Seeing microbugs from space

Today's NASA image of the day is spectacular.  It is an image of the waters off the coast of New Zealand.  During this time of year, microscopic organisms that live in the ocean waters (phytoplankton) bloom due to the mixing of ocean currents.  When they grow in such large numbers, they reflect enough sunlight to be visible from space.  Different kinds of these organisms use different minerals to create their tiny solid shells; these end up reflecting the light as slightly different colors of blue & green.

a planet where it rains rocks

Scientists at Washington Univ. in St. Louis have found a extra-solar planet so hot that it likely rains rocks down onto a bubbling lava surface.

Cost of solar power dropping

Article on Green Inc. blog from the NY Times today discusses the fact that solar power has been dropping significantly over the past decade, down ~30% in 2008 from 1998.

new fossil find

This new beast is another pterosaur, a flying reptile that lived in the Mesozoic Era during the time of the dinosaurs (but not technically a dinosaur).  article in BBC News 

new NASA probe lands on Moon

The AP reports today that NASAs recent probe to the moon has landed successfully.  The goal of the probe is to determine whether ice is present at the moon's southern pole.

the man who single-handedly saved the world

About 2 weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal ran an article about Norman Borlaug, a man who's passion for farming and heart for the poor and hungry led him through a life that probably saved or even made possible millions of lives over his lifetime.  He died a couple of weeks ago and his death has gone largely unnoticed by his own country.

Discoveries of new oil increase in 2009

Today's NY Times has an article on new oil discoveries over the past year.
Several main points:

• new discoveries are the result of substantial investments made earlier in the decade 
• the discoveries span 5 continents & dozens of countries
• new discoveries in the first half of 2009 reached ~10 billion barrels; if the pace continues, they are likely to reach the highest level since 2000
• finding and extracting oil is becoming harder - requiring higher prices and improvements in technology to remain viable
• nevertheless, world oil consumption reached 31 billion barrels of oil last year, continuing the trend of new discoveries not keeping pace with consumption, a problem that has been occurring since the early 1980's