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The discovery of a whale fossil dating back to 36.4 million years ago has filled in a gaping hole in the evolution of baleen whales, a group that includes humpbacks (Megaptera novaeangliae) and blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus). The creature, named Mystacodon selenensis, is the oldest baleen-whale relative yet found. The skeleton displays traits that place it firmly as the first baleen-whale relative known to emerge after an ancient group of whale ancestors called basilosaurids split into two: one branch led to the toothed whales, which include sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) and dolphins, and the other to baleen whales....

OSLO (Reuters) - A slowdown in the pace of global warming so far this century is likely to be only a pause in a longer-term trend of rising temperatures, the science academies of the U.S. and Britain said on Thursday. Since an exceptionally warm 1998, there has been “a short-term slowdown in the warming of Earth’s surface,” Britain’s Royal Society and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences said in a report....

PARIS – Climate change is real, it is already here and its consequences may be worse than anticipated, say early drafts of an upcoming report from an international group of climate scientists. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is set to release on Friday a summary of the report—its fourth on the state of global warming since the group was formed by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and U.N. Environment Program (UNEP) in 1988—and the news is bleak....

Key concepts Biology Plants Evolution Aerodynamics Introduction Have you ever looked outside on a windy day and seen “helicopter” seeds spinning through the air? Or picked up a dandelion and blown on it, sending the tiny, fluffy seeds flying all over the place? Wind is very important for dispersing seeds to help plants reproduce. In this project you will design some of your own “seeds” and see which ones work best when they are blown across the room by a fan....

Last year, David Levy published a book, Love and Sex with Robots, which marked a culmination of years of research about the interactions between humans and computers. His basic idea is that, for humans who cannot establish emotional or sexual connections with other people, they might form them with robots. The topic is ripe for ridicule: On The Colbert Report in January, host Stephen Colbert asked Levy, “Are these people who can’t establish relationships with other human beings, are they by any chance people who write about love and sex with robots?...

India’s Chandrayaan-2 orbiter circling the moon has spotted the country’s lost Vikram lander on the lunar surface, but there is still no signal from the lander, according to Indian media reports. K Sivan, chief of the Indian Space Research Organisation, said today (Sept. 8) that the Vikram lander was located by Chandrayaan-2 and efforts to restore contact the probe will continue for at least 14 days, according to a Times of Indiareport....

As the climate warms, thawing permafrost could have a major impact on the world’s climate, but that potential is overlooked in many climate models and studies, warns a new report from the U.N. Environment Programme. The analysis, released as the latest round of U.N. climate talks began in Doha, Qatar, recommends that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change undertake a special report on permafrost and its role in climate change. The UNEP report also urges countries with significant permafrost deposits – including the United States – to improve their monitoring of the frozen ground....

A legacy of atmospheric atomic bomb testing is present in an unlikely place: people’s teeth. According to a report published today in the journal Nature, bomb-generated carbon isotopes trapped in tooth enamel may provide a more precise method for determining a deceased individual’s age than other forensic methods can. The aboveground nuclear tests that occurred between 1955 and 1963 dramatically increased the amount of the isotope carbon 14 in the atmosphere....

The promise of using text messages, video or smartphone apps to improve health care has attracted a lot of attention and dollars. Yet mobile health, also known as mHealth, is still in its infancy, and a pair of new analyses shows that it has garnered mixed results. Of 75 controlled trials in which patients used mobile technology to manage a disease or adopt healthier behaviors, only three showed reliable signs of success, according to a review article published in January in PLOS Medicine....

First, no matter how devastating an extraterrestrial impact might be, are we to believe that after centuries of flourishing every last tool, potsherd, article of clothing, and, presumably from an advanced civilization, writing, metallurgy and other technologies—not to mention trash—was erased? Inconceivable. Second, Hancock’s impact hypothesis comes from scientists who first proposed it in 2007 as an explanation for the North American megafaunal extinction around that time and has been the subject of vigorous scientific debate....

John Aeschliman turns over a shovelful of topsoil on his 4,000-acre farm in the Palouse region of eastern Washington State. The black earth crumbles easily, revealing a porous structure and an abundance of organic matter that facilitate root growth. Loads of earthworms are visible, too—another healthy sign. Thirty-four years ago only a few earthworms, if any, could be found in a spadeful of his soil. Back then, Aeschliman would plow the fields before each planting, burying the residues from the previous crop and readying the ground for the next one....

A scientist from the National Center for Toxicological Research analyzes microarray results to measure and assess the level of genes found in a tissue sample. FDA photo by Michael J. Ermarth. Rebecca Riggins, an assistant professor of oncology at Georgetown University, was about to stick a FedEx shipping label onto a package containing about two dozen samples of human breast tumors for analysis when the phone rang. Her team was in the process of investigating why certain types of breast cancer respond well to the common hormone therapy Tamoxifen while others fare poorly....

Key concepts Chemistry Solubility Saturation Crystals Purification Introduction Have you ever wondered how crystals are made? Crystals come in all different shapes and sizes. The purest and cleanest crystals, however, are usually also the ones that grow to be the largest in size. In this activity you’ll compare the size and shape of crystals grown in different temperatures. With just water and borax, a household cleaning product, you can discover the method for growing large, pure crystals!...

A certain gourmet donut store prides itself on being able to provide its customers with any number of donuts between 1 and 80. A customer may go to the counter and say “I want 43 donuts” and 43 donuts will appear in under a minute. The restaurant wants to use four different sized containers. Your job is to figure out what those sizes should be to minimize the number of packets needed to fill the average order....

Remains of the worlds first cities are the most noteworthy features of the landscape in southern Iraq, and for nearly two centuries archaeologists have probed them and puzzled over their artifacts. Built up over the course of five and a half millennia of intermittent occupation, these tells–mounds of building rubble and associated artifacts–can be as large as a mile in diameter; some rise more than 100 feet above the plain. Babylon, Ur, Uruk, Nippur and Kish have yielded abundant evidence of the material culture of Mesopotamian society....

When the Kentucky Derby winner crosses the finish line in front of 160,000 roaring spectators on May 5, there’s a good chance it will have two copies of a gene that makes a horse a sprinter. The so-called speed gene, which several laboratories say determines whether a horse prefers a short sprint, a marathon or something in between, is just one of the genetic markers identified in the search for the roots of elite performance in thoroughbreds....

The confidence people place in science is frequently based not on what it really is, but on what people would like it to be. When I asked students at the beginning of the year how they would define science, many of them replied that it is an objective way of discovering certainties about the world. But science cannot provide certainties. For example, a majority of Americans trust science as long as it does not challenge their existing beliefs....

World energy consumption is forecast to increase by 44 percent from 2006 to 2030, with almost two-thirds of that coming from developing countries and fossil fuels that continue to dominate energy supply, according to the Energy Information Administration’s 2009 outlook report [pdf] released today. Developing countries are projected to increase demand by 73 percent by 2030 in the outlook’s base reference case – EIA’s analysis under current laws and policies – whereas developed countries will grow by 15 percent, the report says....

Jason Egan does not walk, talk or eat like most nine-year-olds. He gets around in a wheelchair and depends on a feeding tube threaded into his stomach. He makes signs with his hands to communicate and has mustered the word “mom” on occasion. Although he cannot always articulate his feelings, he clearly feels a great deal. He is often seen smiling and laughing, especially when his father pushes him around the block near their home in Victoria, Australia....

Dear EarthTalk: How can I tell if the green certifications and labels on all kinds of products these days are legitimate or just ‘greenwashing’? —Paul Bass, New York, NY As sustainability becomes more mainstream, more and more products today advertise their green credentials—with many displaying third-party certifications on their labels. But how can consumers know which certifications are legit? Americans’ confidence in green labels reached a low in 2011 when the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) busted “Tested Green” for selling unverified environmental certifications backed up by unqualified “experts” at supposedly independent firms that were actually owned by the same person....