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Profile: Karl Iagnemma
An innovative MIT roboticist is also an acclaimed fiction writer.
NOVA scienceNOW

Extinction Happens
If you think the catastrophe that decimated the dinosaurs 65 million years ago was the biggest extinction event in Earth’s history, think again. Sam Bowring of MIT explains why we should know about another, even greater biotic wipeout.
Sam Bowring

Language of Science I: Theories and Laws

Bio Snapshot | Oil Spill on the Lebanese Coast

Oil Spill on the Lebanese Coast
Mediterranean Sea

The conflict in Lebanon has caused an oil spill feared to be the worst environmental disaster in the country’s history.

On July 13 and 15, bombs hit storage tanks at an oil-fueled power plant. Between 10,000 and 15,000 tons of oil leaked from the tanks and is drifting in the Mediterranean Sea. Satellites have helped monitor the spill, but due to the instability of the area, site visits and initial cleanup began only recently.

Scientists are concerned about the hazards the oil poses to biodiversity in the Mediterranean Sea. It may coat bluefin tuna eggs floating in the water, and block young green sea turtles from swimming out to sea after hatching.

Image Credits 
Middle East, August 2004 (Blue Marble Next Generation: satellite: NASA Terra, sensor: MODIS)
Lebanon, July 16, 2006 (Satellite: NASA Terra, sensor: MODIS)
Lebanon/Syria (satellite: NASA Landsat 7, sensor: ETM+)
Oil slick data July 21/Aug 3, 2006 (Satellite: ENVISAT, sensor: ASAR, map: ©DLR 2006)
Oil fire and spill (AP)
Bluefin tuna (Tuna Research & Conservation Center, Stanford University)
Green sea turtle (U. Keuper-Benett/P. Bennett, www.turtles.org)

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May looks to sky to complete PhD
Guitarist Brian May makes final preparations to submit a PhD thesis he abandoned in 1971, when he joined Queen.

Galileo challenges sat-nav firms
Novel ideas that exploit the pin-point accuracy of Europe’s soon-to-launch Galileo system are being sought.

Blog: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows of sustainable paper
I promise not to give anything away, just wanted to highlight a few facts about the impending mega-release: its first printing will consume 16,700 tons of paper (which, depending on whose estimates of tree per piece of paper you…
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In Focus: Science Museums Adapt in Struggle against Creationist Revisionism [Slide Show]
Institutions step up fight against attacks on theory of evolution
Elizabeth Landau

Galileo challenges sat-nav firms
Novel ideas that exploit the pin-point accuracy of Europe’s soon-to-launch Galileo system are being sought.