Luminous 3-D Jungle Is a Biologist's Dream
3/19/2010 2:53:03 PM
The new film "Avatar" explores life forms both familiar and fantastic, but a viewer does not have to be a scientist to enjoy the experience.

The Earth Is Crying Out for Help
3/19/2010 2:53:03 PM
The planet is signaling very clearly that greenhouse gas concentrations are now too high.

The Missing Piece
3/19/2010 2:53:03 PM
Ten years ago, Maya Lin wrote that she was officially retiring from "the monument business." After completing the landmark Vietnam Veterans Memorial (Washington, D.C., 1982), the artist and architect designed three major civic works commemorating significant American passages: the Civil Rights Memorial (1989), commissioned by the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala.; the Women's Table (1993) in honor of coeducation at Yale University, her alma mater; and the continuing Confluence Pro...

Planetary Matters
3/19/2010 2:53:03 PM
A day isn't just a standard measure, all the same size so each fits on a calendar page. A day is a period of light, an astronomical event.

German Geothermal Project Leads to Second Thoughts After the Earth Rumbles
3/19/2010 2:53:03 PM
German officials are reviewing the safety of a plant that extracts heat from below the earth's surface, an operation that scientists say set off an earthquake last month.

Earthquake observatory in Northern Chile to monitor the last seismic gap
Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:00:00 EDT
The high-magnitude earthquake of Feb. 27, 2010 in southern Central Chile closed one of the two remaining seismic gaps at the South American plate boundary. After the quake of Concepción, the remaining gap in the north of Chile now holds potential for a comparable strong quake and is, thus, moving more and more into the focus of attention.

Mastery of rare-earth elements vital to America's security
Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EDT
Used in everything from batteries to electric motors, rare earth elements are vital to America's security, a senior metallurgist at the US Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory, told members of the Investigations & Oversight Subcommittee of the House Committee on Science and Technology. Yet, the great majority of rare earth mining and production currently takes place in China.

Ever-changing Earth: How the atmosphere can affect planet's shape, rotation, gravitational field
Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:00:00 EST
Researchers in Austria are investigating the effects of the Earth's atmosphere on our planet's shape, its rotation and its gravitational field. The researchers' aim is to develop a better understanding of the Earth's system and to support the development of the Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS).

Earthquake in Chile: A complicated fracture
Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:00:00 EST
The extremely strong earthquake that struck Chile Feb. 27 was a complicated rupture process, scientists say. Quakes with such magnitude virtually penetrate the entire Earth's crust. After closer analysis of the seismic waves radiated by this earthquake during the first 134 seconds after start of the rupture, the researchers came to the conclusion that only the region around the actual epicentre was active during the first minutes.

Increased solar radiation requires additional CO₂ reduction of 50 million tonnes, analysis finds
Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:00:00 EST
The recently observed reduction in air pollution implies that more solar radiation reaches Earth’s surface. This could lead to a far more rapid increase in Earth’s temperature in the coming decades than has previously been expected. In order to successfully combat global warming, it is crucial that scientists incorporate increases in CO2 emissions reductions as well as reductions in air pollution in the calculations, according to a new analysis based on unique solar radiation data collected from weather stations between 1959 and 2002.