I’ve been reading a new book, “Green Tyranny,” just out from Encounter Books, written by a Brit named Rupert Darwall.  The overriding theme is that the project to transform society by doing away with fossil fuels is fundamentally inconsistent with the basic American ideals of freedom and democracy.

In a thought-provoking and reasoned commentary that asks the question, “Is climate change controversy good for science? Craig Idso examines a comparison between the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Non-Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC) Reports. (Disclosure: I contributed material to the NIPCC Report).

European magnetometers are responding violently at the moment due to the coronal hole solar wind stream and indicate very active auroral conditions.

We are not used to the idea of machines making ethical decisions, but the day when they will routinely do this – by themselves – is fast approaching. So how, asks the BBC’s David Edmonds, will we teach them to do the right thing?

A leading scientist has poured cold water on fears over the supervolcano beneath Yellowstone National Park, saying it’s unlikely to erupt in our lifetime, if ever. George Bergantz, a professor of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington, said people shouldn’t worry despite the apocalyptic impact an eruption could have on the United States and the rest of the world.

In 1973, the Climate Long Range Mapping And Prediction Project (CLIMPA) from Brown, Columbia, and OSU predicted a new ice age.

Image copyright: GETTY IMAGES

A hallucinogen found in magic mushrooms can “reset” the brains of people with untreatable depression, raising hopes of a future treatment, scans suggest.

The average ‘fossil fuel’ (hydrocarbon) power plants that were built or are in process of being built in the last several decades generate an average of 600 – 800 Megawatts each. Although no nuclear plants have been built in the U. S. recently, typical nuclear plants each generate about twice that.

Have you seen headlines like “Say Goodbye to Oil, Gas, & Solar…,” or “The new Gasoline,” courtesy of Goldman-Sachs (http://www.snopes.com/new-superfuel/), or “Holy Grail of Fuels Found,” and other salivations about “alternative” new energy sources?

Image copyright: REUTERS

The data-storing abilities of hard drives could soon swell to 40 terabytes (TB) and beyond, says Western Digital. Currently the largest hard disk drive (HDD) that stores data on spinning disks can hold about 14TB of information. Western Digital said the bigger drives were made possible by finding a way to use microwaves to write data on 3.5in drives. The first bigger-capacity drives should go on sale in 2019.

The enormous volcano sitting beneath Yellowstone National Park could erupt sooner than previously expected, scientists studying the area say.

At the ends of the Solar System, beyond the orbit of Neptune, there is a belt of objects composed of ice and rocks, among which four dwarf planets stand out: Pluto, Eris, Makemake and Haumea. The latter is the least well known of the four and was recently the object of an international observation campaign which was able to establish its main physical characteristics.

It is well-known among researchers that the Vikings, those Scandinavian warriors who roamed the seas between the 9th and 11th centuries, made contact with the Islamic world. But new evidence suggests these interactions were greater than previously thought.

Jo Johnson, the UK universities minister, said the government wanted to secure “an ambitious agreement” with the EU to safeguard Britain’s science and innovation, and pledged to allow British universities to continue close research collaboration with their European peers.