Have the rains ‘deserted’ the Sahel?
By Atreyee Bhattacharya | October 16th 2009 02:52 AM | Print | E-mail
Leave only footprints... and make them smaller
By Holly Moeller | October 15th 2009 09:33 PM | Print | E-mail
About a month ago, I stood nervously between a chalkboard and thirty-odd pairs of eyes, fidgeting over my colored chalk options. Under normal circumstances, I love teaching and lecturing for all the usual, sappy reasons: the joy of passing on knowledge, the chance of excite others about my passions. But under normal circumstances, I don’t walk into the middle of a chalk fight, order twelve-year-olds into their seats, and erase sprawling graffiti from the blackboard – all before picking up my lesson plan. I glanced once more at my class of middle- and high-school aged summer students, took a deep breath and a firm grasp on the green chalk, and turned to the board.
Sometimes Old Ideas Are Best: How An Idea from 1980 Might Revolutionize the Energy Grid
By Nicole DiLello | October 15th 2009 02:02 AM | Print | E-mail
Wind.  Solar.  Nuclear.  Algae that can be made into diesel fuel.  These are the sexy solutions to our energy crisis.  Researchers are working on them – and some will probably have incredible results – but what do we do in the meantime?  Let’s face it: large power plants burning natural gas or coal are going to be around for awhile.  How can we make them more efficient?
Air Capture of Carbon Dioxide: How it Works, and How It Can Help Frame the Argument Beyond Climate Change
By Ed Chen | October 14th 2009 10:28 PM | Print | E-mail

It is unfortunate that Climate Change is one of those controversial issues in the US, and the world in general, which frames the argument in moral terms.  The other issues that come to mind are Gay Marriage, Abortion, and Immigration Reform.  Moral issues unfortunately are difficult to decipher, and many political theorists would agree, belong outside of the realm of political discourse.   Thousands of years of history tells us that when issues are framed as moral imperatives, the issue never gets settled.  Just think back to the protestant reformation, for starters.  Or the moral issues raised by the idea the earth revolves around the sun, rather than the inverse arrangement.

The Heart of Darkness: Why we need a space based economy to prevent global climate regime change.
By Ed Chen | September 24th 2009 08:43 PM | Print | E-mail
    Everyone knows climate change would be really bad.  Its going to be so bad that no one wants to think about it.  They'd rather place it somewhere in another lifetime -- somewhere is a science fictional future.  But despite the recent spat about ocean based regional cooling, this isn't the stock market here.  We can place the climate system into a basic equation.  
Energy In = Energy Out.  The first law of thermodynamics.  Just because the graph goes down a little, doesn't mean its time to cheer global cool.  Unfortunately, these are laws of physics.  When there is too much heat trapped by atmospheric gasses, we find another physical law that should make us uncomfortable.  
The Impact of Impacts: How meteorite impact craters have shaped Earth’s history
By Steven Jaret | September 14th 2009 03:37 PM | Print | E-mail
    For centuries astronomers and star-gazers alike have looked into the night sky and seen the Moon with its surface dotted by impact craters.  Yet, only within the last half-century have geologists and Earth scientists accepted meteorite impacts as a process that affects the Earth. Prior to geologist Eugene Shoemaker’s 1963 landmark study of Meteor Crater in Arizona, meteorite impacts were thought to be solely an extraterrestrial occurrence. Today we know that is not the case. In just over 40 years the idea of a meteorite impact on Earth has gone from virtually nonexistent to the heart of popular culture with Blockbuster hits such as Deep Impact or Armageddon.