Earthy Bytes From Rashid

Revisiting the 'Pillars of Creation'

2012-01-24T11:39:00.000+05:30

In 1995, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope took an iconic image of the Eagle nebula, dubbed the "Pillars of Creation," highlighting its finger-like pillars where new stars are thought to be forming. Now, the Herschel Space Observatory has a new, expansive view of the region captured in longer-wavelength infrared light.

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Ancient Popcorn Discovered in Peru

2012-01-19T12:36:00.001+05:30

People living along the coast of Peru were eating popcorn 1,000 years earlier than previously reported and before ceramic pottery was used there, according to a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences co-authored by Dolores Piperno, curator of New World archaeology at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and emeritus staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.

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Pink Core of Omega Nebula:Image Captured by ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT)

2012-01-05T12:36:00.001+05:30

A new image of the Omega Nebula, captured by ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), is one of the sharpest of this object ever taken from the ground. It shows the dusty, rose-coloured central parts of this famous stellar nursery and reveals extraordinary detail in the cosmic landscape of gas clouds, dust and newborn stars.

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Debris of Pacific Ocean, Possibly Heading to US

2012-01-02T01:10:00.001+05:30

ScienceDaily (Dec. 29, 2011) — Debris from the tsunami that devastated Japan in March could reach the United States as early as this winter, according to predictions by NOAA scientists. However, they warn there is still a large amount of uncertainty over exactly what is still floating, where it's located, where it will go, and when it will arrive. Responders now have a challenging, if not impossible situation on their hands: How do you deal with debris that could now impact U.S. shores, but is difficult to find.

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Canada to formally withdraw from Kyoto accord

2011-12-13T13:59:00.001+05:30

Canada will formally withdraw from the Kyoto accord on climate change, Environment Minister Peter Kent said.
Kent made the announcement in the foyer of the House of Commons, after his return from an international summit in Durban, South Africa, on the issue of global warming.

Canada to formally withdraw from Kyoto accord

Landsat Satellites Track Yellowstone's Geothermal Activity

2011-12-11T09:16:00.001+05:30

Yellowstone National Park sits on top of a vast, ancient, and still active volcano. Heat pours off its underground magma chamber, and is the fuel for Yellowstone's famous features -- more than 10,000 hot springs, mud pots, terraces and geysers, including Old Faithful.But expected development by energy companies right outside Yellowstone's borders have some fearing that Old Faithful could be cheated out of its energy.

The park funded a study by Lawrence and his co-author Shannon Savage to apply a new perspective to the problem of tracking geothermal activity. Their work is being presented at the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco on December 9. Lawrence and Savage used both visible light and heat-sensitive Landsat data channels to get a broad view of the park's geothermal activity....

Whales win, walruses lose in warmer Arctic

2011-12-02T23:33:00.001+05:30

The Arctic zone has moved into a warmer, greener "new normal" phase, which means less habitat for polar bears and more access for development, an international scientific team reported.Arctic air temperatures were higher - about 2.5 degrees F (1.5 degrees C) higher in 2011 than the baseline number for the previous 30 years - and there was a dramatic loss of sea ice and glacier mass, the scientists said in a telephone briefing.

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Walnut Trees May Not Be Able to Withstand Climate Change

2011-12-01T11:13:00.001+05:30

Warmer, drier summers and extreme weather events considered possible as the climate changes would be especially troublesome -- possibly fatal -- for walnut trees, according to research at Purdue University.

A Clean Energy Resource Too Large to be Ignored

2011-11-30T11:46:00.001+05:30

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London Bridge Will Soon Be All Lit Up With LEDs!

2011-11-20T16:05:00.001+05:30

It was over 25 years ago that the London Bridge lighting system, used to illuminate the landmark at night, was last upgraded. But GE and its UK partner EDF Energy recently received a formal approval to retrofit the 800-foot bridge with new energy efficient LED technology and a cabling system that will bring it into the 21st century with style.

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Galaxies learned to "go green" early in the history of the universe

2011-11-18T10:27:00.001+05:30

Galaxies learned to "go green" early in the history of the universe, continuously recycling immense volumes of hydrogen gas and heavy elements to build successive generations of stars stretching over billions of years.This ongoing recycling keeps galaxies from emptying their "fuel tanks" and therefore stretches out their star-forming epoch to over 10 billion years. However, galaxies that ignite a rapid firestorm of star birth can blow away their remaining fuel, essentially turning off further star-birth activity....

Three New Planets and a Mystery Object Discovered Outside Our Solar System

2011-10-28T11:18:00.004+05:30

Three planets -- each orbiting its own giant, dying star -- have been discovered by an international research team led by a Penn State University astronomer.

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NASA Telescopes Help Solve Ancient Supernova Mystery

2011-10-25T21:23:00.002+05:30

A mystery that began nearly 2,000 years ago, when Chinese astronomers witnessed what would turn out to be an exploding star in the sky, has been solved. New infrared observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, reveal how the first supernova ever recorded occurred and how its shattered remains ultimately spread out to great distances.

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Astronomers Find Elusive Planets in Decade-Old Hubble Data

2011-10-09T00:04:00.002+05:30

In a painstaking re-analysis of Hubble Space Telescope images from 1998, astronomers have found visual evidence for two extrasolar planets that went undetected back then.

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Agriculture Can Adapt to Climate Change

2011-10-08T01:19:00.003+05:30

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Scientists to develop deep ocean seismic network

2011-10-08T00:42:00.001+05:30

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NASA's UARS Re-Enters Earth's Atmosphere

2011-09-25T10:17:00.001+05:30

NASA’s decommissioned Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) fell back to Earth between 11:23 p.m. EDT Friday, Sept. 23 and 1:09 a.m. Sept. 24, 20 years and nine days after its launch on a 14-year mission that produced some of the first long-term records of chemicals in the atmosphere.

The precise re-entry time and location of debris impacts have not been determined. During the re-entry period, the satellite passed from the east coast of Africa over the Indian Ocean, then the Pacific Ocean, then across northern Canada, then across the northern Atlantic Ocean, to a point over West Africa. The vast majority of the orbital transit was over water, with some flight over northern Canada and West Africa.

Six years after the end of its productive scientific life, UARS broke into pieces during re-entry, and most of it up burned in the atmosphere. Data indicates the satellite likely broke apart and landed in the Pacific Ocean far off the U.S. coast. Twenty-six satellite components, weighing a total of about 1,200 pounds, could have survived the fiery re-entry and reach the surface of Earth. However, NASA is not aware of any reports of injury or property damage.

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Gold Comes From Meteorites

2011-09-10T09:07:00.001+05:30

Ultra high precision analyses of some of the oldest rock samples on Earth by researchers at the University of Bristol provides clear evidence that the planet's accessible reserves of precious metals are the result of a bombardment of meteorites more than 200 million years after Earth was formed.

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Don't rebuild communities in landslide-stricken areas

2011-08-13T22:43:00.001+05:30

This advice comes from Dr. Beatriz Cuevas-Jadina of the Visayas State University (VSU) in Baybay City, Leyte, who has been studying high-risk landslide areas in Leyte.
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Arctic Ocean will have an ice-free summer byr 2100

2011-08-12T08:51:00.000+05:30

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had released its most recent report in 2007. It forecasts that the Arctic Ocean will have an ice-free summer by the year 2100. However, that finding has been contradicted by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). They say the Arctic summer will be ice-free several decades earlier, within many people’s lifetimes.
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Solar storms to hit Earth

2011-08-07T18:10:00.003+05:30

Three large explosions from the Sun over the past few days have prompted U.S. government scientists to caution users of satellite, telecommunications and electric equipment to prepare for possible disruptions over the next few days.
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Sugar Doesn't Melt -- It Decomposes, Scientists Demonstrate

2011-08-02T11:35:00.001+05:30

Flying in the face of years of scientific belief, University of Illinois researchers have demonstrated that sugar doesn't melt, it decomposes.
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Mount Rainier Has Lost One-Seventh of Its Ice and Snow

2011-07-20T21:00:00.000+05:30

About 14% of the ice and permanent snow atop Washington's Mount Rainier melted in the last 4 decades, a new study suggests. Researchers arrived at that figure by comparing the estimated thicknesses and extents of ice seen in a 1970 aerial survey with those measured by an airborne laser altimeter in 2007 and 2008. All but two of the 28 glaciers and snowfields have thinned and shortened at their lower edges, and the exceptions likely thickened only because large amounts of rock fell upon the ice in recent years and insulated it from warming temperatures. Overall, the volcanic peak lost about 0.65 cubic kilometers of ice—enough to cover the entire state of Rhode Island to a depth of 20 centimeters—during the 38-year interval between surveys, the researchers report online inGeology. Prior to the ongoing meltback, Mount Rainier's ice and snow coverage expanded from the late 1950s to around 1980 during a wetter-than-normal phase of a multi-decadal climate cycle called the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. These recent trends indicate that Mount Rainier's glaciers are very sensitive to warming and could grow again with modest changes in temperature or precipitation, the scientists say.
source:Science Shots

Your iPhone and Macbook can Detect Earthquakes!

2011-07-01T13:07:00.001+05:30

Launch the Safari browser on your iOS device, or Google Chrome if you using a Macbook, and then open this page - isthisanearthquake.com. Now shake your phone /computer and the website will capture these movements in real-time much like a seismograph.
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A young, wayward Emperor penguin won't be getting a free ride back to Antarctica

2011-07-01T07:18:00.000+05:30

An Emperor penguin found in New Zealand will be released into the ocean when fully fit so it can swim the 1,900 miles home to Antarctica, wildlife experts said. The penguin, nicknamed "Happy Feet," was found wandering on a beach near Wellington last week and was taken to the city's zoo when it became sick after eating sand and sticks.

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Glimpsing the End of Our Solar System

2011-06-20T14:20:00.001+05:30

Researchers at the University of Leicester are investigating the possible eventual fate of the solar system by examining 'white dwarf' stars elsewhere in our galaxy.
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MARS MOON PHOBOS SAILS BY JUPITER

2011-06-20T01:41:00.001+05:30

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Tropical Storm Beatriz forms off Mexico coast

2011-06-20T01:35:00.003+05:30

Tropical Storm Beatriz, the second named storm of the Pacific hurricane season, formed off Mexico's Pacific Coast, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said on Sunday.
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Hubble's 2oth Birthday

2011-06-18T22:35:00.001+05:30

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Mercury:New Surprises

2011-06-18T22:27:00.000+05:30

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IS THE SUN ABOUT TO FIZZ OUT?

2011-06-16T09:46:00.003+05:30

As perplexing as it may sound, solar researchers are predicting the sun is about to fall into the doldrums,again.
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'Hidden' Galaxies of the Universe Have Lower Amounts of Heavier Elements

2011-06-16T00:27:00.003+05:30

A unique example of some of the lowest surface brightness galaxies in the universe have been found by an international team of astronomers lead by the Niels Bohr Institute. The galaxy has lower amounts of heavier elements than other known galaxies of this type. The discovery means that small low surface brightness galaxies may have more in common with the first galaxies formed shortly after the Big Bang than previously thought.

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Carbon Release to Atmosphere Accelerated 10 Times

2011-06-06T19:54:00.002+05:30

The rate of release of carbon into the atmosphere today is nearly 10 times as fast as during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), 55.9 million years ago, the best analog we have for current global warming, according to an international team of geologists. Rate matters and this current rapid change may not allow sufficient time for the biological environment to adjust.

Due to Global Warming, Arctic Access Will be Hampered by Land but Improve by Sea

2011-06-02T14:32:00.000+05:30

Global warming over the next 40 years will cut through Arctic transportation networks like a double-edged sword, limiting access in certain areas and vastly increasing it in others, a new UCLA study predicts.

Largest Assembly of Whale Sharks

2011-05-31T11:07:00.000+05:30

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Flights in Risk:Iceland volcano erupts Again with 20 Kilometer Smoke Column

2011-05-22T12:39:00.001+05:30

Iceland's most active volcano erupted on Saturday, hurling a plume of ash and smoke far into the sky, which aviation officials were closely monitoring after another volcano shut European airspace for days last year .

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Big Clue to Future Climate Change in Small Plants

2011-05-20T01:09:00.002+05:30

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Old levee breaches in Mississippi

2011-05-16T11:01:00.002+05:30

The Mississippi River at Vicksburg crept to within inches of its 1927 record on Saturday, as residents anxiously watched flood waters invade their historic city.

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Atomic Clocks With Unprecedented Accuracy

2011-05-15T19:05:00.000+05:30

A team of physicists from the United States and Russia announced that it has developed a means for computing, with unprecedented accuracy, a tiny, temperature-dependent source of error in atomic clocks. Although small, the correction could represent a big step towards atomic timekeepers' longstanding goal of a clock with a precision equivalent to one second of error every 32 billion years -- longer than the age of the universe.

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On Pangaea, Latitude and Rain Dictated Where Species Lived

2011-05-14T10:36:00.000+05:30

More than 200 million years ago, mammals and reptiles lived in their own separate worlds on the supercontinent Pangaea, despite little geographical incentive to do so. Mammals lived in areas of twice-yearly seasonal rainfall; reptiles stayed in areas where rains came just once a year. Mammals lose more water when they excrete, and thus need water-rich environments to survive. Results are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Infanticide Was Prevalent in Roman Empire

2011-05-06T11:24:00.001+05:30

Infanticide, the killing of unwanted babies, was common throughout the Roman Empire and other parts of the ancient world, according to a new study.

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Obama forms panel to improve fracking safety

2011-05-06T11:20:00.001+05:30

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Global sea levels rising three times faster than expected

2011-05-05T11:21:00.002+05:30

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High-level radiation found in sewage sludge near Japanese nuclear plant

2011-05-05T11:20:00.000+05:30

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FACEBOOK REUNITING TORNADO VICTIMS WITH MEMORIES

2011-05-01T11:59:00.001+05:30

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Global warming threat amid nuclear doubts: IEA

2011-05-01T10:42:00.000+05:30

A global warming target could be missed three times over if countries fail to promote clean energy, the International Energy Agency warned Thursday, amid a possible slowdown in atomic power growth.

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Tornado hits Tuscaloosa:Satellite Imageries

2011-05-01T01:07:00.001+05:30

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Logging, mining cost Indonesia $36 bn

2011-04-29T13:12:00.002+05:30

Land clearance by hundreds of mine and plantation companies operating illegally on Indonesia's Borneo island has cost the country $36 billion....

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U.S.:Several Hurricanes Predicted in 2011

2011-04-27T10:20:00.000+05:30

The 2011 Atlantic hurricane season will be active with the energy-rich U.S. Gulf Coast facing a significant threat of a hurricane landfall, a leading private weather forecaster predicted.

The forecast by Weather Services International follows one of the busiest seasons on record last year that saw intense levels of storm and hurricane activity but no direct hit on the U.S. coastline.

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Strong quakes hit Indonesia's Sulawesi island

2011-04-25T10:58:00.000+05:30

A series of strong earthquakes hit the Indonesian island of Sulawesi early on Monday, damaging houses and causing panic, officials said, but they had no word on casualties.Skip related content

Reports from the area said the relatively shallow quake just after 6 a.m. (12 a.m. British time) hit 55 km southeast of Kendari, the regional capital of over 300,000 people in Southeast Sulawesi.

At least three strong aftershocks followed the initial magnitude 6.2 quake over the next couple of hours, officials said.

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Fracking methane

2011-04-24T20:33:00.000+05:30

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New Climate Change Report Released

2011-04-24T09:17:00.000+05:30

Warming temperatureswill cause increased drought and sea-level rises in Australia and New Zealand by 2030 and threaten ecologically rich sites such as the Great Barrier Reef, according to excerpts from a new scientific report released .

The South Pacific Islands, meanwhile, will be swamped by sea level rises as well as increased frequency of cyclones, according to the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.Island economies also will suffer as warming waters damage coral reefs and hurt the fishing industries, the report said...

BuyWithMe is Now in Your City - Sponsored Post

2011-04-24T08:37:00.001+05:30

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Haryana to tag criminals with GPS-fitted device

2011-04-22T16:39:00.002+05:30

In a bid to keep a tab on the activities of criminals, who go out of jails on parole, Haryana police will take the help of GPS (global positioning system) fitted ‘offender tracking device’.

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Ozone hole dominates shifting Southern Hemisphere climate

2011-04-22T12:36:00.000+05:30

Climate policymakers and scientists need to look beyond global warming emissions of carbon dioxide and take the loss of stratospheric ozone into account, researchers said ...

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Your mom deserves some flowers! - Sponsored Post

2011-04-22T11:44:00.001+05:30

Show some love on Mother's day. Click here to get 15% off and order Mom some flowers

Mekong nations at odds over controversial Laos dam

2011-04-20T17:03:00.000+05:30

Officials from Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam met in Vientiane to discuss the planned $3.8 billion Xayaburi dam in northern Laos, an impoverished Communist nation which sees hydropower as vital to its future.

Laos's neighbours raised worries about insufficient environmental studies of the dam's likely impact, according to a statement released after the meeting, while Laos said there was no need for further consultation.

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Green a Tough Sell in China

2011-04-19T21:05:00.002+05:30

While hopes are high that China’s shoppers can help solve what ails the global economy, don’t count on them to do the same for the environment. ....
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Workers at stricken Japan nuclear plant make a little progress

2011-04-13T12:11:00.001+05:30

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£100m cash boost for river wildlife

2011-04-13T12:07:00.000+05:30

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Paris to be powered by Waste

2011-04-12T17:39:00.000+05:30

City of Lights is fast becoming the City of Innovative but Slightly Bizarre Energy Solutions, including new ways to harness the heat you might otherwise not want to touch.

Sewer water: French children are probably too classy to be delighted by this the way American children would be, but last week a Paris primary school started heating itself with poo. The school recovers heat from nearby sewer pipes, which are full of euphemistic “waste water.” Steel plates in the pipes draw heat from fast-moving water and pump it to the school’s heating system. The new plan should cover about 70 percent of the building’s heating needs, and keep 76 tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere -- a drop in the bidet, maybe, but all that waste energy would just go to waste otherwise.

Subway sweat: Also, this year, a public housing project will start drawing heat from the masses of damp, uncomfortable commuters in the Paris metro. The average passenger generates 100 watts of energy a ride, just from generally being alive (plus, you’ve seen the French, you can’t deny they’re hot). When they’re all smashed together, they provide enough heat to power 17 apartments. The building will draw the heat from the station into heat exchangers, which will move it into the pipes. Call it BOthermal.

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Macedonia plants three million trees to revive forests

2011-03-31T20:16:00.002+05:30

Thousands of Macedonians took a day off work on Thursday to plant three million trees to revive the nation's forests after fires ravaged an estimated 35,000 hectares (86,000 acres) of greenery.

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Air pollution has serious health impact in Bucharest

2011-03-31T12:13:00.000+05:30

Air pollution in Bucharest, one of the worst in Europe, has a "serious impact" on the health of its inhabitants, Romanian environmental NGO Ecopolis warned on Wednesday....

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WHO says Japan radiation localized, no immediate threat

2011-03-20T14:20:00.002+05:30

The World Health Organization believes the spread of radiation from a quake-crippled nuclear plant in Japan remains limited and appears to pose no immediate risk to health, the WHO'sChina representative said on Friday.

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U.S. Government Scientists Try to Evaluate Nuclear Risk

2011-03-18T22:13:00.000+05:30

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Japan accident triggers dilemma over coast as atomic plant sites

2011-03-15T10:02:00.001+05:30

Japan's nuclear accident exposes the dilemma of whether to build power plants on tsunami-prone coasts or inland sites where water supplies are unreliable, a problem likely to be aggravated by climate change, experts say.

Many of the world's 442 nuclear power reactors are by the sea, rather than by lakes or rivers, to ensure vast water supplies for cooling fuel rods in emergencies like that at the Fukushima plant on Japan's east coast.

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Anxious Europe examines nuclear safety after Japan quake

2011-03-15T09:54:00.002+05:30

Japan's nuclear emergency Monday prompted Germany and Switzerland to halt nuclear programmes as anxious Europe scrambled to review cross-border safety while safeguarding the powerful industry.

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Now Researchers Will 'Crawl' Your Brain

2011-03-11T11:18:00.001+05:30

The brain is a black box. A complex circuitry of neurons fires information through channels, much like the inner workings of a computer chip. But while computer processors are regimented with the deft economy of an assembly line, neural circuits are impenetrable masses. Think tumbleweed.

Researchers in Harvard Medical School's Department of Neurobiology have developed a technique for unraveling these masses. Through a combination of microscopy platforms, researchers can crawl through the individual connections composing a neural network, much as Google crawls Web links

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Fight Against Invading Species

2011-03-11T11:10:00.000+05:30

Like some bad science-fiction movie, Philippine fishermen are encountering strange alien creatures: tough, speckled fish with sharp spines that tear and rip their nets.

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The World Community has taken sides:UN Security Council votes sanctions on Gaddafi

2011-02-27T16:39:00.000+05:30

The World Community has taken sides.The UN Security Council has voted unanimously to impose sanctions on Muammar Gaddafi's Libyan regime for its attempts to put down an uprising.

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Tree-planting world record set in Philippines

2011-02-24T14:34:00.000+05:30

Philippine environmentalists have set a world record for the most trees planted simultaneously.Nearly 7,000 people helped in the mass planting of saplings in denuded forest and grassland in the eastern province of Camrines Sur on Wednesday, said Mara Joneil Cordova, spokeswoman for El Verde (The Green) project.

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Tropical forests 're-shaped' by climate changes

2011-02-21T00:04:00.000+05:30

Future climate change could change the profile of tropical forests, with possible consequences for carbon storage and biodiversity, a study says.It suggests that if current trends continued, the drier conditions would favour deciduous, canopy species at the expense of other trees.

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Lack of sleep can Lead to Ailing Heart

2011-02-20T11:11:00.000+05:30

Sleep deprivation is emerging as a key reason for heart ailments. Recent research from London shows a person who sleeps less than six hours a night has a 48% higher risk of developing or dying from heart disease.The University of Warwick studied 4.7 lakh people across eight countries, including the US, the UK and Japan, to establish this equation. "If you sleep less than six hours a night and have disturbed sleep you stand a 48% greater chance of developing or dying from heart disease and a 15% greater chance of developing or dying of a stroke,'' the university team said. It added, ''Late to bed and early to rise is a ticking time bomb for health.''

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Global Warming May Reroute Evolution

2011-02-18T21:25:00.000+05:30

Rising carbon dioxide levels associated with global warming may affect interactions between plants and the insects that eat them, altering the course of plant evolution, research at the University of Michigan suggests.

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NASA Sees Former Tropical Storm Carlos Still a Soaker in the Northern Territory

2011-02-18T10:33:00.000+05:30

Now a remnant low pressure area, former Tropical Storm Carlos continues to move southwest inland over Australia's Northern Territory and dump heavy amounts of rainfall. NASA's Aqua satellite saw some of the high thunderstorms within Carlos over land and extending north into the Timor Sea.

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Residents near Japanese volcano Shinmoedake urged to evacuate

2011-02-17T16:59:00.001+05:30

Shinmoedake began erupting in late January, in its biggest activity in some 300 years. The volcanic activity has disrupted airline flights and blanketed nearby vegetable farms with ash, but there have been no reports of serious injury or deaths.

The Japan Meteorological Agency expected rainfall of more than 4 mm (0.16 inch) per hour to last until Thursday night, an amount that the local government said could cause mudslides.

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A MASSIVE PLANET IN THE OUTER SOLAR SYSTEM?

2011-02-17T16:56:00.002+05:30

There's a planet, possibly four times the mass of Jupiter, composed of hydrogen and helium, potentially with a system of moons, hiding in the furthest-most reaches of the solar system. That's according to two University of Louisiana scientists anyway.

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Giant Ring of Black Holes

2011-02-16T16:04:00.000+05:30

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Charles to address EU carbon summit

2011-02-09T22:31:00.002+05:30

Charles was invited to speak at the European Parliament event in recognition of decades spent promoting environmental awareness - particularly the last four years focusing on saving tropical rainforests from further destruction.

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Asia-Pacific at risk from climate migration

2011-02-07T22:58:00.001+05:30

Governments in the Asia-Pacific region face the risk of unprecedented numbers of people displaced by floods, storms and other impacts of climate change, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said in a report on Monday.
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clean energy shift could save 4 tln euros: WWF

2011-02-04T11:14:00.001+05:30

The environmental group WWF argued that a radical, near total elimination of oil and shift to clean energy within 40 years would generate four trillion euros ($5.4 trillion) in savings a year.

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CHINA MICRO-BLOGGING SITES CENSOR 'EGYPT'

2011-01-30T17:47:00.000+05:30

The word "Egypt" was censored Saturday by several micro-blogging sites in China, where the ruling Communist Party is wary of issues of political reform, demands for democracy and disturbances to public order, including overseas.

On the sina.com and sohu.com sites, the Chinese equivalents of Twitter, which is censored in China, a query with the word "Egypt" returned the response: "According to the laws in force, the results of your search cannot be given."

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Largest Solar-powered boat in world

2011-01-30T17:44:00.000+05:30

The Swiss-owned boat set sail from Monaco four months ago and has now reached the archipelago.

The boat is 31 metres long and equipped with 530 square metres of solar panels.

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Penske delivers first electric Smart ForTwo

2011-01-30T12:14:00.000+05:30

To kick off the latest phase in their electric car program, Smart USA President Jill Lajdzia and Roger Penske, chairman of Smart USA parent company Penske Automotive Group, personally delivered the first Smart ForTwo Electric Drive to a customer in Maryland.

We will be skiing in Yorkshire rather than sunbathing under palm tree

2011-01-28T23:43:00.000+05:30

We are more likely to be skiing in Yorkshire than basking under palm trees, a leading climate change expert has warned as global warming will actually lead to Britain getting colder.....
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Extra U.N. climate talks set for April in Bangkok

2011-01-28T23:24:00.002+05:30

Climate negotiators from almost 200 nations will hold an extra session in Bangkok in April to try to unblock work on a successor to the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol for slowing global warming...
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Obama sets 2035 clean electricity target

2011-01-26T16:13:00.002+05:30

U.S. President Barack Obama set a target for power plants to produce mostly clean electricity by 2035 -- including power from sources like clean coal and natural gas -- in his State of the Union address.

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Geospatial Park in Gujarat, India

2011-01-26T02:17:00.002+05:30

India's first geospatial technology park will be set up in Gujarat. This was announced by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi during Geospatial World Forum 2011 in Hyderabad. "Gujarat is ready to host India's first geospatial tech park. We will provide all the facilities that the industry needs," he said. He also invited GIS Development to host the next Geospatial World Forum in Gujarat.

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Physicists Spot Interstellar Shock Wave Using Spitzer Telescope

2011-01-23T12:15:00.001+05:30

The spirals of a "space tornado" may be the first step in the formation of a new star. The structure, observed with NASA's Spitzer infrared telescope, is a shock wave created by a jet of material slamming on a cloud of interstellar gas and dust at more than 100 miles per second, heating the cloud and causing it to glow. Physicists say the jet may have been generated by magnetic fields.

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Are Sharks Color Blind?

2011-01-20T23:09:00.000+05:30

Sharks are unable to distinguish colors, even though their close relatives rays and chimaeras have some color vision, according to new research by Dr. Nathan Scott Hart and colleagues from the University of Western Australia and the University of Queensland in Australia.Their study shows that although the eyes of sharks function over a wide range of light levels, they only have a single long-wavelength-sensitive cone* type in the retina and therefore are potentially totally color blind. Hart and team's findings are published online in Springer's journalNaturwissenschaften.

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South Sudan seeks millions for war-hit wildlife

2011-01-19T12:47:00.002+05:30

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Peaks,Passes and Bugyals of Uttarakhand,India

2011-01-15T17:48:00.000+05:30

Peaks

Nanda Devi - 7819 m

Mt Kamet - 7756 m

Abi Gamin - 7355 m

Mana - 7272 m situated at divide of Bank Kund and Purvi Kamet glaciers

Mukut Parvat - 7242 m

Chaukhamba - 7140 m

Trishul - 7122 m

Dunagiri - 7068 m

Kedarnath - 6942 m

Gangotri - 6674 m

Neelkanth - 6597m a peak near Badrinath temple. Named after Lord Shiva

Shivling - 6501 m

Nilgiri - 6474m

Bandarpunch - 6320 m

Passes

A Pass is a way between two mountains.

Bali Pass

A pass between the Tons valley and the Yamunotri valleys. The route descends through open meadows and later through forests to lead near Yamunotri shrine

Borasu Pass

It can be approached through Har-ki-Doon valley It descends in the north to the Baspa valley and reaches Chhitkul

Dharashi Pass

The first pass enroute to the Nanda Devi Sanctuary

Mana Pass

The pass leads from Badrinath temple to Guge district in Tibet passing through Deotal lake from where Saraswati originates. This pass was crossed by Adi Shankaracharya

Niti Pass

A pass leading from Niti village (near Kamet) to Tibet

Gupt Khal

A pass at head of the Bankund glacier (Amrit Ganga valley), southwest of Mana peak.

Bugyals(Grasslands)

Bugyals are high altitude grass lands. They are flat and slopy carpeted with green grass and seasonal flowers

Auli and Gorson

This bugyals are near Joshimath. It is at an altitude of 3049m.

Bedni

This bugyal is near Mundoli, approachable from Karnaprayag. It is at height of 3354m

Panwali & Kush-Kalyani

This bugyal is on the way from Gangotri to Kedarnath. It is an altitude ranging from 2745-3970m

Dayara

This bugyal is in Uttarkashi district and can be approached from Bhatwari

Source

New Predator 'Dawn Runner' Discovered in Early Dinosaur Graveyard

2011-01-14T14:09:00.000+05:30

A team of paleontologists and geologists from Argentina and the United States on Jan. 13 announced the discovery of a lanky dinosaur that roamed South America in search of prey as the age of dinosaurs began, approximately 230 million years ago.

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Ice Core Shows Arctic Pollution From Coal Highest 100 Years Ago

2011-01-11T17:28:00.000+05:30

New research, reported in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, finds that coal burning, primarily in North America and Europe, contaminated the Arctic and potentially affected human health and ecosystems in and around Earth's polar regions.

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China to control rare earth extraction

2011-01-08T17:35:00.000+05:30

China will step up its controls over the mining of rare earths and release new industry standards to cut pollution, a minister and media said on Friday, after the world's biggest supplier cut export quotas for the minerals.

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community management is KEY to save world's fisheries

2011-01-07T11:28:00.000+05:30

A study by marine scientists has given powerful backing to campaigners who say the future of many of the world's fisheries lies in co-management by government, local people and fishermen.

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Oxygen's Challenge to Early Life

2011-01-06T23:00:00.005+05:30

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Floods "of biblical proportions" hit Australia's northeast

2011-01-02T12:25:00.000+05:30

Large parts of Australia's coastal northeast were flooded on Sunday in a spreading environmental disaster as thousands of residents fled their homes to avoid the runoff from a Christmas deluge.

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Growing Atlantic dead zone shrinks habitat for Species

2010-12-31T11:45:00.000+05:30

A dead zone off the coast of West Africa is reducing the amount of available habitat for Atlantic tuna and billfish species, reports the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in a study published in Fisheries Oceanography. The zone is growing due to rising water temperatures and is expected to cause over-harvest of tuna and billfish as the fish seek higher levels of oxygen in areas with greater fisheries activity.

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NASA project for irrigation management

2010-12-30T11:42:00.000+05:30

To support irrigation management decisions by agricultural producers, NASA has launched a project that uses the Terrestrial Observation and Prediction System (TOPS), a software application that processes imagery from Earth-observing satellites and delivers new sources of information to California growers.

TOPS combines data from NASA satellites, with local weather observations to provide information about crop water needs. The project is an example of NASA’s efforts to address needs outside the science community, such as water management in California and the western US.

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