say, the planet was wet, with enough water to cover the entire planet to a depth of about 450 […]

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