| Laughing Gas No Laughing Matter in Atmosphere [Below is the original script. But a few changes may have been made during the recording of this audio podcast.] There's a whole lot of laughing gas in the atmosphere these days. But it's no laughing matter. Nitrous oxide, or N2O, wafts up from manure and the chemical fertilizer sprayed on fields. Industry contributes as well. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Being Green: 10 Earth-Friendly Habits You Can Adopt A Bus with Legs Remember the good ol’ days when kids walked to school? Those treks weren’t as rough as some people recall them--five miles through the snow, uphill both ways!--but they did burn calories instead of fossil fuels. Today kids need more opportunities for exercise, but many parents feel it’s not safe for them to walk alone. One simple solution is to organize a “walking school bus” or “bicycle train” for your neighborhood, with one or more adults supervising a group of children traveling together. It’s a good way to build muscles and communities. For details on how to get started, see www.walkingschoolbus.org . [More] rss.sciam.com |
Greenhouse Bananas: Non-Science Smear Campaigns Here’s my conclusion: the only strong evidence we have that Oklahoma Senator James M. Inhofe isn’t a clown is that his car isn’t small enough. As I write in early December, the Copenhagen climate change conference has just begun. And Inhofe, that gleeful anarchist, says he is going to Copenhagen to try to sabotage the affair.Inhofe has famously called climate change “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.” (Actually, the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people was Lord Amherst’s distribution of smallpox-ridden blankets, but I digress.) But he has also called global warming the “second largest hoax ever played on the American people after the separation of church and state.” Well, it’s good to know that the senator is capable of revising his theories after he acquires new information, a necessary condition for a truly scientific worldview. [More] rss.sciam.com |
How Senator Vitter Battled the EPA Over Formaldehyde's Link to Cancer When Sen. David Vitter persuaded the EPA to agree to yet another review of its long-delayed assessment of the health risks of formaldehyde, he was praised by companies that use or manufacture a chemical found in everything from plywood to carpet. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Spare Times A selected guide to recreation, talks and other events in the New York area. nytimes.com |