Science

Bloom time: my day picking daffodils against the clock

Joining the workforce in Cornwall’s flower fields, I struggled to keep up in the rush to bring in a fragile crop post-BrexitIt’s the kind of day when the cloud is so thick that a heavy greyness hangs in the air. But not in the fields of Fentongollan Farm in Cornwall, where swathes of yellow roll down the hillside, brightening the dull sky with spring cheer. Fentongollan is one of the world’s leading daffodil farms, growing globally renowned varieties that are a dazzling sight in full bloom.“Yes,...
Tags: Europe, Politics, Science, Environment, European Union, UK News, Foreign Policy, Farming, Agriculture, Cornwall, Brexit, Fentongollan Farm, Fentongollan, Frances Hosking

Covid data show sewage monitoring could be vital in infection control

A pilot study’s analysis of schools’ wastewater shows its potential as an early warning system for public health teamsCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageSchools may have had more Covid-19 infections before Christmas than previous research showed, according to data from a pilot study that senior public health experts believe could provide a crucial early warning system against future outbreaks.Covid was present in the sewage of 80% of 16 primary and secondary schools in E...
Tags: Health, England, Science, Education, Environment, Society, UK News, World news, Medical Research, Infectious Diseases, Microbiology, Schools, Waste, Middlesex University, Coronavirus, COVID

An ROV Is Making Incredibly Detailed Maps of the Seafloor Off California

About 20 miles (32 kilometers) off the Californian coast, the 10,500-pound (4,7630-kilogram) remote submersible Doc Ricketts swept its strobe lights and sonar pulses across the seafloor like a transient silent disco. The vehicle wasn’t just putting on a show for the deep-sea denizens of the Pacific. It was mapping the…Read more...
Tags: Science, California, Environment, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Pacific, Lidar, Earth Sciences, Oceanography, Monterey Bay, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Mid Ocean Ridge, Doc Ricketts, Anti Submarine Warfare, Physical Sciences, Seafloor Mapping, Physical Geography

A ‘Travesty’ in the World of Building Codes Could Erode Cities’ Ability to Fight Climate Change

Backroom deals, undemocratic processes, shutting out local voices in favor of industry interests. There’s soap-opera level drama happening in an unlikely space: the world of building codes. But the issues at hand are more than made-for-TV drama, and the outcome could have devastating effects on energy efficiency and…Read more...
Tags: Science, Environment, Articles, Energy Policy, International Energy Agency, Bill Fay, Edison Electric Institute, American Gas Association, Energy Economics, Renewable Energy Transition, Emissions Reduction, Environmental Social Science, Climate Change Policy Of The United States, Lauren Urbanek, Secondary Sector Of The Economy

We Should Give Seals PhDs

Meltwater from Antarctic glaciers is changing the makeup of the region’s oceans more than previously known, a new study finds. The measurements that made these findings possible were collected by an unusual group of researchers: seals.Read more...
Tags: Science, Environment, Antarctica, Glacier, Earth Sciences, Antarctic, University of East Anglia, Meltwater, Glaciology, Physical Geography, Retreat Of Glaciers Since, Yixi Zheng

The Water Crisis in Mississippi America Can’t Afford to Ignore

Right now, Calandra Davis’ water pressure is too low to take a shower. When she turns on her sinks, the water comes out at a slow trickle. For weeks, she’s had to bathe herself and her 6-year-old son with water from store-bought bottles. Like all residents of Jackson, Mississippi, she’s also been on a boil-water…Read more...
Tags: Science, Mississippi, Environment, Articles, Joe Biden, Davis, Water Scarcity, Drinking Water, Reeves, Jackson Mississippi, Patrice Lumumba, Mississippi America, Chokwe Antar Lumumba, Chokwe Lumumba, Rukia Lumumba, City of Jackson

Climate Change Is Killing Butterflies in the American West

Butterflies play essential role in pollinating wild plants and crops. Which makes a new study published in Science on Thursday such bad news. It shows the climate crisis is posing an existential threat to their survival, particularly in the American West.Read more...
Tags: Science, Climate Change, Environment, Articles, Nature, Citizen Science, Habitat, Conservation Biology, Effects Of Climate Change, West Read, Monarch Butterfly Migration, Philosophy Of Biology, Physical Geography, Climate Variability And Change, Matthew Forister, Environment And Environmental Sciences

Asteroid Apophis Is Swinging by This Weekend to Taunt Us

An asteroid with a small chance of hitting Earth in 2068 will swing past our planet in the coming days, providing a rare opportunity for astronomers to observe this potentially hazardous object.Read more...
Tags: Science, Environment, Earth, Asteroids, TNT, Planetary Science, Near Earth Objects, Planetary Defense, Orbits, Apophis, Space Science, Minor Planets, 99942 Apophis, Potentially Hazardous Object, Asteroid Impact Prediction, Tu24

New Satellite Images Show Earth's Latest Gigantic Iceberg

Behold A-74, an enormous iceberg that broke away from the Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica late last month. Here’s what we know about the new ‘berg and what could happen next.Read more...
Tags: Science, Environment, Antarctica, Icebergs, Water Ice, Ice Shelf, Glaciology, Christopher Readinger, Calving, Larsen Ice Shelf, US National Ice Center, Pierre Markuse, Liu Yan, Physical Geography, Geography Of Antarctica, Brunt Ice Shelf

How NASA's Perseverance Landed On Mars: An Aerospace Engineer Breaks It Down In Fascinating Detail

The world rightfully gawked at the engineering prowess of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory as it successfully landed the car-sized rover named Perseverance on the surface of Mars. You might think that I, an engineer with experience working on a deep space mission, would be less impressed than most. But trust me: The…Read more...
Tags: Science, Environment, Nasa, Lander, Rover, Mars, Tom Cruise, Spaceflight, Rube Goldberg, Spacecraft, Opportunity, Airbus A380, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Perseverance, Jezero, Mars rovers

Farmers and rights groups boycott food summit over big business links

Focus on agro-business rather than ecology has split groups invited to planned UN conference on hungerAn international food summit to address growing hunger and diet-related disease is in disarray as hundreds of farmers’ and human rights groups are planning a boycott. Related: 'A shame for the world': Uganda's fragile forest ecosystem destroyed for sugar Continue reading...
Tags: Business, Science, Environment, World news, Uganda, Davos, Farming, United Nations, Agriculture, Global development, Un, Sustainable Development, Environmental Sustainability, Food Security, Private sector

A Chinese Province Could Ban Bitcoin Mining to Cut Down Energy Use

Over the past decade, bitcoin has put increasing stress on the largely coal-powered grid of China’s Inner Mongolia. Now, the province is clamping down. Late last week, province officials announced plans to ban all new bitcoin and other cryptocurrency mining ventures and quickly phase out existing activity in order to…Read more...
Tags: Science, China, Environment, Articles, Cryptography, Bitcoin, Xi Jinping, Cryptocurrencies, Blockchain, Decentralization, Digital Currencies, Inner Mongolia, Proof of Stake, Payment Systems

Big Oil’s New Slate of Desperate Buzzwords Are Greenwashing at Its Worst

The past year has been not great for oil companies. Between financial losses from the pandemic and increasing pressure from investors and the public at large to do something about how their product is messing up the planet, fossil fuel producers are feeling the heat. Read more...
Tags: Energy, Science, Environment, Articles, Renewable Energy, ExxonMobil, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Bill Gates, Abu Dhabi, Greenhouse Gases, United Airlines, Fossil Fuel, Occidental Petroleum, Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Carbon Capture And Storage, Darren Woods

Humans Have Completely Transformed How Water Is Stored on Earth

Human fingerprints are all over the world’s freshwater. A new study published Wednesday in the journal Nature shows that while human-controlled freshwater sources make up a minimal portion of the world’s ponds, lakes, and rivers, they are responsible more than half of all changes to the Earth’s water system.Read more...
Tags: Science, Environment, Articles, Water, Earth, Water Resources, Pond, Earth Sciences, Fresh Water, Hydrology, Bodies of Water, Sarah Cooley, Physical Geography, Climate Variability And Change, Aquatic Ecology, Surface Water

Australian scientist gets baby fish to bust a move to MC Hammer classic

DJ and neuroscientist Rebecca Poulsen – aka BeXta – has studied what happens to a zebrafish’s brain when it hears U Can’t Touch ThisWhat happens inside the brain of a baby zebrafish when you play MC Hammer’s timeless 1990 hip-hop track, U Can’t Touch This, and why is this even a question?“I’ve spent a lot of time looking at the video over and over again to see if there are neurons that respond to the bass or the vocal. In my opinion, there’s something there.” Continue reading...
Tags: Music, Science, Education, Environment, Research, Fish, Autism, Culture, MC Hammer, Rebecca Poulsen

Are poison-packed drones the answer to eastern Australia's mouse plague?

A ‘low-level’ but lasting plague is costing farmers money in lost grain across Queensland, NSW and VictoriaA Queensland farmer has been given approval to fly drones in New South Wales that drop poisoned bait to deal with a worsening mice plague.The end of the long-running drought has been good for farmers, but brought with it mice that feed on grain spilled and left behind during harvesting. Continue reading...
Tags: Science, Australia, Animals, Environment, Australia news, Farming, Queensland, Agriculture, New South Wales, Rural Australia, VictoriaA Queensland

NOAA Acknowledges the New Reality of Hurricane Season

We’re one step closer to officially moving up hurricane season. The National Hurricane Center announced Tuesday that it would formally start issuing its hurricane season tropical weather outlooks on May 15 this year, bumping it up from the traditional start of hurricane season on June 1. The move comes after a recent…Read more...
Tags: Weather, Science, Environment, Noaa, Meteorology, Tropical Cyclone, Arthur, National Hurricane Center, Atlantic Hurricane, Contents, Sean Sublette, Disaster Accident, Atlantic Hurricane Seasons, Pacific Hurricane

An iceberg the size of Los Angeles just broke off Antarctica - and it could happen again within weeks

A view of the North Rift crack on the Brunt Ice Shelf in February 2021. Sebastian Gleich/British Antarctic Survey Videos show a 490-square-mile iceberg breaking off Antarctica's Brunt Ice Shelf. NASA is keeping tabs on two other giant cracks in the ice shelf that are growing rapidly. The shifting ice has forced British scientists to relocate the nearby Halley Research Station. Visit the Business section of Insider for more stories. Antarctica's Brunt Ice Shelf is replete with giant cracks....
Tags: Science, News, Wales, Climate Change, Environment, Los Angeles, Trends, Global Warming, Nasa, Antarctica, Manhattan, South America, Iceberg, Delaware, Antarctic, Swansea University

Biden Rescinds Trump Decision to Turn Sacred Arizona Land Into a Copper Mine

In a victory for Indigenous rights and conservation activists, the Forest Service rescinded its decision to permit a controversial mining project to be built within Arizona’s Tonto National Forest on Monday. Read more...
Tags: Science, Environment, Joe Biden, Arizona, Rio Tinto, Biden, Donald Trump, Forest Service, Trump, Apache, BHP, Tonto National Forest, Resolution Copper, Randy Serraglio, Deb Haaland, Luke Goodrich

Kids Are Being Exposed to a Lot of Concerning Chemicals Through Plastic Toys

Children’s toys contain many potentially toxic chemicals, recent research suggests. The study highlights over 120 concerning chemicals commonly found in plastic toys that could possibly raise a person’s risk of health problems, including cancer.Read more...
Tags: Science, Environment, Endocrinology, Materials, Plastic, United Nations Environment Programme, Polymers, Toxic Substances Control Act, Dielectrics, Phthalate, Plasticizers, Organic Polymers, Polyvinyl Chloride, Health Medical Pharma, Peter Fantke, Flame Retardant

Primates Appeared Almost Immediately After Dinosaurs Went Extinct, New Research Suggests

A formation famous for producing T. rex fossils has now yielded the oldest evidence of primates in the fossil record, in what is being hailed a significant discovery. Read more...
Tags: Science, Environment, Dinosaur, Paleogene, Stephen Chester, Primate, Mammal, Cretaceouspaleogene Extinction Event, Geological History Of Earth, Plesiadapiformes, Mammal Taxonomy, Purgatorius, Gregory Wilson Mantilla, Paleocene, Cenozoic, Placentalia

Extreme Rainfall Has Been Linked With Low Birth Weight in Babies

Increasing extreme weather events is wreaking havoc across the globe, and may be harming the health of newborn babies in some of the world’s most remote and vulnerable populations. New research published Monday in Nature Sustainability finds a strong link between extreme rainfall events in the Amazon, which have been …Read more...
Tags: Amazon, Childhood, Science, Environment, Amazon Rainforest, Midwifery, Amazon River, Effects Of Climate Change, Obstetrics, Neonatology, Continents, Physical Geography, Health Medical Pharma, Birth Weight, Preterm Birth, Human Weight

California City Becomes First in the U.S. to Ban New Gas Stations

Officials from Petaluma, California have decided their city has enough places to fill up gas-powered cars. Last week, the local city council unanimously voted to ban new gas stations, building on a two-year moratorium passed in early 2019. Read more...
Tags: Electric Vehicle, Science, Technology, Environment, Articles, Green Vehicles, Electric Car, Science and Technology, Hydrogen Vehicle, California City, Sustainable Transport, Petaluma California, The Coalition, Emerging Technologies, Sustainable Technologies, Fuel Gas

Satellite Spots NASA’s New Rover—and Its Garbage—From Mars Orbit

The Perseverance rover, along with several components used during the recent landing, have been imaged from space.Read more...
Tags: Science, Environment, Nasa, Mars, Spaceflight, ExoMars, Roscosmos, Spacecraft, Outer Space, Rosalind Franklin, Perseverance, Trace Gas Orbiter, Mars rovers, Mars Exploration Program, In Spaceflight

Iceberg More Than 20 Times the Size of Manhattan Breaks Off Antarctic Ice Shelf

An iceberg more than 20 times the size of Manhattan split off from the Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica this week because our planet is totally having a normal one.Read more...
Tags: Science, Environment, Antarctica, Manhattan, Icebergs, Bas, British Antarctic Survey, Water Ice, Ice Shelf, Glaciology, Calving, Jane Francis, Halley Research Station, Geography Of Antarctica, Argentine Antarctica, British Antarctic Territory

Climatologist Michael E Mann: 'Good people fall victim to doomism. I do too sometimes'

The author and eminent climate scientist on the deniers’ new tactics and why positive change feels closer than it has done in 20 yearsMichael E Mann is one of the world’s most influential climate scientists. He rose to prominence in 1999 as the co-author of the “hockey-stick graph”, which showed the sharp rise in global temperatures since the industrial age. This was the clearest evidence anyone had provided of the link between human emissions and global warming. This made him a target. He and o...
Tags: Science, Climate Change, Environment, Science and scepticism, Michael E Mann, yearsMichael E Mann

This New Image of Venus Shouldn't Actually Exist

A recent flyby of Venus by NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has resulted in an unexpectedly good image of the scorched planet, along with the revelation of a previously unknown capacity for one of the spacecraft’s instruments.Read more...
Tags: Astronomy, Science, Environment, Nasa, Venus, Plasma Physics, Solar Wind, Applied Sciences, Naval Research Laboratory, Space Science, Brian Wood, Parker Solar Probe, Light Sources, Technology Internet, Solar Phenomena, Space Plasmas

Grassroots Groups Just Won a Major Victory Against Fracking in the Northeast

A group of governors passed a resolution that would ban fracking near a crucial waterway on the East Coast, the culmination of more than a decade-long fight by activists and community members. The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), which is comprised of the governors of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New…Read more...
Tags: Science, Environment, East Coast, Mark Ruffalo, Delaware, Hydraulic Fracturing, Delaware River, Delaware River Basin Commission, Jeff Tittel, Delaware River Basin, New Jersey Pennsylvania Delaware, Geography Of The United States, Regions Of The United States, States Of The United States, Drbc, Unconventional Oil

New UN Climate Report Puts the World on 'Red Alert' for Climate Catastrophe

Leading climate scientists are freaking out. That’s a clear takeaway from the latest report commissioned by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the international body that represents the 197 signatories of the Paris Climate Agreement, which was released Friday. Read more...
Tags: Science, Climate Change, Government, Environment, United Nations, United Nations Environment Programme, Foreign Relations, Countries, Antonio Guterres, Paris Agreement, United Nations Climate Change Conference, Patricia Espinosa, Individual And Political Action On Climate Change, Sustainable Development Goal 13, Nationally Determined Contributions

Striking Australian Bee Spotted for First Time in a Century—but It Could Face New Threats

Not since 1923 have scientists gazed upon the Australian cloaked bee. That is, until recently when scientists located a few populations in the wild. But its rediscovery comes as a mixed blessing owing to its potentially threatened status.Read more...
Tags: Science, Environment, Dorsey, Bee, Beekeeping, James Dorey, Branches Of Biology, Academic Disciplines, Eusociality, Insects In Culture, P Lactiferus