Earth Environment Underground

When+whales+poop+at+the+surface+of+the+ocean%2C+they+bring+nitrogen%2C+an+essential+nutrient%2C+up+from+the+bottom.+Fish+feed+off+nitrogen-rich+algae+that+grows+off+the+dung%2C+and+scientists+believe+this+may+play+a+critical+role+in+the+ocean+ecosystem.&media… Read ahead

Source: npr.org

Latest at npr.org

• Whales Help Fertilize Ocean With Floating Dung
• White House ‘Asian Carp Czar’ Outlines His Strategy For Eradicating Species
• Study Links Honeybee Deaths To Fungus, Insect Virus
• A Photographer’s Challenge: Oil Spill Animals
• Canada Joins U.S. In Study Of Asian Carp
• Ig Nobel To Nobel: Creative (And Fun) Science Wins
• A Certain Number Of Leagues Under The Sea: Photos Of The First Marine Census

A study recently published by researchers based in Montréal, Canada, has found a worrying correlation between markers for air pollution and breast cancer. The scientists used detailed historical air-pollution map tracking nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a good marker for air quality, and the home addresses of women diagnosed with breast cancer in a 1996-97, something that hadn’t been done before. … Read ahead

Source: treehugger.com

Latest at treehugger.com

• Humpback Whale’s Journey Breaks Distance Record
• Nominations are Open for the 2011 UNEP Champion of the Earth
• Futuristic Vertical Park Stacks Up “Memories of Nature”, Includes Rock Climbing and Mountain Biking
• Actors Demonstrate How To Save Energy… In a Glass-Walled Shipping Container
• Why Denying Climate Change is Bad Politics
• Breast Cancer Possibly Linked to Air Pollution
• Weekday Vegetarian: Beets and Greens Quesadillas

Since 2006, 20 to 40 percent of the bee colonies in the United States alone have suffered “colony collapse.” Suspected culprits ranged from pesticides to genetically modified food. Now, a unique partnership — of military scientists and entomologists — appears to have achieved a major breakthrough: identifying a new suspect, or two. A fungus tag-teaming with a virus have apparently interacted to cause the problem, according to a paper by Army scientists in Maryland and bee experts in Montana in … Read ahead

Source: nytimes.com

Republican Senate candidates may or may not agree on the science behind witchcraft, but they are united in disbelief in the overwhelming science that demonstrates manmade causes to global climate change. Increasingly, these candidates are doing their best to boil a witch’s stew of doubt by attacking the veracity of science and scientists. Emerging from the campaign trail is the notion that vulnerable House Democrats are “losing” their races due mostly to their vote in favor of the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES). Let’s ignore the fact that the election isn’t over yet and drill down on the false pretense that the ACES vote or support for addressing our energy security and climate change is unpopular with voters. More and more, Americans are viewing climate change as a matter of national security. Earlier this year, the Department of Defense declared climate change a “threat multiplier,” and just this week … Read ahead

Source: thehill.com

The Zuni Indians thought a red moon brought water. Seventeenth-century English farmers believed in a “dripping moon,” which supplied rain depending on whether its crescent was tilted up or down. Now scientists have found evidence for another adage: Rain follows the full and new phases of the moon. Most studies on the weather and moon phases appeared in the 1960s and seemed to lend credence to lunar folklore. Researchers detected more peaks in rainfall in the days after the full and new moons, for example. Recently, three researchers decided to revive the issue when they stumbled across a link between moon phases and stream runoff while working on another project. They will soon publish in … Read ahead

Source: news.sciencemag.org

Latest at news.sciencemag.org

• ScienceShot: Biggest Genome Ever
• ScienceShot: Building Blocks of Life in Titan’s Atmosphere?
• Video: Walking Tall, Bacterial Style
• Join the Discussion: Returning Tribal Remains
• Folklore Confirmed: The Moon’s Phase Affects Rainfall
• Carbon Catalysts Get Chemistry Nod
• How Volcanoes Feed Plankton

Since 2006, 20 to 40 percent of the bee colonies in the United States alone have suffered “colony collapse.” Suspected culprits ranged from pesticides to genetically modified food. Now, a unique partnership — of military scientists and entomologists — appears to have achieved a major breakthrough: identifying a new suspect, or two. A fungus tag-teaming with a virus have apparently interacted to cause the problem, according to a paper by Army scientists in Maryland and bee experts in Montana in … Read ahead

Source: nytimes.com

Irrigated by one of the world’s mightiest river systems, the Murray-Darling Basin yields almost half of Australia’s fresh produce. But the basin is ailing and scientists fear that as climate change grips the driest inhabited continent its main food bowl could become a global warming ground zero. The2026 … Read ahead

Source: nzherald.co.nz

Latest at nzherald.co.nz

• Flooding forces out 94,000
• China: 94,000 evacuated after fresh floods
• Moderate quake shakes Taiwan
• Oz: a climate change hotspot
• Floods expose civilian-military divide in Pakistan
• Fears of terrorism in wake of floods
• Quake-busting bed

Though some of the oil from the Deepwater Horizon has now disappeared, scientists are trying to figure out what the remaining oil is doing to marine life. A damage assessment for a place the size of the Gulf is a huge and complicated job, but out of sight does not mean out of mind. … Read ahead

Source: npr.org

Latest at npr.org

• On The Scale Of Evil, Where Do Murderers Rate?
• Images Show A Shrinking Moon
• Should Science Take Sides In The Gulf?
• Meditation For A Stronger Brain
• Plastics Piling Up In Atlantic Ocean
• Going Green At College
• Atwood On Science, Fiction And ‘The Flood’

Today scientists revealed the results of an investigation into the severity of the Deepwater oil spill. The plume of petroleum hydrocarbon chemicals measures a staggering 22 miles long & has settled in a deep underwater layer. They were able to study … Read ahead

Source: io9.com

Latest at io9.com

• What it’s like to be cut off from your Internet brain implant [Book Review]
• Two new scientific studies reveal hallucinogens are good for your mental health [Drugs]
• Spot the hidden probe droid in this exclusive new Star Wars poster [Exclusive]
• Ancient galaxies defy convention, crank out stars well into their old age [Space Porn]
• Captain America and the Vampire Queen of Louisiana have noir-tinged sex in Frank Miller’s new film [Frank Miller]
• Scientific proof that the Deepwater oil plume is over 20 miles long [Breaking]
• Classic science fiction theme tunes sound even spacier slowed down [Theme Tunes]

As corals face a daily bashing through warm, polluted waters, the scientists at University of Hawaii at Manoa and the Smithsonian Institution are building up a bank of frozen sperm and embryos of Hawaiian coral species, just in case. The diversity of … Read ahead

Source: treehugger.com

Latest at treehugger.com

• The Problem With ‘Shoot to Kill’ Conservation
• ‘Spontaneous City’ of Birdhouses Springs Up in London
• Illinois Mandates Utilities to Buy More Solar Power
• Earth Has 12% Fewer Mangroves Than Previously Thought, New Satellite Data Reveals
• A Summer Pavilion Made from 2,000 Beer Crates
• Tesla Co-Founder: Electric Cars with 500+ Mile Range by 2020
• Today on Planet 100: Eat, Pray, Love, and Shop? (Video)