| Brighter Idea: Next-Generation Inorganic LEDs Promise Longer Lives and More Lumens [Slide Show] [More] rss.sciam.com |
Polar Perspective: NASA DC-8 Monitors Antarctica's Meltdown from the Skies A DC-8 rumbles down the runway in Punta Arenas, Chile, bound once again for the fickle weather of Antarctica. Chock full of scientific equipment, the nearly 48-meter-long plane--the core of NASA's Operation ICE Bridge--will fly as low as 300 meters above the glaciers and valleys of West Antarctica as well as the ice just off shore. Employing gravimeters, laser altimeters, even radar, the plane will attempt to get a handle on the rapid thinning of the Antarctic ice sheet --as well as fill in for the aging ICESat 1 satellite that is soon to be defunct. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Motored Down: Record number of manatee, Florida panther deaths in 2009 2009 was the deadliest year on record for Florida panthers ( Felis concolor coryi ) and manatees ( Trichechus manatus ), two endangered species that most often lose their lives when their habitats collide with that of humans. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Reservations about Toxic Waste: Native American Tribes Encouraged to Turn Down Lucrative Hazardous Disposal Deals Dear EarthTalk: Some time ago there were issues with Native American tribes storing nuclear waste on their land, something that was both unhealthy to the communities and caused considerable controversy among tribal leaders. Where is this issue today? --M. Spenser, via e-mail [More] rss.sciam.com |
Cubicle, Sweet Cubicle: The Best Ways to Make Office Spaces Not So Bad (preview) Once upon a time the factory, with its dirty, noisy machinery, was the standard workplace of industrialized nations; today it’s the office. Hundreds of millions of people--at least 15 percent of the population in developed countries--work at a desk, with or without a partition that separates them from the desks of their co-workers. That’s an awful lot of swivel chairs.But a cubicle is more than a mere physical workspace. In recent years social and organizational psychologists have begun to amass evidence that the character of people’s personal work environments affects their performance in profound and surprising ways. The size of our desks, our proximity to natural light, the quality of the air we breathe and our privacy (or lack thereof)--all are major predictors of our comfort, our contentment and our productivity. [More] Cubicle - Furniture - Business - Office Products - Developed country rss.sciam.com |