Science

A boat skims through the melting ice in the Ilulissat fjord in August 2008, on the western coast of Greenland.

Entrepreneurs Looking For 'Windfall' Cash In On Climate Change

2:48pm January 28, 2014

A new book explores the ways melting Arctic ice yield new shipping channels, new oil and gas resources — and potential profits. Journalist McKenzie Funk delves into the "booming business of global warming" in Windfall.

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Al Jones of the West Virginia Department of General Services tests water as he flushes faucets and opens a rest room at the State Capitol in Charleston, W. Va., on Jan. 13, four days after a chemical spill into the Elk River. It wasn't until Jan. 21 that

Drinking Water Not Tested For Tens Of Thousands Of Chemicals

8:48pm January 24, 2014

by Elizabeth Shogren

The fact that a second contaminant in West Virginia's drinking water eluded detection for nearly two weeks — despite intense testing of the water — reveals an important truth about how companies test drinking water: In most cases, they only find the contaminants they're looking for.

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Each year, 6 to 8 percent of the global population of sharks and rays gets caught, scientists say. The fish can't reproduce fast enough to keep pace

Ancient And Vulnerable: 25 Percent Of Sharks And Rays Risk Extinction

9:23am January 22, 2014

by Richard Harris

"People know about the global trade in shark fins, but few know that some of the most valuable fins ... used in shark fin soup come from the sharklike rays — species like sawfishes and wedgefishes and guitarfishes," says Sonja Fordham, who contributed to a new analysis of the fisheries.

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Tracks from NASA's Opportunity rover disappear toward the horizon on the Meridiani Plains of Mars. The rover has been on the planet since 2004.

Science

Mars Or Bust: Putting Humans On The Red Planet

6:42pm January 19, 2014

by NPR Staff

Some of the earliest science fiction imagined voyages to Mars. We now have the space-faring technology to make reaching the Red Planet possible. It would involve massive resources and many potential dangers, but some believe the rewards would be massive.

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A northern spotted owl in a Redwood forest.

To Save Threatened Owl, Another Species Is Shot

12:19pm January 17, 2014

by Elizabeth Shogren

The rare northern spotted owl species faces habitat loss and, now, intruding barred owls. A biologist, and the federal government, have made a difficult decision — killing one owl to ward off the extinction of another.

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The world's biggest trees, such as this large Scots pine in Spain's Sierra de Baza range, are also the world's fastest-growing trees, according to an analysis of 403 tree species spanning six continents.

An Old Tree Doesn't Get Taller, But Bulks Up Like A Bodybuilder

9:12am January 17, 2014

by Richard Harris

An aging tree's girth is good for the planet, scientists say, because it helps it suck more carbon dioxide out of the air. "It's as if, on your favorite sports team, you find out the star players are a bunch of 90-year-olds," one ecologist says.

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The Big Impact Of A Little-Known Chemical In W.Va. Spill

10:06am January 14, 2014

by Elizabeth Shogren

At the time of the accident, the CDC didn't have a standard for how much of the coal-cleaning chemical is safe in drinking water. So the agency had to come up with one.

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Can't Stand The Cold Snap? Don't Go To Antarctica

6:56am January 08, 2014

by Geoff Brumfiel

You think it's cold? You ain't seen nothing! Imagine what it's like at science's coldest places: from the Eastern Antarctic Plateau to the moons of Saturn to the coldest labs.

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Arctic Methane Bubbles Not As Foreboding As Once Feared

4:27pm January 06, 2014

by Richard Harris

European scientists were alarmed in 2008 when they discovered streams of methane bubbles erupting from the seafloor in Norway's high Arctic. This gas, which contributes to global warming, was apparently coming from methane ice on the seafloor. A follow-up study finds that methane bubble plumes at this location have probably been forming for a few thousand years, so they are not the result of human-induced climate change. But continued warming of ocean water can trigger more methane releases in the Arctic, with potentially serious consequences to the climate.

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A technique called optogenetics is being used in the laboratory to observe and control what brain circuits are doing in real time.

Experimental Tool Uses Light To Tweak The Living Brain

8:09am December 30, 2013

by Jon Hamilton

An experimental technique called optogenetics is starting to change the way researchers look at the brain. The tool allows them to switch entire brain circuits on and off using light, and may help figure out what's going wrong in brain ailments from epilepsy to depression.

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