Jul 25 Mars has a giant hidden lake. Could there be life in it? By Lee Billings, Scientific American Deep beneath the frigid surface of its southern ice cap, Mars holds a lake of liquid water nearly three times larger than the island of Manhattan. Continue reading
Jul 24 California wines contain Fukushima radiation, and it’s not a bad thing By Amanda Grennell In the wake of the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster, cesium-137 made its way through the atmosphere to vineyards in Napa Valley. But the small amount of radiation poses more of a threat to wine counterfeiters than to your body. Continue reading
Jul 24 As glaciers shrink, iceberg tourism booms By Teresa Carey Scientists are concerned that global warming is destabilizing glaciers and ice shelves, creating larger and more frequent icebergs, like the Petermann Ice Island and the iceberg off the Innaarsuit settlement in Greenland. Continue reading
Jul 22 A sea urchin army is mowing down California’s kelp forests — but why? By Amanda Heidt, KQED Science These oceanic forests are currently under siege from a potent mix of climate anomalies, disease, and predation that have led to declines in kelp forests not seen in decades. Continue reading
Jul 21 Support for the Endangered Species Act remains high as Trump administration and Congress try to gut it By Jeremy T. Bruskotter, John A. Vucetich, Ramiro Berardo, The Conversation Since its passage, the Endangered Species Act has helped reverse and stop declines in numerous species – from bald eagles to Lake Erie watersnakes – and served as a model for similar laws around the world. Continue reading
Jul 21 Who owns the moon? A space lawyer answers By Frans von der Dunk, The Conversation Since the beginning of the space race, the United States knew that for many people around the world the sight of a U.S. flag on the Moon would raise major political issues. Continue reading
Jul 20 NASA’s Parker Solar Probe will ‘shake’ hands with sun, thanks to small push from Venus By Anna Kusmer With the Parker Solar Probe, NASA must strike the perfect balance between flying close enough to collect data but not so close that it burns up. Here’s what the mission will take. Continue reading
Jul 18 Watch 5:29 This aquatic grass could help shellfish threatened by ocean acidification By Jes Burns, OPB/EarthFix An increase in carbon emissions are showing up not only in the air, but also in water. Now researchers and shellfish farmers are teaming up to see how marine plants can help stave off the effects of ocean acidification. Special… Continue watching
Jul 18 Popular National Parks experience as much ozone pollution as major cities By Daniel Ackerman, Scientific American A new study shows ozone levels in National Parks are similar to the levels in the largest U.S. cities. But most of this ozone may originate outside of the parks. Continue reading
Jul 18 CRISPR causes significantly greater DNA damage than previously thought, study finds By Sharon Begley, STAT The DNA damage found in the new study included deletions of thousands of DNA bases, including at spots far from the edit. Some of the deletions can silence genes that should be active and activate genes that should be silent,… Continue reading