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Researchers are creeping closer to a small quantum computer built from loops of superconducting metal. A team has demonstrated a key ingredient of such a computer by using one superconducting loop to control the information stored on a second. Combined with other recent advances, the result may pave the way for devices of double the size in the next year or two—closer to what other quantum computing candidates have achieved, says physicist Hans Mooij of the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands....

Dear EarthTalk: Don’t some scientists point to sunspots and solar wind as having more impact on climate change than human industrial activity? – David Noss, California, MD Sunspots are storms on the sun’s surface that are marked by intense magnetic activity and play host to solar flares and hot gassy ejections from the sun’s corona. Scientists believe that the number of spots on the sun cycles over time, reaching a peak—the so-called Solar Maximum—every 11 years or so....

Curled up with a blanket, laptop and cup of tea, I checked my e-mails from the dating Web site I had recently joined. I had high hopes: much as I might hunt online for a new neighborhood caf to try, I could now search for love just as systematically. The messages I received told a different story. One suitor wrote: “Hey miss, dug your toe tag.” (What!) Another: “You’re asking for a lot in your profile (which is a bit boring I might add)....

Want to make beer drinkers more conscious of climate change? Give them a foul-tasting brew and call it the future of America’s favorite fermented beverage. That’s what New Belgium Brewing Co.—maker of Fat Tire Amber Ale and Voodoo Ranger IPA—did last week with its release of Torched Earth, a limited-edition ale brewed from smoke-tainted water, dandelions and drought-tolerant grains. “The future of beer is here. And it tastes awful,” the company crowed in a sardonic print ad for its unpalatable brew....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The Moselle Valley is Germany’s oldest winegrowing region. The Romans brought viticulture to this area and planted vines along the Moselle River 2000 years ago. After settling the region c. 50 BCE and establishing the city of Trier (Augusta Treverorum) in 17 BCE, a Gallo-Roman culture developed in the territory of the Belgic Treveri tribe that inhabited the valley in what is now Luxembourg, southeastern Belgium, and southwestern Germany....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Any itinerary for a visit to Bangkok, Thailand would include some of the city’s must-see historical and cultural sights: The 24-hour flower market (Pak Khlong Talat) filled to the brim with jasmine-scented garlands, fragrant carnations, roses, orchids, and marigolds. Wat Pho or the Temple of the Reclining Buddha built in the 18th century CE by King Rama I (r....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Life in Colonial America was difficult and often short but the colonists made the best of their situation in the hopes of a better life for themselves and their families. The early English colonists, used to purchasing what they needed, found they were now required to either import items from the mother country, make them, or do without....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Alcohol played an integral part in Norse culture. People drank ale more than water because the brew had to be boiled as part of the process and so was safer to drink. The Norse of Scandinavia had four main types of fermented beverage: ale, mead, fruit wine, and syra (basically fermented milk)....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. From a humble beginning as a sweet treat grown in gardens, sugar cane cultivation became an economic powerhouse, and the growing demand for sugar stimulated the colonization of the New World by European powers, brought slavery to the forefront, and fostered brutal revolutions and wars. Colonial Sugar Cane ManufacturingUnknown Artist (Public Domain)...

The clock ran out for the U.S. Congress to agree on a budget bill and avoid a federal government shutdown. In addition to furloughs keeping thousands of government workers from their jobs, the shutdown will have wide consequences for the country’s science, innovation and health. From a panda cam gone dark and national park visitors getting the boot, to a halt on the government’s flu program, here’s a look at six ways the shutdown will impact science....

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal civil-rights law that pro-hibits discrimination against people with disabilities in everyday activities, such as buying an item at a store, going to the movies, enjoying a meal at a local restaurant, exercising at a health club, or having a car serviced at a local garage. My mom once asked a friend why, if the ADA has existed since 1992, so much is still so inaccessible....

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More oil than previously thought may have leaked into Lake Michigan this week from BP Plc’s Indiana refinery, the company said on Thursday, after two U.S. Senators requested a meeting with the British oil major. The request from Senators Mark Kirk, a Republican and Dick Durbin, a Democrat, both from Illinois, came before BP issued its estimate that between 15 and 39 barrels of oil had spilled - more than an earlier assessment that nine to 18 barrels leaked on Monday....

Seasonal variations play a major role in the animal kingdom—in reproduction, food availability, hibernation, even fur color. Whether this seasonality has such a significant influence on humans, however, is an open question. Its best-known association is with mood—that is, feeling down during the colder months and up in the summer—and, in extreme cases, seasonal depression, a phenomenon known as seasonal affective disorder (SAD). A new study published in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences seeks to delve deeper into how human biology has adapted not only to day/night cycles (circadian rhythms) but to yearly seasonal patterns as well....

Ripples in the fabric of spacetime regularly zip across the universe from titanic cosmic events, such as the mergers of supermassive black holes millions to billions of times the mass of the sun. These so-called gravitational waves ought to be ubiquitous but faint, and no experiment has yet registered the disturbance caused by a passing wave. The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna was supposed to do just that. The spaceborne observatory, also known as LISA, was to be a joint mission between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) to detect gravitational waves and give scientists a whole new window through which to look on the universe and understand its underpinnings....

Global negotiations on stabilizing greenhouse gas emissions in the period after 2012 will commence in Bali in December. The main emitters—including Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Mexico, South Africa and the U.S.—have recently affirmed their commitment to reach a “comprehensive agreement” in these negotiations. They have also promised to contribute their “fair share” to stabilize greenhouse gases to prevent “dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.” Of course, one of the biggest obstacles, if not the very biggest, to such an international agreement has been the U....

For years, emissions of greenhouse gases in developed countries—and throughout the world—have been going down while economic activity increased. Even as the economies of the U.S. and European Union continued to grow, the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) per car built, burger served or widget sold was on the decline. No more. “It appears that the carbon intensity of economic activity has stopped improving,” says Chris Field, director of the Carnegie Institution of Washington’s Department of Global Ecology in Stanford, Calif....

From Christmas Day in 1991, when the white, blue and red Russian flag rose over the Kremlin, symbolizing the end of the Soviet Union, the U.S. assumed a dominant presence in world affairs the likes of which has not been witnessed since the Imperium Romanum. Yet the nation that endorsed the idea of preemptive military action has acted with remarkable passivity when it comes to an energy policy that deals with climate change....

Yesterday was a good day for U.S. EPA, observers on both sides of a fierce legal struggle over the future of the Obama administration’s landmark climate change rule conceded as they emerged from federal appeals court. Many thought the agency and supporters of the Clean Power Plan had an edge during the nearly seven hours of oral arguments at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. It quickly became apparent, though, that the agency’s biggest legal hurdle may come from its attempts to make the standards for power plants more flexible, affordable and ambitious....

The 2011 tornado season wasn’t supposed to happen, not in our modern era of advanced technology and storm warnings. Those warnings had led to a steady drop in the death tolls as people received more accurate information and earlier warnings than in the past. But the 1,691 tornadoes in 2011—the second most for any season going back to the 1950s—included outbreaks that killed hundreds, something not seen since the 1970s. President Obama, faced with the devastation wrought throughout that historic tornado season, wanted to know what could be done to better prepare the nation to anticipate and respond to such deadly activity....

Early in life, we all learned that there are tangible benefits from following social rules. As a result, across organizations and industries, people make a significant effort to learn and adhere to dress codes, etiquette, and other written and unwritten codes of behavior. For example, we tend to dress up for job interviews, dates, and business meetings. If one is provided, we tend to use the presentation template provided by our company, or use the language and acronyms favored to the organization so that we can better fit in....