Planet Earth, features and articles | Educational Science

Jun 30, 2005

Hurricane Dennis in 3-D

Hurricane Dennis, seen in this 3-D visualization, became a very dangerous Category 4 hurricane Friday as it churned toward Florida. Officials at the National Hurricane Center said sustained winds were near 150 mph. The storm is expected to come ashore along the Gulf Coast Sunday or early Monday. The image...

Jun 30, 2005

Military Mulls Use of 'Star Trek' Weapons

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) -- For years, the U.S. military has explored a new kind of firepower that is instantaneous, precise and virtually inexhaustible: beams of electromagnetic energy. Directed-energy'' pulses can be throttled up or down depending on the situation, much like the phasers on Star Trek'' could be set to...

Jun 30, 2005

Heat and Hype: The Truth about the Scorching Southwest

PHOENIX - The Southwest has been gripped by a deadly heat wave that might seem extraordinary to newcomers, those with short memories, or anyone who pays too much attention to the media. This has gone on a little too long, 41-year-old Arizona native Joe Della Rocca told the Associated Press....

Jun 30, 2005

Hot West Now Faces Fires and Flash Floods

Some 200 locations in the West set daily record highs this past week with little relief in sight. Soon that may be the good news. Changing weather has already dealt another blow: As more moisture moved into the region, clashes in the atmosphere set off lightning that triggered wildfires. Next...

Jun 30, 2005

Avoidable Lightning Deaths Mount in 2005

Lightning has killed at least 14 people and injured more than 100 in the United States since early June, according to a statement issued today by NOAA, parent organization of the National Weather Service. The statistics were based on reports from local Weather Service offices and news accounts. An average...

Jun 30, 2005

Zonkeys, Wolphins and Ligers: Nature Loves a Hybrid

Although they capture the imagination, the liger (lion/tiger), the wholphin (whale/dolphin), and the zonkey (zebra/donkey) are all hybrids that are unlikely to be found in the wild. But new research into a certain fruit fly may be evidence that hybrids are more common in nature than thought. Like the mule...

May 31, 2005

125 Large Northern Lakes Disappear

A new study finds 125 large lakes in the Arctic have vanished as temperatures rose over the past two decades. Many other lakes have shrunk. The lakes once sat atop permanently frozen soil called permafrost. Other studies have shown permafrost is melting around the world, causing low-lying ground to slump...

May 31, 2005

Surprise New Technique Improves Hurricane Tracking

Hurricanes are like giant mixers. The colossal storms suck air and moisture inward at the surface and, when they really get going, pump it out a natural chimney several miles high. Scientists struggle to see exactly what's going on inside a developing storm, and that imperfect view is partly to...

May 31, 2005

Tornado Deaths on Decline

The number of tornado deaths has decreased by nearly half since a network of Doppler weather radars were installed nationwide a decade ago, according to a new study. The radar array has improved forecasts and warning times. The Weather Surveillance Radar-1988 Doppler (WSR-88D), also known as NEXRAD, was installed in...

May 31, 2005

Space Ring Could Shade Earth and Stop Global Warming

A wild idea to combat global warming suggests creating an artificial ring of small particles or spacecrafts around Earth to shade the tropics and moderate climate extremes. There would be side effects, proponents admit. An effective sunlight-scattering particle ring would illuminate our night sky as much as the full Moon,...

May 31, 2005

Bush: Kyoto Treaty would have 'Wrecked Our Economy'

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) -- President Bush said in a Danish TV interview aired Thursday that adhering to the Kyoto treaty on climate change would have wrecked'' the U.S. economy. Kyoto would have wrecked our economy. I couldn't in good faith have signed Kyoto,'' Bush told the Danish Broadcasting Corp., noting...

Apr 30, 2005

Only in California: Daily Earthquake Forecasts

Geologists have constructed a model that calculates the probability of an earthquake for a given day and location in California, much like a meteorologist announces today's chance of rain. A color-coded probability map is available on the Internet. When an earthquake strikes, follow-up temblors, or aftershocks, are quite possible. Matthew...

Apr 30, 2005

Study Reveals Natural Air Cleaners

New! Improved! 20 percent more cleaning power! That could be the label on new smog-reducing product found in Earth's atmosphere. Natural chemicals in the air scrub away pollution more effectively than previously thought, according to new research. Chemicals in the air produce natural air cleaners called hydroxyl radicals, which gobble...

Apr 30, 2005

H2O or H1.5O? Water Mystery Solved

No matter how long you look at it, a water molecule is still just two hydrogens latched onto one oxygen. So says a new experiment, which contradicts a previous claim that water lost at least half of a hydrogen - effectively becoming H1.5O - when looked at with an extremely...

Apr 30, 2005

Hurricane Guide: 2008 Season Gets Busy

Hurricane season in the Atlantic Basin, which includes the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, runs from June 1 to Nov. 30. ON THIS PAGE Saffir-Simpson Scale | Deadliest | Costliest Vulnerable States | Busiest Months | 2008 Names THE 2008 SEASON Ike Underscores Foolishness of Building on Barrier IslandsWhy...