Science

Science

Phantom Traffic Jams: What Causes Mysterious Highway Backups?

6:49pm November 29, 2013

by Joe Palca

Sometimes highway traffic jams up for no apparent reason. There's no accident, and no real reason to step on the brakes — except to avoid hitting the car in front of you. What causes these backups? An MIT scientist thinks he's found a way to prevent these tie-ups.

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By Accident, Scientists Discover Lakes Beneath Greenland

5:34am November 28, 2013

by Richard Harris

There are hundreds of lakes beneath the Antarctic ice sheet, but nobody has found lakes under Greenland's ice. That is until now, and they weren't even looking for them.

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The EPA tries to keep track of all sorts of methane producers — including herds of methane-belching cattle.

U.S. May Be Producing 50 Percent More Methane Than EPA Thinks

7:59pm November 25, 2013

by Christopher Joyce

Previous estimates of the climate-warming gas were based on the rough number of methane-emitting sources on the ground — such as factories, refineries, stoves, swamps, landfills and cattle herds. But by directly measuring levels of methane in the air instead, a new study puts the total much higher.

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The average temperature in winter is about -72 degrees Faharenheit. The IceCube Lab is illuminated in the moonlight.

Science

'Ghost Particles' In Antarctica Offer Glimpse Of Deep Space

6:54pm November 21, 2013

by Geoff Brumfiel

By putting light sensors inside a giant ice cube that's a mile beneath the South Pole, scientists detected 28 neutrinos from beyond the solar system. It's just a start – but researchers hope the work could eventually yield a way to see through debris clouds to the core of exploding stars.

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Beef cattle stand in a barn on the Larson Farms feedlot in Maple Park, Ill.

Inside The Beef Industry's Battle Over Growth-Promotion Drugs

4:39pm November 21, 2013

by Dan Charles

Beta agonists, a class of drugs widely fed to cattle and hogs to make them put on weight faster, are coming under increasing scrutiny. Reports suggest animals fed these drugs can seem reluctant to move — lethargic, unable to walk properly — and may die more often, too.

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At Climate Meeting, Tensions Rise Between Rich And Poor Nations

6:57pm November 20, 2013

At the United Nations climate talks in Warsaw, Poland, conflict between rich and poor nations is mounting. The developing world wants large sums of money to help them adapt to climate change. The U.S. and Europe say they're doing what they can to help but times are tough.

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Piglets in a pen on a hog farm in Frankenstein, Mo.

Science
Arts

Antibiotic Use On The Farm: Are We Flying Blind?

5:26pm November 18, 2013

by Dan Charles

No one knows exactly how farmers use antibiotics. Many public health experts say the government should collect and publish detailed information because antibiotic-resistant bacteria are an increasingly urgent problem. But many farm groups are opposed.

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These pigs, newly weaned from their mothers, are at their most vulnerable stage of life. They're getting antibiotics in their water to ward off bacterial infection.

Are Antibiotics On The Farm Risky Business?

5:25pm November 18, 2013

by Dan Charles

Farmers give antibiotics routinely to pigs, beef cattle and poultry. They say the drugs help keep animals healthy and get them to market faster. Others say this practice practically guarantees that bacteria will develop resistance to these antibiotics more quickly, endangering human lives and the long-term viability of the drugs.

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Is Running Your Car On Rubbish The Future Of Fuels?

8:07pm November 15, 2013

by Elizabeth Shogren

The EPA proposed a new standard on Friday for how much biofuel must be mixed into the nation's gasoline. The portion of vehicle fuel that comes from plants has increased dramatically over recent years to about 10 percent. But most of it comes from corn. Congress hoped that, by now, a billion gallons would be coming from advanced biofuels, which have much smaller greenhouse gas footprints. That hasn't happened. But the nascent cellulosic fuel industry says don't count it out. Several plants are on the verge of opening and more will be on the way.

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The plate on the left contains about equal numbers of colonies of two different bacteria. After the bacteria compete and evolve, the lighter ones have taken the lead in the plate on the right.

Bacterial Competition In Lab Shows Evolution Never Stops

10:49am November 15, 2013

by Nell Greenfieldboyce

Day after day, workers at Michigan State University care for and feed colonies of evolving bacteria. The original microbes have produced more than 50,000 generations in the 25 years since the experiment began. Despite predictions the bacteria might someday reach a point where they would evolve no more, the results show they keep changing.

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