Jan 16 Watch 6:06 Only a little bit hotter, but 2014’s record temperatures continue long-term trend By PBS News Hour 2014 was the hottest year in recorded history, even despite below-average temperatures in the Eastern U.S. Judy Woodruff speaks with Gavin Schmidt of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies about the human impact on global warming. Continue watching
Jan 16 In the Alaskan tundra, scientists dig up dirt on future climate change By Rebecca Jacobson, Inside Energy For thousands of years, Arctic grasses and plants have taken carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. When the plants die, they are frozen in the tundra soil, making a vault of trapped carbon. As the planet warms, the vault is opening,… Continue reading
Jan 16 SpaceX releases video of rocket’s spectacular crash landing By Margaret Myers On Monday, we told you about SpaceX’s failed attempted to recover and reuse Falcon 9, the 14-story rocket that launches supply capsules into space. This was the rocket that helped deliver the company’s fifth resupply mission to the International Space… Continue reading
Jan 16 Missing Mars probe Beagle 2 found after 11 years By Joshua Barajas Missing since 2003, British scientists said Friday new high-resolution images revealed that their Mars probe, Beagle 2, had landed safely on the surface of the Red Planet, but failed to fully deploy. Continue reading
Jan 16 Despite polar vortex, 2014 is warmest year on record By Sarah McHaney The Earth was 1.24 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th century average. Continue reading
Jan 15 Watch 3:39 Drive the car of the future? No, it drives you By PBS News Hour A big sensation at the Consumer Electronic Show this year was a preview of the autonomous driving car, a vehicle equipped with a supercomputing chip and software that can recognize other vehicles and obstacles. Special correspondent Steve Goldbloom takes the… Continue watching
Jan 15 How science sprung from the depths of the disposable baby diaper By Rebecca Jacobson, Inside Energy Microscopes can see cells at a nanometer resolution, but they're still limited. Then one day MIT scientists had an idea: what if they made the samples themselves bigger? It turns out the answer was inside disposable diapers. Continue reading
Jan 15 Photo essay: Scientists build a tower as tall as the Chrysler building in the middle of the Amazon By Ariel Min Last August, construction began deep in the Amazon rainforest on what would soon become South America’s tallest skyscraper and the world’s first long-term tropical observatory. Continue reading
Jan 14 Watch 7:05 Obama administration announces goal to rein in methane leaks By PBS News Hour The Obama administration announced a plan to significantly cut methane emissions produced by gas and gas wells by the year 2025 through executive action. Judy Woodruff talks to Coral Davenport of The New York Times and Michael Oppenheimer of Princeton… Continue watching
Jan 14 Politics delayed Al Gore’s favorite satellite for 10 years, but in two weeks, it’ll fly By Rebecca Jacobson, Inside Energy The Triana satellite was the brainchild of Al Gore and promised to revolutionize climate science and inspire generations. But after political controversy and poor timing, the satellite spent more than a decade in storage. Now scientists have dusted it off… Continue reading