Sunday, July 11, 2010

Baghdad's Trash Piles Up

The Baghdad municipality has launched new plans to tackle the capital's rubbish problem, though there are question marks over whether the city has the money or manpower for the clean-up. 

Sunday, July 4, 2010

And now the Flying Car named Terrafugia Transition

It's a two-seater. Front-wheel-drive. Gets about 30 mpg on the highway. But give it a third of a mile of straight asphalt in front of it, and it really flies.

Of course, you have to unfold the wings first.
read here

Deep in the Ocean Depths

The dark deeps of the ocean has always been mysterious because they are dark (of course) as well hard to visit and see what is down there. For example the Coelacanth, long thought extinct, lives down deep and was only discovered in 1938 as well the elusive giant squids of legend. A study of the occurrence of fishes in the ocean's deepest reaches (the hadal zone, below 20,000 feet) has provided evidence that some species of fishes are more numerous at such depths than experts had thought. The authors of the study, which is published in the July/August issue of BioScience, observed 10 to 20 snailfish congregating at a depth of 25,000 feet around a baited video lander in the Japan Trench. The observation period lasted only five hours, so the occurrence of so many snailfish was a surprise.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Environmental Police Close in on Asia's Tiger Traffickers

Just 30 wild tigers survive in Vietnam and poachers are going after those, but the country's newly established Environmental Police were able to put a stop to some of the illegal trafficking last week.full story

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Hurricane Alex Hampers Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Cleanup

Roaring across the Caribbean, Alex has become the first hurricane of the 2010 season and the first June Atlantic hurricane since 1995, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.  
read here

Monday, June 21, 2010

Hurricane Celia strengthens in Pacific off Mexico

Hurricane Celia, the first hurricane of the 2010 Pacific season, formed in the eastern Pacific Ocean near Mexico on Sunday but was headed away from land, the U.S. 

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Market for fuel cell vehicles to take off by 2020

Fuel cell vehicles will overcome obstacles and the market will start to see growth within 10 years, according to a report released Wednesday by Pike Research.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Odd Geometry of Bacteria May Provide New Way to Study Earth's Oldest Fossils

One way that geologists try to decipher how cells functioned as far back as 3 billion years is by studying modern microbial mats, or gooey layers of nutrient-exchanging bacteria that grow mostly on moist surfaces and collect dirt and minerals that crystallize over time. Eventually, the bacteria turn to stone just beneath the crystallized material, thereby recording their history within the crystalline skeletons. Known as stromatolites, the layered rock formations are considered to be the oldest fossils on Earth.
read here