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Science / Our Planet

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Missing: Arctic Rubber Duckies

Missing: 90 yellow rubber duckies dropped into a moulin (a tubular hole) in a melting Greenland glacier approximately three months ago

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Clean Coal Advice From Doctor Who

We have gotten conflicting information on clean coal—that mythic technology that would let us burn all the coal we want without any carbon emissions

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Lessons in Space Exploration From Lewis and Clark

The similarities between the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1803 to 1806 and a manned mission to Mars are not immediately obvious

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Leap Second Added to Your Calendar

The official Keepers of Time will add a leap second to the world’s master clocks (in the U.S. Naval Observatory) on December 31 at 23:59:59 UTC

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Why Is Minnesota’s Recount Doomed?

Charles Seife wrote an op-ed for yesterday’s New York Times about the recount in Minnesota, which seems like it ought to be a simple problem but isn’t

Picture of the Week—Diatoms or Modern Art?

Michael Stringer of Westcliff-on-Sea, England won the 2008 Nikon Small world Photomicrography Competition earlier this year with the image below

Angel Watkins and co-workers in Colorado blame many culprits in the decline of the Aspen.

What’s Killing the Aspen?

The signature tree of the Rockies is in trouble

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A Chemistry Lesson at the American History Museum

Spark!Lab at the National Museum of American History, which reopens on Friday after extensive renovations

Probabilistic seismic hazard map

California Shaking

Amazing animations from the USGS of a magnitude 7.8 scenario earthquake on the San Andreas Fault in southern California

Sunrise over South Texas, by Hugh Powell. That’s right - a sunrise. In every ending there’s a new dawn, after all. See you at Food and Think)

Gisting Off Into the Sunset

Slow Monsoon Seasons Led to End of Chinese Dynasties

Like ice cores or tree rings, stalagmites (those are the ones that grow up from the cave floor) can record ancient history

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Purple Rain: Tomatoes Get New Color Scheme

Laura Helmuth

Laura Helmuth on “Seeing is Believing”

Candidates and Constituents Visualize Science in 2008

Teal sea glass

Sea Glass: The Search on the Shore

Part of the sea glass hunting elite, Nancy and Richard LaMotte are finding the treasures they covet harder to come by

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The Miracle of the Reef

Coral spawn only once a year, and at night; how they manage to synchronize remains a mystery

Still life: Fall chum

For Salmon Fishermen, It’s Fall Chum to the Rescue

For the Yup’ik people of Alaska, fall chum is the answer to a troubled fishing season and a link to the outside world

Scrapped fishing boats in Fort Bragg (salvagers Bruce Abernathy and his son David) testify to the sharp decline of chinook salmon.

On California’s Coast, Farewell to the King Salmon

For the first time there’s no fishing for chinook salmon on the California coast. The search is on for why the prize catch is so scarce.

Hawaii-based journalist Christopher Pala has traveled the world covering various topics and is also the author of, The Oddest Place on Earth: Rediscovering the North Pole

Christopher Pala on “Victory at Sea”

1957: A half century ago, tourists in Key West routinely caught goliath grouper (the big fish with the big mouths) and large sharks (on the dock).

Our Imperiled Oceans: Seeing Is Believing

Photographs and other historical records testify to the former abundance of the sea

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