SCIENCE

Why Mosquitoes Love You and Me and Not Momma

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By Glynn Wilson – Do mosquitoes seem to bug the crap out of you, but even more annoyingly, seem not to bother some of your friends and family? I’ve long wondered why the pesky critters love me so much. If women loved me as much as mosquitoes, I would have a harram. Since it is…

NASA Flights to Track Greenhouse Gases Across Eastern U.S.

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By Glynn Wilson – An airborne experiment to improve scientists’ understanding of the sources of two powerful greenhouse gases and how they cycle into and out of the atmosphere is being launched this month by NASA. Atmospheric Carbon and Transport–America, or ACT-America, will measure concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane alongside related weather systems. The…

NASA’s Juno Spacecraft Successfully Enters Jupiter Orbit

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By Glynn Wilson – Scientists have confirmed that Juno, a craft the size of a football field launched to explore some key secrets of space, successfully entered the volatile atmosphere in an orbit around Jupiter Monday night about the time most Fourth of July fireworks shows in the United States were climaxing. After a five-year…

Vice President Joe Biden Launches ‘Cancer Moonshot’ to Find Cure for Cancer

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Vice President Joe Biden and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) have announced new actions aimed at advancing President Obama’s call for a “Cancer Moonshot” to make “America the country that cures cancer once and for all” at the White House Cancer Moonshot Summit, according to a…

NASA Satellite Finds Unreported Sources of Toxic Air Pollution

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By Glynn Wilson – Scientists have located 39 new major sources of toxic sulfur dioxide emissions previously unreported by existing methods, according to a study published this week in the journal Nature Geosciences. A known health hazard and contributor to acid rain, sulfur dioxide (SO2) is one of six air pollutants regulated by the U.S.…

NASA Announces Largest Collection of Planets Ever Discovered

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By Glynn Wilson – We are closer than ever to answering the question: Are we alone in the universe? If there are other planets out there that could support life like Earth, NASA’s Kepler space telescope may find them first. Due to the most recent analysis of data from Kepler, launched in March 2009 and…

Rising Seas Could Inundate Coastal Cities Sooner Than Previously Thought

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By Christina Procopiou – Boston and other coastal cities may want to batten down the hatches. A new study from climate scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Pennsylvania State University warns estimates of future sea level rise may be significantly underestimated. The real picture 100 to 500 years from now, they claim, will…

Apple CEO Tim Cook From South Alabama Stands Up to FBI

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By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. — If Apple CEO Tim Cook was an anti-gay activist judge like Judge Roy Moore, an openly Christian conservative Republican like Richard Shelby and/or a football star like Kenny “Snake” Stabler, there would be a bronze statue of him in his home town of Robertsdale in the center of…

New Study Shows Rising Earth Surface Temperatures Shattering All Previous Records

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Earth’s 2015 surface temperatures were the warmest since modern record keeping began in 1880, according to independent analyses released on Wednesday by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Globally-averaged temperatures in 2015 shattered the previous mark set in 2014 by 0.23 degrees Fahrenheit (0.13 Celsius). Only once before, in 1998, has the new…

Human Impact on Earth’s Climate Ushers in New Geological Era

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By Glynn Wilson – Homo sapiens have impacted the Earth’s climate to such a pervasive extent that scientists are urging the ushering in of a new geological era. We have now left the Holocene epoch and entered the Anthropocene, according to a new study out Thursday from the journal Science. The Holocene epoch, which scientists…

Worst El Niño Effects Yet to Come

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By Renee Lewis – The weather effects of El Niño, already blamed in large part for unusual winter floods, tornadoes and other extreme weather in the U.S., the U.K. and other countries during 2015, is far from over. Scientists predict El Niño’s worst effects will be felt in 2016. “El Niño 2015 has already created…

Climate Change Could Plunge 175 Million More People Into Hunger

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US Department of Agriculture warns of danger of ‘business as usual’ approach – Rising temperatures to hit poor and those in tropics hardest – WASHINGTON, D.C., THE GUARDIAN – Unchecked climate change risks plunging a further 175 million people into hunger and undernourishment worldwide, undermining progress in reducing food insecurity, a U.S. government report warns.…

Study Says Habitat Loss is a Rising Threat to World’s Migratory Birds

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By Will Dunham and Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Habitat destruction poses an increasing peril to migratory birds around the world, and not enough is being done to protect breeding grounds and other important feeding and resting areas along migration paths, according to a new study published in the journal Science. Scientists said they…

The World’s Rich Produce Half of All Carbon Emissions

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While the Poorest Half Only Produce Ten Percent – LONDON (Reuters) – The richest tenth of the world’s people produce half of all carbon emissions, while the poorest half – most threatened by droughts and super storms linked to climate change – produce only one tenth, according to Oxfam, an international confederation of 17 organizations…

New Study Proves Coal is King Among Pollution that Causes Heart Disease

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By Darryl Fears and Glynn Wilson – Exposure to emissions from coal-fired power plants over a long period of time is significantly more harmful to the heart than other forms of carbon pollution, according to a new study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, released early Wednesday to coincide with the world climate talks…

Media Controversy Rages in Mobile Alabama Over Oil Storage Tanks

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By Glynn Wilson – MOBIlE, Ala. – While the national news is rife with stories about the death of the Keystone XL Pipeline out west, the ongoing climate talks in Paris and the low price of oil internationally, a local petroleum industry front group and the politicians and media they are trying to buy seem…