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A spectacular image from the Hubble Space Telescope’s newly-installed Wide Field Camera 3, showing a birthplace of stars in the nearby galaxy M83: Hubble Image Showcases Star Birth in M83, the Southern Pinwheel. (Hat tip: Phil Plait, who has interesting commentary on how this image was generated, and what ...
Science, Space, Astronomy, Hubble Space Telescope, NASA, Photography, Galaxies, Universe
Uh oh. Mt. Kilimanjaro Ice Cap Continues Rapid Retreat, Study Says. The ice atop Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania has continued to retreat rapidly, declining 26 percent since 2000, scientists say in a new report. Yet the authors of the study, to be published Tuesday in the Proceedings of the ...
The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank attended a meeting of the Senate environment committee this week, and describes Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) as “the last flat-earther:” Washington Sketch: A hostile climate for Sen. Inhofe the warming skeptic. “Eleven academies in industrialized countries say that climate change is real; humans have ...
Environmentalist Peter Sinclair’s new video deals with recent sea ice observations, both from satellites and ground observation teams, showing that the area of melting in the northern polar cap is expanding dramatically. [Video]
A race between gamma rays across 7.3 billion years of time and space has resulted in a virtual tie, confirming Einstein’s theory of relativity once again. The race was between gamma rays of differing energies and wavelengths spit in a burst from an exploding star when the universe was ...
Science, Space, Astronomy, Relativity, Albert Einstein, Speed of Light
Associated Press writer H. Josef Hebert has an interesting piece about the importance of nuclear power in the debate over global warming, not just as a technical means to generate power without CO2 emissions, but as a political bargaining chip. The industry’s long-standing campaign to rebrand itself as green ...
Robotic technology gets eerily close to mimicking human motion with Boston Dynamics’ new Pet Man. [Video] (Hat tip: Killgore.)
The Associated Press commissioned a review of years of temperature data by independent statisticians, and they’ve definitively refuted the often-repeated canard that the temperature of the Earth is decreasing: Statistics experts reject global cooling claims. The statisticians, reviewing two sets of temperature data, found no trend of falling temperatures ...
The PBS Nova show has a great new website for their ongoing series dealing with various aspects of Evolution. Among other things to explore, an interactive map of the Galapagos Islands featuring Gigapan ultra-high definition scrolling panorama images.
Evolution, Science, Natural Selection, Biology, NOVA, PBS, Gigapan
The discovery of a new fossil in Egypt that appears to be a younger relative of the “Ida” fossil announced a few months ago (with great fanfare and publicity) has cast considerable doubt on whether Ida is an ancestor of human beings: New Primate Fossil Poses Further Challenge to Ida. ...
Evolution, Science, Natural Selection, Biology, Anthropology, Common Ancestor
Yesterday, the leaders of 18 major American scientific organizations — some of the most reputable and respected organizations in the world — sent the following letter to the US Senate, strongly urging Senators to address the issue of human-caused climate change and offering their help to become better informed. ...
Climate Change, Global Warming, Science, AGW, Carbon Dioxide
Science Daily has more details on the alarming Caltech study we noted earlier this week, led by Aradhna Tripati: Last Time Carbon Dioxide Levels Were This High: 15 Million Years Ago, Scientists Report. “The last time carbon dioxide levels were apparently as high as they are today — and ...
Climate Change, Global Warming, Science, AGW, Carbon Dioxide, Caltech
A new study by Caltech scientists led by geochemist Aradhna Tripati shows that there hasn’t been this much carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere for at least 15 Million Years. “The last time carbon dioxide levels were apparently as high as they are today and were sustained at those ...
Climate Change, Global Warming, Science, AGW, Carbon Dioxide, Caltech
Here’s Peter Sinclair’s video on the scientific evidence showing that the decline in the Arctic icecap is very real, is not due to “natural causes,” and is not reversing (as several people tried to argue in recent LGF threads on climate change). On the contrary, in the past two years ...
Climate Change, Global Warming, Science, AGW, Arctic Ice, Arctic Ocean
Uh oh. Arctic ice to vanish in summer. LONDON, England (CNN) — New data released Thursday suggests that the Arctic Ocean will be “largely ice free” during summer within a decade. The report, complied by the UK-based Catlin Arctic Survey and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), is the latest ...
Climate Change, Global Warming, Science, AGW, Arctic Ice, Arctic Ocean
Despite the huge battle over the teaching of “intelligent design” creationism in 2005, a new survey shows that the majority of the people of Kansas are still in favor of teaching creationism in public school science classes: FHSU Learns ‘What Kansans Really Think’. A majority of respondents, 53 percent, ...
Evolution, Creationism, Science, Kansas, Intelligent Design, Turkey, Education
Time for an update on one of the latest claims by climate change deniers — that the “hockey stick” graph demonstrating dramatic global warming has been shown to be a “lie.” Well, it turns out that there was some dishonesty involved here, but it wasn’t on the side of the ...
Climate Change, Global Warming, Science, AGW, Disinformation, Hockey Stick
Two of the far right religious fanatics appointed to the Texas social studies curriculum review board by their fellow creationist fanatics are David Barton (of the theocratic Wallbuilders group) and Rev. Peter Marshall (who operates Peter Marshall Ministries in Massachusetts). The Texas Freedom Network has a look at the incredible ...
Evolution, Creationism, Religion, History, Science, Texas, David Barton, Peter Marshall, Wallbuilders
Airing tonight on the Discovery Channel at 9 pm (Eastern and Pacific), Discovering Ardi — a documentary on the investigation leading up to the historic announcement of the Ardipithecus ramidus fossils. Set your TiVos and your Eye TVs; this looks like a must-see. [Video] The scientific investigation began in ...
Evolution, Science, Natural Selection, Biology, Anthropology, Common Ancestor, Ardipithecus, Video
Last Saturday in a thread about climate change, I wrote: Again, I’m struck by the similarity between the techniques of global warming deniers and creationists; they both use cherry-picked data, they both make outrageous claims couched in pseudo-scientific language that sounds convincing to gullible people, they both compile lists ...
Evolution, Creationism, discovery institute, Science, Climate Change, Global Warming, Propaganda
Iowa Republicans have picked creationist Governor Tim Pawlenty to headline the “Leadership for Iowa” event in Des Moines November 7. Note that Pawlenty isn’t content to simply believe in creationism himself; he wants to see it taught to everyone else’s children: Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Why He Supports Creationism. ...
Evolution, Creationism, discovery institute, Science, Tim Pawlenty, GOP, Republican Party, Anti-Science
Just like the Council on American Islamic Relations, the dishonest creationists at the Discovery Institute are now reduced to paying PRNewsWire to disseminate their propaganda: Leading Darwinist Richard Dawkins Dodges Debates, Refuses to Defend Evolution. This is a good sign; it means these atavistic dissemblers are having trouble finding reputable ...
Evolution, Creationism, discovery institute, Science, richard dawkins
Carl Zimmer has a great post at The Loom on the historic announcement this week of the discovery of Ardipithecus: We Meet At Last. At first, Ardipithecus ramidus was yet another scrappy pre-Lucy fossil. The first report offered details about part of a 4.4 million-year-old jaw bone–a remarkable jaw ...
Evolution, Science, Natural Selection, Biology, Anthropology, Common Ancestor, Carl Zimmer, Ardipithecus
I’m an unabashed fan of Carl Sagan. I’ve read all his books, some of them several times, and they’ve enriched my life more than I can express. This video is delightful and sad at the same time — a celebration of one of humanity’s great original intellects. [Video]
Newly released images from the Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys give us a look at two galaxies that are losing it. Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) allows astronomers to study an interesting and important phenomenon called ram pressure stripping that is so powerful, it is ...
Science, Space, Astronomy, Hubble Space Telescope, NASA, Photography, Galaxies, Universe