Energy, features and articles | Educational Science

Nov 30, 2015

5 Facts to Know About the California Methane Leak

A methane leak in Southern California has forced thousands of people from their homes. Although the gas first began spewing from a leaky underground well in October, the gas company only recently identified the source of the leak. Now, officials with the company say it could be months before the...

Aug 31, 2015

How Plastics-to-Fuel Can Become the Next Green Machine (Op-Ed)

Doug Woodring is director and co-founder of the Ocean Recovery Alliance, a nonprofit that brings together innovative solutions, technology, collaborations and policy to benefit ocean health. Steve Russell is vice president of the American Chemistry Council's Plastics Division, which leads efforts to reduce, reuse, recycle and recover more plastics through...

Dec 31, 2014

Seattle vs. Boston: Who Wins the 'Energy Bowl'?

This article was updated at 11:05 a.m. ET on Feb. 2. The Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots will face each other on the gridiron for Super Bowl supremacy Sunday (Feb. 1). But sorry, Seattle — you've already been declared losers in the realm of energy efficiency. It was...

Jul 22, 2016

Mysterious Green Foam Spews from Drain in Utah

This month has brought flora troubles to Utah, with a green foam bubbling through a street vent and a poop-fueled algae bloom covering the state's third-largest lake. Residents in Bluffdale, Utah, located about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of Salt Lake City, were shocked to find a green, foam-like substance...

Nov 2, 2016

Does Daylight Saving Time Really Save Energy?

On Nov. 6, most Americans will sigh heavily and turn back their clocks one hour for the end of daylight saving time. The time change is loved by some (retailers, which lobbied Congress for an extension in 2005) and hated by others (farmers, who find that livestock don't respect the...

Dec 7, 2016

Legal Pot Farmers Hope to Grow a Green Energy Revolution

After a flood of pro-pot ballot measures in November, recreational marijuana use will soon be legal in eight U.S. states plus the District of Columbia, and medical marijuana will be legal in 29 states. Barring a federal clampdown from the incoming Trump administration, analysts expect legal cannabis to be a...

Dec 13, 2016

Rick Perry Tapped to Run Energy Agency He Vowed to Kill

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a climate science denier who once said that he wanted to shut down the U.S. Department of Energy, has been nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to run that very agency. In Perry's famous oops! moment in 2011 that helped derail his candidacy for president, he...

Dec 15, 2016

What Does the Department of Energy Do, Really?

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. A former governor of Texas — the state that produces more crude oil, natural gas, lignite coal, wind power and refined petroleum products than any other — would seem...

Apr 19, 2018

Why Is a Train Filled with Human Poop Stuck Outside This Alabama Town?

A train filled with smelly human excrement from New York City has been stranded in a small Alabama town for two months, according to news sources. This situation is definitely strange, and it begs at least two questions: What exactly is on this train, and why the heck is it...

Sep 17, 2018

If You Throw a Compostable Cup in the Trash, Does It Still Break Down?

Compostable products are all the rage these days. But what happens to these items — including compostable straws and silverware — when they're thrown into a landfill instead of a compost heap? The answer is not as green as you might think. The composting process requires oxygen and, for the...

May 23, 2019

What Is Potential Energy?

Potential energy is the latent energy in an object at rest, and is one of two forms of energy. The other form, kinetic energy, is the energy expressed by an object in motion. Potential energy is a core concept of any physics-based discussion, and one of the most influential variables...

Dec 18, 2019

Catastrophic Ohio Methane Leak Stayed Hidden Until a Satellite Found It

A little-noticed 2018 methane leak at an Exxon Mobil site in Ohio was one of the worst in recent memory, outpacing the methane emissions from the entire oil and gas industries of many countries. That's according to a paper published Dec. 16 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy...

Jan 25, 2020

Where does all our poop go?

Humans produce a lot of poo. An average adult flushes about 320 lbs. (145 kilograms) of it down the toilet each year. But what happens to all that waste? It turns out that the stuff we flush down the toilet is surprisingly useful. A significant portion of flushed poo, in...

May 28, 2020

Guys, live cannonballs are not recyclable. Ask me how I know.

A recycling center in Michigan was recently evacuated after someone tried to recycle a Civil War cannonball. Officials with the police and fire departments in Grand Rapids, Michigan, received a call on May 19 that a cannonball dating to the Civil War had been discovered on the processing line at...

Jan 11, 2022

How do energy saving light bulbs work?

Energy saving light bulbs were invented as a greener alternative to traditional bulbs, needing 90% less electricity to produce the same light, according to the Centre of Sustainable Energy. But how do they do it? As bright ideas go, it’s almost impossible to overstate the impact the humble light bulb...