The Institute of Science in Society has published a study suggesting that, when given a choice, even mice refuse to eat genetically engineered foods. To read this new Insight article,click here. To learn more about genfoods, read Genetically Engineered Food by Ronnie Cummins and Ben Lilliston.
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Brad Dalton, a planetary geologist with the Ames Research Center, thinks bacteria could account for the odd light emissions, as well as the reddish hue, coming from Jupiter?s moon Europa. He used data collected from the Galileo spacecraft to find matches between chemical signatures of bacteria on Earth and unexplained infrared readings from Europa.
Analyzing infrared light can provide clues to the chemicals that the light has passed through and infrared readings of Europa indicate that the discolored patches contain water bound to some other material. Most scientists think this material is sulphur compounds, such as magnesium salts, which could have formed from geochemical reactions, or sulfuric acid created by radiation interacting with the surface.
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Alaska contains several thousand valley glaciers, and fewer than 20 of them are advancing, while many of the rest are retreating, according to a study by U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientist Bruce F. Molnia. Significant glacier retreat, thinning, stagnation, or a combination of these changes characterizes all eleven mountain ranges and three island areas that presently support glaciers there.
?The Earth recently emerged from a global climate event called the ?Little Ice Age,? during which Alaskan glaciers expanded significantly. The Little Ice Age began to wane in the late 19th century. In some areas of Alaska, glacier retreat started during the early 18th century, prior to the beginning of the industrial revolution,? says Molnia.
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In 1611, Galileo Galilei and other astronomers noticed there were fewer sunspots on the sun, and the coldest part of what?s known as the Little Ice Age began shortly after. Now NASA scientists have learned how that reduced solar activity chilled much of the Earth by changing the atmospheric circulation of the Northern Hemisphere from the 1400s into the early 18th century.
During the Little Ice Age, access to Greenland was cut off by ice, ending the Viking colonization there, and canals in Holland routinely froze solid. Londoners ice-skated on the Thames and glaciers advanced down the Alps.
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