$25 million prize for greenhouse gas removal

A prize of $25 million for anyone who can come up with a system for removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere was launched on Friday. It is the biggest prize in history, claims its sponsor, Richard Branson.

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Titan's ice mountains revealed by long shadows

This composite image shows the massive mountain range running just south of Titan's equator, and its height-revealing shadows. It is about 150 kilometres long (93 miles), 30 kilometres (19 miles) wide, and about 1.5 kilometres (nearly a mile) high (Image: NASA)

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New technologies will be required if the world economy is to grow without accelerating climate change.

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In The People's Republic of China, it's no secret that the Party controls just about everything. But as Beijing suffers through its second major snowstorm this season, residents are growing weary of their leadership's control-freak tendencies.

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This dazzling picture of our planet, all dark but the cerulean sliver of the South Pole, was a long time coming. More Articles

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Unlike all other large Kuiper Belt Objects, which are covered in methane ice and so slightly red in colour, Haumea and its two moons are covered in water ice, giving them a blue tinge. Moreover, Haumea is much denser than water and so must have a rich rocky core.

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Scientists at the University of Leeds have proved that acid in the atmosphere breaks down large particles of iron found in dust into small and extremely soluble iron nanoparticles, which are more readily used by plankton.

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By merging more than a decade of atmospheric data from European satellites, scientists have compiled a homogeneous long-term ozone record that allows them to monitor total ozone trends on a global scale – and the findings look promising.

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Scientists now say peak temperatures will not fall back. Join me in taking the 10:10 pledge - it's the best shot we've got left...

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Burning 1 Gallon of Gasoline Produces 20 Pounds of CO2

You may have read about the cap and trade legislation which the US House of Representatives passed in June of this year. The US Senate is due to begin work on their version of this legislation in September.

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New research indicates that NO2 has risen to become the leading threat to the future integrity of stratospheric ozone, Earth's protective shield against the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays.

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Photographically Exploiting the Refractive Qualities of Seashore Atmosphere and Light, or..."Take Some Butt-Kickin' Pictures by the Ocean, Dude!"

Taking a break to post this brief article on the VINE while otherwise working on a few book and workshop ideas.

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Fire must be accounted for as an integral part of climate change, according to 22 authors of an article published in the April 24 issue of the journal Science.

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"Swiss adventurer Bertrand Picard is set to unveil a prototype of the solar-powered plane he hopes to fly around the world one day." A lot of obstacles have to be overcome at once to achieve this goal.

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Gas jets that could signify an underground water supply have been spotted by scientists on Saturn's moons, suggesting there could be a home for extra-terrestrial life. More Articles

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The nearby, well-known and very bright star may soon explode in a supernova, according to data released by U.C. Berkeley researchers Tuesday. More Articles

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"By building up this 3-D view showing the waves, we can see where the sources are," said Craig Heinselman, the principal investigator of the Advanced Modular Incoherent Scatter Radar, or AMISR.

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Mother Nature has a previously unknown cleaning agent that scrubs away toxic air pollution, scientists have discovered. What's more, the existence of the still mysterious substance has shaken up decades-long assumptions about our atmosphere's self-cleaning process.

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Using auroras like flashlights, scientists have exposed giant atmospheric waves crashing just above Earth that can endanger satellites.

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Research by a theoretical physicist at Indiana University shows that the crusts of neutron stars are 10 billion times stronger than steel or any other of the earth's strongest metal alloys. More Articles

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Like some kind of massive cosmic toilet bowl, the multitude of galaxies that populate the known Universe are swirling inexplicably toward a tiny 20-degree plane of deep space. More Articles

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Google, a company revered for its ability to think outside the box, has come up with a novel way to clear its land of brush. Goats. They've hired goats to clean their brush. More Articles

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The Odds That You'll Breathe a Single Molecule of Air That Once Traveled Through the Lungs of Jesus.

This essay started off as a simple reply to another Newsvine post which simply asked, "What are the odds that you'll encounter a molecule of air that once passed through the lung of Jesus?" The atomic world is a funny place, and I figured I could use my science background to repl …

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Hubble was not the first space telescope but it is by far the most sophisticated, providing earthlings with unprecedented detail and spectacular views of their universe.

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Plants absorbed carbon dioxide more efficiently under the polluted skies of recent decades than they would have done in a cleaner atmosphere, according to new findings published this week in Nature.

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Sedimentary rocks created more than 2.4 billion years ago sometimes have an unusual sulfur isotope composition thought to be caused by the action of ultra violet light on volcanically produced sulfur dioxide in an oxygen poor atmosphere.

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A Duke University professor and his graduate student have discovered a universal principle that unites the curious interplay of light and shadow on the surface of your morning coffee with the way gravity magnifies and distorts light from distant galaxies. More Articles

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