The speed of light is considered to be the limit at which no object can go faster. But here on Earth, nature has its own speed limit which affects its fastest creatures every day. The speed at which an animal can go, and human aircraft...
Will you live to 100? Last year, scientists published a study proposing a “genetic signature” that could help answer that question. But they retracted the paper when critics discovered errors that invalidated the results....
Duke University researchers have predicted that climate change in California will result in a declining percentage of rangeland. Such a change will have widespread impact on the state’s large cattle industry of California’s...
The Obama administration on Wednesday rejected the Keystone crude oil pipeline project, a decision welcomed by environmental groups but blasted by the domestic energy industry. U.S. President Barack Obama said TransCanada’s application...
A rise in the atmosphere of aerosols – miniscule particles which include soot, dust and sulphates – has led to more rainfall in certain parts of the world and could provide vital clues for future climate predictions, a...
At one time there was serious debates that planets were a rare phenomena, few and far between. Our Milky Way galaxy contains a minimum of 100 billion planets, according to a detailed statistical study based on the detection of three...
by Sarah Laskow. In design, biomimicry — the idea that nature does design best — is all the rage. So it must have been a head-slapping “duh” moment when solar-power designers sought inspiration from sunflowers...
The decade from 2000 to 2009 was the warmest since global climate has been measured, and while localized studies have shown evidence of changes in mountain plant communities that reflect this warming trend, no study has yet taken a...
by Sarah Laskow. The PumPing Tap does not like wasted power. It's an electrical socket with a spring-loaded ejector seat, which pops plugs right out if they're slowly sucking energy when not in active use. The idea is to combat...
by Greg Hanscom. Great news for folks who have watched the value of their exurban McMansions circling the drain over the past few years: These fringe habitations can be returned to nature to find new life as wildlife habitats. It’s...
by Christopher Mims. The Vernagtferner glacier in the portion of the Alps falling within the borders of Austria is said to be cursed. In ancient legend, it buried the cities Onan
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The type of agriculture practiced in a given region depends heavily on the climate and weather that region receives. So naturally, with climate change, agriculture will be forced to change. Certain crops will have to be discarded for...
The type of agriculture practiced in a given region depends heavily on the climate and weather that region receives. So naturally, with climate change, agriculture will be forced to change. Certain crops will have to be discarded for...
Perhaps the largest impact of global climate change will be on agriculture, and there is no crop more sensitive to changes in climate than wine grapes. As temperatures rise and average precipitation levels change, the signature wine-making...
by Christopher Mims. (click to embiggen) Buildings are getting to be so tall that the Council on Tall Buildings came up with a new name for their most extreme versions: Megatall . This is density taken to an extreme that may not be...
by Christopher Mims. Russian scientists have discovered that the Arctic is releasing hundreds, perhaps thousands , of enormous plumes of methane from the seafloor directly into earth's atmosphere. The scale and volume of the methane...
Just in time for our readers’ last minute Christmas Shopping, our friends from IzzitGreen have come up with five great eco-friendly Holiday gifts. As an additional eco-incentive 50% of the proceeds earned for any purchase of...
by Sarah Laskow. There are a few options of what to do with an old landfill: cover it over and leave it alone; turn it into a field for solar panels; convince people t o play soccer on top of it . One town in England is going a step...
by Jess Zimmerman. Get out your panda-counting equipment, because it's panda census time ! China's government is organizing the first panda census in a decade, sending out teams of wildlife biologists over hill and under dale...
by Jess Zimmerman. Get out your panda-counting equipment, because it's panda census time ! China's government is organizing the first panda census in a decade, sending out teams of wildlife biologists over hill and under dale...