Articles in the Category: Environment

Scientists Say Toxic BP Oil Mix Sits on Gulf Floor and Floats Below the Surface

Scientists Say Toxic BP Oil Mix Sits on Gulf Floor and Floats Below the Surface
After one of their research vessels returned from the Gulf, University of South Florida scientists say they found significant amounts of toxic oil sitting on the Gulf floor – and it is killing sea life. Small oil droplets speckle the Gulf floor and are hard to detect. Best seen under ultraviolet...

E-car Teams Race Around the World on Zero Emissions

E-car Teams Race Around the World on Zero Emissions
A round-the-world race aimed at showcasing green technologies began Monday in Switzerland. The aim is to complete the 18,642-mile trip without pumping carbon into the atmosphere. The electric cars, which will pass through 150 cities, including Los Angeles, will power up using regular outlets and offset...

Droid-1 Blows into Illegal Operation

Droid-1 Blows into Illegal Operation
Science enthusiast Bobby Russell launched his Quest for Stars program last week by sending a helium-filled weather balloon about 107,000 feet up, to the edge of space. On board, Russell outfitted the styrofoam payload bay with cameras, GPS and a Motorola Droid smartphone set to take pictures every seven...

Science Buff Sends Balloon to Edge of Space

Science Buff Sends Balloon to Edge of Space
San Diego science buff Bobby Russell thought it would be a great experiment to attach cameras, sensors, GPS and a smartphone to a weather balloon and launch it to the edge of space. He even received permission from the Federal Aviation Administration to conduct his launch. But instead of collecting...

Microsoft Imagine Cup Rewards Students Who Solve Global Problems

Microsoft Imagine Cup Rewards Students Who Solve Global Problems
The Imagine Cup, now in its eighth year, encourages high school and university students around the world to develop software aiming to solve global problems. Team Skeek from Thailand took home the top prize for software design for creating a program that translates text into sign language using speech...

Scientists Simulate BP Oil Spill Day 360

Scientists Simulate BP Oil Spill Day 360
Simulation of BP Oil Spill, Day 360, courtesy of University of Hawaii University of Hawaii scientists Researchers Axel Timmermann and Fabian Schloesser have been trying to answer a question that few will even dare to ask. They want to how not if but when the oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill will...

Scientists Study Gulf Oil Spill Impact on Marine Life

Scientists Study Gulf Oil Spill Impact on Marine Life
University of Florida’s Neil Hammerschlag is studying whether sharks along the Gulf Coast of Florida can sense oil and move away from it. Hurley the hammerhead shark disappeared from satellite tracking two days after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill as researchers were studying migration patterns...

BP Replaces Oil Cap and Runs Pressure Tests to Stop Oil Leak

BP Replaces Oil Cap and Runs Pressure Tests to Stop Oil Leak
With a tight new cap freshly installed on its leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico, BP planned gradual tests starting Tuesday to see if the device can stop oil from pouring into the sea for the first time in nearly three months. The next step will be to slowly close the valves on that cap to see if it...

Oil Gushes Freely for Two Days

Oil Gushes Freely for Two Days
Robotic submarines removed the cap from the gushing well in the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday, beginning a period of at least two days when oil will flow freely into the sea. And BP isn’t convinced that putting the new Top Hat Number 10 cap on the leaking wellhead will solve the problem. If the new...

Capping the BP Oil Leak on the Horizon

Capping the BP Oil Leak on the Horizon
The BP oil leak could be completely contained as early as Monday if a new, tighter cap can be fitted over the blown-out well, the government official in charge of the crisis said Friday in some of the most encouraging news to come out of the Gulf in the two and half months since the disaster struck. After...

2010: A Space Policy

2010: A Space Policy
President Obama unveiled his new plan(PDF) for NASA. After scrapping the manned space program Constellation last fall the President pushed back plans to return to the moon and send a manned mission to Mars. This announcement and policy reversal struck some stargazers and scientists as disappointing. The...

BP Spins Kevin Costner Oil-Separating Centrifuge into Action

BP Spins Kevin Costner Oil-Separating Centrifuge into Action
“I’ve been to all the oil spill conferences around he country and all I see are booms and the latest helicopter. But I’ve never seen one machine that deals with getting the oil out. That’s me.” — Kevin Costner Actor Kevin Costner was visibly frustrated when he testified...

BP Flow Rate Technical Panelist Says Scientists Need Data Not Speculation

BP Flow Rate Technical Panelist Says Scientists Need Data Not Speculation
Over the last few weeks, scientists — including those on the government’s Flow Rate Technical Panel — have been unable to pinpoint how many gallons of oil are flooding the Gulf of Mexico. Ira Leifer who is part of a 12-scientist panel guiding the Obama administration as it tries to...

Mystery of Hole Punch Clouds Explained

Mystery of Hole Punch Clouds Explained
New research from the National Center for Atmospheric Research has solved the mystery of so-called hole punch clouds. As turboprop and jet aircraft climb or descend under certain atmospheric conditions, they can inadvertently seed mid-level clouds and cause narrow bands of snow or rain to develop and...

Ocean Watch Returns after Circumnavigating the Americas

Ocean Watch Returns after Circumnavigating the Americas
pacsci on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free After a 13-month journey around North and South America the crew of Ocean Watch is returning to Seattle today. They have sailed around the Americas raising awareness about ocean health and conducting a few science experiments along the way. Join the conversation...

President Obama Addresses Nation from the Oval Office About the BP Oil Spill

President Obama Addresses Nation from the Oval Office About the BP Oil Spill
Full Transcript of President Obama’s speech, “A Faith in the Future that Sustains us as a People” President Obama addressed the nation last night, assuring all Americans that he is working hard, with scientists, engineers, oil company executives and 30,000 volunteers and aid workers...

Oil-eating Microbes Could Help in Gulf Disaster

Oil-eating Microbes Could Help in Gulf Disaster
A small bioremediation company in San Antonio is offering the use of its oil-eating microbes to help reduce the impact of the Horizon Deepwater oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The government is also looking for credible suggestions to sop up oil on facebook.

Health Concerns Rise Over Use of Oil Dispersant Corexit

Health Concerns Rise Over Use of Oil Dispersant Corexit
Seven Louisiana fishermen reported getting sick after exposure to the oil dispersant that is being used to thin the oil slick on the Gulf of Mexico. Nalco, the company that makes Corexit, the dispersant used after the April 20 Horizon Deepwater oil spill, says it has faith in its product. It insists...

Scientists Struggle To Narrow Oil Leak Estimate

Scientists Struggle To Narrow Oil Leak Estimate
British Petroleum’s oil leak is dumping an Exxon Valdez worth of oil into the Gulf of Mexico every 8-10 days, according to new estimates by scientists who are watching the black geyser a mile beneath the surface very closely. New estimates show the damaged well leaking twice as much oil as previously...

Oceanographers Join the Oil Spill Fight with Robot Subs

Oceanographers Join the Oil Spill Fight with Robot Subs
An autonomous underwater vehicle from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute just returned from gathering important data about the gulf Oil spill as scientists begin to help figure out how much oil is continuing to leak day by day and what’s happening almost a mile below the surface of the...

BP Cap Collects Oil as Underwater Plumes are Mapped

BP Cap Collects Oil as Underwater Plumes are Mapped
BP has begun to have some success in closing the Gulf of Mexico oil leak, CBC’s David Common reports Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said the newly installed wellhead cap is now containing about 462,000 gallons of oil a day from leaking into the Gulf. The new cap is slowing the leak, up from about...

Oil Spill: BP Fails at Top Kill as Oil Continues to Flow

Oil Spill: BP Fails at Top Kill as Oil Continues to Flow
The White House warns that oil from the Gulf of Mexico disaster will likely continue leaking until August after BP declares its ‘top kill’ operation a failure, the CBC’s David Common reports. Editor’s note: Why doesn’t a consortium of structural, ocean and even geo engineers...

BP Starts Top Kill Procedure to Stop Oil Leak

BP Starts Top Kill Procedure to Stop Oil Leak
After over a month of spewing millions of gallons of oil deep into the Gulf of Mexico, BP has begun it’s “top kill” approach which requires jamming mud into the hole created on April 20. The trick is that the pressure of the mud being pushed into the pipe to stem the oil flow must...

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