...
The environmental advocacy group Conservation Law Foundation has made good on its threat to sue Exxon Mobil Corp., filing what it says is the first U.S. legal action aimed at holding the oil giant accountable for its well-documented climate change cover-up. The 70-page suit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Boston, alleges Exxon Mobil’s bulk storage and distribution terminal in Everett,...
BERLIN, Sept 30 (Reuters) - The Rosetta spacecraft ended its historic mission on Friday, crashing on the surface of the dusty, icy comet it has spent 12 years chasing in a hunt __that has provided insight into the early days of the solar system and captured the public’s imagination. The spacecraft has stalked comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko across more than 6 billion km (3.7 billion miles) of space, collecting a treasure trove...
The 2.6 Trillion Dollar Rock You know Titanic was big, but how does the iconic ship compare in size to a modern aircraft carrier? And __that scary Death Star: if it were real instead of only make-believe, how big would it look in comparison to, say, Florida? Maybe you’re the kind of person who is kept awake at night by odd questions like these. But even if you’re not, you’ll probably love a new series of mashup images created by Kevin Wisbith, a college student and entrepreneur who lives near Cincinnati. The aim of...
Europe's Rosetta mission has come to an end, with the spacecraft being commanded to collide with Comet 67P. But as the probe made its slow 19km descent to the comet's "head", it snapped some spectacular pictures of the surface. 16km 8.9km Image copyright Esa/Rosetta/MPS 5.8km Image copyright Esa 5.7km Image copyright Esa 1.2km Image copyright Esa 23 metres Image copyright ESA/ROSETTA/MPS for OSIRIS Team Image caption This blurry image is the last picture sent back by Rosetta before impact ...
Image copyright ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team Image caption Rosetta's last image of Comet 67P, taken from a little over 20m above the surface Europe's Rosetta probe has ended its mission to Comet 67P by crash-landing on to the icy object's surface. Mission control in Darmstadt, Germany, was able to confirm the impact had occurred when radio contact to the ageing spacecraft was lost abruptly. The assumption is __that the probe would...
JEKESAI NJIKIZANA via Getty Images Pangolins ― bizarre, scaly creatures __that are the world’s most poached and illegally trafficked mammals ― will finally receive the legal protection they so desperately need to avoid extinction. On Wednesday, member parties of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES, overwhelmingly voted to give all eight species...
Michael Blann via Getty Images Step away from the shoes. This article is part of HuffPost’s “Reclaim” campaign, an ongoing project spotlighting the world’s waste crisis and how we can begin to solve it. My first job in Manhattan was on Fifth Avenue. How lucky I was, I thought, to be in the center of this dream city. Most of all, though, I loved the clothing shops. All I had to do was wrap...
Ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic brew from the Amazon consumed in religious ceremonies for centuries, has been gaining popularity in Europe and North America as a mind-altering trick to condense years of psychotherapy into a psychedelic trip just a few hours long. Drinking the plant brew, users report, helps gain psychological insight and produce new ideas, among other things. To those users, it’s not exactly news __that a psychedelic can enhance...
Noam Galai/Getty Images Bill Nye, above, said he's "open-minded but skeptical" about Elon Musk's plan to colonize Mars. Bill Nye likes Mars as much as the next guy ― more, probably, since the Science Guy also heads up The Planetary Society, a Pasadena, California-based nonprofit __that pushes exploration of the solar system. But Nye isn’t totally sold on SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s bold new...
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The new database suggests there were 1,800 seizures of great apes over the past ten years A new database suggests say there has been a dramatic under-reporting of the live, illegal trade in great apes. Around 1,800 orangutans, chimpanzees and gorillas were seized in 23 different countries since 2005, the figures show. Since 90% of the cases were within national borders they didn't appear...
Image copyright PA, Getty Images EU funding for farmers, scientists and other projects will be replaced by the Treasury after Brexit, Chancellor Philip Hammond has said. In a move which could cost up to £6bn a year, the Treasury will guarantee to back EU-funded projects signed before this year's Autumn Statement. Agricultural funding now provided by the EU will also continue until 2020. But critics said the guarantee does not go far enough...
Image copyright Reuters The Campaign to Protect Rural England has called for a post-Brexit "revolution" in the way farming subsidies are handed out in England. It argues too much money goes to large-scale farms and says assisting smaller, more diverse farms would help the countryside and rural communities. At present, farmers get about £3bn a year in subsidies, with the biggest farmers receiving as much as £1m. The National Farmers' Union said...
Taxpayers are paying more than £400,000 a year to subsidise a farm where a billionaire Saudi prince breeds racehorses. The Newmarket farm of Khalid Abdullah al Saud - owner of the legendary horse Frankel - is among the top 100 recipients of EU farm grants in the UK. The system's critics say Brexit will let the UK redirect £3bn in subsidies towards protecting the environment. A spokesman for the prince declined to comment. Farm subsidies swallow...
The world has hit a global warming milestone it may never recover from. Scientists at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii announced in 2013 __that atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide reached a daily average above 400 parts per million for the first time in history. CO2 concentrations “haven’t been this high in millions of years,” said scientist Erika Podest at the time. “This milestone is a wake-up call.” But the situation...
Image copyright Wendy Panaino Image caption Pangolins are found all over African and Asia but their numbers have plummeted because of illegal trade A little known species driven to the edge of extinction by poaching has gained extra protection at the Cites meeting in South Africa. Pangolins are slow moving, nocturnal creatures found across Asia and Africa but over a million have been taken from the wild in the last decade. The trade...
This September ends with the eerily named black moon rising. On Friday night, watch for this relatively rare lunar event ― something __that hasn’t happened since March 2014, according to AccuWeather. So you’re probably wondering what a black moon is. It actually has a few definitions. The one we’re using here is a second new moon in a calendar month ― not to be confused with a blue moon, which is the second full moon in a calendar...
In the 25 years since hikers stumbled upon his mummified remains high in the Italian Alps, Otzi the Iceman has given up many of his secrets. In addition to the clothing he wore and the tools he used, research has detailed the germs he carried, the illnesses he suffered from and even the tattooes he had. We also know how he died and what he had for his last meal (wild goat). Now we know the sound of his voice. Otzi...
3D printed implants can prompt new bone to grow in animals, scientists reported today in the journal Science Translational Medicine. Called hyperelastic “bone,” their new bioengineered material could also be cheap, versatile and easy to print and use for repairing or regenerating bones in people. The grafts, which helped mend bone injuries in rats and monkeys, are made from hydroxyapatite, a mineral found in bones and teeth, and a biodegradable polymer. “Despite the fact __that is majority ceramic, which is usually very brittle, it possesses very...
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The illegal trade in infant Barbary Macaques is threatening the species Europe's only non-human primate, the Barbary Macaque, is expected to gain the highest level of species protection at the Cites meeting in Johannesburg. While about 200 live safely on the Rock of Gibraltar, they are experiencing rapid decline in their natural habitats in North Africa. Hundreds of infants are illegally...
Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2016/© Yu Jun (China) The Baily’s beads effect seen from Luwuk, Indonesia, during the total solar eclipse of March 9, 2016. A dramatic photo of the total solar eclipse on March 9, 2016, has earned top honors in the Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition this year. Scroll down to see a gallery of winning photos. The composite image spotlights...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)