Science & Technology - Jun 4, 2010 10:58 - 0 Comments

Early haze likely shaded Earth from UV

U. COLORADO (US)—A thick organic haze that enshrouded early Earth several billion years ago may have been similar to the haze now hovering above Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, and would have protected primordial life on the planet from the damaging effects of ultraviolet radiation. (more…)

Science & Technology - May 19, 2010 10:07 - 1 Comment

How one incredible shrinking shark evolved

U. COLORADO (US)—The ancestor of all hammerhead sharks probably appeared abruptly in Earth’s oceans about 20 million years ago and was as big as some contemporary hammerheads, a new study suggests. (more…)

Society & Culture - May 14, 2010 13:44 - 40 Comments

Drop in violent crime tied to immigration?

U. COLORADO (US)—During the 1990s, immigration reached record highs and crime rates fell more precipitously than at any time in U.S. history. And cities with the largest increases in immigration between 1990 and 2000 experienced the largest decreases in rates of homicide and robbery. (more…)

Science & Technology - May 14, 2010 10:23 - 0 Comments

Final liftoff for space shuttle Atlantis

U. COLORADO (US)—The launch today from Kennedy Space Center is expected to be the last one for space shuttle Atlantis, marking the end of a career that includes 32 space missions—covering more than 115 million miles. (more…)

Earth & Environment - Apr 15, 2010 21:49 - 2 Comments

Volcanic plume likely to dissipate in days

U. COLORADO (US)—The eruption of an Icelandic volcano that sent a huge plume of ash into the atmosphere and caused sweeping disruptions of air traffic over Great Britain and Scandinavia on April 15 will likely dissipate in the next several days, according to atmospheric scientist Brian Toon. (more…)

Earth & Environment - Apr 8, 2010 11:12 - 1 Comment

Using Inuit insight to predict Arctic weather

U. COLORADO (US)—Modern science is partnering with indigenous environmental knowledge from the Inuit to learn new things about what’s happening to the Arctic climate. (more…)

Science & Technology - Mar 31, 2010 11:06 - 2 Comments

Smashing success for Big Bang experiment

U. COLORADO (US)—Scientists crashed proton beams together at three and one-half times the highest energy levels ever recorded on March 30 in a quest to discover the physical conditions immediately following the Big Bang. (more…)

Earth & Environment - Mar 25, 2010 17:09 - 7 Comments

Greenland melt spreads to both coasts

U. COLORADO (US)—Ice loss from the Greenland ice sheet, which has been increasing during the past decade over its southern region, is now making an upward climb on its northwest coast as well. (more…)

Science & Technology - Mar 17, 2010 10:20 - 0 Comments

ID’d by your personal ‘trail of bugs’

U. COLORADO (US)—Forensic scientists may soon be able to identify individuals using types of hand bacteria left behind on objects like keyboards and computer mice. (more…)

Health & Medicine - Mar 15, 2010 11:44 - 0 Comments

Flipping the switch to trigger cell suicide

U. COLORADO (US)—The discovery of a previously unknown cellular “switch” may provide researchers with a new means of triggering programmed cell death, findings with implications for treating cancer. (more…)

Science & Technology - Feb 26, 2010 12:19 - 2 Comments

Antioxidants give birds breeding edge

U. COLORADO (US)—North American barn swallows outperform their peers in reproduction by maintaining a positive balance of antioxidants, found naturally in plant pigments—and in health food stores around the world. (more…)

Earth & Environment - Feb 22, 2010 17:40 - 0 Comments

Quake drill points to shaky communication

U. COLORADO (US)—Researchers who devised the largest earthquake preparedness event ever undertaken in the United States say one of the biggest challenges was translating devastation projections from a hypothetical magnitude 7.8 San Andreas Fault temblor into timely, usable information to the more than 5 million California participants in 2008. (more…)

Science & Technology - Feb 8, 2010 15:05 - 2 Comments

NASA launching tools to forecast solar activity

U. COLORADO (US)—An instrument package set for launch by NASA on Feb. 10 is expected to give scientists a better understanding of the sun’s impact on space weather. (more…)

Earth & Environment - Jan 8, 2010 15:21 - 0 Comments

Warmer temps stifle trees’ carbon uptake

U. COLORADO—As the climate warms and growing seasons lengthen, subalpine forests are likely to soak up less carbon dioxide. The result will be more greenhouse gas left to concentrate in the atmosphere, new research shows. (more…)

Society & Culture - Dec 30, 2009 17:22 - 0 Comments

Early galaxies as never seen before

U. COLORADO (US)—The Herschel Space Observatory has provided one of the most detailed views yet of space up to 12 billion years back in time. The images reveal thousands of newly discovered galaxies in their early stages of formation, says astrophysicist Jason Glenn. (more…)

Science & Technology - Dec 30, 2009 13:26 - 4 Comments

Putting a lander on Earth’s ‘evil twin’

U. COLORADO (US)—What would it take to land a spacecraft on Venus? NASA has asked a research team at the University of Colorado at Boulder to help answer that question with a detailed, one-year concept study to examine the planet’s surface, climate, and atmosphere—and to predict its ultimate fate in the solar system. (more…)

Earth & Environment - Dec 15, 2009 16:39 - 0 Comments

‘Triple whammy’ takes toll on Arctic erosion

U. COLORADO (US)—The combined effect of declining sea ice, warming seawater, and increased wave activity is causing the northern coastline of Alaska to erode by up to one-third the length of a football field each year. (more…)

Earth & Environment - Dec 1, 2009 13:30 - 2 Comments

How much snow? Check your GPS

U. COLORADO (US)—Researchers have found a clever way to use traditional GPS satellite signals to measure snow depth as well as soil and vegetation moisture, a technique expected to benefit meteorologists, water resource managers, climate modelers, and farmers. (more…)