As part of Donald Trump's cabinet pick, Myron Ebell, who is a director at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and a prominent climate change skeptic, will lead the Environmental Protection Agency's administration.
While Ebell has had no formal scientific education, and makes no claim to be a scientist, his view is that if public decisions are to be made according to scientific findings, than they should be discussed democratically by all people, not just scientists. Unfortunately, in the realms of science, public opinion doesn't matter much unless you're discussing the ethics of a scientific matter.
Appointing Ebell doesn't mean the environment is under threat, as suggested by the disenfranchised, New York Times. The discussion on global w ...
Sky gazers will be treated to a rare convergence of celestial events on 31 January — a blue moon, a supermoon, and a total lunar eclipse, all in one. The phenomenon, which hasn’t happened since 1866, graces the sky when the second full moon of the month (known as a blue moon) is in its closest position to Earth, making it appear even larger than usual — a supermoon.
The seldom-seen event will be visible in western North America, Asia, Australia, and elsewhere across the Eastern Hemisphere. So, if you’re in one of those lucky locations and want to see an event that’s literally once in a blue moon, here’s your chance.
Finally, the world is paying attention to the dangers of consuming trans-fatty acids in food.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has called all nations to rid foods of artificial trans-fats in the next five years. Artificial trans-fat is made by converting healthy unsaturated oils (those that are fluid at room temperature) into ones that are chemically more stable through a process known as hydrogenation(illustrated below). The food industry began using this deceptive technique in the 1950s to increase the shelf-life of perishable grocery items such as pastries, and fried foods sold at restaurants.
Numerous studies have linked these fats to an increase in cholesterol levels, which can lead to cardiovascular diseases. One of the reasons for ...
A fire which broke out on Sunday evening at the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro has ravaged some of the country’s most important scientific collections. Nearly 20 million items are now irreparably destroyed by what was started by either an electrical short-circuit due to budget cuts or a homemade paper hot-air balloon that may have landed on the roof, said Brazil's Culture Minister Sergio Leitao.
Having been founded before Brazil’s independence from Portugal 200 years ago (1808), the museum housed ancient Egypt, Greek, and Roman artifacts and important paleontology and natural history collections, including one of Latin America’s oldest human fossils: the 11,500-year-old skull called Luzia(shown below). The Luzia skull was colle ...
At roughly 6 billion kilometers from Earth, the image you see to your right is the farthest images ever taken.
The New Horizons spacecraft captured its first images on August 16 of the remote icy world nicknamed Ultima Thule (a traditional name of distant places beyond the known world), confirming that New Horizons is on track for its January 1 flyby around Pluto. With about 160 million kilometers to go — roughly the same distance as Earth is from the sun — the tiny world appears as no more than a faint speck in the probe’s camera.
Officially named 2014 MU69, Ultima Thule is part of the Kuiper Belt, a thick disk-shaped zone containing space debris left over from the formation of the planets 4.6 billion years ago. By sending New Horizons to t ...
An experimental "vaccine" for celiac disease is set to be tested in a new clinical trial to see if the treatment can protect patients with the condition from the effects of eating gluten — or, in other words, allow those patients to eat gluten safely.
The treatment, called Nexvax2 and made by the biotech company ImmusanT Inc., is a type of immunotherapy that aims to "reprogram" the immune system to be tolerant of gluten, the researchers said.
Celiac disease is a condition in which people's immune systems react abnormally to gluten — a protein found in wheat, rye and barley — and this reaction damages the lining of the small intestine. The condition affects about 1 out of every 100 people in the United States.
The residents of Utqiaġvik, Alaska (formerly known as Barrow), saw the final sunset for 2018 last Sunday. The city is currently in complete darkness until the sun rises on January 23, 2019, which is when residents begin to see touches of light over the horizon again (due to the refraction and scattering of the atmosphere).
Between November 18 and January 23, there is a decreasing amount of twilight each day (see illustration below) during the first half of the polar night, and on the winter solstice (around December 21 or December 22), civil twilight in Utqiagvik lasts for a mere 3 hours. By January 27 or 28, the sun rises completely over the horizon.
Utqiaġvik is one of the northernmost public communities in the world and is the northernmo ...
