Planet Earth, features and articles | Educational Science

Jun 30, 2007

Scientists: Use Golf Courses as Wildlife Sanctuaries

Golf courses could serve as important wildlife sanctuaries, scientists say. There are more than 17,000 golf courses in the United States, and approximately 70 percent of that land is not used for playing, said Ray Semlitsch, a biologist at University of Missouri-Columbia. These managed green spaces aren't surrogates for protected...

Jun 30, 2007

Scientists Monitor Freak Mudflow

A mudflow that recently burst through the banks of a volcanic lake in New Zealand gave scientists an up-close and personal view of the freak event and a chance to test their disaster warning systems. The mudflow was of a type called a lahar, in which water and sediments flow...

Jun 30, 2007

Possible Link to Lucy's Ancestors Found

New jaw fossils might suggest a direct line of descent between two species of early humans, including the one to which Lucy belongs. The 3.2 million-year-old Lucy, the earliest known adult hominid, was found in Ethiopia in 1974 by U.S. paleontologists Donald Johanson and Tom Gray. Lucy and her kind,...

Jun 30, 2007

Strange New Microbe Harvests Sunlight

Yellowstone's hot springs are known to harbor extreme creatures that paint the water shades of red, orange and green. Now scientists have discovered a new type of bacteria with light-harvesting antennae. The oddity among oddities adds to a short list of microbes that can transform light into chemical energy, a...

Jun 30, 2007

More Hurricanes Forming Today than Century Ago

More hurricanes are forming in the Atlantic now than a century ago, most likely because of warmer ocean temperatures and changing wind patterns associated with global warming, a new study finds. Previous research has indicated storms are stronger nowadays, but this is the first study to show a long-term increase...

May 31, 2007

When Men Bite Men: The Dirty Truth

Biting isn’t just for dogs and cats. In the adult arena (think pub brawls), men are 12 times more likely than women to sustain serious human-bite injuries, finds a recent study. “It’s fairly horrendous, but that’s what they do,” said study leader Patricia Eadie of St. James's Hospital in Dublin,...

May 31, 2007

Arizona Dust Causes Colorado Meltdown

Wind-blown dust from the drought-stricken Southwest can speed the melt of snow in Colorado’s mountains, yet another unpredictable effect of climate change, a new study shows. In 2006, snows in areas of Colorado's San Juan Mountains above and below the tree line (above which trees can no longer grow), unexpectedly...

Apr 30, 2007

Image Gallery: Deadly Earthquakes

A City Torn Apart (Image credit: USGS)The California earthquake of April 18, 1906 ranks as one of the most significant earthquakes of all time. It measured a magnitude of 7.8. Shaking damage was equally severe in many other places along the fault rupture. The frequently quoted value of 700 deaths...

Apr 30, 2007

Extreme Summer Forecast: 10 Degrees Hotter by 2080

Global warming could turn the heat way up during the summer in the eastern United States, raising the average by nearly 10 degrees Fahrenheit by the 2080s, a new NASA study finds. “There is the potential for extremely hot summertime temperatures in the future, especially during summers with less-than-average frequent...

Apr 30, 2007

Asphalt-Munching Bacteria Discovered

Vehicles may crowd the asphalt of downtown Los Angeles freeways above ground, but below ground hundreds of newly discovered bacteria thrive by munching on heavy oil and natural asphalt. Trapped in the Rancho La Brea tar pits 28,000 years ago, the bacteria are equipped with special enzymes that can break...

Apr 30, 2007

Greenpeace Building Replica of Noah's Ark

ISTANBUL, Turkey — Environmental activists are building a replica of Noah's Ark on Mount Ararat — where the biblical vessel is said to have landed after the great flood — in an appeal for action on global warming, Greenpeace said Wednesday. Turkish and German volunteer carpenters are making the wooden...

Apr 30, 2007

Letters Reveal Young Darwin Had Stinky Feet

Before Charles Darwin's squeamish stomach forced him to quit medical school, before sailing aboard the HMS Beagle and before penning his masterwork “The Origin of Species,” the future father of evolutionary theory was a child who had bad spelling and stinky feet. I only wash my fett [sic] once a...

Apr 30, 2007

Surprise Increase in Global Carbon Dioxide Output

Carbon dioxide emissions have accelerated globally at a greater rate than expected in recent years, scientists announced today. The average growth rate of the emissions increased from 1.1 percent a year in the 1990s to 3 percent increase per year since 2000, according to a study published this week in...

Apr 30, 2007

The Primal Roots of Red Hair Revealed

Primatologists know humans, apes and monkeys can see red, but have quarreled over what initially locked the adaptation into place. Did it first help primates find meals, or was the ability to see a red-headed, red-skinned mate from a mile away the first benefit of full-color vision? A new study...

Apr 30, 2007

Cyclones Could Save Oceanic Conveyor Belt From Global Warming

The ferocious winds of tropical cyclones churn up ocean water as they spin over the surface, significantly affecting the transport of heat in the ocean, a new study finds. And as global warming heats up the ocean surface, this process could be intensified, preventing the potential shutdown of the oceanic...