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Britons should be subjected to random carbon spotchecks and intensive surveillance of their diets, transport and waste disposal habits, says the Government's architecture and design quango in a new report today. The word "monitoring" occurs 19 times in the 32-page publication by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE). If the proposals in the report What Makes An Eco Town?are implemented few aspects of life will go unrecorded. CABE says the strict monitoring is needed to ensure the carbon footprint of the eco-town dwellers remains at one-third of the British average, which is the requirement for what's called...

The deep interior of Neptune, Uranus and Earth may contain some solid ice. Through first-principle molecular dynamics simulations, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists, together with University of California, Davis collaborators, used a two-phase approach to determine the melting temperature of ice VII (a high-pressure phase of ice) in pressures ranging from 100,000 to 500,000 atmospheres. For pressures between 100,000 and 400,000 atmospheres, the team, led by Eric Schwegler, found that ice melts as a molecular solid (similar to how ice melts in a cold drink). But in pressures above 450,000 atmospheres, there is a sharp increase in the slope of...

Scientists are today preparing to switch on the world's biggest scientific experiment. The £5billion Large Hadron Collider aims to recreate the conditions moments after the Big Bang that created the universe.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft has created a video of the moon transiting (passing in front of) Earth as seen from the spacecraft's point of view 31 million miles away. Scientists are using the video to develop techniques to study alien worlds. "Making a video of Earth from so far away helps the search for other life-bearing planets in the Universe by giving insights into how a distant, Earth-like alien world would appear to us," said University of Maryland astronomer Michael A’Hearn, principal investigator for the Deep Impact extended mission, called EPOXI. Timelapse image of the Moon...

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict on Thursday told a huge gathering of young people that they were inheriting a planet whose resources had been scarred and squandered to fuel insatiable consumption. His latest appeal to save the planet for future generations came in a address to some 150,000 youths in Sydney after he rode through the city's harbor standing on the outdoor deck of a white ferry as dozens of boats blew their horns. "Reluctantly we come to acknowledge that there are also scars which mark the surface of our earth, erosion, deforestation, the squandering of the world's mineral and...

An important prediction available from the RC theory states that there will be a major drop in the sun's activity measured by an historic reduction in sunspots and other indicators of the sun's behavior. Accompaning this lower state of the sun called a 'solar minimum' by the solar physics community, will be a prolonged cold era according to the SSRC. This next climate change to many years of a slowly cooling Earth environment, is predicted by the SSRC to begin within the period 2010 to 2021 with lowest temperatures during the bottom around the year 2031. The SSRC refers to...

Rapid changes in the churning movement of Earth's liquid outer core are weakening the magnetic field in some regions of the planet's surface, a new study says. "What is so surprising is that rapid, almost sudden, changes take place in the Earth's magnetic field," said study co-author Nils Olsen, a geophysicist at the Danish National Space Center in Copenhagen. The findings suggest similarly quick changes are simultaneously occurring in the liquid metal, 1,900 miles (3,000 kilometers) below the surface, he said. The swirling flow of molten iron and nickel around Earth's solid center triggers an electrical current, which generates the...

Earth emits an ear-piercing series of chirps and whistles that could be heard by any aliens who might be listening, if they're out there. The sound is awful, a new recording from space reveals. Scientists have known about the radiation since the 1970s. It is created high above the planet, where charged particles from the solar wind collide with Earth's magnetic field. • Click here to hear the sounds. It is related to the phenomenon that generates the colorful aurora, or Northern Lights. The radio waves are blocked by the ionosphere, a charged layer atop our atmosphere, so they do...

Photo 1 -- The blackness of space, Planet Earth and the International Space Station (ISS) as seen from NASA's Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-124) on 11 June 2008 after Space Shuttle Discovery and the ISS undocked on 11 June 2008.Large, medium, and the above smaller photo via http://ChamorroBible.org/gpw/gpw-20050822.htm (photo 32). Photo 2 -- Another splendid view, also photographed from NASA's Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-124) on 11 June 2008, of Earth and the ISS.Large, medium, and the above smaller photo via http://ChamorroBible.org/gpw/gpw-20050822.htm (photo 33).

Bo (woof) In Commentary: If the old adage “the bigger they are, the harder they fall” is true, then Boris, the bull mastiff, is going to have one tough landing. Why do I say this? Because Boris can be seen from outer space! That, my friends, is big! (Most owners worry about losing their dogs if they slip through the front door - but with Boris, the bull mastiff, it is unlikely to be a major concern. The dog, which weighs in at a stagger 14 stone, is so large he can even be spotted from space...(con't @ http://boknowsonline.com/2008/06/12/myspace-from-space/)

SYDNEY: A reversal of the Earth's magnetic poles could happen sooner than we think, according to Dutch scientists who report that the planet's magnetic field is becoming gradually less stable. A reversal could affect everything from navigation and communications equipment to the composition of the atmosphere, say experts. The report, published today in the U.K. journal Nature Geoscience, found that reversals have been far more common in the last 200 million years than they were deep in the planet's history. Wandering polesResearchers, led by Andrew Biggin of the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, made the discovery by analysing rocks...

Living in the 'bowels of the earth' In caves all over Greece, archaeologists reveal the secrets of the past HEINRICH HALL * The mythical birthplace of Zeus: the Idaean Cave, central Crete AT SOME point between AD575 and 600, at least 33 men, women and children entered a cave near modern Andritsa, southwest of Argolid, in the eastern Peloponnese. They carried a Christian cross, some money and food supplies, perhaps intending to hide from some temporary threat. They were never to see the light of day again. One by one, they died from starvation, unable or unwilling to escape the...

Earth 'noise' could attract alien invaders 03 May 2008 From New Scientist Print Edition. No matter how quiet we try to be now it's too late to prevent alien invaders. So says Alexander Zaitsev of the Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics in Moscow, Russia, who points the finger at astronomers. For 40 years, astronomers have fired microwaves off objects to chart near-Earth space and track the movement of close asteroids - and these signals are traceable back to us. By comparison, Zaitsev says, dedicated transmissions - often described as "shouting into an unknown jungle" - are a mere whisper....

Birds can 'see' the Earth's magnetic field 18:00 30 April 2008 NewScientist.com news service Catherine Brahic It has been debated for nearly four decades but no one has yet been able to prove it is chemically possible. Now good evidence suggests that birds can actually "see" the lines of the Earth's magnetic field. Klaus Schulten of the University of Illinois, proposed forty years ago that some animals – including migratory birds – must have molecules in their eyes or brains which respond to magnetism. The problem has been that no one has been able to find a chemical sensitive enough...

Al Gore reinvents the medieval racket of selling indulgences (pardons for one's sins, worth hundreds of years of penance in an invisible Purgatory). With due credit to Geoffrey Chaucer for the original: Now, good men, Earth forgive you each trespass, And keep you from the sin of greenhouse gas. My carbon offsets cure and will suffice, So that it gains me gold, or silver brings, Or else, I care not- brooches, spoons or rings. You must embrace fully Al Gore’s line of bull, While o’er your eyes we will pull the wool! An offset certificate I’ll give you, anon, And...

Does the Earth's magnetic field cause suicides? 13:39 24 April 2008 NewScientist.com news service Catherine Brahic Many animals can sense the Earth's magnetic field, so why not people, asks Oleg Shumilov of the Institute of North Industrial Ecology Problems in Russia. Shumilov looked at activity in the Earth's geomagnetic field from 1948 to 1997 and found that it grouped into three seasonal peaks every year: one from March to May, another in July and the last in October. Surprisingly, he also found that the geomagnetism peaks matched up with peaks in the number of suicides in the northern Russian city...

Earth Day TipsTuesday, Apr 22, 2008 @05:45pm CST Experts say Earth Day should be more than a once-a-year observance. Anne Reichman with Earth911 says it's a good time to examine your lifestyle and find ways to conserve. She says the average American generates about 4.3 pounds of garbage every day. Reichman says this number can be reduced drastically if everyone makes an effort to cut back. She says bringing your own coffee cup or water bottle to reuse at work and starting a recycling program at home or at the office are good places to start. Reichman also recommends having...

Pelosi Statement Celebrating Earth Day1 hour, 20 minutes ago To: NATIONAL EDITORS Contact: Brendan Daly or Drew Hammill, both of Office of the Speaker of the House, +1-202-226-7616 WASHINGTON, April 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today in observance of the 38th annual Earth Day, which will be observed tomorrow, Tuesday, April 22: Almost four decades ago, a group of visionary Americans energized the environmental movement, and indeed our nation, by dedicating a day to this ideal: we must preserve Gods creation, our planet, for the generations to come. On this Earth Day, the greatest challenge...

Mother Nature pulls plug on Earth Day concert in WashingtonPosted : Mon, 21 Apr 2008 01:12:01 GMT Author : DPA Category : Environment Washington - Environmental activists tried to rally Sunday in Washington to encourage action on climate change, but they couldn't get the weather to cooperate. Green Apple Festival, a group seeking to raise environmental awareness through live music events, was the organizer of concerts across the country ahead of the annual Earth Day observance, which is Tuesday. Concerts with diverse performances were held in New York, Miami, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, San Francisco and Los Angeles. An eighth show...

America is in the throes of a major housing and financial downturn, soaring food and energy costs, rising unemployment and near recession. But many legislators and bureaucrats are falling all over themselves to restrict fossil fuel use, advance climate change legislation – and thereby increase oil imports, energy prices, and impacts on families and businesses.

How did your Earth Hour go? My husband and I enjoyed it so much, we want to try to do it weekly.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sexual reproduction may be nearly as old as animal life itself, according to researchers who discovered a new species of organism that lived 540 million years ago. The tube-like creatures called Funisia dorothea anchored themselves in abundant flocks onto the shallow, sandy seabed of what is now the Australian outback. Nothing appears to have evolved yet to eat them, so they lived peaceful lives, reproducing sexually at times and by asexual methods such as budding at other times, Mary Droser of the University of California Riverside and colleagues reported in the journal Science. They behaved very much...

Hardy Earth bacteria can grow in lunar soil 00:53 14 March 2008 NewScientist.com news service David Shiga, Houston A hardy life form called cyanobacteria can grow in otherwise inhospitable lunar soil, new experiments suggest. Future colonists on the Moon might be able to use the cyanobacteria to extract resources from the soil that could be used to make rocket fuel and fertiliser for crops. NASA plans to send astronauts back to the Moon starting in 2020, with the ultimate aim of setting up a permanent lunar base. Sustaining such a base will be a major challenge, because it is so...

In the end, there won’t even be fragments.If nature is left to its own devices, about 7.59 billion years from now Earth will be dragged from its orbit by an engorged red Sun and spiral to a rapid vaporous death. That is the forecast according to new calculations by a pair of astronomers, Klaus-Peter Schroeder of the University of Guanajuato in Mexico and Robert Connon Smith of the University of Sussex in England. Their report, to be published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, is the latest and gloomiest installment yet in a long-running debate about the...

How The Peruvian Meteorite Made It To EarthThe Carancas Fireball. Planetary geologists had thought that stony meteorites would be destroyed when they passed through Earth's atmosphere. This one struck ground near Carancas, Peru, at about 15,000 miles per hour. Brown University geologists have advanced a new theory that would upend current thinking about stony meteorites. (Credit: Peter Schultz, Brown University) ScienceDaily (Mar. 12, 2008) — It made news around the world: On Sept. 15, 2007, an object hurtled through the sky and crashed into the Peruvian countryside. Scientists dispatched to the site near the village of Carancas found a gaping...

A beautiful pinwheel in space might one day blast Earth with death rays, scientists now report. Unlike the moon-sized Death Star from Star Wars, which has to get close to a planet to blast it, this blazing spiral has the potential to burn worlds from thousands of light-years away. "I used to appreciate this spiral just for its beautiful form, but now I can't help a twinge of feeling that it is uncannily like looking down a rifle barrel," said researcher Peter Tuthill, an astronomer at the University of Sydney. The fiery pinwheel in space in question has at its...

Key To Life Before Its Origin On Earth May Have Been DiscoveredFragment of the Murchison meteorite (at right) and isolated individual particles (shown in the test tube). (Credit: DOE/Argonne National Laboratory) ScienceDaily (Feb. 29, 2008) — An important discovery has been made with respect to the mystery of "handedness" in biomolecules. Researchers led by Sandra Pizzarello, a research professor at Arizona State University, found that some of the possible abiotic precursors to the origin of life on Earth have been shown to carry "handedness" in a larger number than previously thought. Pizzarello, in ASU's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, worked...

For years, scientists have known that continents float around on the Earth's surface like ice bergs on the ocean. But what happens deep beneath our feet? A new theory envisions graveyards for continents and a life cycle not unlike the weather. He dispenses with the usual Japanese greeting ritual. Business cards presented with both hands, bowing, drinking tea -- there's no time for such formalities. He has to explain the history of the planet, nearly five billion years, in just one hour. "Hi, I'm Shige," he says, waving his hands in the air. Then he dashes into his office, a...

Hope dims that Earth will survive Sun's death19:09 22 February 2008 NewScientist.com news service Jason Palmer The future looks bright for the Earth – but not in the way we’d hoped. The slim chance our planet will survive when the Sun begins its death throes has been ruled out. In a few billion years, the Sun will fuse the last of its hydrogen into helium, turn into a red giant and expand to 250 times its current size. At first, the Sun’s loss of mass will loosen its gravitational pull on Earth, which will allow the planet to migrate to...

doomed to fiery end, experts predict By Darren Osborne February 23, 2008 01:00am Article from: The Daily Telegraph OUR planet faces a fiery doom inside the sun unless future generations work out how to change its orbit. New calculations by University of Sussex astronomers predict the Earth will be burnt to a cinder then swallowed up by the sun in about 7.6 billion years. Emeritus reader in astronomy Professor Robert Smith and his team thought they calculated that we may escape destruction but new figures take into account the effect of drag caused by the sun's outer atmosphere. "We showed...

As many as 60% of Sun-like stars in the Milky Way may form rocky planets similar to Earth, according to recent findings from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The findings suggest that other worlds with potential for life might be more common than previously thought.

Could An Asteroid Hit Planet Earth, Again?Asteroid impact on early Earth. Some scientists believe that impacts such as this during the Late Heavy Bombardment period, 4 billion years ago, may have delivered primitive life to Earth. (Credit: Copyright Don Davis) ScienceDaily (Jan. 30, 2008) — Earth dodged a bullet today, when asteroid TU24 passed within 540,000 kilometers of our planet, which is just down the street on a galactic scale. Tomorrow, another asteroid – 2007 WD5 – will zip past Mars at a distance of only 26,000 kilometers away. Will we dodge the bullet the next time a near-Earth object...

Liberals say we are destroying the planet and destroying species. Yet, just about everyday something new is discovered. Maybe this earth is bigger than we think. Discovery New Tribe Spotted in Peruvian Amazon! Found: Giant Lobster Species! New Genus! Australian Truffles! New Species of Orchid Flirts With Wasps Squid Body + Octopus Legs = New Species? What’ll They Do Next- Revive the Dodo? uh..no- really? 9 July, 2007 From an article by Kate RaviliousNational Geographic News July 3, 2007 Adventurers exploring a cave on an island in the Indian Ocean have discovered the most complete and well-preserved dodo skeleton ever found, scientists reported yesterday. Researchers...

Man-Made Changes Bring About New Epoch in Earth's History 25 January 2008 Geologists from the University of Leicester propose that humankind has so altered the Earth that it has brought about an end to one epoch of Earth’s history and marked the start of a new epoch. Jan Zalasiewicz and Mark Williams at the University of Leicester and their colleagues on the Stratigraphy Commission of the Geological Society of London have presented their research in the journal GSA Today. In it, they suggest humans have so changed the Earth that on the planet the Holocene epoch has ended and we...

WASHINGTON - A large U.S. spy satellite has lost power and could hit the Earth in late February or March, government officials said Saturday. The satellite, which no longer can be controlled, could contain hazardous materials, and it is unknown where on the planet it might come down, they said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the information is classified as secret. "Appropriate government agencies are monitoring the situation," said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council, when asked about the situation after it was disclosed by other officials. "Numerous satellites over the years have come...

An asteroid at least 500 feet long will make a rare close pass by Earth next week, but there is no chance of an impact, scientists reported Thursday. The object, known as 2007 TU24, is expected to whiz by Earth on Tuesday with its closest approach at 334,000 miles, or about 1 1/2 times the distance of Earth to the moon. The nighttime encounter should be bright enough for medium-sized telescopes to get a glimpse, said Don Yeomans, manager of the Near-Earth Object Program Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which tracks potentially dangerous space rocks. However, next week's asteroid...

Earth Barely Big Enough for Life, Study Says Richard A. Lovett for National Geographic News January 10, 2008 Astronomers searching for habitable worlds might do best to look for rocky planets several times larger than Earth. That's because, according to a new study, our planet is at the lower end of the size range needed for plate tectonics—which scientists believe are vital for stabilizing temperatures enough for life. Tectonics—the continent-shifting forces that build mountains and fuel volcanoes—recycle Earth's crust by drawing it underground, where it melts and later re-emerges as magma, pointed out Diana Valencia of Harvard University. That helps...

Possible Mars impact highlights risk to Earth 00:01 04 January 2008 NewScientist.com news service David Shiga Asteroid 2007 WD5's orbit takes it from just outside Earth's orbit through Mars's orbit to the asteroid belt (Illustration: JPL/NASA)Tools An asteroid hurtling towards Mars has a 1 in 28 chance of walloping the Red Planet, according to the latest calculations. The rock's discovery just a couple of months before a possible impact begs the question of what would happen if it were instead headed for Earth – the only option, astronomers say, would be to evacuate any inhabited areas it might hit. The...

Full moon near Mars on December 23 Earth & Sky Radio Series with hosts Deborah Byrd, Joel Block, Lindsay Patterson and Jorge Salazar. Sunday, December 23, 2007 For us in the U.S., the full moon is tonight. And if you look outside you’ll see this full moon near a blazing reddish light in our sky. It’s the planet Mars. Flying through space at 18 miles per second, Earth is about to go between the sun and Mars. Earth will pass between Mars and the sun tomorrow. So the distance between us and Mars is now about at its least for...

Alien astronomers could discern Earth's features 14:58 21 December 2007 NewScientist.com news service Stephen Battersby Aliens spying on us from another star system might be able to discern continents and oceans on our planet, using technology barely more advanced than our own. In imaginary form, these inquisitive extraterrestrials have been helping astronomers work out how much detail the next generation of space telescopes could reveal on Earth-like planets orbiting other stars. Seeing any detail at all is a tough task. Even at the distance of the nearest stars, only a few light years away, terrestrial planets would appear so small...

Contact: M. Royhan Gani rgani@egi.utah.edu 801-585-3539 University of Utah Evolution tied to Earth movementGeologists say 'Wall of Africa' allowed humanity to emerge Nahid and Royhan Gani, geologists at the University of Utah's Energy and Geoscience Institute, stand on the Ethiopian Plateau near the Gorge of the Nile, which was carved by Africa's... Scientists long have focused on how climate and vegetation allowed human ancestors to evolve in Africa. Now, University of Utah geologists are calling renewed attention to the idea that ground movements formed mountains and valleys, creating environments that favored the emergence of humanity. “Tectonics [movement of Earth’s crust]...

Moon is younger and more Earth-like than thought 20:13 19 December 2007 NewScientist.com news service Maggie McKee It's a good thing the Moon doesn't have any feelings to hurt. New research suggests it is actually 30 million years younger than anyone had thought, and that it is merely a 'chip off the old block' of Earth rather than being made up of the remnants of a Mars-sized body that slammed into Earth billions of years ago. That violent impact was thought to have taken place 30 million years after the solar system began to condense from a disc of gas...

These experts believe that global warming is a natural phenomenon, and they point to reams of data they say supports their assertions. These conclusions are in sharp contradiction to those of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which reached its conclusions using largely similar data. The UN body of about 3,000 experts, including several renown US scientists, jointly won the award with former US vice president Al Gore for their work to raise awareness about the disastrous consequences of global warming. In mid-November the IPCC adopted a landmark report stating that the evidence of a human role...

November 9, 19674400 x 4600 pixels, 3443 x 3600 pixels, 800 x 836 pixels Photographer NASA camera aboard the unmanned Apollo 4 mission (Spacecraft 017/Saturn-V AS-501) Photos and Links Viahttp://ChamorroBible.org/gpw/gpw-20050129.htm (photograph 16)

The moon formed after a nasty planetary collision with young Earth, yet it looks odd next to its watery orbital neighbor. Turns out it really is odd: Only about one in every 10 to 20 solar systems may harbor a similar moon. New observations made by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope of stellar dust clouds suggest that moons like Earth's are—at most—in only 5 to 10 percent of planetary systems. "When a moon forms from a violent collision, dust should be blasted everywhere," said Nadya Gorlova, an astronomer at the University of Florida in Gainesville who analyzed the telescope data in...

Deflected asteroids may keep coming back 17 November 2007 What goes around comes around. Unfortunately, no such karma figures in plans to deflect asteroids on a collision course with Earth, a hearing of the US House Science and Technology Committee was told last week. One big whack will deflect an asteroid temporarily, but does not guarantee safety next time its orbit brings it close. Asteroid researchers have long debated the merits of deflecting asteroids with a powerful blast such as a nuclear explosion. However, Rusty Schweickart, who heads an asteroid research group called the B612 Foundation, told the committee that...

The first global map of magnetic peculiarities - or anomalies - on Earth has been assembled by an international team of researchers. Magnetic anomalies are caused by differences in the magnetisation of the rocks in the Earth's crust. Many years of negotiation were required to obtain confidential data from governments and institutes. Scientists hope to use the map to learn more about the geological composition of our planet. The World Digital Magnetic Anomaly Map (WDMAM) is available through the Commission for the Geological Map of the World. The magnetic signature of the Earth's crust has been measured for many decades...

How El Niño slows the Earth's spin 21 October 2007 NewScientist.com news service El Niño has an immense impact on the weather, so great in fact that the ocean warming phenomenon actually makes the planet spin more slowly. Until now, though, no one knew why. It was also a mystery why the effect did not kick in for several weeks after ocean temperatures reached their peak. Now, Jean Dickey and her colleagues at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena says that the answer is blowing in the wind. El Niño events warm Pacific surface waters in the tropics, resulting...

GREENVILLE, South Carolina (CNN) — After speaking to an evangelical church on Sunday in this traditionally conservative South Carolina city, Sen. Barack Obama said that Republicans no longer have a firm grip on religion in political discourse. "I think its important particularly for those of us in the Democratic Party to not cede values and faith to any one party," Obama told reporters outside the Redemption World Outreach Center where he attended services. "I think that what you're seeing is a breaking down of the sharp divisions that existed maybe during the nineties, when at least in politics the perception...

Diamonds tell story of Earth's beginning By Roger Highfield, Science Editor Last Updated: 12:01am BST 22/08/2007 Diamonds really are forever, according to a study that has found tiny examples of the gems that date from near the birth of the Earth. Tiny diamonds discovered inside crystals of zircon Over four billion years old, the diamonds are the oldest identified fragments of the Earth’s crust and were discovered in the Jack Hills region of Western Australia, suggesting they were created only 300 million years after the planet itself was born from the dust and debris encircling our Sun some 4.5 billion...