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Doomsday Clock Set at 3 Minutes to Midnight
Posted by LiveScience: Megan Gannon on January 22nd, 2015
LiveScience: The world is "3 minutes" from doomsday.
That's the grim outlook from board members of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Frustrated with a lack of international action to address climate change and shrink nuclear arsenals, they decided today (Jan. 22) to push the minute hand of their iconic "Doomsday Clock" to 11:57 p.m.
It's the first time the clock hands have moved in three years; since 2012, the clock had been fixed at 5 minutes to symbolic doom, midnight.
The Bulletin of the Atomic...
Smoke plumes from San Diego fires visible from space
Posted by LiveScience: Megan Gannon on May 16th, 2014
LiveScience: Smoke from wildfires raging in Southern California can be seen from space. In this satellite image, captured by NASA's Earth-watching Aqua spacecraft on Wednesday, May 14, sandy-colored plumes stretch out over the Pacific Ocean from San Diego County, where firefighters are battling intense blazes. The fire started Wednesday just north of San Diego, fueled by dry conditions, gusty winds and temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37 degrees Celsius). The blaze split into several separate fires...
Peru Park Sets Record for Reptile, Amphibian Biodiversity
Posted by LiveScience: Megan Gannon on February 25th, 2014
LiveScience: For reptiles and amphibians, southern Peru's Manu National Park is the most diverse protected area on the planet.
Scientists have counted a recording-breaking 287 species of of snakes, lizards, turtles, frogs and salamanders within the borders of the largely inaccessible and undeveloped reserve and its buffer zone.
The landscape of Manu National Park ranges from lowland Amazonian rainforests to high-altitude cloud forests along the eastern slope of the Andes. The area is accessible by dirt...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Peru Park Sets Record for Reptile, Amphibian BiodiversityLife found in the muck of Antarctic lake
Posted by LiveScience: Megan Gannon on September 11th, 2013
LiveScience: Researchers have found signs of life in mud pulled from the bottom of an ice-covered lake in Antarctica. Studying microbes in such extreme and closed-off environments could help scientists understand how life may thrive in the harshest places on Earth and potentially other planets. Scientists with the British Antarctic Survey and other institutions drilled through the ice sheet to dig up clean sediment samples from the bottom of Lake Hodgson, which is on the Antarctic Peninsula and 305 feet (93...
Global Warming Worsened Australia’s Record Hot Summer
Posted by LiveScience: Megan Gannon on June 27th, 2013
LiveScience: Human-caused global warming played a role in making this past summer Australia's hottest on record, a new study suggests.
The summer of 2012-2013 probably won't retain its title for long; researchers say record-breaking scorching summers are five times more likely to occur now in Australia due to climate change.
"Our research has shown that, due to greenhouse gas emissions, these types of extreme summers will become even more frequent and more severe in the future," study author Sophie Lewis...
Ice Seals Get Endangered Species Protection
Posted by LiveScience: Megan Gannon on December 29th, 2012
LiveScience: Six groups of seals threatened by shrinking sea ice are gaining new protections under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced late last week.
NOAA will list as threatened two distinct bearded seal populations -- one in the Beringia region, which includes Alaska, and one in the Okhotsk region of Russia's far east -- and three subspecies of ringed seals (Arctic, Okhotsk and Baltic). Another ringed seal subspecies found only in...