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Saturday, December 14, 2013

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This Antarctic Ice Shelf Will Be the Next to Collapse

SAN FRANCISCO — Antarctica's crumbling Larsen B Ice Shelf is poised to finally finish its collapse, a researcher said Tuesday (Dec. 10) here at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union. The Scar Inlet Ice Shelf will likely fall apart during the next warm summer, said Ted Scambos, a glaciologist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo. Scar Inlet's ice is the largest remnant of the vast Larsen B shelf still attached to the Antarctic Peninsula. (Another small fragment, the Seal Nunataks, clings on as well.) In the Southern Hemisphere's summer of 2002, about 1,250 square miles (3,250 square kilometers) of the enormous Larsen B Ice Shelf splintered into hundreds of icebergs.

Earth's Greatest Killer Finally Caught

SAN FRANCISCO — Geology is partly detective work, and scientists now have enough evidence to book a suspect in the biggest environmental catastrophe in Earth's history. Painstaking analysis of rocks from China and Russia prove the culprit is a series of massive volcanic eruptions, which flooded ancient Siberia with thick lava flows just before Earth's worst mass extinction almost 252 million years ago, researchers said here yesterday (Dec. 11) at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union. Thanks to new computer models of the eruption's devastating effects, and detailed mapping of rocks deposited around the time of the mass dying, researchers now have their best case ever for pinning the extinction on the enormous lava outpouring. The eruptions — now called the Siberian Traps — lasted less than 1 million years but left behind Earth's biggest "large igneous province," a pile of lava and other volcanic rocks about 720,000 cubic miles (3 million cubic kilometers) in volume.

The Science of U.S. Energy: A Q&A with Secretary Ernest J. Moniz

Stunning 10,000-Fish Vortex Caught on Video

A tornado of fish 10,000 strong spins in shallow water in the Bahamas. This is the pre-spawning behavior of the bonefish (Albula vulpes), a popular quarry for anglers off the coast of Florida and in the Bahamas. Researchers presented their observations of this secretive behavior — with amazing video — to the Bahamas Ministry of the Environment and conservation collaborators' Bahamas National Trust and The Nature Conservancy this week. Fish ecologist Andy Danylchuk, of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Aaron Adams, director of operations for Bonefish & Tarpon Trust at the Florida Institute of Technology, tracked 10,000 bonefish in their final stages of spawning using tracking tags inserted into some members of the school.

5 Holiday Cyberscams to Watch Out For

The clock may be ticking on holiday shopping, but cybercriminals are shoring up their efforts to scam unsuspecting consumers in the last two weeks of the season. "Many businesses are still rolling out deals to entice online shoppers, but with attractive Internet deals come the cybercrooks who design new ways to trick you into parting with your cash," said Troy Gill, senior security analyst at Web security firm, AppRiver. Gill advised consumers to watch out for five major cyberscams as they finish up their e-commerce holiday shopping.

8 Unique Box Subscription Services to Try in 2014

Whether it's clothes, beauty products, snacks or crafting supplies, there seems to be a box for every interest. If you want to discover great new products delivered by customer-focused businesses, here are eight unique box subscription services you'll want to sign up for in 2014.

SpaceX to Lease Historic NASA Launch Pad

NASA has selected Space Exploration Technologies, better known as SpaceX, to lease a historic launch pad for the company's commercial rockets. The space agency announced Friday (Dec. 13) that it is beginning negotiations with SpaceX of Hawthorne, Calif., to take over exclusive use of Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA used the pad for decades to send astronauts to the moon and later launch space shuttles into Earth orbit. "Permitting the use and operation of this valuable national asset by a private-sector, commercial space partner will ensure its continued viability and allow for its continued use in support of U.S. space activities," NASA said in its statement announcing the selection.

Under a China Moon: The Politics of Cooperation in Space

China may soon become the third nation to soft-land robotic hardware on the moon. NASA has been mum on China's moon ambitions. The space agency ended its human visits to the moon in 1972. So as China's lunar craft silhouettes itself across the landing zone, perhaps it's fitting for the U.S. space agency to strike up that 1970s tune by songwriter Yusuf Islam, formerly Cat Stevens: "Yes, I'm being followed by a moonshadow, moonshadow, moonshadow."

Weekend Stargazing: How to See the Famed Constellation Orion

On winter evenings, the sky is filled with bright stars, more than at any other time of the year. Central in the southern sky is the constellation Orion the Hunter. But even in the south, Orion dominates the sky right now. This makes Orion an "equal opportunity" constellation, well seen everywhere on Earth except at the poles.

Iran say it sends second monkey into space, brings it back safely

Iran said on Saturday it had sent a second live monkey into space and brought it back safely, the latest demonstration of the country's missile capabilities, state news agency IRNA reported. "President Hassan Rouhani ... congratulated Iranian scientists and experts on successfully sending a second living creature into space," the news agency said. Iran said it launched its first monkey to space in January. Rouhani used Twitter to mark the latest event, a demonstration of rocket power that is likely to cause concern in the West and among some Gulf states, which are worried about Iran's nuclear ambitions.

NASA picks SpaceX to lease idled shuttle launch pad

NASA will turn over one of its mothballed space-shuttle launch pads to privately owned Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, which intends to set up a second site in Florida for its Falcon rockets, officials said on Friday. NASA's decision to lease out Launch Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to SpaceX followed a challenge by rival bidder Blue Origin, a startup rocket company owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. On Thursday, the Government Accountability Office dismissed Blue Origin's protest over NASA's bidding process.

Chinese lunar probe lands on moon: report

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - A Chinese spacecraft landed on the moon on Saturday, the official Xinhua news service reported, in the first such "soft-landing" since 1976, joining the United States and the former Soviet Union in managing to accomplish such a feat. The Chang'e 3, a probe named after a lunar goddess in traditional Chinese mythology, is carrying the solar-powered Yutu, or Jade Rabbit rover, which will dig and conduct geological surveys. ...

Grab Your Binoculars! Audubon's Christmas Bird Count Begins This Weekend

The National Audubon Society's 114th annual Christmas Bird Count begins Saturday (Dec. 14). Volunteer citizen scientists in all 50 U.S. states, all Canadian provinces, and parts of Mexico, Latin America, the Caribbean and the Pacific Islands are set to take part in the yearly tradition, armed with bird guides, binoculars and checklists. The annual count is the longest-running census of bird populations, and is used to help scientists assess the health of different species, said Geoff LeBaron, director of the Christmas Bird Count (CBC). "We try to look at the trend data to understand what's going on in the big picture," LeBaron told LiveScience.

China Lands On The Moon: Historic Robotic Lunar Landing Includes 1st Chinese Rover

China has landed its first robotic lander on the moon, a historic lunar arrival that makes the country only the third nation to make a soft-landing on Earth's celestial neighbor. China's Chang'e 3 moon lander and its Yutu rover touched down on the moon Saturday (Dec. 14) at about 8:11 a.m. EST (1311 GMT), though it was late Saturday night local time at the mission's control center in Beijing during the landing. Chang'e 3 launched toward the moon on Dec. 2 Beijing time to begin its two-week trek to the lunar surface. The spacecraft arrived in lunar orbit about five days after launch, and then began preparing for landing.

Incredible Tech: How Life Will Change With Smart Homes

Motion sensors embedded in your home will cue your heating system to start cranking when she enters.

Is 'Affluenza' Contagious?

In June, 16-year-old Ethan Couch plowed his pickup truck into two vehicles parked on the side of a Texas highway, killing four people and injuring nine. Media pundits, outraged citizens and the families of the deceased are now howling for justice after Couch got a relatively lenient sentence: 10 years' probation, plus a stint at a high-priced private counseling center in California, paid for by Couch's wealthy father, according to KHOU. The psychologist, G. Gary Miller, said that Couch's parents gave him "freedoms no young person should have." As an example of the teen's affluenza and the way the condition breaks the link between behavior and consequences, Couch received no punishment when, as a 15-year-old, he was found passed out in a parked pickup truck with an undressed 14-year-old girl. The term affluenza was first coined by author Jessie H. O'Neill in her book "The Golden Ghetto: The Psychology of Affluence" (Affluenza Project, 1997).

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