Even a small-scale, regional nuclear war could produce as many direct fatalities as all of World War II and disrupt the global climate for a decade or more, with environmental effects that could be devastating for everyone on Earth. A team of scientists at Rutgers University, the University of Colorado at Boulder and UCLA conducted rigorous scientific studies reported at an AGU press conference today.
The space shuttle Discovery has lifted off from Cape Canaveral – the first night shuttle launch in four years.
Oil prices were steady after U.S. government data showed domestic inventories of crude oil, gasoline and heating oil fell last week.
Diversified social roles for men, women and children may have given Homo sapiens an advantage over Neanderthals, says a new study in the December 2006 issue of Current Anthropology. The study argues that division of economic labor by sex and age emerged relatively recently in human evolutionary history and facilitated the spread of modern humans throughout Eurasia.
A team of Vanderbilt and University of Dundee scientists envisions a future when computer simulations will be used to predict a tumor’s clinical progression and formulate individualized treatment plans. The group has developed a mathematical model for cancer invasion powerful enough for this purpose. The result was published as an entirely theoretical paper in the journal Cell and represents a “sea change” in how biology is done.
Beginning next week, the aviation industry will receive detailed updates on potentially hazardous in-flight icing conditions. Graphical displays, developed by NCAR, will improve flying safety, reduce delays and save airlines millions of dollars by guiding aircraft away from icing areas.
Scientists from the ARC Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies have produced the world’s first engineering model to predict how much damage a reef is likely to suffer when confronted with an angry sea. In a paper in Nature, Dr. Joshua Madin and Dr. Sean Connolly use mathematical models to calculate the forces that coral is subjected to by waves or storm surge and the probability of the colonies being ripped from the seabed.
Early findings from a new urban pollution study suggest that commuters in Manchester inhale their biggest daily dose of harmful traffic fumes during the morning rush hour.
An environmental drama played out on the world stage in the late 18th century when a volcano killed 9,000 Icelanders and brought a famine to Egypt that reduced the population of the Nile valley by a sixth. A study by three scientists demonstrates a connection between these two widely separated events, and is the first to conclusively establish the linkage between high-latitude eruptions and the water supply in North Africa.
Volcanic eruptions in high latitudes can greatly alter climate and distant river flows, including the Nile, according to a recent study funded in part by NASA.