• Ancient forests stabilised Earth’s CO2 and climate

    UK researchers have identified a biological mechanism that could explain how the Earth’s atmospheric carbon dioxide and climate were stabilised over the past 24 million years. When CO2 levels became too low for plants to grow properly, forests appear to have

  • Rosetta wakes up from deep space hibernation

    After 31 months of deep space hibernation ESA's comet chaser "Rosetta" has woken up and contacted mission control today. The signal was received by NASA’s Goldstone ground station in California at 18:18 UTC, during the first window of oppor

  • West African lion on the verge of extinction

    A new study published in PLOS One journal last week warns that a dramatic decline of West African lions has placed them on the verge of extinction. Study authors call for urgent intervention to save them.

    The lion (Panthera leo) was the most

  • Southern berm of Louisiana sinkhole sagging

    An increasing trend of seismic activity at the Bayou Corne sinkhole near Oxy 3 cavern placed the sinkhole staff back on highest level alert late December 2013. Since August 2012 the sinkhole grew from 1 to more than 25 acres (10 hectares / 100 000

  • Night sky guide for January 2014

    January 1 – New Moon – 11:14 UTC. The Moon will be directly between the Earth and the Sun and will be completely unilluminated.

    January 2, 3 – Quadrantids Meteor Shower peak nights. The Quadrantids have the potential to be

  • Surprising, strong eruption of San Miguel volcano, El Salvador

    After 11 sleepy years, San Miguel volcano (Chaparrastique) in El Salvador experienced a strong eruption on December 29, 2013 at 16:50 UTC (10:50 am local time). Eruption column was estimated rising up to 9 km (29 500 feet) and civil alert status for the area around…