Oldest measurement of Earth's magnetic field reveals battle between sun and Earth

Mar 5 | News

According to findings by Univ. of Rochester researchers who visited sites in Africa known to contain extremely old rocks, the Earth’s magnetic field 3.5 billion years ago was only half as strong as it is today. This may mean the Sun took away much of Earth’s hydrogen and water.

Evidence of hydrothermal vents on the seafloor near Antarctica

Mar 4 | News

Scientists at Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory have found evidence of hydrothermal vents on the seafloor near Antarctica, formerly a blank spot on the map for researchers wanting to learn more about seafloor formation and the bizarre life forms drawn to these extreme environments.

Phytoplankton play role in global climate change

Mar 3 | News

Phytoplankton are single-celled organisms that serve as the base of the marine food web and provide half the oxygen we breathe on Earth. They also play a key role in global climate change by removing carbon from the atmosphere and injecting it deep into the oceans.

Prehistoric response to global warming informs human planning today

4 hours ago | News

Since 2004, University at Buffalo anthropologist Ezra Zubrow has worked intensively with teams of scientists in the Arctic regions of St. James Bay, Quebec, northern Finland and Kamchatka to understand how humans living 4,000 to 6,000 years ago reacted to climate changes.

90Q: A curious short-lived 'tropical' cyclone in the southern Atlantic

4 hours ago | News

Tropical cyclones typically don't form in the Southern Atlantic because the waters are usually too cool. However, forecasters at the Naval Research Laboratory noted that a low pressure system off the coast of Brazil appeared to have tropical storm-force winds yesterday.

Mysterious cosmic 'dark flow' tracked deeper into universe

4 hours ago | News

Distant galaxy clusters mysteriously stream at a million miles per hour along a path roughly centered on the southern constellations Centaurus and Hydra. A new study led by Alexander Kashlinsky at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., tracks this collective motion -- dubbed the...

Texas earthquake study cites 'plausible cause'

9 hours ago | News

A study published in the March issue of "The Leading Edge" examines series of small earthquakes occurring near the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport between Oct. 30, 2008, and May 16, 2009.

Large mammals need protected areas, forest cover in India

10 hours ago | News

A study of extinction patterns of 25 large mammal species in India finds that improving existing protected areas, creating new areas, and interconnecting them will be necessary for many species to survive this century.

TU Delft improves production of chemicals from wood waste

10 hours ago | News

Researchers from TU Delft in the Netherlands discovered that the bacterium Cupriavidus basilensis breaks down harmful by-products which are produced when sugars are released from wood. They also managed to incorporate the degradation process in bacteria which are in common industrial use. This...

Intentional environmental variations increase result validity in mouse testing

11 hours ago | News

For decades, the traditional practice in animal testing has been standardization, but a study involving Purdue Univ. has shown that adding as few as two controlled environmental variables to preclinical mice tests can greatly reduce costly false positives, the number of animals needed for testing and the cost of pharmaceutical trials.

Nature gives clues to a way to break down a common greenhouse gas

11 hours ago | News

A recent discovery in understanding how to chemically break down the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into a useful form opens the doors for scientists to wonder what organism is out there—or could be created—to accomplish the task.

Evidence: Snowball Earth was iced to the equator

12 hours ago | News

Ancient tropical rocks that now reside in the remote northern reaches of Canada tell the tale: about 716.5 million years ago the Earth lay bound in a layer of ice that limited life to eukaryotes. Strangely, this glaciation—history’s most extensive at 5 million years, say researchers at NSF and Harvard—occurred at about the same time that animals appear in the fossil record.

Co-orbital restricted three-body problem and its application

12 hours ago | News

Researchers from China and Germany have shown an approximate semi-analytical solution for the planar co-orbital circular restricted three-body problem, which has been applied to the motion of the barycenter of the planned gravitational observatory LISA constellation, extend the applicable region to...

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A clean energy America…is it coming or not?

Feb 24 | RDBlog

Almost a year ago, the buzz during the downturn was that the economic stimulus will help boost jobs in a sort of national improvement program reminiscent of the 1930s. Our coal would be phased out. Our grids would get smart. Our cars would get hybridized.

Build-up over the Y chromosome

Jan 15 | RDBlog

The Y chromosome—it is the one genetic factor that determines whether you will be a male or female and now it is also evolving faster than expected. However, what does this new discovery actually mean to the world of genetics without opening a debate that may cause gender disagreements?

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