In a new study, researchers at the University of Arizona are the first to use records of shipwrecks in the Caribbean to gain insight into historical hurricane activity. The paper, published in Proceedings of the National Academies of Science this week, reported a 75 percent reduction in the number of Caribbean hurricanes between 1645 and …
Read more “Caribbean Shipwrecks Show Lull in 17th-Century Hurricanes”
The medieval epidemic of bubonic plague, known as the Black Death, wiped out 40 to 60 percent of the population in Europe, Africa and Asia. Now a Rutgers University researcher says that the rapid and lethal spread of plague in the 14th century gives us clues to the current escalation of the Ebola outbreak. And …
Read more “Black Death in Middle Ages Offers Clues to Ebola’s Spread”
Scientists at Cornell University have discovered that meltwater from the surface of an ice cap can seep downward and become trapped beneath it, adding heat to the bottom of the cap. It’s the first time that researchers have seen the potential for atmospheric warming to affect glaciers from above and below. The Cornell team, led …
The University of East Anglia—where I spent a semester abroad in 1996—is launching a project to predict how the Arctic will cope with global warming by constructing a sea ice chamber and using state-of-the-art computer models. The €2M ($2.74 million) research initiative will reproduce the chemical exchanges between the ocean, sea ice, snow and the …
I’m halfway through Kenneth McGoogan’s excellent biography of John Rae, “Fatal Passage: The Story of John Rae, the Arctic Hero Time Forgot.” I love a good story about a forgotten scientific explorer, and McGoogan’s energetic and dramatic book has so far made a strong case for remembering Rae as a polar pioneer—not as the guy …
Read more ““Fatal Passage:” Arctic Explorer John Rae and the Fate of Sir John Franklin”