Dear EarthTalk: I’m a travel agent and our firm has several clients wanting to go with green vendors, including for travel (airline or rental car) and lodging. Our company is supportive so would like to know which airlines, hotels and car rental agencies are going affordably green? —Carol Biggar, via e-mail Just like every other industry, going green has become a mantra among airlines, car rental companies and even hotel chains....
Won a Nobel? Go Nuts! Posted by Philip Yam, October 19, 2007 As a long-time science journalist, I have learned to take what James Watson says with a grain of salt. Even so, I was caught off guard by the outrageousness of his latest words. Watson gets all the kudos for his genetics work, and his discovery with Francis Crick of the double-helical structure of DNA unquestionably deserved the Nobel Prize....
When the shy, dark-haired boy met with clinicians for a full psychiatric evaluation two years ago, almost everything about him pointed to autism. W. had not spoken his first words until age 2. He was at least 4 before he could form sentences. As he got older, he was unable to make friends. He struggled to accept changes to his routine and maintain eye contact. And despite having an average intelligence quotient, he was unusually attached to objects; at age 11, he still lugged a bag of stuffed animals with him everywhere he went....
As the dizziness began to fade and nausea to subside, I kept thinking how two tablespoons did not sound like a lot of blood. During regular checkups, my physician draws only about half that amount. I suppose I might have guessed, especially after a 12-hour fast, I would sicken when my glucose levels dipped–I’m a terrible blood donor in that regard. The nurse who drew my blood helpfully looked around my office for a sweet drink....
By Helen Shen of Nature magazine A pair of massive earthquakes that rocked the Indian Ocean on 11 April 2012 may signal the latest step in the formation of a new plate boundary within Earth’s surface. Geological stresses rending the Indo-Australian plate apart are likely to have caused the magnitude-8.6 and magnitude-8.2 quakes, which broke along numerous faults and unleashed aftershocks for 6 days afterwards, according to three papers published online today in Nature....
FEAR IS GOOD; in emergencies, it enables us to fight or flee. But often we get scared at the wrong time—when we step onto the field for a big soccer game or up to the microphone at a contentious town meeting. Professional athletes and actors say some nervousness helps them concentrate better. But when performance anxiety is too powerful, it undermines our efforts: a player’s legs become wobbly, a violinist cannot find the correct notes, a manager in a meeting forgets all the talking points....
SHANGHAI – When professor Chen Hongbo tried to promote carbon trading in China three years ago, he found himself under fire. As developing countries like China aren’t obliged to limit the byproduct of their economic growth, opponents argued vehemently that they saw no need to motivate Chinese industries to either emit less greenhouse gases or pay for their emissions. Today, China is still free of that obligation, but the internal dispute seems to have ended....
Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The pan-Hellenic mythological hero Jason was famed for his expedition with the Argonauts - as the sailors on their ship the Argo were known - in search of the Golden Fleece in Kolchis on the Black Sea, one of the most popular and enduring legends of Greek mythology....
Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The Black Death is the 19th-century CE term for the plague epidemic that ravaged Europe between 1347-1352 CE, killing an estimated 30 million people there and many more worldwide as it reached pandemic proportions. The name comes from the black buboes (infected lymph glands) which broke out over a plague victim’s body....
Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Of all the careers that soared to meteoric heights during the chaotic decade of the French Revolution (1789-1799), none was more spectacular nor impactful than that of Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821). From an unremarkable birth into minor Corsican nobility, Napoleon would find in the Revolution a path to fame, military success, and ultimately, to his role as Emperor of the French....
Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The first tunnels in the Mediterranean were built to transport water from distant springs and mountains to arid areas and cities. They also ensured the constant supply of water when cities were under siege. For example, the 533 m (583 yards) Hezekiah tunnel built in the late 8th and early 7th century BCE took water from the Gihon spring to the city of Jerusalem and was built as the city was preparing for an impending siege by the Assyrians....
Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. In September 2009 CE, one of my relatives suggested that we visit “an ancient and mythical cave”. The story behind this cave is that a man (commoner) had abducted an elite girl. He took her to that cave and married her. They lived together for many years and, finally, both were buried there after their death....
Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The Hoxne Hoard is the largest cache of late Roman gold found anywhere in the Roman Empire. Discovered by a metal detectorist in Suffolk, in the east of England in 1992 CE, the incredible collection contains 14,865 late-4th and early-5th century CE Roman gold, silver and bronze coins, and 200 items of silver tableware and gold jewelery....
1972 Nobel Prize Repeat “The 1972 Nobel prizes in science and economics have been awarded to 10 investigators. For the first time in history a prize has been given a second time in the same field to one individual. Marie Curie and Linus Pauling had previously won two Nobel prizes but in different fields. The new double winner is John Bardeen, who shared the 1956 Nobel prize in physics for discoveries leading to the transistor....
The Brooklyn Food Coalition held its data entry party on the Monday after Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. That night was especially dry and cold; even indoors, everyone was bundled in sweatshirts and scarves. Above couches on which eight volunteers sat with laptops perched on their knees, there hung a framed quote by Indian author Arundhati Roy: “Not only is another world possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing....
A once obscure medical treatment is seeing new popularity thanks to an improved understanding of the role the immune system plays in conditions as varied as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and Alzheimer’s disease. Some worry that supplies of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG), which is made of blood plasma from donors, may run short if a clinical trial confirms its effectiveness at slowing the progress of Alzheimer’s. IVIG contains an antibody known as IgG that helps to ward off infection, modulates the immune system and reduces inflammation, although the full extent of how IVIG works remains unknown....
A controversial technology capable of altering the genomes of entire species has been applied to mammals for the first time. In an article posted on the bioRxiv preprint server on 4 July, researchers describe developing ‘gene drives’—which could be used to eradicate problematic animal populations—in lab mice using the CRISPR gene-editing technique. Gene drives ensure that chosen mutations are passed on to nearly all an animal’s offspring. They have already been created in mosquitoes in the lab, as a potential malaria-control strategy....
Tell us what you don’t know. That’s the message military and national security experts gathered here want to send to climate scientists. While political leaders on Capitol Hill seek definitive answers about how quickly the world’s climate will change, military and national security experts say they’re used to making decisions with limited information. But as they turn their attention to the geopolitical implications of climate change, they’re pressing scientists to help them understand the risk and uncertainty inherent in forecasts of future environmental shifts....
The body image is a mental representation of one’s physical appearance, constructed by the brain from past experiences and present sensations. It is an essential component of self-identity, which, when altered, can have dramatic effects on how one perceives oneself. For example, a small proportion of migraine sufferers experience visual hallucinations just before the onset of a headache, in which the body parts appear larger or smaller than they actually are....
By Matthew Liptak SYRACUSE N.Y. (Reuters) - Thousands of people in U.S. East Coast states woke up to power cuts and a major clean-up operation on Wednesday after severe storms and high winds killed five people. One of the hardest hit spots was the Syracuse-area community of Smithfield, New York, where four of the deaths were reported and at least four homes destroyed on Tuesday, Madison County Undersheriff John Ball said in a statement....
