The Week: Most Recent Science & Tech:Environment

The 10 weirdest new species of 2012

The Week — Thu, 24 May 2012 15:22:00 -0500

It's estimated that Earth is home to at least 8 million living species, and every year scientists add 15,000 to 20,000 new discoveries to that tally. But thousands of species are threatened with extinction, too, thanks to habitat destruction, climate change, and other factors. For the past five years, in an effort to bring attention to the biodiversity crisis, the International Institute for Species Exploration (IISE) at Arizona State University has worked in conjunction with biologists worldwide to cobble together the newly added animals and plants they find most interesting. More than...

Discovered: The ancient turtle as big as a car

The Week — Mon, 21 May 2012 12:23:00 -0500

The remains of a gigantic, predatory turtle were just unearthed in a Colombia coal mine, giving researchers new insights into the tendency for oversize species to thrive after the age of the dinosaurs. North Carolina State University paleontologists call the 60-million-year-old reptile Carbonemys cofrinii, or "coal turtle." Here, a concise guide to the discovery:

How big was it?
The lake-dwelling turtle was about the size of a Smart car, and came packing a 5.7-foot shell large enough to double as a kiddie pool. It belonged to a family of freshwater reptiles known as side-neck turtles, so...

Has mankind outgrown Earth?

The Week — Thu, 17 May 2012 07:43:00 -0500

We're gobbling up the planet's resources at such an alarming rate that by 2030, even a second Earth wouldn't be enough to sustain us, claims the World Wildlife Fund's (WWF) 2012 Living Planet Report. The research will be presented next month at a United Nations conference in Rio de Janero, where world leaders will walk the delicate tightrope of trying to figure out how to help the world's poorest countries without doing further damage to the environment. Here's what you should know about the eye-opening study:

Which resources are we depleting?
Renewables like fish, water, timber, and food are being...

The violent sex life of the 'dagger penis' bug

The Week — Mon, 14 May 2012 12:16:00 -0500

Some insects — like the female praying mantis — are known to devour puny male partners soon after mating. But that seems almost tame compared to the violent copulation techniques employed by Xylocoris flavipes, more commonly known as the warehouse pirate bug. A male on the prowl comes equipped with a spiny "dagger penis," which the bug uses to forcibly stab its way into a female's abdomen, ejaculating once inside. Now, a new Swedish study has shed more light on the ramifications of this unusual reproduction technique. Here, a brief guide to the six-legged critter's scary mating...

The chimp who learned to trick humans... and pelt them with stones

The Week — Mon, 14 May 2012 07:54:00 -0500

When visitors to the Furuvik Zoo in Sweden approach the pen of Santino, a cranky male chimpanzee, they often find themselves on the receiving end of flying rocks, which the 34-year-old ape keeps cleverly hidden in his enclosure. Now, Santino's increasingly tricky antics have drawn the attention of the scientific community. In a new study published in the journal PLoS One, researchers suggest that the chimp's deceptions hint at a deep level of thinking once only associated with humans. Here's what you should know about the supersmart ape:

How did the rock-flinging start?
One day in 2010, an apparently...

The Pacific Ocean's growing plastic problem

The Week — Fri, 11 May 2012 08:00:00 -0500

About 1,000 miles north of Hawaii lies an aquatic area known as the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch," which stretches hundreds of miles across the Pacific Ocean and is riddled with tiny shreds of plastic. A new paper from the Scripps Oceanic Institution highlights a striking fact about the area: The amount of debris found within has increased 100-fold in the past 40 years, and is upsetting the ocean's delicate ecosystems in a number of surprising ways. Here, a brief guide to the Pacific Ocean's growing plastic problem:

Why is there so much plastic there?
The high concentration of plastic debris is...

The dolphins that overdosed on heroin... at a rave

The Week — Wed, 09 May 2012 15:08:00 -0500

Last November, two dolphins at a Swiss zoo endured slow, painful deaths after the facility hosted a weekend rave. Initially, puzzled officials blamed the animals' fates on everything from blaring music to vet negligence. But new toxicology reports reveal that the mammals died of a drug overdose. Here, a brief guide to this tragic story:

What happened to the dolphins?
Shadow and Chelmers of the Connyland Marine Park in Switzerland died mysteriously, and within five days of each other, following a weekend-long rave. "Animal-rights activists originally blamed the deaths on the event's techno music...

Did farting kill the dinosaurs?

The Week — Mon, 07 May 2012 18:36:00 -0500

While scientists are touting a new study of dinosaur flatulence as a "major new climate finding," the media is greeting it with undisguised mirth. According to this research, the prehistoric beasts may have tooted so much methane into the air that they triggered a catastrophic climate change and, consequently, their own extinction. Here's a guide to the revolutionary — and, for some, giggle-worthy — findings:

What's this new research?
A study by a team of British scientists published in Current Biology argues that dinosaur flatulence "turned the Earth into one giant Dutch oven, contributing...

Heartland's ballsy attack on climate-change theory: The fallout

The Week — Mon, 07 May 2012 14:43:00 -0500

The conservative Heartland Institute was going for shock value when it mounted a digital billboard in Chicago that combined a mug shot of the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, with the message: "I still believe in Global Warming. Do you?" (See the full image below.) After the group faced a fiercer backlash than expected, however, it promptly took down the sign and canceled plans for similar ads. Here's what you should know:

What was the point of this billboard?
The Heartland Institute was trying to be "deliberately provocative," the institute's president, Joseph Bast, said in a statement, "to turn the tables...

Do wind farms actually cause climate change?

The Week — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 14:00:00 -0500

Here's a curveball on climate change: New research published in the journal Nature Climate Change suggests that large wind farms might have a warming effect on the local climate. Many countries are rapidly expanding their capacity to generate electricity using wind-driven turbines as they try to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases created by the burning of fossil fuels. But are wind farms contributing to the very problem they're supposed to help solve? Here, a brief guide:

How much do wind farms heat up the air?
Researchers at the State University of New York at Albany...

The tiny shark that glows in the dark

The Week — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 12:40:00 -0500

The shark is already the ocean's most feared predator. But two lesser-known (and relatively unintimidating) tiny species of the hunter have an extra "superpower," says Jeanna Bryner at LiveScience. The hand-sized smalleye pygmy shark and its slightly larger relative, the lantern shark, possess the astounding ability to make their bellies glow. And now, new research published in the Journal of Experimental Biology confirms why the animals evolved the trick. Here's a glimpse at the ocean's tiny, glow-in-the-dark predators:

Why do they glow?
It's long been speculated that these relatively vulnerable...

Are jellyfish taking over the oceans?

The Week — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 07:30:00 -0500

Beach-goers will want to be on high alert when they wade into the water this summer, as populations of stinging jellyfish are booming in almost every ocean around the world. What's worse is that the pesky invertebrates seem to be most prevalent in areas where human activity is heavily concentrated. Here, a guide to the sticky situation:

What's the evidence that jellyfish populations are growing?
Since the mid-20th century, researchers have suspected that jellyfish populations were climbing. Those worries were confirmed recently when marine biologists from the University of British Columbia examined...

The 'miracle chick' born without an egg

The Week — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 12:33:00 -0500

Which came first: The chicken or the egg? It's a simple question with grand implications about philosphy, the origins of life, and the creation of our universe. Perhaps that's why humans have pondered the riddle for centuries. But do we finally have an answer? Maybe, now that a mother hen in Sri Lanka has given birth to a baby chick — without an egg. Here, a brief guide to this intriguing tale:

How was a chick born without an egg?
"Normally, eggs are passed out of a hen's body and incubated" in the outside world, says the U.K.'s Metro. But in this case, in a medical mystery that local...

Global warming mystery: Why are some glaciers growing?

The Week — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:20:00 -0500

Glaciers around the world are slowly melting, and scientists are quick to point their fingers at manmade climate change. But new research suggests that a few glaciers aren't shrinking at all, and may even be growing. Here, a brief guide to this counterintuitive phenomenon:

Which glaciers are growing?
A few glaciers in the Karakoram mountain range along the India-China-Pakistan border are gaining mass, according to a report published in the April issue of the journal Nature Geoscience. "The rest of the glaciers in the Himalayas are mostly melting," lead researcher Julie Gardelle tells LiveScience...

The unsettling resurgence of rhino poaching: By the numbers

The Week — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 07:20:00 -0500

In underground markets, rhino horns are now worth an estimated $25,000 per pound, more than the cost of the same amount of cocaine in the U.S. In countries like Vietnam and China, people use the ground up horns, which produce a fingernail-like substance, to treat everything from headaches to fevers and even cancer. Although the medicinal benefits of the horns are scientifically unproven, illegal poaching of the burly animal hit an all-time high in 2011: In South Africa alone, where 90 percent of the world's rhino population lives, 448 of the mammals were killed last year. The death toll is expected...

The warmest March in history: By the numbers

The Week — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 15:44:00 -0500

Temperature records were scorched last month, which will go down as the warmest March in history. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), more than 15,000 temperature records were broken or tied in the U.S., continuing a year-long streak of hotter-than-average temperatures that many scientists are linking to global warming. "Everybody has this uneasy feeling," says scientist Jerry Meehl. "It's a guilty pleasure. You're out enjoying this nice March weather, but you know it's not a good thing." Here's how it all breaks down:

15,292
Temperature records that were...