Topic: Science & Technology

It’s not the extra few feet of water that make sea level rise so dangerous. It’s the extra few feet during a storm during El Niño during high tide, say researchers.

In “Dover Beach,” the 19th Century poet Matthew Arnold describes waves that “begin, and cease, and then again begin…and bring?the eternal note of sadness in.”

But in the warming world of the 21st Century, waves could be riding oceans that will rise anywhere from 0.5 meters (19 inches) to 1.4 meters (55 inches), and researchers believe there’s a good chance they will stir stronger feelings than melancholia.

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Waves at high tide inundate Ocean Beach Pier during a 2000 storm. Researchers say sea level rise presents its greatest danger when water level spikes caused by high tides and El Nino events are superimposed upon it.

Want to understand why switching to renewable fuels is going to be so hard? This overview of alternative energy, fossil fuels and the climate challenge puts it all in perspective. Pay special attention to the chart.

Remember your first drive down the coast in your beat-up convertible, the ocean breeze tousling your hair, which at the time was still gloriously plentiful and, you hoped, desperately attractive to the person sitting next to you?

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Illustration by Nicolle Rager Fuller. Chart figures are courtesy of the energy and resources group at the University of California, Berkeley. Chart authors are Adam Brandt and the late Alex Farrell, with additional analysis by Daniel Kammen.

A new book called "The Truth," by award-winning author Stephen Hawley Martin, draws upon research by impeccable mainstream sources to overturn the widely-held belief that awareness and mind are products of the brain.

An answer to a puzzle that's a lot like "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" has been found according to the author of a new book entitled The Truth.

"The Aerospace Assault on Planet Earth" explores correlation between space launches and environmental disasters and suggests tornadoes, tsunamis and El Nino are more than coincidences.

Once again, environmental issues are a hot button topic for the election year. Politicians are rushing to the dealerships to buy hybrid cars, Barack Obama has gone on record criticizing Detroit for continuing to create gas guzzling vehicles, and the coal lobbyists are desperately trying to convince the American public that instead of alternative fuels, we should turn to technology to solve the world's environmental issues. One new book suggests that technology, instead of being our savior, is actually the cause of our problems.

This latest study continues to debunk the neocoms who continue to chant, "What global warming?"

A recent study based on satellite radar altimetry indicates drastic thinning of Arctic ice during the winter of 2007. It was found that the ice thickness had been fairly constant for the five previous winters. The researchers were able to highlight widespread ice thinning in areas covered by both old and young ice. This thinning constitutes the most severe since records started being taken in the early 1990s.

Radiocarbon dating shows that the tool – an awl fashioned from the leg bone of a white tail deer, with one end ground to a point – is 10,400 years old. The find supports the growing notion that, in the wake of the most recent Ice Age, humans migrated into Indiana earlier than previously thought.

A prehistoric bone tool discovered by University of Indianapolis archeologists is the oldest such artifact ever documented in Indiana, the researchers say.

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This awl, fashioned from a piece of deer bone, has been radiocarbon dated to 10,400 BP, making it the oldest organic implement yet documented in Indiana. It was discovered by University of Indianapolis students in 2003.

Reducing the number of deer in forests and parks may unexpectedly reduce the number of reptiles, amphibians and insects in that area, new research suggests. A recent study found that a greater diversity of snakes, salamanders, and invertebrates were found in areas with deer populations than were found in areas with no deer activity.

During a time when many states have begun to selectively control deer populations, a new study by researchers at Ohio State University and the National Park Service, challenges previous research that has suggested deer populations can negatively impact forest ecosystems through eating plants that many smaller animals may depend on.

Contrary to popular belief, moderate increases in temperature and increased nitrogen from acid rain actually improves forest productivity, providing there is sufficient moisture.

After more than 20 years of research in the northern hardwood forests of Michigan, scientists at Michigan Technological University's School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science have reached a surprising conclusion: Moderate increases in temperature and nitrogen from atmospheric pollution actually improve forest productivity.

Renowned scientists present keyfindings and recommendations to save world's reefs from ocean's greatest threat .

The increase in global carbon dioxide emissions is not just damaging the Earth's climate, but also threatening the very fabric of our oceans. On Wednesday, The Nature Conservancy, along with the support of a dozen of the world's top marine scientists, presented key findings and recommendations to tackle ocean acidification in the "Honolulu Declaration on Ocean Acidification and Reef Management," which was first introduced to the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force meeting in Kona, Hawai'i in late August, and presented Wednesday to delegates attending the World Conservation Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

New research reveals that trained musicians really do think differently than the rest of us. We have to wonder, does this mean they're thinking in stereo?

Supporting what many of us who are not musically talented have often felt, new research reveals that trained musicians really do think differently than the rest of us. Vanderbilt University psychologists have found that professionally trained musicians more effectively use a creative technique called divergent thinking, and also use both the left and the right sides of their frontal cortex more heavily than the average person.

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This figure illustrates the different uses of the left and right side of the frontal cortex by musicians and non-musicians while using a creative technique called divergent thinking. Non-musicians, indicated by the blue-green areas, show greater activity in the left frontal cortex, while musicians show greater activation on both sides, as indicated by the red-orange areas.