NASA — Last year was the fourth warmest year on average for our planet since the late 1800s, according to NASA scientists. To determine if the Earth is warming or cooling, scientists look at average temperatures. To get an “average” temperature, scientists take the warmest and the coolest temperatures in a day, and calculate the…
There was a little turtle. He lived in a box. He swam in a puddle. He climbed on the rocks. He snapped at a mosquito. He snapped at a flea. He snapped at a minnow. And he snapped at me. He caught the mosquito. He caught the flea. He caught the minnow. But he didn’t…
A man who went missing five weeks ago in south-western France has been found alive in an underground cave system where he had got lost. —Hugh Schofield —Man found after weeks in cave (BBC) What’s French for XYZZY? Similar:Students are trusting software like this to do their work.Sorry, not sorry. I don’t want such friends.As part…
[March 20, 2000] I turned to the lady next to me and said, ?excuse me, I just got my sight back last week after being totally blind for 43 years. Could you help me figure out what I am seeing?? [May 8, 2000] I was mesmerized by the glint of the sunlight on the crest…
The prototype consists of two related arenas of activity. In the first, children have to survive ?as lions? outside in a playing field, interacting with a virtual savannah and exploring the opportunities and risks to lions in that space. Children are given GPS-linked PDAs through which they ?see?, ?hear? and ?smell? the world of the…
At 6pm tonight at the Geological Society of London, scientists will raise their glasses to James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh … who in 1650 used the chronology of the Bible to calculate the precise date and moment of creation. Working from the book of Genesis, and risking some speculation on the Hebrew calendar, he calculated…
There is little financial incentive for recycling, and recycling is generally, with a few exceptions, more expensive than dumping and making new goods from virgin materials. Yet there is a growing campaign for recycling, particularly promoted by local government – and more people are taking it up. The ‘black box’ outside your house is becoming…
WHEN I heard the learn?d astronomer; When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me; When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them; When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room, How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;…
One proposal put forward is that Newton’s idea that the force of gravity weakens as distance increases may be incorrect over very large spaces, and may drop off over very long distances. —Robin McKie —Space probes feel cosmic tug of bizarre forces (Guardian) Similar:Visiting the #scienceofpixar exhibit @kaminsciencecenterStudents are trusting software like this to do…
Called Ka-on, which means “flower sound” in Japanese, the gadget consists of a doughnut-shaped magnet and coil at the base of a vase. It hooks up to a CD player, TV or stereo and relays sounds up through a plant’s stem and out via the petals. — Flower power turns up the volume (BBC) Thanks for…
A ROBOT that will generate its own power by eating flies is being developed by British scientists. The idea is to produce electricity by catching flies and digesting them in special fuel cells that will break down sugar in the insects’ skeletons and release electrons that will drive an electric current. —Robot eats flies to…
Many people tell stories of Giant Octopus or Squid, but I want to find out more about these “deadly” creatures and what they do. Ever since I was small, I thought how do they do all those cool things? Well, this search helped me find that information!!!!!!!! —Mike —Octopus (Orchard Hill Elementary School) A fifth-grader posts…
Hawking has always stuck resolutely to the idea that once information goes into a black hole, there is no way out. Until now. When news@nature.com asked about his change of heart, Hawking smiled and wrote: “My views have evolved.” —Mark Peplow —Hawking changes his mind about black holes (Nature) Similar:Visiting the #scienceofpixar exhibit @kaminsciencecenterWill Journalism Be…
The Cassini spacecraft has successfully entered orbit around Saturn, after a seven year voyage. The planet is now the most distant from Earth to be orbited by a spacecraft. —Cassini slips smoothly into Saturn orbit (New Scientist) Similar:Visiting the #scienceofpixar exhibit @kaminsciencecenterStudents are trusting software like this to do their work.A former student working in…
Spirit has begun to negotiate her way up into the Columbia Hills where she has encountered a strange rock called Pot of God that she found contains hematite, something that may well lead to the discovery of past water there. On the other side of the planet, Opportunity has continued her descent into Endurance Crater…
Materials that could jump-start organic evolution have shown up in interstellar dust clouds and dusty planet-forming discs around many stars. These findings fuel an increasingly strong suspicion that the raw material of planet Earth was primed for life. —Robert C. Cowen —Outer space: not so lifeless after all (CS Monitor) Similar:Visiting the #scienceofpixar exhibit @kaminsciencecenterWill Journalism…
They circle in front of the motion detector, the doors open, and the birds fly through and take lunch up to the kids that are nesting in the building. Then it’s back to the door, buzz by the motion detector — and fly through again to hunt for more food. —Birds Learn to Operate Automatic…
Slow-motion Nightmare (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) I had a busy day yesterday, with adventures that included diving fully-clothed into a large kiddie pool to retrieve my 2-year-old daughter, who had slipped and was floating face down, unable to straighten herself out. An older girl had taken my daughter’s hands and lured her to the center of the…
Researchers at Cambridge University have discovered sheep prefer smiling or relaxed human faces, over angry or stressed ones. — Sheep like smiles say researchers (BBC) What about sheepish grins? Okay, that was a ba-a-ad joke. The news story says this research took place three years ago. What is the “news hook”? Is this article discussing recent…
After six years of regulations and restrictions that have cost builders, local governments and landowners on the western fringe of the Great Plains as much as $100 million by some estimates, new research suggests the Preble’s mouse in fact never existed. It instead seems to be genetically identical to one of its cousins, the Bear…