Climatology
Death from the Skies!
How will the world end? When Hollywood answers that question, the result is often terrifying but completely unrealistic. But the realms of reality can be even scarier than fiction, as astronomer Phil Plait deftly illustrates in Death from the Skies!, which comes out in paperback this week.Each chap...
August 24, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
The Political History of Cap and Trade
How an unlikely mix of environmentalists and free-market conservatives hammered out the strategy known as cap-and-trade
August 2009 |
By Richard Conniff
Typhoon Morakot Reminds Us to Prepare for Hurricanes
The full impact of Typhoon Morakot, which struck Taiwan, China and the Philippines earlier this week, may not be known for days or weeks, but hundreds are missing and dozens are already confirmed dead. Morakot was only a Category 2 storm, far less powerful than storms like Katrina or Andrew that we...
August 12, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Was the Ancient Incan Empire Fueled by Warm Climate?
In 1532, when the Incas first met a European, their empire stretched from what is now northern Ecuador to central Chile. The largest empire of the Americas numbered more than eight million people. But the Incas didn’t exist until about A.D. 1100. Before than, the Wari and Tiwanauku occupied the cen...
August 05, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Weather vs. Climate
Seattle and the Pacific Northwest are frying under a heat wave this summer. In New York, it’s so cool that the New York Times has called it “the summer that isn’t.” And Texas is suffering under the most severe drought since the 1950s.What does this all mean for climate change?Absolutely nothing.Eve...
August 04, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Day 1: A Geological Trip Back in Time
Smithsonian Secretary Clough flies to Wyoming to learn about a period of intense global warming that occurred 55 million years ago
July 23, 2009 |
By G. Wayne Clough, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution
Darwin for Dads and More Science Finds in the August Issue
When my daughter was small, I used to take her to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. There, I would explain why the dinosaurs disappeared and how mankind evolved from our primitive forebears. She seemed rapt. But a few weeks ago, after hearing me on the radio discuss a new boo...
July 21, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Climate Change in Your Backyard
What kind of changes can you expect as carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere rise? Here are some highlights of changes based on geographic region, from Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States, a new report from the U.S. Global Change Research Program:Northeast: Shorter winters with les...
July 08, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Picture of the Week -- Coral Reefs and Climate Change
The ocean is getting warmer, higher and more acidic due to climate change. How well will coral reefs respond to such stresses?To find out, a team of researchers led by the University of Texas at Austin is looking to corals' genes. Sequencing a genome can take years, but a new method developed by th...
May 15, 2009 |
By admin
Follow the Tornado Chasers Online
Yesterday, the Verification Of Rotation in Tornadoes EXperiment 2 (VORTEX2) got underway—it’s the largest attempt in history to study the deadly storms, involving more than 50 scientists and 40 research vehicles. VORTEX1 in 1994 and 1995 documented the life cycle of a tornado for the first time (an...
May 11, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
The Avenging Narwhal Play Set
My colleague Abigail Tucker, who wrote a story on narwhal biologist Kristin Laidre, “In Search of the Mysterious Narwhal” for the May issue of Smithsonian, just got the most hilarious gift—The Avenging Narwhal Play Set.The set is complete with a plastic narwhal; four interchangeable tusks, each wit...
April 30, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Vote for NASA’s Greatest Achievement in Earth Observation
Astronauts might get the most public attention, but some of NASA’s most important achievements have come from the satellites that have orbited the earth over the past 50 years. Now, in preparation for Earth Day in two weeks, NASA is asking the public to vote for which earth observation achievement ...
April 15, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Bank Executives See the Forest and the Trees
In a Maryland forest, bankers trade in their suits and ties to study the environment with Smithsonian scientists
April 2009 |
By Kenneth R. Fletcher
Review: The State of the Planet's Oceans
On Friday I saw The State of the Planet's Oceans as part of the Environmental Film Festival. This one-hour film is the 11th part of the PBS series Journey to Planet Earth.It starts off in the Portuguese town of Aveiro, which for centuries thrived by sending its men to the waters off Newfoundland to...
March 16, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Too Many Choices at the Environmental Film Festival
The Environmental Film Festival kicks off tomorrow here in Washington, D.C., and I’ve been trying to figure out which movies I should take in. With 130 films being shown over the next week and a half, most of them free, I’m overwhelmed. I’ve narrowed my choices down to 14, but I need some help. Are...
March 10, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
The Disappearing Arctic Coastline
For this month’s collection of 15 Must-See Endangered Cultural Treasures, I wrote about Herschel Island, on the coast of the Canadian Yukon. The island is being lost to erosion as sea level rises and storms and waves become more powerful. Herchel’s cultural treasures—such as the graves of long-dead...
March 05, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Can Wind Power Be Wildlife Friendly
New research aims to stop turbines from killing bats and birds
February 27, 2009 |
By Joseph Caputo
Rebuilding Greensburg Green
Everyone assumed this Kansas town was destined to fade away. What would it take to reverse its course?
February 27, 2009 |
By Fredric Heeren
Climate Change Rap
What's your take on this? Dorky? Effective?(Hat tip to the Knight Science Journalism Tracker)
February 25, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Green Inspiration at the Top of the Sears Tower
Since I was in Chicago this past weekend (Laura and I attended the AAAS annual meeting—we wrote about fembots, the 1000th Steve, origami, and award-winning science journalism), I took the opportunity to go up to the top of the Sears Tower. As I gazed out over the city, looking down on the roofs of ...
February 18, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
