Jeremy Elton Jacquot

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  Nuclear Fusion Redux: How Realistic Are Scientists' Plans to Build Mini-Stars on Earth?

  I know what you're thinking: This, again? Or: Why are scientists still wasting precious time and money futilely pursuing such pie-in-the-sky schemes? Having read my fair share of nuclear fusion hyperbole, I can certainly sympathize with

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  Tales of Vanishing Tritium Exit Signs Prompt Health Concerns

  When thousands of exit signs in Wal-Mart stores nationwide mysteriously began to disappear, few initially took notice. That is, until the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the government agency tasked with the oversight of nuclear safety, stepped in.

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  Can a Credit Card-Sized Chip Helps Scientists Determine What's Ailing Coral Reefs?

  The advent of microarrays and advanced genomic technologies is making it easier for scientists to take a (much) closer look at some of the world's most confounding problems. Marine biologists have long wondered which

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  Obama Administration Will Let States Set Auto Emissions Standards

  In a marked break from his predecessor, President Barack Obama will today direct the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to approve requests made by California and 13 other states to establish strict new auto emission and

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  Epic Fail: Efforts to Fight Invasive Species Could Cause 'Ecosystem Meltdown'

  Chalk up another one for human "ingenuity." Efforts to reverse the proliferation of invasive species on Macquarie Island, a 50-square mile piece of land located approximately halfway between Australia and Antarctica, have taken

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  Busting Crime (And Climate Mysteries) with Algae

  Crime-fighting doesn't typically fall within a botanist's job description but, then again, Peter Siver is hardly your typical botanist, as Julie Wernau makes clear in her nice profile. Siver has spent his entire career studying

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  Could Large-Scale Oxygen Pumps Fix the Baltic Sea's Dead Zones?

  It seemed like just yesterday geo-engineering was one of those taboo subjects you couldn't touch with a ten foot pole. Now, though still far from being widely embraced, it has been recognized by many governments and reputable research

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  UN Supported African Enterprise to Set Up Major Geothermal Facility in East Africa's Rift Valley

  2009 may be the year when geothermal energy finally comes into its own in developing countries in Asia and Africa. After meeting with some initial success in Kenya, where, over the past 3 years, sites have been drilled to identify

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  New Study Finds Half a Million Sharks Are Finned Every Year in Ecuador

  Over at Shifting Baselines, Jennifer Jacquet, a PhD student at the University of British Columbia (UBC) Fisheries Centre (who is working with the renowned Dr. Daniel Pauly), writes about a new study on which she was the

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  PBS Airs Must-See Episode about Climate Change and Kiribati: 'Paradise Lost'

  It's easy to dismiss climate change as a threat when you live in a country that hasn't been affected much or that, at most, has only seen slight alterations. But what if you lived on one of the many South Pacific Islands? Climate

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  NSF Reports on Jellyfish Gone Wild

  If you have any interest whatsoever in jellyfish—and, really, who doesn't?—then you should head on over to the National Science Foundation (NSF) website and read their special report on the environmental

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  Cheetahs on the Brink of Extinction, UN Report Finds

  Cheetahs are fast, but can they outrun extinction? According to a new report released by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the speedy feline, which can reach speeds of up to 120 kilometers per hour, or 75 mph

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  Ozone Depletion Contributes to Ocean Acidification in the Southern Ocean

  Forty percent: That is the share of annual oceanic carbon dioxide uptake accounted for by the Southern Ocean. Given that oceans comprise Earth's largest carbon sink, that is not an insignificant figure;

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  NASA Satellites Help Track Natural Oil Slicks as Potential GHG Sources

  It may seem unusually high, but almost half of the oil that makes its way into the ocean derives from natural sources. To find these oil slicks, scientists have long made use of satellite radar instruments. Upon reaching the surface,

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  First Arctic Ice-Free Summer Could be in 2015

  It's hard sometimes to make heads or tail of all these gloomy predictions -- what with the projected year always changing (just scan through our previous posts on the subject to see what I mean) -- but, for what it's worth, some

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  Scotland Crafts Own World-Beating Climate Bill

  If you liked Obama's proposed climate agenda, then you'll love Scotland's. Not only would it require an 80 percent cut in carbon dioxide emissions below 1990 levels by mid-century, it would also require equivalent reductions

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  EPA Ignores Own Scientists' Advice, Makes a Gift to Coal Mining Interests

  In what's become a depressingly predictable trend, the EPA's higher-ups have once again chosen to consciously ignore the better advice of their scientists and reverse a long-standing rule banning the dumping of coal mining debris

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  British Scientists Launch Climate Change Monitoring Robot Gliders in Atlantic Ocean

  Meet Ammonite, Bellamite and Coprolite. You've probably never heard of them before (and may not hear much about them thereafter), but these three robots, part of a growing fleet of so-called Autonomous Underwater