An abrupt release of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, from ice sheets that extended to Earth’s low latitudes some 635 million years ago caused a dramatic shift in climate, scientists funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) report in this week’s issue of the journal Nature. The shift triggered events that resulted in global warming and an ending of the last ‘snowball’ ice age. The researchers believe that the methane was released gradually at first and then very quickly from clathrates–methane ice that forms and stabilizes beneath ice sheets. When the ice sheets became unstable, they collapsed, releasing pressure on the clathrates. The clathrates then began to de-gas. ‘Our findings document an abrupt and catastrophic global warming that led from a very cold, seemingly stable climate state to a very warm, also stable, climate state–with no pause in between,’ said geologist Martin Kennedy of the University of California at Riverside (UCR), who led the research team. ‘What we now need to know is the sensitivity of the trigger,’ he said. ‘How much forcing does it take to move from one stable state to the other–and are we approaching something like that today with current carbon […]
Tradition has it that boys are good at counting and girls are good at reading. So much so that Mattel once produced a talking Barbie doll whose stock of phrases included ‘Math class is tough!’ Although much is made of differences between the brains of adult males and females, the sources of these differences are a matter of controversy. Some people put forward cultural explanations and note, for example, that when girls are taught separately from boys they often do better in subjects such as maths than if classes are mixed. Others claim that the differences are rooted in biology, are there from birth, and exist because girls’ and boys’ brains have evolved to handle information in different ways. Luigi Guiso of the European University Institute in Florence and his colleagues have just published the results of a study which suggests that culture explains most of the difference in maths, at least. In this week’s Science, they show that the gap in mathematics scores between boys and girls virtually disappears in countries with high levels of sexual equality, though the reading gap remains. Dr Guiso took data from the 2003 OECD Programme for International Student Assessment. Some […]
It’s no surprise that a woman in a bikini can increase a man’s sexual appetite but research in the Journal of Consumer Research says that men who watched sexy videos or even handled lingerie had more appetite for everything – and it impacted their decisions about soda, candy and even money. Authors Bram Van den Bergh, Siegfried DeWitte, and Luk Warlop (KULeuven, Belgium) found that the desire for immediate rewards increased in men who touched bras, looked at pictures of beautiful women, or watched video clips of young women in bikinis running through a park. The authors believe the stimuli bring men’s minds to the present as opposed to the future. ‘The study demonstrates that bikinis cause a shift in time preference: Men live in the here and now when they glance at pictures featuring women in lingerie. That is, men will choose the immediately available rewards and seek immediate gratification after sex cue exposure.’ Cheryl Tiegs made you more likely to read this article. Copyright: Cheryl Tiegs and used under creative commons. Do all straight men respond the same? Actually, no. Some men are highly responsive to rewards while others are not so sensitive, and […]
At least part of the mystery of Stonehenge may have now been solved: It was from the beginning a monument to the dead. New radiocarbon dates from human cremation burials among and around the brooding stones on Salisbury Plain in England indicate that the site was used as a cemetery from 3000 B.C. until after the monuments were erected around 2500 B.C., British archaeologists reported Thursday. What appeared to be the head of a stone mace, a symbol of authority, was found in one grave, the archaeologists said, indicating that this was probably a cemetery for the ruling dynasty responsible for erecting Stonehenge. ‘It’s now clear that burials were a major component of Stonehenge in all its main stages,’ said Mike Parker Pearson, an archaeologist at the University of Sheffield in England. Some scholars have contended that the enigmatic stones, surrounded by a ditch and earthen banks in concentric circles, more than likely marked a sacred place of healing. The idea is at least as old as medieval literature, which also includes stories of Stonehenge as a memorial to the dead. So there could be an element of truth to both hypotheses, experts say. In […]
CINCINNATI — When Ohio’s Kent State University offered custodial staff the option of working four days a week instead of five to cut commuting costs, most jumped at the chance, part of a U.S. trend aimed at combating soaring gasoline prices. ‘We offered it to 94 employees and 78 have taken us up on it,’ said university spokesman Scott Rainone. The reason is simple: rising gas prices and a desire to retain good workers. And while so far only the university’s custodians are eligible, Rainone hopes the option will be offered to all departments — including his own. ‘In our office, we have people who travel anywhere from five or six miles to a couple who are on the road 45 to 50 minutes,’ Rainone said. ‘As the price of gas rises, the level of grumbling rises.’ Regular gasoline averages $3.94 a gallon in the United States, up 33 cents in the past month and 88 cents since the beginning of the year, the Energy Information Administration said this week. The federal government has offered four-day workweeks to eligible employees for years as part of a flexible work program that also includes telecommuting. But […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
