Unexpectedly large sunlight reflecting impact of big particles in a clean sky
(Phys.org)—A few large particles in a crowd of tiny ones have often been ignored when calculating the amount of sunlight bounced back into space in clean-sky conditions. Scientists at Pacific Northwest ...
Glacial thinning has sharply accelerated at major South American icefields
For the past four decades scientists have monitored the ebbs and flows of the icefields in the southernmost stretch of South America's vast Andes Mountains, detecting an overall loss of ice as the climate ...
Tornado debris study could lead to better warnings
Photos and mementoes that were snatched up and blown hundreds of miles during tornados in the south of the United States two years ago are giving researchers new insight on how debris is carried by the storms ...
Software to help plan the smart grid
(Phys.org) —Because of its vastness, complexity, and indispensability, the American power grid presents a number of different challenges to state utility commissions, legislators, energy utilities and researchers ...
Of mice and melodies: Research on language gene seeks to uncover the origins of the singing mouse
Singing mice (Scotinomys teguina) are not your average lab rats. Their fur is tawny brown instead of the common white albino strain; they hail from the tropical cloud forests in the mountains of Costa Rica; ...
No ice loss seen in major Himalayan glaciers: scientists
One of the world's biggest glacier regions has so far resisted global warming that has ravaged mountain ice elsewhere, scientists reported on Sunday.
Q&A: Google to dig deeper into users' lives
If you're amazed - and maybe even a little alarmed - about how much Google seems to know about you, brace yourself. Beginning Thursday, Google will operate under a streamlined privacy policy that enables the Internet's most ...
The strange attraction of Gale crater
Curiosity is about to go to Mars. The car-sized rover, also known as the Mars Science Lab, is scheduled for launch in late November or early December 2011 from the Kennedy Space Center. After an eight-month ...
Researchers explore climate impacts on Wyoming's Bighorn Basin populations over the last 13,000 years
(Phys.org)—During the past 13,000 years, Wyoming's Bighorn Basin has experienced significant increases in population growth—due primarily to periods of high effective moisture and moderate temperatures—according ...
Apple brings iPad features to the Mac
Apple released a preview version of its new Macintosh operating system on Thursday, bringing some features of the iPad to the personal computer.
Team observes rapid change in underwater volcano Monowai
(Phys.org) -- A research team out to perform routine mapping of the seafloor some 400 kilometers southwest of Tonga, found that one volcano, named Monowai, changed dramatically over just a two week time span. ...
Solar-powered plane plans flight across US (Update 2)
A solar-powered plane that has wowed aviation fans in Europe is set to travel across the United States with stops in Phoenix, Dallas, Washington, D.C., and New York, the plane's Swiss creators said.
Climate change threatens giant pandas' bamboo buffet—and survival
China's endangered wild pandas may need new dinner reservations – and quickly – based on models that indicate climate change may kill off swaths of bamboo that pandas need to survive.
New data finds regions of North America have remained extremely stable for more than one billion years
Like lines in a deeply weathered face, the cracks and fissures in the Earths crust reveal a long and tumultuous lifetime. Massive continent-bearing plates have come together and broken apart, setting ...