Environmental psychologist Arline L. Bronzaft, PhD, is professor emerita of psychology at Lehman College, City University of New York, and an expert witness in court cases and government hearings on the impact of noise on mental and physical well-being. She spoke with us about the detriments of noise on everything from our physiology to children’s learning.

In towns and cities across the world, the colour of night is changing. Traditional yellow sodium street lights are steadily being replaced by white LED lamps. The new lights use less energy, dramatically cutting carbon emissions and saving money. But not everybody is happy.

“When the leaves left the trees and I tried to sleep, I turned to one side and the light’s shining right in my eyes.”

Image copyright: GETTY IMAGES

The study of the stars and the fight against cancer may seem to have little in common but the two have been brought together by the algorithms that read big data.

Every day we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data – 90% of the data in the world today has been created in the past two years alone.

The target is not carbon, that is just one of many falsehoods. Carbon is a solid, and carbon dioxide a gas, yet, proponents of human-caused global warming (AGW) use them interchangeably.

They know people connect carbon with soot, hence the inappropriate phrase carbon pollution as they try to link CO2 with pollution. It is “newspeak” that George Orwell would appreciate.

The question is, why distort information and demonize a gas that is a fraction of the total atmosphere and essential to life?

Some financial gurus claim such “connected” things are soon to become the “new standard” of a “multi-trillion” dollar industry. Just invest now in this or that and, in no time flat, you’ll be able to share in the pie and become rich beyond belief. Even “Sharks” are now trying to feed on little mice (see the screenshot nearby), still I wonder:

I don’t know much about science, and even less about climate science. So as a practical matter, I like to side with the majority of scientists until they change their collective minds. They might be wrong, but their guess is probably better than mine.

That said, it is mind-boggling to me that the scientific community can’t make a case for climate science that sounds convincing, even to some of the people on their side, such as me. In other words, I think scientists are right (because I play the odds), but I am puzzled by why they can’t put together a convincing argument, whereas the skeptics can, and easily do. Shouldn’t it be the other way around?

There were at least 60 peer-reviewed scientific papers published in 2016 demonstrating that  Today’s Warming Isn’t Global, Unprecedented, Or Remarkable.

As of the end of January, another 17 papers had already been published in 2017.  17 New (2017) Scientific Papers Affirm Today’s Warming Is Not Global, Unprecedented, Or Remarkable

A prototype solar roadway in Idaho was supposed to represent a possible green energy future, but technical issues have exposed just how far off the technology is from prime time.

Screenshots taken by Twitter users from the roadway’s official webcam show smoke coming out of a nearby electric box. Firefighters soon showed up to the scene, prompting the solar project’s official webcam to issue an update: “The Solar Roadways electrical system is currently undergoing maintenance. Please check back late next week.”

ABSTRACT: The chemical compound that has saved more human lives than any other in history, DDT, was banned by order of one man, the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Public pressure was generated by one popular book and sustained by faulty or fraudulent research.

Widely believed claims of carcinogenicity, toxicity to birds, anti-androgenic properties, and prolonged environmental persistence are false or grossly exaggerated. The worldwide effect of the U.S. ban has been millions of preventable deaths. Fraud in science is a major problem.

Image copyright: SPL

The last woolly mammoths to walk the Earth were so wracked with genetic disease that they lost their sense of smell, shunned company, and had a strange shiny coat. That’s the verdict of scientists who have analysed ancient DNA of the extinct animals for mutations.

The studies suggest the last mammoths died out after their DNA became riddled with errors. The knowledge could inform conservation efforts for living animals.

Image copyright: QUB

“I had a dead leg one Sunday morning and it progressed to full paralysis within two hours,” says Dr Denise Fitzgerald, from Queen’s University Belfast.

She was only 21 at the time, but the event helped to inspire the fledgling scientist to crack how the brain is repaired.

Here is a fine exposition of Professor Robert M. Carter’s (decd) thoughts on the field of climate science and why we should not jump to conclusions concerning global warming/climate change.  The text and some illustrations are provided by Russ Swan in his post (here).  I added one at the end.

Abstract: Stable parts of the South Australia coast show that the last interglacial sea level was 2 m higher than present, but elsewhere there has been relative subsidence up to 7 m and uplift of 18 m. Estimates of changing sea level, and future projections, should state the time period involved and the tectonic background to be of any use.

The coast contains ‘carbonate sand factories’ where organisms produce vast amounts of sand by fixing carbon dioxide as carbonates. Far from dissolving carbonate by acidification, carbon dioxide is an essential part of carbonate production and the continued maintenance and growth of coasts and reefs.

When the Romans built Pevensey Castle in southeast England 1,700 years ago, it was nearly surrounded by ocean and had a natural moat. Same story when the Normans occupied it during the Medieval Warm Period.

Spaceweather.com is in Sweden with a team of student researchers from Earth to Sky Calculus for a March 10th  launch of a series of space weather balloons. The balloons are equipped with cosmic ray sensors and cameras to search the stratosphere above the Arctic Circle. At the same time, Earth to Sky launch teams in Chile and California is set to launch identical payloads, forming an intercontinental balloon network.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is the name given to describe the relatively new technology that connects everyday objects and devices to the web to provide additional data or functionality. But in the race to create that next “it” product that no one can live without (smart fry pans anyone?), manufacturers and users are creating dangerous side effects known as botnets.