Taxonomy term

january 2017

Scientists map U.S. geoelectric hazards

During solar storms, electrons and protons collide with Earth’s atmosphere, disrupting the geomagnetic field and sometimes creating the flashing waves of colorful light in the night sky we know as auroras. But these same storms — if strong enough — have the potential to severely damage power grids.
 

19 Jan 2017

Monkeys smash stone tool theories

Archaeologists have long credited stone flakes found at dig sites to tool-making hominins, but observations of wild capuchin monkeys in Brazil breaking stones may put an end to the assumption that all stone flakes were made by humans and their ancestors.

18 Jan 2017

Chaco Canyon: Garden of Eden or salty-soiled pilgrimage site?

The remains of elaborate stone houses, some with hundreds of rooms, and other structures scattered throughout New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon attest to advanced settlements built there by ancestral Puebloans between A.D. 800 and 1250. But how these peoples subsisted amid the arid climate and seemingly infertile ground of the canyon has long puzzled scientists. In a new study, researchers suggest that Chaco Canyon’s salty desert soils may have supported ample agriculture after all.

17 Jan 2017

Tornadic storms fed by perfect spirals

Sometimes, large thunderstorms called supercells spawn tornadoes; sometimes they don’t. Predicting whether supercell drafts will spiral into a tornado is tricky, with false-alarm rates running as high as 75 percent. In a new study using helium balloons to study tornadogenesis in supercells, researchers have shown that wind patterns in the lowest 1 kilometer of a storm may play a major role in forming twisters.

17 Jan 2017

Comment: High school earth and space science should be taught by geoscientists

It may seem to be common sense to assume that earth and space science topics such as climate change are taught by qualified teachers, but unfortunately, this is not the case in every state. 

17 Jan 2017

A new — and more toxic — normal? Harmful algal blooms find new habitats in changing oceans

A massive and deadly algal bloom along the West Coast of North America in 2015 is just one example of the growing number of severe algal blooms that are occurring throughout the world's oceans. Scientists are studying how toxic species are adjusting to a warming climate. 

16 Jan 2017

Geomedia: Music: The sounds of the sea

At the ocean’s edge, the crash of waves against the shore is a familiar sound. It might be rhythmic, but it’s not particularly melodious. There are, however, a few spots around the world where the tides, waves and wind make actual music, thanks to acoustic man-made structures that use the movements of seawater to produce sound. Currently, three of these so-called tidal organs have been built, one each in Croatia, England and the United States.

13 Jan 2017

Busy as a bee: New species of bee quarries into sandstone

Researchers have discovered five nesting sites of a new species of bee (Anthophora pueblo) that prefers to make its home in sandstone. The newly discovered nests are located in natural formations as well as Ancestral Puebloan sandstone cliff dwellings in the southwestern U.S.

12 Jan 2017

Comment: Will we eliminate Earth's Ice-Age cycle?

Earth has been ice free before, with warmer temperatures and higher carbon dioxide and sea levels. But humans have only lived on a relatively cold planet. Will we be able to adapt to an ice-free planet? 

11 Jan 2017

How to hide a dinosaur

Analysis of a finely preserved fossil dinosaur from China has revealed the animal’s erstwhile camouflage. It appears that the meter-high Early Cretaceous ceratopsid Psittacosaurus was light-colored on its underside and dark on top, a pattern known as countershading that may hint that the small herbivore lived in a dense forest environment.

 
11 Jan 2017

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