Sunday, 19 May, 2013

Think you can get away with an occasional high-fat junk food chow-down? A new study confirms that a single meal can harm your arteries. Eating the same number of calories in a Mediterranean-diet meal is benign or beneficial to the arteries.

Vast deposits of a strong greenhouse gas are frozen under the ocean. As the ocean warms, this methane is releasing. How much more methane is on the way, and how will it affect climate?

Most water pollution originates in polluted runoff. After a near-record number of beach closures, could green infrastructure convert stormwater from liability to asset? Rain gardens, rain barrels, infiltration ponds, green roofs, buffer strips all trap sediments and nutrients while reducing the load on sewer systems. Is green infrastructure oversold?

Could soil help? One-third of soils are degraded. In fighting desertification, erosion and nutrient loss, some soil-restoring techniques solve multiple problems.

With three nuclear reactors and three pools of spent fuel teetering on the edge of meltdown, Japanese technicians struggled to throttle the nuclear demons after the gigantic tsunami. Is Fukushima closer to Chernobyl or Three Mile Island? How will the disaster affect plans for a renaissance of nuclear power?

What kind of ecological damage can we expect from a sustained blowout in the Gulf of Mexico? What are the lessons of Exxon Valdez, and how well do they apply to the current outbreak of oil? Is prevention really the only strategy?

When everybody exploits a common resource without limit, we get the tragedy of the commons: Benefiting the individuals burns through the resource. A new economic strategy game, based on how animals and plants grow, suggests that communication helps players allocate the resource and still take home a bigger harvest.

Space shuttle Columbia has crashed, raising questions about research on the space shuttle and the International Space Station. Should we do space science by robots or manned vehicles?

What was the long-term impact of the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska? Did the cleanup help, or make matters worse? Who are you going to believe in a case like this?

Missile defense: Protective shield, or dangerous myth? New tests do little to solve the problem.

Agricultural genetic engineering could change the equation between weeds, insects, toxic agricultural chemicals and yields. Is GM food a good idea?

Biological weapons are microscopic killing machines containing viruses, fungi or bacteria — or the toxins made by these organisms. Read the history — and future — of living WMDs.