http://blogs.earthsky.org/deborahbyrd Science, nature, people, intelligence, hope ... sustainability. Mon, 10 Mar 2008 03:05:34 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en If you were peering through a telescope, from the vicinity of the red planet Mars, you might see something like the image at left. Earth was 88 million miles from Mars - nowhere near the closest possible distance between our two worlds - when the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) ... http://blogs.earthsky.org/deborahbyrd/space/0305113/earth-and-moon-as-seen-from-mars/ The BBC reported yesterday that - even if you are not overweight - you should slim down to reduce your risk of cancer. So says the United Kingdom's World Cancer Research Fund, whose website carries the tagline "pioneers in cancer prevention." The WCRF UK examined 7,000 existing studies ... http://blogs.earthsky.org/deborahbyrd/body-mind/1101107/cancer-study-says-be-thin/ New York Times science reporter Andrew Revkin has recently begun blogging on the subject of Earth's burgeoning population. Revkin's new blog - called Dot Earth - carries the great tagline nine billion people, one planet. It's focused on the fact that, by the middle of this century, Earth's ... http://blogs.earthsky.org/deborahbyrd/earth/1031105/the-population-cluster-bomb/ Okay, I confess. It orbits the sun every seven years and has looped around the sun 16 times since its discovery in 1892. But, after 30+ years of stargazing, I'd never heard of Comet Holmes. That is, I hadn't until a dramatic outburst increased the comet's brightness ... http://blogs.earthsky.org/deborahbyrd/space/1029103/comet-holmes-puts-on-a-show/ The Population Reference Bureau (PRB) of Washington D.C. released a new projection series in September - and hosted an online discussion on October 17 - about the growing population of India. The online discussion was called Will India's Population Reach 2 Billion? Realize that 2 billion is a mind-bogglingly ... http://blogs.earthsky.org/deborahbyrd/bizarre/102197/will-indias-population-rise-to-2-billion/ A report released October 10, 2007 from the National Research Council says that an increase in ethanol production from corn could "significantly impact water quality and availability" if new practices and techniques are not employed. "The harm to water quality could be considerable, and water supply problems at the regional and ... http://blogs.earthsky.org/deborahbyrd/plants/101392/ethanol-could-harm-water-quality-says-nrc/ Earth's polar bear population could be two-thirds gone by 2050, according to a report by the U.S. Geological Survey, released on Friday. The shrinking bear population is said to be a direct result of melting ice in their Arctic habitat: the very ground under their feet is melting, due ... http://blogs.earthsky.org/deborahbyrd/animals/090990/polar-bears-two-thirds-gone-by-2050/ SciDevNet has a magnificent roundup of articles on bird flu for the week of August 27-September 3. They run a similar roundup frequently (not sure if it's every week), providing a ringside seat to those interested in watching the progress of bird flu. Bird flu - also known as avian ... http://blogs.earthsky.org/deborahbyrd/earth/090388/bird-flu-update-3-september-2007/ The photo at left is from the Answers in Genesis Creation Museum - which opened in 2007 in northern Kentucky. Its exhibits depict, for example, dinosaurs on Noah's Ark. The museum's motto is "prepare to believe." Meanwhile, at a May 3, 2007 political debate, three of the 10 Republican ... http://blogs.earthsky.org/deborahbyrd/body-mind/080755/why-do-some-people-resist-science/ As a stargazer and lover of night skies, an innovative idea that has my vote is that of lunar-resonant streetlights. This idea - from Civil Twilight, a design collective based in San Francisco’s Mission District - calls for streetlights that could respond to the waxing and waning of the ... http://blogs.earthsky.org/deborahbyrd/human-world/070879/imagine-a-city-illuminated-by-moonlight/