TOP 100 CAMPING SITES
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| Illusions in Motion: The Power of Symmetry The aesthetic appeal of symmetry is obvious whether you are a child playing with a kaleidoscope or a Great Mogul emperor building the Taj Mahal as a monument to eternal love. That preference, as it turns out, greatly shapes how we see the world when items are in motion. More on that shortly.In the natural, as opposed to man-made, world, symmetry--whether we see it in prey, predator, mate or mother--serves as an early-alert system, drawing your attention. Even an infant, who has blurry views of his or her surroundings because of not yet developed acuity, has an innate preference for symmetry. Babies stare longer at faces that have two eyes in the normal position than they do at those that have a cyclopean or a stacked-eyes configuration. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Top 25 Green Energy Leaders It is no longer enough to just conserve energy. More and more corporations, government agencies and entire cities are making large, long-term commitments to ensure that the power they do use comes from renewable sources. To recognize these trendsetters, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency publishes a quarterly list of the top American users of green power: organizations that generate their own renewable energy, buy it from suppliers, or purchase offset credits to compensate for their traditional energy use. To put things in perspective, the average U.S. home consumes about 10,656 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity a year. That means number 25 on the list buys enough green energy to power more than 14,000 homes.The most direct method to make energy consumption more sustainable is for a user to generate its own power by, for example, installing solar panels or by burning waste gas. A major do-it-yourself project, however, might not fall within the expertise of, say, a clothing retailer, so some entities hire outside operators to do it for them. [More] rss.sciam.com |
A Less Shady Future: Could Climate Change Mean Fewer Clouds? Clouds aren't as easy to track deep into the past as carbon dioxide. But like CO2, clouds can play an important role in climate change: Either they can trap heat in the atmosphere, magnifying to the greenhouse effect, or they can reflect sunlight back into space, cooling the planet. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Last chance to save the Christmas Island bat fails; species doomed to extinction? Well folks, it looks like this is it for the Christmas Island pipistrelle bat ( Pipistrellus murrayi ). This critically endangered species of microbat now appears to be doomed to impending extinction as last-gasp efforts to capture the few remaining bats and place them in a captive breeding program have failed . [More] rss.sciam.com |
Hope for Copenhagen: Campaign inspires public to call for climate action Politicians and journalists tend to be jaded about international agreements aimed at improving society. And already too many of them are saying the global climate summit that begins December 7 in Copenhagen will not produce tangible instruments that limit greenhouse gas emissions. Disgusted by the pessimism, the global advertising industry has started a grassroots campaign to encourage citizens worldwide to sound out a message of hope...in hopes of pressuring each country's leaders and delegates to the U.N Climate Change Conference to enact change. [More] rss.sciam.com |