Science

More than 40 years ago, the EPA banned oil companies from releasing wastewater into the environment, but made an exception for the arid West. If livestock and wildlife can use the water, companies can release it. Cows like these grazing near a stream of w

EPA Wants To Allow Continued Wastewater Dumping In Wyoming

10:16am August 08, 2013

by Elizabeth Shogren

The environmental agency has proposed permits that would allow oil companies to continue releasing contaminated wastewater onto the Wind River Reservation in central Wyoming. NPR found last year that the EPA has been allowing oil companies to send so much wastewater onto dry land that it was creating raging streams.

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Science

Black Holes One Of Space's Great Paradoxes

5:48pm August 07, 2013

by Joe Palca

Late summer tends to be a slow month for news. But at All Things Considered, we put on a two hour program, no matter what. So — without a trace of irony — one of our science correspondents offered to help fill some holes in the show with a series of stories about holes. In this edition: Black holes.

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Earth Scientists Pin Climate Change Squarely On 'Humanity'

8:12pm August 06, 2013

by Christopher Joyce

The federal government's top climate scientists announced Tuesday that 2012 was really hot — among the top 10 hottest years on record and the hottest ever in the U.S., with rising sea levels, less Arctic sea ice and warmer oceans. And the American Geophysical Union called humanity "the major influence" on global climate change.

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Nate Pike fears that wells, like this one that supplies his ranch with water, will dry up completely after years of water pumping and irrigation in Kansas.

Wells Are Running Dry In Parts Of Kansas

7:27pm August 06, 2013

by Frank Morris

New pumping and irrigation systems made it easy for farmers to extract billions of gallons of water from the High Plains Aquifer. But now, parts of the aquifer are dried out, prompting a debate over how to preserve what once seemed to be an almost inexhaustible resource.

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A nematode worm glows as it nears death in this screenshot from a YouTube video showing the work of researchers in London.

Worms' Bright Blue Death Could Shed Light On Human Aging

7:50pm August 03, 2013

by NPR Staff

Researchers are getting clues about the human life cycle from studying the death of tiny worms, which internally release a blue fluorescent dye in the waning hours of their lives. The glowing chemical travels from one end of the creature to the other. One researcher calls it "reminiscent of the soul departing the worm."

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Science

Wildlife Sound Archivist Remembered

1:46pm August 03, 2013

Twenty years ago Saturday, Ted Parker, one of the world's greatest field biologists and sound archivists, died in a plane crash. He made nearly 11,000 wildlife recordings, and could identify some 4,000 different bird species by just the sound of their vocalizations. In this audio montage from Cornell Lab of Ornithology, director John Fitzpatrick offers a remembrance.

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The offshore wind farm in the North Sea near Borkum, Germany, is nearly complete. The Riffgat facility, seen here on June 23, includes 30 turbines, each with a generating capacity of 3.6 megawatts.

Sold! First Parcels Auctioned For Future Offshore Wind Farms

6:01pm August 02, 2013

by Elizabeth Shogren

The federal government held its first ever auction for the right to build offshore wind farms on Wednesday. After 11 rounds, a Rhode Island company was the highest bidder, at $3.8 million.

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A side view of the new ant species Eurhopalothrix zipacna. Mounting glue and paper appear beneath the ant, one of 33 new species discovered in Central America by Jack Longino, a biologist at the University of Utah.

Science

Jack Longino, 'The Astonishing Ant Man,' Finds 33 New Species

6:01pm August 02, 2013

by Christopher Joyce

All told, the scientist has discovered 131 new species of animals in his career, and some are so scary-looking, he's named them after demons. It's a task that's taken more than 30 years of crawling through rain forests to accomplish, and Longino says he's still only scratched the surface.

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The label for the berry blend recalled in June because of pomegranates linked to a hepatitis A outbreak.

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What Poisoned Pomegranates Tell Us About Food Safety

5:48pm August 01, 2013

by Dan Charles

The Food and Drug Administration recently announced a plan to try and prevent American food companies from importing contaminated produce from abroad. The case of the poisoned pomegranates from Turkey shows that our safety systems for imported food, however helpful, are not foolproof.

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Science

For Some Mammals It's One Love, But Reasons Still Unclear

11:11am July 30, 2013

by Richard Harris

Scientists are squaring off yet again on the question of why some mammals are monogamous. A new paper argues that monogamy is most likely the result of males trying to protect their youngsters from murderous rivals. A second study says monogamy in mammals evolved in species where females were scattered about.

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