Articles in the Category: Environment

SDF: Jackson Browne’s Ode to the Ocean

SDF: Jackson Browne’s Ode to the Ocean
Editor’s Note: It’s Science Ditty Friday. Every Friday REALscience compiles a song (generally with an accompanying video) to kick your weekend off with a musical start. Have a favorite science song? Send it to ditty@realscience.us. When legendary marine biologist Sylvia Earle started exploring...

Snakes on a Glade

Snakes on a Glade
Florida has been wrestling with its python problem for years. Thanks to the tropical temps in south Florida the Everglades National Park has become a dumping ground for unwanted reptiles, particularly the non-native Burmese python. Wildlife officials have been battling the snakes for about twenty years....

State of the Union Skimps on Science

State of the Union Skimps on Science
For those expecting President Barack Obama to expound on the accomplishments of his laundry list of science and innovation policy he outlined in last year’s State of the Union, there were a few nods to but no specifics in this third State of the Union address on Tuesday evening. As Forbes reported...

SDF: What the Frack?

SDF: What the Frack?
Editor’s Note: To mark the new year REALscience is rolling out a new feature — Science Ditty Friday. Each and every Friday we’ll compile a song (preferably with accompanying video) to kick your weekend off with a musical start. And there will be a more detailed explanation of the science...

Debris from Japanese Tsunami Hits U.S.

Debris from Japanese Tsunami Hits U.S.
Beaches along the coasts of Washington and Oregon are treasure troves of flotsam for avid beachcombers. But one scientist says that what’s on its way to the west coast is unprecedented and those areas are totally unprepared. Oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer is a self-proclaimed expert on manmade...

Earthquake Shakes Ohio Confidence in Drilling

Earthquake Shakes Ohio Confidence in Drilling
Hydraulic fracturing or hydrofracking to reach deep pockets of natural gas seems to be the culprit behind a small earthquake that shook Youngstown, Ohio on Saturday. By Monday, state lawmakers had imposed a two-week ban on drilling while the latest quake is investigated. Since the epicenter of the 4.0...

Arctic Region Warms into New Climate State

Arctic Region Warms into New Climate State
In 2006, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration began monitoring the Arctic region, creating an annual report card to mark rapid change occurring there. Five years in and the news isn’t good. The 2011 Arctic Report Card shows that the entire region is changing dramatically. Ice, both...

Artist to Build a Glacier in the Desert

Artist to Build a Glacier in the Desert
For artist Ap Verheggen there is a fine line between art and experiment. Last year the Dutch artist placed two sculptures on icebergs and intends for them to float off the coast of Greenland, sending a message about how climate change is also changing culture. That was a project he called cool(E)motion....

Fracking Earthquakes

Fracking Earthquakes
John Long is a geologist for Osborn Heirs, an oil and gas exploration and development company in San Antonio, Texas. When the earth started rumbling beneath is office he had a pretty good idea why. The answer he says is hydraulic fracturing or hydrofracking. He says, “Anytime you take fluid or...

Nature by Numbers

Nature by Numbers
Nature has been doing things for billions of years without issue. Over time plants and animals have refined the way they live to reflect the optimal situation given the conditions they have to endure. This is the nature of evolution. The fittest survive but what fit means to nature may be different...

Genetically Modified Foods Abound in U.S.

Genetically Modified Foods Abound in U.S.
Jeffrey Smith has written the book on genetically modified foods (GMOs). Now he’s on a crusade to rid the U.S. of unhealthy food hybrids that not even animals choose to eat. He tells the story of a farmer who was growing corn for his cows. The farmer grew non-GMO corn next to corn that had been...

Earth Population: 7 Billion and Counting

Earth Population: 7 Billion and Counting
Seven billion is a big number. It looks like this: 7,000,000,000. According to National Geographic magazine If you started counting out loud to 7 billion, it would take you 200 years. And, If you took 7 billion steps it would take you around the globe 133 times. By the end of October, that’s...

Surfers Use Science to Protect the Ocean

Surfers Use Science to Protect the Ocean
Surfers are a group of ocean super users. They spend a great deal of time in the water and on top of the waves. They notice slight variations. And they depend on a clean, safe environment to catch a wave and hang ten. As a result they are first responders when it comes to anything encroaching on their...

Tropical Storm Kicks up Gulf Tar Balls

Tropical Storm Kicks up Gulf Tar Balls
Tropical Storm Lee pushed high surf into Gulf of Mexico beaches but not messy oil from the British Petroleum spill last year. And it also put predictions to the test. After the Deepwater Horizon oil spill last year oil looming offshore has hardened and sunk to the seafloor where it has formed giant...

Millions of Species Yet to be Discovered

Millions of Species Yet to be Discovered
According to a new study it could take 1,200 years, 300,000 researchers and $364 billion to identify and catalog all the species on Earth. New research in the online journal PLoS Biology, a publication of the Public Library of Science uses a new way of calculating just how many plants and animals inhabit...

Climate Change Pushes Species Up and North

Climate Change Pushes Species Up and North
A meta-study in the journal Science says – changing global temperatures are pushing species towards the poles and higher altitudes. A meta study is a study that rounds up all the other related studies (in this case 54) and analyzes them for trends or patterns that emerge. After looking at the...

Yale Undergrads Find Plastic-Eating Fungus

Yale Undergrads Find Plastic-Eating Fungus
The growing garbage problem may have a new solution–fungus that eats plastic. For years mounting mounds of plastic have been choking landfills and polluting the ocean. Now an annual undergraduate trip to the rain forest may have found a solution to the plastic problem. Unleashing creativity in...

Real Science and Girls Dominate Google Science Fair

Real Science and Girls Dominate Google Science Fair
Gender stereotypes about math and science abound. Boys are known for performing better in math and science while girls tend to excel in history and language arts. Though the U.S. still leads the world in scientific discovery and vision, another stereotype is that the U.S. education system is failing...

Nuclear Power Plants Under Threat

Nuclear Power Plants Under Threat
The record snow pack melt combined with cool, heavy spring rains forced reservoirs in northern states to release extra water into rivers, creating a big flood which is now surging south, from North Dakota to Nebraska where the Missouri River is over its banks and threatening two nuclear power plants. The...

Northwest Passage Opens for Whales, Plankton Not Just People

Northwest Passage Opens for Whales, Plankton Not Just People
This video from May 2010 tells the tale of a gray whale lost, half a world away from home. Biologists immediately thought it was a hoax but after studying the 43-foot whale more closely they discovered that it must have gotten off it’s north-south Pacific Ocean migration track thanks to an ice-free...

Ocean under Siege

Ocean under Siege
For decades fishermen have been saying there’s no future in fishing. Environmentalists have been warning about overfishing and pollution harming the ocean’s delicate ecosystem. But so far the ocean has been able to absorb everything humans have thrown at it. The summary of a new international...

Wildfires Tied to Climate Change

Wildfires Tied to Climate Change
The U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Natural Resources committee held a hearing on wildfire management this week. Fires are burning in California, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Florida and Oregon. The record-breaking Wala fire in Arizona may have been sparked by a campfire but made worse...

Cell Phones Dial Up Fresh Radiation Concern

Cell Phones Dial Up Fresh Radiation Concern
For years scientists have argued that cell phones could be harmful to our health. But it wasn’t until last year that the first long term study suggested a relationship between prolonged cell phone use and brain cancer. And even that preliminary finding didn’t get people to turn off their...

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