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The sun’s magnetic field shifted today, indicating that the solar maximum will be at its most intense over the next few months. A shift in the sun’s polarity is not an unexpected event during a solar maximum, which has occurred every eleven years since the sunspot cycle was discovered.

The sun’s magnetic north pole is now in its southern hemisphere. It was in the northern hemisphere just a few weeks ago.

The poles will remain in their current position until 2012, when they will reverse again.
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Four scientists have leaked information about research that produced a genetically-modified bacteria capable of destroying all life on earth.

Elaine Ingham, a soil ecologist at Oregon State University, was part of the team that prevented the bacteria from being released into the environment. She said that the bacteria had already been approved for field trials when its lethal effects were discovered.

The genetically engineered klebsiella planticola bacteria was created to turn crop residue, left over after plants have been harvested, into alcohol. The organic sludge remaining from this process would have then been returned to the fields as fertilizer.
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We humans are becoming experts at creating global warming, and we’ve finally found a place where our talents are needed: Mars. At a recent NASA conference, “The Physics and Biology of Making Mars Habitable,” scientists discussed ways that future colonists can make the chilly planet more comfortable to live in.

One solution would be to pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere to create a runaway greenhouse effect. It might be possible to warm Mars just enough to evaporate the planet’s carbon dioxide, now trapped inside ice and frost, so that the gases could warm up the planet.

“Once CO2 is released,” says Margarita Marinova, a student at MIT, “it will take over,” and we will only need to add a little more pollution occasionally, when needed.
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No, it’s not a horror movie-it’s real life in Florida.

Marine toads are native in an area from Mexico and Central America to the Amazon. They first arrived in Florida in 1955, when a shipment imported by a pet dealer was accidentally released at the Miami International Airport, then they spread through canals into other areas. Some pet dealers deliberately released the toads in the early 1960s, probably because they were too unpleasant to sell.

“They’re on the bottom of the list of the toads we sell,” says Mike Purcell of the Aquarium Connection in Gainesville. “But they’re extremely durable, so they’re really easy to keep as pets.”
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