In the local environs several kinds of turtles are common, including Painted turtles, Map turtles, Snapping turtles, Stinkpots, and possibly others. On a sunny spring day, one can see several out of the water on a rock, trying to catch a ray of warm sunshine before diving back into the still cold water of perhaps 7 °C (45 °F).

Australia used to be extremely hot. In 1896 Adelaide reached 111 degrees and Melbourne 112 degrees.

30 May 1896 – “SCOURGED.”

We have reached a dangerous state of scientific tyranny. People are ridiculed and even vilified for questioning the prevailing narratives about the nature of our world, but this counters the true meaning of science. At its core, science is about questioning what we think we know.

Paper Reviewed: Balch, J.K., Bradley, B.A., Abatzoglou, J.T., Nagy, R.C., Fusco, E.J. and Mahood, A.L. 2017. Human-started wildfires expand the fire niche across the United States. Proceedings of the U.S. National Academy of Science114: 2946-2951.

Practically everyone who likes space and has lots of money is trying to get to Mars in the near future. But before anyone reaches the Red Planet, there are plenty of concerns to mull over, most notably that our bodies were not built to live in a barren litter box with a thin atmosphere.

The humanoid robot, created by Hanson robotics, is the main attraction at a UN-hosted conference in Geneva this week on how artificial intelligence can be used to benefit humanity.

Researchers in London found compounds extracted from marijuana combined with chemotherapy treatment helps target and kill cancer cells.

Paper Reviewed
Reef, R., Spencer, T., Möller, I., Lovelock, C.E., Christie, E.K., McIvor, A.L., Evans, B.R. and Tempest, J.A. 2017. The effects of elevated CO2 and eutrophication on surface elevation gain in a European salt marsh. Global Change Biology 23: 881-890.

NASA says Antarctica is losing ice, and it proves global warming.

Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet: Land Ice

NASA also says that Antarctica is gaining ice.

Enceladus, an icy moon of Saturn that could host life, may have tipped over long ago.

An astrophysicist at the University of Oklahoma says several Earth-sized planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system are Earth-like in other ways.

Researchers from the University of Zurich have simulated the formation of our entire universe with a large supercomputer. A gigantic catalog of about 25 billion virtual galaxies has been generated from 2 trillion digital particles.

Ninety-nine million years ago, birds and dinosaurs ruled the earth. But what did those early birds look like? That’s been hard to prove—until now. Thanks to an amazing fossil find, a bird encased in Cretaceous-era amber from Malaysia is giving researchers a new look at a mysterious species of birds that existed during the time of the dinosaurs.

Microsoft has confirmed recent reports that it has acquired Israeli cybersecurity startup Hexadite.

What if I told you that the Department of Defense and the CIA spent four decades researching extrasensory perception and psychokinesis — i.e., bending spoons with your mind?

The United States will revive the long-dormant National Space Council, a group meant to coordinate space policy among government agencies and departments. Vice-president Mike Pence, who will chair the council, announced its reinstatement on 7 June at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.