Wednesday, 8 February, 2012

Which came first: The empire or the administration? Conventional wisdom says the demands of empire led to the rise of bureaucracy. But a new study of six early states suggests that the specialization of power and function we call bureaucracy arises at the same time as the territorial expansion that leads to empire.

The Titanic sank in 1912, the Lusitania sank in 1915. In each case, about 32 percent of passengers survived. But women and children did much better on Titanic, which took 160 minutes to slide underwater, than on Lusitania, which went down in 18 minutes. Ditto for rich people. Why?

Climate scientists worry about feedbacks, glacial melting, sea level rise, using tax policy to slow warming, and the complexity of climate science. Is it realistic to base our economy on endless growth? What does human behavior tell us about dealing with warming?

Aftershocks and triggered earthquakes both follow a large earthquake, and they don’t happen at random. Can lessons about the sequence and timing of quakes improve safety?

Buried charcoal stimulates microbes and plant growth, helping farmers on poor soil. Studies show that charcoal is stable for hundreds of years.

Scientists propose 9 limits on human actions: Wrecking ozone, over-using fertilizer, killing species could block key “ecosystem services.” Are there natural limits to fresh water use and pollution?

Texting already banned for truckers, etc. What do research and reality say about the danger of hitting the keys or yakking on the mobile?

The ozone layer protects Earth from UV rays: Twenty-two years after a treaty to protect ozone, how is the layer doing? What has happened to the ozone hole above Antarctica?

Underground nuclear tests have been the biggest roadblock to a comprehensive test ban. How are these explosions detected, and how reliably?

A new study finds a surprising number of fish, birds and mammals in the oceans 100 and 1,000 years ago. Can this information help regulators slow the decline of important marine animals?