Deepwater Horizon: Choosing Our Risks

This is Part 3 of a 3 part series on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill by Joana Tavares-Reager, oceanographer and marine policy expert.  As with all things we classify as disasters, it is sometimes hard to find the silver lining.  The aim of the series is to discuss the broader impacts of the spill and make a connection to each of our daily lives. Crying over spilled oil Like if wasn’t heartbreaking enough to have...

Deepwater Horizon: A Dispersant Discussion

Part 2 of a 3 part series on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (part 1 here) by Joana Tavares-Reager, oceanographer and marine policy expert.  As with all things we classify as disasters, it is sometimes hard to find the silver lining.  The aim of the series is to discuss the broader impacts of the spill and make a connection to each of our daily lives. Out of sight, out of mind? Dispersants are chemical products...

Trippy population predictors

A new series of Atlases created by scientists at the University of Sheffield rescale the world’s land masses according to population growth.  The series of nearly 200 psychedelic maps make for some interesting reading.  I wonder what those geographers are smokin’?  Whatever it is, I think I want some. … The calculation involves some re-spacing so that each individual would have an equal...

Deepwater Horizon: The Worst Oil Spill in History

Part 1 of a 3 part series on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill by Joana Tavares-Reager, oceanographer and marine policy expert.  As with all things we classify as disasters, it is sometimes hard to find the silver lining.  The aim of the series is to discuss the broader impacts of the spill and make an important connection to each of our daily lives. The Earth continues to bleed oil into the Gulf of Mexico, as we...

Sherwood Rowland – a ‘Nobel’ man

It’s a hazy Thursday afternoon.  I’m sitting in my car at the Physical Sciences parking lot, impatiently waiting for my husband.  The campus is empty and quiet.  At the bus stop, an undergrad listens to his iPod. From my window, I see another soul approaching but it is not my husband.  This one, I can tell by the look, is also a scientist, but a much more seasoned one.  He carries an old leather briefcase...

The real global water cycle

A new animated film from the Surfrider Foundation highlights the real version of the global water cycle — a little different from the one we all learned in middle school. The film is accessible and very well done, and would make a great teaching aid. It’s about 20 minutes and covers many hydrology basics.  Topics include: Aquifers Salt water intrusion Water policy Desalination Pollution Solutions and...

Richard Alley: Earth’s Biggest Climate Control Knob

Maybe that title is a little misleading… This post is about a speech given by climate scientist Richard Alley.  There is no evidence that Richard Alley himself has any influence on climate, nor would I ever refer to him as a “knob” of any sort. Penn State Cryosphere expert and Two-Mile Time Machine author Richard Alley gave the esteemed “Bjerknes” keynote address at the December...

Richard Feynman, NASA, and the genius of humor

The Obama administration recently announced that funding will be cut for NASA manned-space exploration projects, including a return trip to the moon in 2020.  Instead, more funding will be directed towards NASA Earth-observation and monitoring missions, in hopes of better understanding our planet and its changing climate.  Thinking back over the history of manned space exploration, NASA has certainly...

New USGS model on U.S. contamination by toxic pesticide atrazine

  A new numerical model by the US Geological Survey gives near real-time distributions of the hormone disrupting crop pesticide, atrazine, in drinking water throughout the United States. Atrazine has been banned in the European Union and several other countries as a result of research showing it disrupts endocrine and hormone levels in animals and potentially humans, affecting reproductive health and sperm...

Colbert aboard NASA Shuttle Mission

August 25, Cape Canaveral, FL — NASA’s space shuttle Discovery will launch from Kennedy Space Center at 1:36 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, August 25, 2009.  The mission is for International Space Station resupply and delivery of a new crew member. Here’s an excerpt from the website: Commanded by veteran astronaut Rick “C.J.” Sturckow, the STS-128 mission crew will deliver refrigerator-sized...