Stunning images of the sun, Earth and far-away locales in our roundup of cosmic views from August 2012.
Antarctica: A Greenhouse Gas Hotspot?
New study suggests that huge amounts of the greenhouse gas methane could be hiding underneath the ice of Antarctica.
EcocentricAstronomy
Tatooine Now: NASA Finds Planet Orbiting Binary Star System
It’s not just science fiction. NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope has found evidence of multiple planets orbiting a binary star system.
54.5 miles per gallon
EcocentricGoing Green
The Romney Energy Plan: Drill, Baby, Drill — Again
The soon-to-be Republican nominee offers a familiar — and ineffective — mix of stepping up production and standing down on the environment
1.58 million sq. miles
New Ocean Scorecard Gives World a 60%
We live in a world obsessed with numbers – college rankings, baseball scores, exam results – and now we have one to tell us what’s happening to our oceans.
How Gut Bugs Make You Sick — or Well
You are not alone – ever. All day, every day, you’re in the company of millions of other creatures, even when there’s not another soul in sight. More unsettling still, those unseen others live inside you.
The invisible population that calls you home is known as your microbiome — the millions of nonhuman cells that populate …
Remembering Neil Armstrong, a Man of Profound Skill and Preternatural Calm
The first man on the moon survived three near-fatal incidents and spent the rest of his life trying to avoid the spotlight
EcocentricOil
Why Romney’s Energy Independence Pledge Is Half-Baked
Mitt Romney promises to make the U.S. energy independent by 2020 by increasing domestic oil and gas production. But without dealing with consumption, he’s only tackling half the problem.