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Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from Before the Lights Go Out: Conquering the Energy Crisis Before It Conquers Us (John Wiley & Sons, 2012), by Maggie Koerth-Baker. Most people reading this would probably find Merriam, Kansas, very familiar. Not because they’ve been there, but because it’s a lot like home. Merriam is usually described as a suburb of Kansas City, Kans.—a small town that grew into a residential center for people who worked in the much larger city nearby....

This excerpt is from The Discovery of Global Warming, by Spencer R. Weart (Harvard University Press, 2008). It is an epic story: the struggle of thousands of men and women over the course of a century for very high stakes. For some, the work required actual physical courage, a risk to life and limb in icy wastes or on the high seas. The rest needed more subtle forms of courage. They gambled decades of arduous effort on the chance of a useful discovery, and staked their reputations on what they claimed to have found....

Dear EarthTalk: With all the talk of desalinization of ocean water for drinking, what do we know about the impacts this might have on climate, ocean salinity and other natural processes? – Fred Kuepper, via e-mail Due to its high cost, energy intensiveness and overall ecological footprint, most environmental advocates view desalinization (or desalination)‚ the conversion of salty ocean water into fresh water‚ as a last resort for providing fresh water to needy populations....

HUMANS, LIKE ALL PRIMATES, are highly visual creatures. Most of the back of our brain is devoted to visual processing, and half of the cortex is involved with sight. In addition, when visual inputs conflict with clues from other senses, vision tends to dominate. This supremacy is why, for example, ventriloquists are so compelling. We see the dummy talking, and we are fooled into hearing the voice coming from it—a case of what scientists call “visual capture....

TOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp plans to halt production on Monday morning at 12 plants in central Japan due to a typhoon that is hitting the area, spokesman Ryo Sakai said on Sunday. The 12 plants, which include four vehicle factories as well as engine and automotive parts plants, are all Aichi prefecture in central Japan. Toyota will decide whether to resume production later on Monday depending on the weather conditions, Sakai said....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Exsurge Domine (“Arise, O Lord” in Latin) is a papal bull issued 15 June 1520 by Pope Leo X (served 1513-1521) condemning Martin Luther’s 95 Theses as heresy along with any other works by Luther or those who supported him. Luther burned the bull publicly in December 1520 and was excommunicated in January 1521....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The two children are on the run from the Inquisition (who are after Hugo), they are marauded by local townsfolk who blame them for the plague, and they have to survive billions of rats who eat people alive but who are afraid of fire. Advertisement Amicia and Hugo de RuneJan van der Crabben (CC BY-NC-SA)...

Did you like this interview? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Ancient East Asia was dominated by the three states known today as China, Japan, and Korea. The complex chain of successive kingdoms created a rich web of events that archaeologists have sometimes found difficult to disentangle; a situation not helped by modern nationalist claims and ideals superimposed on antiquity from all three parties....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Ancient China had seen little Western contact before the 16th century CE, the language, culture and science all being allowed to develop independently of foreign influence. By the time European Jesuit missionaries arrived in the 16th century CE, Chinese science and astronomy were behind in terms of European technological advancement....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. During the 1st century CE, a sect of Jews in Jerusalem claimed that their teacher, Jesus of Nazareth, was the ‘messiah’ of Israel. ‘Messiah’ meant ‘anointed one’, or someone chosen by the God of Israel to lead when God would intervene in human history to bring justice to the world....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The story of the pilgrims of Plymouth Colony is well known regarding the basic facts: they sailed on the Mayflower, arrived off the coast of Massachusetts on 11 November 1620 CE, came ashore at Plymouth Rock, half of them died the first winter, the survivors established the first successful colony in New England, and later celebrated what has come to be known as the First Thanksgiving in the company of their Native American neighbors....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The Protestant Reformation (1517-1648) was one of the most significant cultural, political, and religious events in the history of Europe and helped shape the modern world. It was a complex event spanning over 100 years, which radically changed the way people understood themselves, religion, society, and ultimately how one defines truth....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The tomb of king Muryeong is perhaps one of the most impressive tombs from the Baekje kingdom of ancient Korea, both in its design and the treasure found inside it. Muryeong-Wang (also Munyeong or Muryong) reigned from 501 to 523 CE. Baekje (aka Paekche) was one of the Three Kingdoms which ruled over ancient Korea from the 1st century BCE to the 7th century CE....

Exposure to urban air pollution can affect the chromosomes of a developing fetus, a new study suggests. Babies born to mothers exposed to high levels of urban air pollution appear to have a greater chance of chromosomal abnormalities than those whose mothers breathed cleaner air. Frederica P. Perera of the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health and her colleagues studied 60 infants born in New York City to nonsmoking mothers who were participating in an ongoing study that started in 1998....

By Ewen Callaway of Nature magazineChinese herbal medicines contain ingredients derived from endangered animals, toxic plants and livestock, a genetic audit has discovered. Few of these ingredients were listed on the packaging.“There’s absolutely no honesty in the labeling of these products. What they declare is completely at odds with what’s in there,” says Mike Bunce, a geneticist at Murdoch University near Perth, Australia, who led the study. The results are published today in PLoS Genetics....

Snowfall in south-central Alaska has dramatically increased over the last 150 years because of climate change, scientists said in a report released yesterday. According to the study published in the journal Scientific Reports, summer snowfall has risen by about 49 percent since the mid-19th century, and winter snowfall has increased by a whopping 117 percent. It may sound counterintuitive—after all, Alaska is experiencing the fastest rate of warming in the country, and the central part of the state has already seen its temperatures climb by 2 to 3 degrees over the last 50 years....

A myth ties the origins of tea to an errant gust of wind that blew tea leaves into a Chinese emperor’s hot water more than 4,700 years ago. Since that lucky first brewing, tea has become the second most popular beverage in the world (behind water, of course). The industry has grown into a $20 billion behemoth that sells everything from pedestrian PG Tips to luxurious Yunnan golden tips. Yet that industry and the farmers that rely on it for their livelihoods could be in hot water as the climate changes....

Athletes have always torn up grass fields, especially during rainy, cold or dry spells. To fight back, installers have devised substructures that quickly drain excess water to keep soil firm and even pump in warm air to help roots thrive. Synthetics sprouted in the late 1960s after installation in the Houston Astrodome. The AstroTurf brand, named for the venue, remained synonymous with “artificial turf” for 30 years, even though players said it felt hard underfoot and complained of rug burns when they hit the deck....

Green construction is not just in the purview of new homes and trendy skyscrapers. Smart design of average condominiums, offices and other common buildings can significantly lessen their urban footprint, too. Witness the 140-unit Macallen Building in Boston, completed in 2007, the first multifamily dwelling in New England to receive the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) “gold” certification. As striking as the condo’s ship-hull shape is its green roof, a series of six sloping terraces....

During season 1 of the television series Breaking Bad, I read in Chemical & Engineering News that executive producer Vince Gilligan really wanted to get the science right but had no funds to pay a science adviser. He and his writers were resorting to Web searches and Wikipedia to research science content for the show. He welcomed constructive comments from a chemically inclined audience. Most scientists hate seeing mistakes in science appear in movies or TV, so this was an unusual opportunity....