August 2008

Xcel to Disclose Global Warming Risks: One of the country’s largest builders of coal-fired power plants will give investors detailed warnings about the risks that global warming poses to its business under a deal with New York’s attorney general.
August 28th, 2008

As Arctic Sea Ice Melts, Experts Expect New Low: The National Snow and Ice Data Center has reported that sea ice in the Arctic now covers about 2.03 million square miles. The lowest point since satellite measurements began in 1979 was 1.65 million square miles, last September.
August 28th, 2008

Wind Energy Bumps Into Power Grid’s Limits: Expansive dreams about renewable energy, like Al Gore’s hope of replacing all fossil fuels in a decade, are bumping up against the reality of a power grid that cannot handle the new demands.
August 27th, 2008

Report Says Public Outreach, Done Right, Aids Policymaking: For decades, laws have required many government agencies to seek public participation in the establishment of environmental policies. And for decades critics have derided the requirement as producing little more than confusion, delay, expense, distorted science and, as a government report once put it, “a proliferation of opportunities to misinterpret or misapply required procedures.”
August 26th, 2008

A presidential science test for Obama and McCain: Our next president is certain to be very smart, but probably not scientist smart. Deep down, both Barack Obama and John McCain know this.
August 22nd, 2008

An Advocate for Science Diplomacy: Nina V. Fedoroff works as science advisor to the secretary of state and administrator of the Agency for International Development. She discusses the role and relation of science, technology, and policy.
August 21st, 2008

Bloomberg Offers Windmill Power Plan: In a plan that would drastically remake New York City’s skyline and shores, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is seeking to put wind turbines on the city’s bridges and skyscrapers and in its waters as part of a wide-ranging push to develop renewable energy.
August 21st, 2008

Court Rejects E.P.A. Limits on Emissions Rules: A federal appeals court on Tuesday threw out an Environmental Protection Agency rule limiting the ability of states to require monitoring of industrial emissions.
August 21st, 2008

Windmills Bring Whiff of Corruption: Lured by state subsidies and buoyed by high oil prices, the wind industry has arrived in force in upstate New York. But some residents say the companies have delivered something else: an epidemic of corruption and intimidation.
August 18th, 2008

Handle With Care: New questions are being raised about nanotechnology, robotics and other powerful emerging technologies. There are even those who suggest humanity should decide to reject some new technologies as dangerous.
August 13th, 2008

Age Is Little Match for Money, Science and Effort: At age 41, Dara Torres seems to have broken new ground, showing that it is possible for athletes to continue to compete at the highest levels, even making Olympic teams, at advanced ages.
August 13th, 2008

A Tall, Cool Drink of ... Sewage? A new water system in Orange country is turning sewage into good use; it is now drinking water. If you like the idea, you call it indirect potable reuse. If the idea revolts you, you call it toilet to tap.
August 11th, 2008

Reviews of Air Quality Are Mixed, and So Is Attendance: On Friday, as Olympic and city officials continued to defend the air quality in Beijing this week, athletes were faced with a decision: whether to attend the opening ceremony in the smog and, if they did go, whether to do anything to protect their lungs.
August 11th, 2008

German City Wonders How Green Is Too Green: This fairy-tale town is stuck in the middle of a utopian struggle over renewable energy. The town council’s decision to require solar-heating panels has thrown Marburg into a vehement debate over the boundaries of ecological good citizenship and led opponents to charge that their genteel town has turned into a “green dictatorship.”
August 7th, 2008

Climate-Change Program to Aid Poor Nations Is Shut: The National Center for Atmospheric Research, an important hub for work on the causes and consequences of climate change, has shut down a program focused on strengthening poor countries’ ability to forecast and withstand droughts, floods and other climate-related hazards.
August 7th, 2008

You’re Bored, but Your Brain Is Tuned In: Boredom is more than a mere flagging of interest or a precursor to mischief. Some experts say that people tune things out for good reasons, and that over time boredom becomes a tool for sorting information — an increasingly sensitive spam filter.
August 6th, 2008

Trove of Endangered Gorillas Found in Africa: A grueling survey of vast tracts of forest and swamp in the northern Congo Republic has revealed the presence of more than 125,000 western lowland gorillas, a rare example of abundance in a world of rapidly vanishing primate populations.
August 6th, 2008

Magnetic Nanoparticles make Cancer Cells Rise: By binding magnetic nanoparticles to human ovarian cancer cells, researchers at Georgia Tech can make the cancerous cells rise to the skin surface by simply passing a magnet over them.
August 1st, 2008

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