Climate

Presented by Laura Schaefer Searching for life in our galaxy means first finding liquid water. Water is found throughout our Solar System in many different forms, but the Earth, because of its balmy temperatures and unique geology, is the only known…

In many elementary schools, students are introduced to the idea that rats spread one of the deadliest diseases in human history – the Bubonic plague. It was told in history classes that rats carried fleas, which carried the bacteria responsible for the…

Thawing Siberian PermafrostNASA Goddard Space Flight Center / CC BY Large quantities of carbon in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane are trapped within and beneath polar permafrost, the layer of frozen ground that has not thawed for millennia.…

From Snails Are Dissolving in Pacific Ocean (original article here) Image courtesy of Arctic Exploration 2002, Russ Hopcroft, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, NOAA/OER Recent findings show that CO2 emissions are increasingly acidifying oceans, causing…

While there’s been much debate in the media about the causes and effects of climate change, many scientists agree that changes in climate will impact our lives. However, demonstrating such impact is scientifically challenging because of the many…

The UN has released a report reiterating that sufficient data exists to conclude that not only is climate change occurring, but that human use of coal, oil, and natural gas is the primary cause. This report highlights the stark fact that poorer…

Should the discovery of an infectious virus in the permafrost worry us? Scientists have uncovered a so-called ‘giant virus’ in permafrost that has melted as a result of progressive climate change. The virus, Pithovirus sibericum, was isolated from melted…

Presented by Ethan Butler, Karen McKinnon, Andy Rhines Extreme weather events, from hurricanes to heat waves, seem to be in the news with increasing regularity.But are extreme events actually increasing in frequency? And do they have a connection to our…

Presented by Jessica Kunke, Lei Zhu, Stephen Portillo The natural world is so complex and unpredictable that it might seem math could never be a sufficient tool to understand it.  Our lecture aims to widen this view of math and explore how mathematical…

-- Less than three weeks ago, the Northeast US was slammed by the largest blizzard in years: winter storm Nemo. Swarms of people ran to the grocery stores and gas stations to stock up on food, batteries, flashlights, clean water supplies, and gas in…