It’s been five years since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 and releasing a torrent of petroleum into the sea. But despite a massive, multibillion-dollar cleanup effort, the effects of the largest marine oil spill in U.S. history may linger for decades. BP (British Petroleum), which operated the rig, has already paid […]
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Mystery crater: A 40-foot crater has appeared in the ground near Managua airport. Nicaraguan authorities said the hole was caused by a meteorite that broke off from the passing Pitbull, or 2014 RC, asteroid. But NASA officials said that was unlikely, because such a strike would have produced an enormous fireball streaking across the sky, yet nobody reported seeing anything […]
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In polluted environments, diesel fumes may be reducing the availability of almost half the most common flower odors that bees use to find their food, research has found. The new findings suggest that toxic nitrous oxide (NOx) in diesel exhausts could be having an even greater effect on bees’ ability to smell out flowers than was previously thought. NOx is […]
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Western Antarctica is heating up faster than almost any other region on earth, increasing the risk that a huge ice sheet there could collapse and cause a drastic rise in sea levels. That’s the alarming conclusion of climate researchers who used data from a remote weather station combined with other temperature readings on the continent to show that West Antarctica […]
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Antarctica’s native insect, the Antarctic Midge is a flightless insect that can survive nine months frozen at temps of at least negative 15 degrees Celsius. It loses about 70% of its body fluids and can live for about a month without oxygen. The midge survives because of its combination of rapid cold hardening and warm temperatures in its underground habitat. […]
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Scientists have long puzzled over the origins of Earth’s vast oceans. Now, new data from the Rosetta spacecraft appear to have crossed one potential source off the list: comets. Rosetta has been in close orbit around comet 67P/Churyumov- Gerasimenko since August, analyzing its chemical makeup. Among the mission’s goals was to determine if the water locked in the comet’s icy […]
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Children who attend schools near busy roads could see their brain development hindered by air pollution, according to a new study by Spanish scientists. Researchers in Barcelona spent a year tracking the developmental progress of more than 2,700 children ages 7 to 10 at 39 schools in the city. They found that the cognitive skills of students at schools near […]
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Earth’s temperature has increased by 1°C over the past century, and most of this warming has been caused by carbon dioxide emissions. But what does that mean locally? A new study published in Nature Climate Change pinpoints the temperature increases caused by CO2 emissions in different regions around the world. Using simulation results from 12 global climate models, Damon Matthews, […]
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As the polar ice caps retreat due to global warming, researchers are flocking to the Arctic to catalog the region’s unique biodiversity and discover any hidden secrets before they are gone. Video provided by AFP. Source:AFP / Powered by NewsLook.com
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Nature films and science documentaries usually portray Antarctica to be nothing but the most cold, isolated, almost anti-social continent on earth — at least if you’re not a penguin — but life at McMurdo Station disproves that. The 2011-2012 Antarctic southern summer season is now alive and kicking (after numerous delays), and “Mac Town” (as the residents of McMurdo call […]
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