Oil spill grows from stricken ship off New Zealand
By Reuters, Wellington, NZ An oil spill from a container ship stricken off New Zealand is growing as the weather deteriorates, sending clumps of thick fuel oil on to nearby beaches, officials said on Tuesday. The 47,230-tonne Liberian-flagged Rena has been stranded on a reef about 12 nautical miles off Tauranga on the east coast […]
How many different dust particles are you breathing?
In any given room, even the most sterile scientific cleanrooms, there are dust particles in the air and coating every surface. If allowed to go uncleaned, the dust will accumulate to eventually cover every surface. But what exactly is the dust in the air and on our tables and shelves? A chemistry research team at […]
Study: Human brain evolved to predict smells
Of all our sensory organs, the sense of smell is often overlooked. While visual, auditory, and tactile perception are important, the olfactory sense also plays a subtle yet meaningful role in our daily lives. The animal brain has an amazing ability to recognize and associate smells entering the nostrils. However, according to a research study […]
Ada Lovelace Day: Inspiring women in action
Ada Lovelace Day (7 October) aims to raise the profile of women in science, technology, engineering and maths by encouraging people around the world to talk about the women whose work they admire. Ada Lovelace (1815-1852) was an English female writer and mathematician, widely held to have been the first computer programmer.Our...
Lake Agassiz: questions about its origin and disappearance
Lake Agassiz was an immense glacial lake located in the centre of North America (Manitoba mostly). Fed by glacial runoff at the end of the last glacial period, its area was larger than all of the modern Great Lakes combined, and it held more water than contained by all lakes in the world today. At […]
Steve Jobs dead at 56
The co-founder and former chief executive officer of Apple Inc. Steve Jobs has died yesterday at the age of 56, according to the company website. On August 24, Jobs resigned from his post as CEO. He has been fighting pancreatic cancer since 2004. Jobs, born in San Francisco on February 24, 1955, has built the most valuable ...
Population has bigger effect than climate change on crop yields, study suggests
By Bernard Appiah, Science and Development Network Population pressure will be as significant a factor as climate change in reducing crop yields — and thus increasing food insecurity — in West Africa, according to a modeling study. The authors inserted different climate change, land use, and demographic change scenarios, into an internationally validated model to […]
Coffee: is the black stuff as green as it should be?
By George Blacksel, The Ecologist.org The world’s second most tradable commodity after oil; coffee growing and processing has proven itself to be a lucrative industry. The burgeoning coffee culture that sprang up over the last few decades has led to overwhelming success for handful of coffee franchises and a massive spike in supermarket sales. Of […]
Arctic ozone loss ‘unprecedented’ above Arctic
A NASA-led study has documented an unprecedented depletion of Earth’s protective ozone layer above the Arctic last winter and spring caused by an unusually prolonged period of extremely low temperatures in the stratosphere. The study, published online Sunday, Oct. 2, in the journal Nature, finds the amount of ozone destroyed in the Arctic in 2011 […]
Major rivers have enough water to sustain growing populations: report
By Yale Environment 360 A new study says the world’s major river systems contain more than enough water to meet global food production needs in the 21st century. Following a five-year study of 10 river basins, including the Nile. With global population expected to surpass 7 billion people this year, the staggering impact on an […]
