http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (PhysOrg.com) -- The effects of climate change are so uncertain and potentially long-lasting that policymakers should begin examining options that include geoengineering, an area that has so far been off-limits, according to a former Harvard researcher who is now a professor at the University of Calgary, Canada. http://www.physorg.com/news172943655.html Space & Earth Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:10:02 EST news172943655 German scientists investigating the complex chemical mixture thought to be present in the early Earth`s oceans have found that amino acids can be 'cooked' into many other important chemical building blocks of life when embedded in salt crusts. Results of the laboratory experiments were presented by Dr Stefan Fox at the European Planetary Science Congress in Potsdam, Germany, on Thursday 17 September. http://www.physorg.com/news172496295.html Space & Earth Fri, 18 Sep 2009 12:38:47 EST news172496295 (PhysOrg.com) -- There are so many stars in our galaxy that even if planets with complex life (animals and plants) are rare - say one for every billion stars - there could still be dozens here in the Milky Way. But we are just beginning to learn about worlds beyond our solar system, called exoplanets, so we really don't have a good idea of what the chances are for advanced life. That's where NASA's Kepler mission comes in. http://www.physorg.com/news172242543.html Space & Earth Tue, 15 Sep 2009 14:30:01 EST news172242543 (PhysOrg.com) -- A team of geologists led by Cindy Ebinger of the University of Rochester have deployed 16 seismic sensors on one of the Galapagos Islands to study the processes of ocean island formation -- particularly those that occur right above mantle "hotspots." http://www.physorg.com/news171734872.html Space & Earth Wed, 09 Sep 2009 17:30:01 EST news171734872 (PhysOrg.com) -- A team of archaeologists has come one step closer to unravelling the mystery of how the famous statues dotting the landscape of a tiny Pacific island acquired their distinctive red hats. http://www.physorg.com/news171546695.html Other Sciences Mon, 07 Sep 2009 12:52:08 EST news171546695 When Planet Earth was just cooling down from its fiery creation, the sun was faint and young. So faint that it should not have been able to keep the oceans of earth from freezing. But fortunately for the creation of life, water was kept liquid on our young planet. http://www.physorg.com/news169811402.html Space & Earth Tue, 18 Aug 2009 10:50:40 EST news169811402 Mars may not be as dormant as scientists once thought. The 2004 discovery of methane means that either there is life on Mars, or that volcanic activity continues to generate heat below the martian surface. ESA plans to find out which it is. Either outcome is big news for a planet once thought to be biologically and geologically inactive. http://www.physorg.com/news169120520.html Space & Earth Mon, 10 Aug 2009 11:10:03 EST news169120520 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have placed high-tech "spiders" inside and around the mouth of Mount St. Helens, one of the most active volcanoes in the United States. Networks such as these could one day be used to respond rapidly to an impending eruption. http://www.physorg.com/news168874991.html Space & Earth Fri, 07 Aug 2009 14:43:56 EST news168874991 When Alaska's Kasatochi Volcano erupted on Aug. 7, 2008, it virtually sterilized Kasatochi Island, covering the small Aleutian island with a layer of ash and other volcanic material several meters thick. The eruption also provided a rare research opportunity: the chance to see how an ecosystem develops from the very first species to colonize the island. http://www.physorg.com/news168793788.html Biology Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:12:07 EST news168793788 (PhysOrg.com) -- The expanding spot discovered on Venus last month may not have garnered as much attention as the meteor impact with Jupiter, but its cause is certainly more puzzling. http://www.physorg.com/news168610535.html Space & Earth Tue, 04 Aug 2009 13:16:10 EST news168610535 (PhysOrg.com) -- An analysis of Martian meteorites has led scientists to believe that Mars was molten for up to 100 million years after it formed, thwarting the evolution of early life on the planet. http://www.physorg.com/news167407498.html Space & Earth Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:05:57 EST news167407498 (PhysOrg.com) -- Venus Express has charted the first map of Venus's southern hemisphere at infrared wavelengths. The new map hints that our neighbouring world may once have been more Earth-like, with both, a plate tectonics system and an ocean of water. http://www.physorg.com/news166772454.html Space & Earth Tue, 14 Jul 2009 06:41:28 EST news166772454 A runaway spurt of global warming 55 million years ago turned Earth into a hothouse but how this happened remains worryingly unclear, scientists said on Monday. http://www.physorg.com/news166715232.html Space & Earth Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:47:39 EST news166715232 From literature to the Big Screen, the fascination with the planet Mars has taken many forms. In the geology department at Mercyhurst College, that attraction currently surrounds three of the planet's oldest and most explosive volcanoes known as highland paterae. These distinctive landforms will be studied extensively by a team of faculty and student researchers this summer, thanks to a $137,000 NASA grant awarded to Dr. Nicholas Lang, first-year assistant professor of geology at Mercyhurst. http://www.physorg.com/news166703932.html Space & Earth Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:39:12 EST news166703932 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have traced a sudden collapse in plant biodiversity in ancient Greenland, some 200 million years ago, to a relatively small rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide which caused a rise in the Earth`s temperature. http://www.physorg.com/news165508154.html Space & Earth Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:00:01 EST news165508154 A University of Colorado at Boulder team has uncovered an ancient and previously unknown Maya agricultural system -- a large manioc field intensively cultivated as a staple crop that was buried and exquisitely preserved under a blanket of ash by a volcanic eruption in present-day El Salvador 1,400 years ago. http://www.physorg.com/news164378297.html Other Sciences Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:10:02 EST news164378297 An enormous eruption has found its way to Earth after travelling for many thousands of years across space. Studying this blast with ESA's XMM-Newton and Integral space observatories, astronomers have discovered a dead star belonging to a rare group: the magnetars. http://www.physorg.com/news164376716.html Space & Earth Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:12:19 EST news164376716 For decades, geologists have been puzzled by the mechanisms that give rise to the kind of volcanoes that form the so-called `ring of fire` around the Pacific Ocean. These arc volcanoes, which account for about 10 to 25 percent of all volcanoes, are produced when one of the plates that make up Earth`s crust plunges beneath another plate, a process called subduction. http://www.physorg.com/news163684334.html Space & Earth Mon, 08 Jun 2009 12:54:21 EST news163684334 (AP) -- The summit of Hawaii's Kilauea volcano is glowing brightly as molten lava swirls 300 feet below its crater's floor, bubbling near the surface after years of spewing from the volcano's side. http://www.physorg.com/news163560445.html Space & Earth Sun, 07 Jun 2009 02:28:27 EST news163560445 A previously unknown giant volcanic eruption that led to global mass extinction 260million years ago has been uncovered by scientists at the University of Leeds. http://www.physorg.com/news162738601.html Space & Earth Thu, 28 May 2009 14:13:04 EST news162738601 A new analysis of the processes that constantly stir the Earth's deep mantle is helping to explain how the mantle holds onto a portion of ancient noble gases that were trapped during the Earth's formation. http://www.physorg.com/news162649740.html Space & Earth Wed, 27 May 2009 13:29:49 EST news162649740 (PhysOrg.com) -- There are very few places in the world where dynamic activity taking place beneath Earth's surface goes undetected. http://www.physorg.com/news162573232.html Space & Earth Tue, 26 May 2009 16:15:02 EST news162573232 On Aug. 24, 79 A.D., Italy's Mount Vesuvius exploded, burying the Roman towns of Herculaneum and Pompeii under tons of super-heated ash, rock and debris in one of the most famous volcanic eruptions in history. http://www.physorg.com/news162397576.html Technology Sun, 24 May 2009 15:27:19 EST news162397576 (PhysOrg.com) -- A study into ash fallout from the biggest volcanic eruption in almost 20 years has shown that the impact of past eruptions is likely to have been significantly underestimated as so much of the evidence quickly disappears, Oxford University scientists report. http://www.physorg.com/news160836010.html Space & Earth Wed, 06 May 2009 13:41:25 EST news160836010 (PhysOrg.com) -- Science has unearthed the secret to what might have been alchemy at Oldoinyo Lengai volcano in Tanzania. http://www.physorg.com/news160834772.html Space & Earth Wed, 06 May 2009 13:20:37 EST news160834772 Scientists who have just returned from an expedition to an erupting undersea volcano near the Island of Guam report that the volcano appears to be continuously active, has grown considerably in size during the past three years, and its activity supports a unique biological community thriving despite the eruptions. http://www.physorg.com/news160754388.html Space & Earth Tue, 05 May 2009 15:00:13 EST news160754388 A previously unknown, large impact basin has been discovered by the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft during its second flyby of Mercury in October 2008. The impact basin, now named Rembrandt, more than 700 kilometers (430 miles) in diameter. If the Rembrandt basin had formed on the east coast of the United States, it would span the distance between Washington, D.C., and Boston. http://www.physorg.com/news160322795.html Space & Earth Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:07:34 EST news160322795 Up until last year globes of Mercury were blank on one side. The Mariner 10 spacecraft explored the small planet in three flybys (1974-1975), but since no more than half was ever seen it remained the least understood of the four terrestrial planets - Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. http://www.physorg.com/news160321938.html Space & Earth Thu, 30 Apr 2009 14:53:09 EST news160321938 A volcanic eruption over the weekend has taken a toll on the wildlife of the ecologically-fragile Galapagos Islands, causing the deaths of numerous fish and various sea lions, said officials on Thursday. http://www.physorg.com/news159127819.html Biology Thu, 16 Apr 2009 19:10:39 EST news159127819 Propagation of earthquake waves within the Earth is not uniform. Experiments indicate that the velocity of shear waves (s-waves) in Earth`s lower mantle between 660 and 2900 km depth is strongly dependent on the orientation of ferropericlase. In the latest issue of Science (Vol. 325, 10.04.2009), researchers from the German Research Center for Geosciences GFZ, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, the University of Bayreuth, and Arizona State University report unexpected properties of ferropericlase, which is presumably the second most abundant mineral of the lower mantle. http://www.physorg.com/news158840427.html Space & Earth Mon, 13 Apr 2009 11:21:05 EST news158840427