G-8 For Controlling Global Emissions
The Group of Eight leading industrial nations agreed on halving world emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050. In the battle against global warming all major economies are called to join to eliminate the potentially dangerous rise in world temperatures. The G-8 countries include the United States, Japan, Russia, Germany, France, Britain, Canada and Italy.
Photo Source: http://president.wbcsd.org
Seals’ Navigation aid: Stars
Seals can orient themselves and navigate to some degree using the stars as a guide,according to a research by University of Southern Denmark. Researchers have discovered that seals have the ability to recognize stars and groups of stars inside a modified planetarium. Humans used star navigation for centuries when sailing across the vast oceans. Bees use earth’s magnetic filed to navigate by.
Facts about Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park was set as a national park in March 1872. It is known for its wildlife and geothermal features, especially Old Faithful Geyser. Watch this video for the amazing art of Mother Nature.
Tree From Christ’s Time
The oldest tree ever has been grown by scientists. The new tree was grown from a 2,000-year-old date palm excavated in Masada. The species of tree, called the Judean date, is now extinct in Israel, but scientists are hoping that this plant may help them in medicinal uses.
According to Carbon dating the seeds found at Masada are roughly the time of the ancient fortress’ siege, in A.D. 73. The seeds were found in storage rooms of Jews, and hidden from invading Romans. The Methuselah tree holds the record for the oldest seed to be germinated.
Photo Source: www.israelnationalnews.com
CO2 emission can be reduced by 1 Billion Tonnes: HP
Some of the solutions described in HP’s white paper include “Low Carbon IT Solutions,” that identifies the potential to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
- Smart cooling and its use in the design of data center facilities that reduce energy usage and greenhouse gas emissions from commercial premises.
- Innovation in telepresence and videoconferencing that enable improved virtual collaboration to reduce the environmental impacts of international travel. HP’s use of this technology is expected to save approximately 20,000 international trips and at least 32,000 tonnes per year of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e).
- Flat panel displays and Laptops, increases workplace flexibility to reduce energy consumption from non-critical travel.
No evidence of Water in Mars
The tests conducted so far by Phoenix on Martian soil, didn’t show any indications of water. During the past couple of days tests had been carried out on soil sample from Mars surface. Phoenix lander had collected samples from two digging sites named Dodo and BabyBear. The mysterious, unidentified white material exposed in the trench is still visible. Over the coming days, scientists will instruct Phoenix to heat the sample to 1000°C (1800°F). This will vaporize minerals that might be chemically bound to H2O, CO2 or SO2 and then use instrumentation to measure the vented gases. The twin Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have already found indications of water on previous missions.
Other Species Can Learn Foreign Language
There are nine species of honeybees found worldwide and they do different type of dances as their “language” to tell each other the location of a tasty flower or nesting site.
The study leader Shaowu Zhang of The Australian National University mentioned that the duration of the waggle dances differs from species to species.
The research team mixed two species of honeybees, Asian and European together in a hive, and trained one species to fly to a feeder. The untrained species were able to identify the dances of by the trained cousins and interpret where the feeder was.
This study proved that these honeybees can learn to translate each others’ languages very effectively.
Hydrogen Fuel Stations.
Honda FCX Clarity is a zero emission sedan, which runs on hydrogen and electricity, emits only water and none of the noxious fumes believed to induce global warming. Limited number of cars will be leased to Southern Californians, which costs $600/month on a three year lease. Many automobile manufacturers have already begun developing hydrogen powered cars, BMW Hydrogen 7,Daimler AG — F-Cell,Focus FCV and GM HydroGen3 are some of them. But the main issue is the lack of hydrogen fuel stations. National Hydrogen Association developed a hydrogen fueling station database, this database contains only US and Canadian stations. Fuelcells.org has compiled a list of Hydrogen fuel stations which can be found here.
Clean the air as you drive
BMW unveiled a hydrogen-powered 7-series sedan which emits very low amount of Carbon Monoxide, in last month’s AE Congress in Detroit. The engine breaks down and converts carbon monoxide, essentially cleaning the air as it is driven. This green sedan of BMW features a six-liter hydrogen combustion engine. Car’s emissions are so low that they are undetectable by standard emissions tests.
Salt Water In Mars
Scientist have proved that Mars once had water, but they are still debating if the water was suitable to support life. After studying salt deposits left behind on the planet’s surface, Tosca and his colleagues state that the planet’s water would have been too salty for the organisms. Mars lost most of its surface over time and left with arid and cold desert. But it had been friendlier once. The origins of life on Earth is much easier than an acid pH and high salinity environment in Mars. It may be the reason why it might not have worked so well for the evolution of life on Mars.
Photo Source: www.daviddarling.info
Acid Rain Problem
Acid rain problem has not gone away. Acid rain is produced by the emissions of power plants throughout the Northeast of America, which declines the sugar maples and red spruce in the region. The soils are continuing to get worse, and levels of calcium ions in the soil had halved throughout the region while aluminum ions had doubled. Humans are replacing a nutrient by a toxic substance.
Last moments of Human
Renowned scientist Sir Martin Rees, a Royal Society Research Professor at Cambridge and Britain’s Astronomer Royal believes humans have only a 50% chance of making it through just the next century alone. In the book Our Final Hour
