Earth and Science Information // Current

An Important Update on Shark Fishing

I was listening to NPR and they stated that all of a sudden there are thousands upon thousands of sharks that are getting caught... more

RoxyB
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NASA-Solar Eclipse Page

NASA is covering the full solar eclipse taking place Aug.1, 2008. The site gives you up to date information and allows you to... more

JanforGore
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Yoda or magpie? Common wildlife is alien to kids

Children's knowledge of wildlife comes a poor second to their ability to identify science fiction creatures such as Star Wars... more

JanaPokana
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Live Earth One Year Ago

Last year on 7/7/07 I attended the Live Earth concert in East Rutherford, Nj. It was a day of environmental awareness and great... more

JanforGore
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Half of US Coral Reefs in 'Poor' or 'Fair' Condition States NOAA Report

Nearly half of U.S. coral reef ecosystems are considered to be in "poor" or "fair" condition according to a new NOAA analysis of the health of coral reefs under U.S. jurisdiction.

The report issued July 7, The State of Coral Reef Ecosystems of the United States and Pacific Freely Associated States: 2008, says that the nation's coral reef ecosystems, particularly those adjacent to populated areas, continue to face intense human-derived threats from coastal development, fishing, sedimentation and recreational use. Even the most remote reefs are subject to threats such as marine debris, illegal fishing and climate-related effects of coral bleaching, disease and ocean acidification.

The report was released by NOAA at the 11th International Coral Reef Symposium in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. More than 270 scientist and managers working throughout the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean, the Atlantic and Pacific authored the 15 jurisdiction-specific chapters of the report. The scientists graded the coral ecosystems on a five tier scale: excellent, good, fair, poor and unknown.

"NOAA's coral program has made some significant progress since it was established 10 years ago, but we need to redouble our efforts to protect this critical resource," said retired Navy Vice Admiral Conrad C. Lautenbacher Jr., Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator.

The 569-page document details coral reef conditions in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Navassa Island, southeast Florida, the Florida Keys, Flower Garden Banks, the Main Hawaiian Islands, the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, American Samoa, the Pacific Remote Islands, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam and the Republic of Palau.

"The report shows that this is a global issue," said Tim Keeney, deputy assistant secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and co-chair of the United States Coral Reef Task Force.
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Life is born from the oceans, and we are killing them. This is a disappointing report. Why can we humans not get it? Nearly half of U.S. coral reef ecosystems are considered to be in "poor" or "fair" condition according to a... more

JanforGore
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7 responses

5 months ago

LSD in our water?

"A study by Royal College of Art graduate Tuur van Bulen has revealed that the way people live and behave in each zone of... more

Psychedelic
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7 responses

5 months ago

Body's own 'cannabis' is good for the skin, scientists find

"Scientists from Hungary, Germany and the UK have discovered that our own body not only makes chemical compounds similar to... more

oahspe
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4 responses

5 months ago

South Korean protest against US beef

"Tens of thousands of South Koreans marched through the streets here Saturday demanding the scrapping of US beef imports and the resignation of President Lee Myung-Bak, witnesses said. Waving flags and banners, the thronging crowd slowly snaked through the city centre chanting "Lee Myung-Bak out!," but there was none of the violent clashes with police that have broken out at some previous recent demonstrations.

Scores of religious leaders including Catholic nuns and Protestant pastors led the march, holding a large banner in front of them, in a calculated move by organisers to prevent hostilities with the thousands of riot police. Police said the crowd numbered 50,000 but organisers put their estimate ten times higher.

The march followed a mass rally near the City Hall in central Seoul, which was sealed off completely with barricades of police buses, parked tightly and manned by riot police with shields. Passers-by and vehicles were turned away from the area. The demonstrations, going back two months, were sparked by Seoul's agreement in April to resume US beef imports, which were halted in 2003 after a US mad cow disease case.

As Lee's government struggles to ratify a free-trade pact with the US and in response to the protests, Seoul went back to Washington to negotiate extra health safeguards, and the meat is now on sale.

"Aside from the beef issue, this government fills me with disgust," a 32-year-old protester who works as a computer programmer told AFP. "This government has lost public confidence, betrayed people's expectation for economic turnaround and worsened education problems," he said as his two young nephews in prams were playing with yellow protest balloons.

The crowd grew as more and more groups arrived after the rain stopped, although generally the number at protests has fallen sharply since 100,000 people gathered in Seoul on June 10, according to police estimates. An umbrella grouping of activists, the People's Association for Measures against Mad Cow Disease, said hundreds of people, including young Christians, would serve as "human shields" to separate the protesters from riot police.

"In order to prevent any violent clashes with riot police, religious leaders, leading activists and parliament members will lead the march," it said in a statement.

Protesters have previously clashed with police, with more than 200 people hurt in running battles last Sunday. Supporters of the newly installed conservative government say left-wing professional agitators have been taking over some rallies, a charge denied by the protest groups.

Analysts say beef is not the only source of public dissatisfaction. Policy failures due to inexperience, economic woes deepened by high oil prices and Lee's alleged authoritarian style have also stoked resentment, they say. Lee has twice apologised to the nation for his handling of the issue and sacked top aides, but says rallies should now stop."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080705/wl_asia_afp/skoreauspoliticstradebeef"Tens of thousands of South Koreans marched through the streets here Saturday demanding the scrapping of US beef imports and... more

Paul_Flynn
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5 months ago

Penguins Threatened with Extinction | LiveScience

WASHINGTON (AP) — The dwindling march of the penguins is signaling that the world's oceans are in trouble, scientists... more

KristinL
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5 months ago

Future in Fusion?

Nuclear Fusion: It powers our Sun, allowing life itself to exist. The same process also promises a potentially limitless supply of clean energy, if its power could be safely harnessed here on earth.

This is no small feat though, and would involve recreating the unbelievably extreme conditions at the centre of the sun. This however, is exactly what the scientists at the Joint European Torus (JET) (Torus' meaning essentially 'doughnut shaped'!), the largest experimental Fusion reactor in the world.

In this "man made star" Hydrogen gas is heated to temperatures in excess of 300 million degrees, ten times hotter than the centre of the Sun. At these temperatures, Hydrogen atoms begin to join, or 'fuse' together to form Helium. The resulting single Helium atoms are slightly lighter than the two Hydrogen atoms which fused to make them, resulting in a tiny amount of mass being converted into a comparatively huge amount of energy.

The efficiency is such that just 1kg of fusion fuel (hydrogen) could produce more energy than 10 MILLION kg of the fossil fuels which we currently rely on, while not creating the large amounts of radioactive waste associated with the alternative nuclear power source, fission.

The superheated 'plasma' which contains the Hydrogen atoms, can only be contained by an extremely powerful magnetic field

The reward for success could hardly be higher; with oil reserves declining, and no one form of alternative energy standing out as a viable alternative, the cheap, renewable, clean energy promised by fusion could, for lack of a better phrase, be a godsend to humanity, supporting us into the foreseeable future.

Why then can we not easily recreate the conditions which allow fusion to occur within the sun?

Well, the answer is pressure; which at the centre of the sun is though to be in excess of 100 BILLION times that at the Earth's surface. The hydrogen particles which must be fused together are both positively charged, and so strongly repel each other, and so fusion require massive pressures and temperatures to occur. While the massive temperatures created by JET certainly go some way to overcoming this repulsion, the massively lower pressures mean that even with the much higher temperatures produced in JET, fusion is by no means easy.

The main hurdles faced by the fusion pioneers at JET, is how to confine the plasma at such high temperatures for long enough so that fusion can occur. As massive engineering problem is also faced: what to do with the massive amounts of energy created (hardly a problem you might think!).

But now the bad news...even if JET is successful, it will be an estimated 40 years before fusion can be commercially employed, and some argue that the large amounts of money required for the tests would be better spent on improving proven renewable sources already in use now. What do you think?Nuclear Fusion: It powers our Sun, allowing life itself to exist. The same process also promises a potentially limitless supply of... more