Earth

Graphene is going to change the world -- or so we've been told.

Since its discovery a decade ago, scientists and tech gurus have hailed graphene as the wonder material that could replace silicon in electronics, increase the efficiency of batteries, the durability and conductivity of touch screens and pave the way for cheap thermal electric energy, among many other things.

It's one atom thick, stronger than steel, harder than diamond and one of the most conductive materials on earth.

For the first time, scientists have observed ripples in the fabric of spacetime called gravitational waves, arriving at the earth from a cataclysmic event in the distant universe. This confirms a major prediction of Albert Einstein's 1915 general theory of relativity and opens an unprecedented new window onto the cosmos.

SAINT PAUL, Minn. (Feb. 11, 2016): Knowing how climate change may affect an entire region is only marginally useful to land managers trying to preserve the small white lady's slipper, a once-abundant orchid that today is found in small "postage stamp" prairie fragments as little as 10 acres in size in Minnesota and another dozen states across the Midwest. Land managers need the details: how might a small fragment of orchid habitat change with climate change, and what climate adaptation strategies will be most effective in preserving remaining populations of small white lady's slipper?

Most U.S. science teachers include climate science in their courses, yet political inclinations and insufficient grasp of the science may be hindering the quality of their teaching, authors of this Education Forum say. Although more than 95% of climate scientists attribute recent global warming to human causes, only about half of U.S. adults believe that human activity is the predominant cause -- the lowest percentage among 20 nations polled in 2014. Yet prior surveys suggest that climate change is taught in the classroom, prompting Eric Plutzer et al.

How is climate change being taught in American schools? Is it being taught at all? And how are teachers addressing climate change denial in their classrooms, schools, and school districts?

Until today's release of NCSE's comprehensive nationwide survey, no one knew. The survey, conducted in concert with the respected nonpartisan Penn State University Survey Research Center, grilled over 1500 middle and high school science teachers. The results may floor you.

CORVALLIS, Ore. - A study at Oregon State University has concluded that significant outbreaks of viruses may be associated with coral bleaching events, especially as a result of multiple environmental stresses.

One such event was documented even as it happened in a three-day period. It showed how an explosion of three viral groups, including a herpes-like virus, occurred just as corals were bleaching in one part of the Great Barrier Reef off the east coast of Australia.

Toxins from harmful algae are present in Alaskan marine food webs in high enough concentrations to be detected in marine mammals such as whales, walruses, sea lions, seals, porpoises and sea otters, according to new research from NOAA and its federal, state, local and academic partners.

LOS ALAMOS, N.M., Feb. 11, 2016--Gravitational waves were predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity in 1916, and now, almost exactly 100 years later, the faint ripples across space-time have been found. The advanced Laser Interferometric Gravitational-wave Observatory (aLIGO) has achieved the first direct measurement.

PHILADELPHIA (February 11, 2016) - Housing Policy Debate recently published a study on the effect micro-neighborhood conditions have on adult educational attainment in subsidized housing. University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing's (Penn Nursing) Therese S. Richmond, PhD, FAAN, CRNP, the Andrea B. Laporte Professor of Nursing, and Associate Dean for Research and Innovation, served as the study's senior author.

MANHATTAN, KANSAS -- In the past seven years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded Kansas State University $6.5 million to keep a wheat fungus that has had a devastating impact on wheat production in South America out of the United States.

So far, mission accomplished.

But the university's Barbara Valent, who has led a project that includes field and laboratory trials in four countries, concedes that good science has combined with a little bit of luck to keep wheat blast, which is caused by the fungus Magnaporthe oryzae, from infecting U.S. fields.

Cornell physics and astrophysics professor Saul Teukolsky has been using supercomputers to solve Einstein's equations for black hole mergers for much of his career. Teukolsky and the Cornell-founded Simulation of eXtreme Spacetimes (SXS) collaboration group have been calculating and completing a full catalog of theoretical solutions since 2000, when supercomputers first became capable of the task.

BATON ROUGE - For the first time, scientists have observed ripples in the fabric of spacetime, called gravitational waves, arriving at the earth from a cataclysmic event in the distant universe. This confirms a major prediction of Albert Einstein's 1915 general theory of relativity and opens an unprecedented new window onto the cosmos.

For the first time, scientists have observed ripples in the fabric of spacetime called gravitational waves, arriving at Earth from a cataclysmic event in the distant universe. This confirms a major prediction of Albert Einstein's 1915 general theory of relativity and opens an unprecedented new window to the cosmos.

Using a special high-pressure chamber, scientists have discovered two new iron oxides in experiments at DESY's X-ray light source PETRA III and other facilities. The discovery points to a huge, hitherto unknown oxygen source in the lower mantle of the Earth. The team led by Dr. Elena Bykova from the University of Bayreuth reports its results in the scientific journal Nature Communications.

BOULDER -- The weather patterns that typically bring moisture to the southwestern United States are becoming more rare, an indication that the region is sliding into the drier climate state predicted by global models, according to a new study.

"A normal year in the Southwest is now drier than it once was," said Andreas Prein, a postdoctoral researcher at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) who led the study. "If you have a drought nowadays, it will be more severe because our base state is drier."