This past Wednesday, a full moon shone in the night sky. But it wasn't just any full moon--it was the Harvest Moon, so called because farmers would use the light from the Harvest Moon to illuminate fields during the fall harvest. There's more from Science@NASA. Also: every full moon of the calendar year has its own name and lore. Find out more from nineplanets.org.
Scientists working with iron ores from Australia have figured out that oxygen existed on Earth some 50 to 100 million years earlier than previously thought. Get the full story from the National Science Foundation.
The Bush Administration is now pushing for countries to curb greenhouse gas emissions, but is wonderfully vague on how exactly that should be accomplished. The latest issue of Scientific American magazine has more.
This week, NASA launched the Dawn spacecraft on a 1.7-billion-mile journey to study asteroids. What Dawn learns may completely redraw our conclusions about the formation, evolution and future of the Solar System. Space.com has a breathtaking picture of Thursday morning's launch.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Caves on Mars and Ice on Earth
The Mars Odyssey probe is seding back some interesting images: it's discovered cave entrances on the slopes of a Martian volcano. The discovery is prompting a fresh round of speculation about habitats for life on the Red Planet.
Even as the Northern Hemisphere approacces winter, the sea ice around the North Pole is down to its smallest extent in history. Mark Serreze, a scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, says that the 2007 figures "shatter" the old record, which goes all the way back...to 2005.
That old rock that used to sit on your bureau or desk; the one you claimed was an exotic fossil--what was it really? Would you even know how to tell the difference between the genuine article and a fake? Geologist Andrew Alden takes a crack at the basics in What Are Fossils?
In this week's Chanticleer, I'm working on a story about college students' sometimes-unusual sleep habits. Sleep problems are getting worse for students, and it doesn't look good for caffeine lovers like me. Check it out in the September 27 edition of the Chanticleer.
Even as the Northern Hemisphere approacces winter, the sea ice around the North Pole is down to its smallest extent in history. Mark Serreze, a scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, says that the 2007 figures "shatter" the old record, which goes all the way back...to 2005.
That old rock that used to sit on your bureau or desk; the one you claimed was an exotic fossil--what was it really? Would you even know how to tell the difference between the genuine article and a fake? Geologist Andrew Alden takes a crack at the basics in What Are Fossils?
In this week's Chanticleer, I'm working on a story about college students' sometimes-unusual sleep habits. Sleep problems are getting worse for students, and it doesn't look good for caffeine lovers like me. Check it out in the September 27 edition of the Chanticleer.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Mysteries Meteorologic and Geologic
Happy Saturday, science fans! I just like saying "science fans." Science fans.
You probably caught stories about Hurricane Humberto this week, but what you may not know is that Humberto was one of the fastest-intensifying tropical systems on record. He went from a tropical depression to category one hurricane in just fourteen hours. James Franklin, a forecaster at the National Hurricane Center in Miami, says it would be nice to know why that happened -- "someday."
More than forty earthquakes shook Indonesia this week, and seven of them were magnitude 6 or above -- a rare occurrence, indeed. Here's a map of the region, and the accompanying list of recent earthquakes. Seismologists are unsure what, if any, connection the recent activity has to a larger seismic, tectonic or volcanic framework.
Finally, I'm working on a feature story on forensic science classes in colleges and universities. More and more students are getting into forensics because of TV shows and books, but are they sticking with it to become qualified professionals, or are they becoming disillusioned by the line between real-life science and television? It's a basic question that leads us down many roads to many opinions. Find out how it works out next Thursday in the Chanticleer, and in early October on Alabama Public Radio.
You probably caught stories about Hurricane Humberto this week, but what you may not know is that Humberto was one of the fastest-intensifying tropical systems on record. He went from a tropical depression to category one hurricane in just fourteen hours. James Franklin, a forecaster at the National Hurricane Center in Miami, says it would be nice to know why that happened -- "someday."
More than forty earthquakes shook Indonesia this week, and seven of them were magnitude 6 or above -- a rare occurrence, indeed. Here's a map of the region, and the accompanying list of recent earthquakes. Seismologists are unsure what, if any, connection the recent activity has to a larger seismic, tectonic or volcanic framework.
Finally, I'm working on a feature story on forensic science classes in colleges and universities. More and more students are getting into forensics because of TV shows and books, but are they sticking with it to become qualified professionals, or are they becoming disillusioned by the line between real-life science and television? It's a basic question that leads us down many roads to many opinions. Find out how it works out next Thursday in the Chanticleer, and in early October on Alabama Public Radio.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)