science wire

Details of weather records taken from monks' diaries are helping scientists verify Europe's climate over 500 years. Researchers hope the study will help improve climate forecasts. Scientists compared data from historic sources, such as weather station archives and harvest records. They found the records match closely to computer simulations of climate patterns over the past 500 years, which were created using contemporary data.

The team will be heading to part of the coldest, windiest, highest and driest continent on Earth to hunt for clues that will tell us more about how the glaciers and ice sheets of the north-eastern Antarctic Peninsula behaved in past climates and what we can expect in the future.

If the house seems dustier than it used to be, it may not be a reflection on your housekeeping skills. The amount of dust in the Earth's atmosphere has doubled over the last century, according to a new study; and the dramatic increase is influencing climate and ecology around the world. The study, led by Natalie Mahowald, associate professor of earth and atmospheric sciences, used available data and computer modeling to estimate the amount of desert dust, or soil particles in the atmosphere, throughout the 20th century.

A new Mars movie clip gives us a rover's-eye view of a bluish Martian sunset, while another clip shows the silhouette of the moon Phobos passing in front of the sun.

The change of seasons on Earth has been a cause for celebration since time immemorial. Caused by the tilt of Earth's axis relative to its orbital plane around the sun, seasons have profound changes on our weather and climate. When seasons change, nature reacts differently, depending on location. Temperatures change, rain or snow falls, rivers may flood, to name just a few effects.

A new method of capturing detailed, three-dimensional images of minute samples of material under extreme pressures is shedding light on the evolution of the Earth's interior. Early results suggest that the early Earth did not have to be entirely molten to separate into the rocky crust and iron-rich core it has today.

It's one of the more frustrating parts of summer. You check the weather forecast, see nothing dramatic, and go hiking or biking. Then, four hours later, a thunderstorm appears out of nowhere and ruins your afternoon. Thunderstorms can bring intense rain, hail, lightning and even tornadoes, but "predicting them a few hours out is one of the great problems of meteorology," says Chian-Yi Liu , a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

PASADENA, Calif. NASA's Cassini spacecraft has found possible ice volcanoes on Saturn's moon Titan that are similar in shape to those on Earth that spew molten rock. Topography and surface composition data have enabled scientists to make the best case yet in the outer solar system for an Earth-like volcano landform that erupts in ice.

Combating global warming by pumping carbon dioxide into the ground for long-term storage - known as carbon sequestration - could trigger small earthquakes that might breach the storage system, allowing the gas back into the atmosphere, according to Stanford geophysicist Mark Zoback.

Top Stories People Press Clips @Work What's Happening Faculty Authors Lessons From Deepwater America's biggest oil leak exposed a glaring need to proactively protect and monitor coastlines, researchers say Mario C. Aguilera and Robert Monroe | Dec.

Much of the agriculture in the American West depends on underground water systems that need to be carefully monitored to avoid overuse. Traditional data about aquifers are sparse and expensive to obtain. Until now, crops growing above the aquifer prevented satellite-based radar from "seeing" under the surface.

Distinctive design remains the most effective way to produce a product and survive in business today in high cost manufacturing locations, according to researchers at the University of Birmingham in

Evidence that the outermost portion of the Earth's core is stratified is provided by earthquake data reported by scientists at the University of Bristol this week in Nature.

Ten months after a devastating earthquake killed thousands of people in Haiti, a new challenge has already taken the lives of more than 2,000.

A decommissioned Land Rover ambulance will be home to Cambridge University's Dr Emily Lethbridge from December - as she begins an epic year-long research trip around Iceland investigating the deep-rooted significance of its centuries-old sagas.

Newly released images from 340 recent observations of Mars by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show details of a wide assortment of Martian environments. Strewn boulders and rippled sand lie on the floors of two shadowy, steep-walled pits.

Conservation and international aid groups may be on the wrong course to address the havoc wreaked on tropical rainforests by climate change, according to a commentary appearing on Dec.

Academics are to begin the search for a new form of navigation system designed to enable unmanned waterborne vehicles to operate in areas without satellite coverage.

Thomas J. Ahrens, the Fletcher Jones Professor of Geophysics, Emeritus, at Caltech, died at his home in Pasadena on November 24.

PASADENA, Calif. In the first comprehensive global survey of temperature trends in major lakes, NASA researchers determined Earth's largest lakes have warmed during the past 25 years in response to climate change. Researchers Philipp Schneider and Simon Hook of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., used satellite data to measure the surface temperatures of 167 large lakes worldwide.

A helicopter view of a crack in the Amery Ice Shelf in East Antarctica. Photo by Jim Behrens Click above image for higher resolution. ANN ARBOR, Mich.—In an effort to understand how fast sea level could rise as the climate warms, a University of Michigan researcher has developed a new theory to describe how icebergs detach from ice sheets and glaciers.

University Park, Pa. The Soufriere Hills Volcano on Montserrat erupted in 1995, and an international team of researchers has studied this volcano from land and sea since then to understand the workings of andesite volcanos more completely. "To the extent that the Soufriere Hills Volcano is typical of andesitic dome building volcanoes, results from this research can be expected to apply more generally," said Barry Voight, professor emeritus of geosciences, Penn State.

The five researchers are Brenda Dingus, William (Bill) Louis, John Sarrao, Dipen Sinha and Giday Woldegabriel.

Science | Earth Pete Wilton | 11 Nov 10 Today saw Mount Merapi in Indonesia erupt again in events that have seen almost 200 killed and more than 360,000 people flee their homes.

As the climate warms this century, maple syrup production in the Northeast is expected to slightly decline by 2100, and the window for tapping trees will move earlier by about a month, reports a Cornell study.

Two Plymouth scientists have just completed a series for BBC Scotland about man's impact on the "natural wilderness" of Scotland with clear environmental lessons that apply worldwide which could benefit the landscape in the South West.

Van Andel used sea-floor sediment data to describe historical climate change and was the first to lay eyes on deep-sea hot springs.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. Money may not grow on trees, but energy could grow in grass. Researchers at the University of Illinois have completed the first extensive geographic yield and economic analysis of potential bioenergy grass crops in the Midwestern United States. Demand for biofuels is increasing as Americans seek to expand renewable energy sources and mitigate the effects of fluctuating energy prices.

Researchers at the University of Bristol reveal today that they have developed a seismological 'speed gun' for the inside of the Earth. Using this technique they will be able to measure the way the Earth's deep interior slowly moves around. This mantle motion is what controls the location of our continents and oceans, and where the tectonic plates collide to shake the surface we live on.

October 26, 2010 An international cadre of scientists using data from NASA's Kepler spacecraft has detected stellar oscillations, or "starquakes," that yield new insights about the size, age and evolution of stars. The results were presented at a news conference at Aarhus University in Denmark by scientists representing the Kepler Asteroseismic Science Consortium.

Climate change has had a significant effect on mountain vegetation at low elevations in the past 60 years, according to a study done by the University of California at Davis, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and U.S. Geological Survey. This information may guide future conservation efforts in helping decision makers develop regional landscape predictions about biological responses to climate changes.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.

The influence of the world's oceans over carbon dioxide levels and climate change is better understood thanks to researchers from the University of Canberra and The Australian National University.

University 20 Oct 10 Oxford University is to launch a new centre to study the archaeological and cultural heritage of Asia.

October 19, 2010 Taking a long-weekend road trip, NASA's Cassini spacecraft successfully glided near nine Saturnian moons, sending back a stream of raw images as mementos of its adrenaline-fueled expedition.

19 Oct 10 The archaeology and history of East Oxford, including Roman settlements, a medieval leper hospital and the growth of the modern town, will be the subject of collaboration between Oxford aca

By Sara LaJeunesse Research/Penn State Remember aerosol hairspray? Along with blue eye shadow, it was a beauty regimen staple in the 1970s.

October 14, 2010 The magnitude 7.0 earthquake that caused more than 200,000 casualties and devastated Haiti's economy in January resulted not from the Enriquillo fault, as previously believed, but from slip on multiple faults - primarily a previously unknown, subsurface fault - according to a study published online this week.

PA 281/1 A series of free master classes is being held across the UK to teach the general public about the tools and techniques needed to use and analyse the increasing amount of national and local data being made available via the internet, while avoiding the pitfalls of interpreting statistics.