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Thursday, January 3, 2008

Plate Tectonics May Take a Break

Plate tectonics, the geologic process responsible for creating the Earth’s continents, mountain ranges, and ocean basins, may be an on-again, off-again affair. Scientists have assumed that the shifting of crustal plates has been slow but continuous over most of the Earth’s history, but a new study from researchers at the Carnegie Institution suggests that plate tectonics may have ground to a halt at least once in our planet’s history—and may do so again.
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PRDebesDiskOrganHR4796ASMALL.jpg Thursday, January 3, 2008

Red Dust in Planet-Forming Disk May Harbor Precursors to Life

Astronomers at the Carnegie Institution have found the first indications of highly complex organic molecules in the disk of red dust surrounding a distant star. The eight-million-year-old star, known as HR 4796A, is inferred to be in the late stages of planet formation, suggesting that the basic building blocks of life may be common in planetary systems.
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katrina-08-29-2005-SMALL.jpg Thursday, April 17, 2008

Changing Jet Streams May Alter Paths of Storms and Hurricanes

The Earth’s jet streams, the high-altitude bands of fast winds that strongly influence the paths of storms and other weather systems, are shifting—possibly in response to global warming. These changes have implications for the frequency and intensity of future storms, including hurricanes.
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Monday, January 28, 2008

Hyperfast star proven to be alien

A young star is speeding away from the Milky Way so fast that astronomers have been puzzled by where it came from; based on its young age it has traveled too far to have come from our galaxy. Carnegie astronomers Alceste Bonanos and Mercedes López-Morales, with collaborators, determined that it came from our neighboring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and may have been ejected from that galaxy by a yet-to-be-observed massive black hole.
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CarbonCrisisSmallfor web12-13-07.jpg Thursday, December 13, 2007

Coral Reefs Unlikely to Survive in Acid Oceans

Stanford, CA — Carbon emissions from human activities are not just heating up the globe, they are changing the ocean’s chemistry. This could soon be fatal to coral reefs, which are havens for marine biodiversity and underpin the economies of many coastal communities. Scientists from the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology have calculated that if current carbon dioxide emission trends continue, by mid-century 98% of present-day reef habitats will be bathed in water too acidic for reef growth.
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Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Superconductors get a boost from pressure

Superconductors can convey more than 150 times more electricity than copper wires because they don’t restrict electron movement, the essence of electricity. But to do this, the materials have to be cooled below a very low, so-called, transition temperature, which often makes them impractical for widespread use. Now for the first time, scientists have found that in addition to chemical manipulation, the superconducting state can be induced by high pressure in so-called high-temperature superconductors.
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globe_east_540.small.jpg Friday, February 15, 2008

Stabilizing Climate Requires Near-Zero Carbon Emissions

Now that scientists have reached a consensus that carbon dioxide emissions from human activities are the major cause of global warming, the next question is: How can we stop it? Can we just cut back on carbon, or do we need to go cold turkey? According to a new study by scientists at the Carnegie Institution, halfway measures won’t do the job. To stabilize our planet’s climate, we need to find ways to kick the carbon habit altogether.
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PRSteeleAllanHillsPicSmlForWeb12-11-07.jpg Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Building blocks of life formed on Mars

By analyzing organic material and minerals in the Martian meteorite Allan Hills 84001, scientists at the Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory have shown for the first time that building blocks of life formed on Mars early in its history instead of by meteorite impacts or ancient Martian microbes.
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solomon_and_messenger_smaller.jpg Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Surprises Stream back from Mercury’s MESSENGER

The MESSENGER spacecraft, the first probe to visit Mercury in over 30 years, produced a stream of surprises that is amazing and delighting the science team. The 1,213 mages conclusively show that the planet is a lot less like the Moon than many previously thought, with features unique to this innermost world. The puzzling magnetosphere appears to be very different from what Mariner 10 discovered and first sampled almost 34 years ago. And the tiny spacecraft discovered a unique feature that the scientists dubbed, “The Spider.” This type of formation has never been seen on Mercury before, and nothing like it has been observed on the Moon. For images see http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/multi03.html

In a recent video interview, available for download, Dr. Sean C. Solomon discusses the MESSENGER probe and its significance.

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asner_sq_2007_0827.jpg Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Introducing Carnegie's Eye in the Sky

The skies over Hawaii buzz with the propellers of small aircraft. Most of them ferry people among the islands, or give tourists a glimpse of inaccessible locales. But there is one among the swarm that is unlike anything else in the sky, distinguishable from the tourist planes only by a small opening underneath that bristles with lenses and sensors. This unassuming vessel will soon help researchers probe deeper into the structure and chemistry of ecosystems than ever before. more »

PRSoderbergBergerSuperNPixSmallforWeb2-27-08.jpg Thursday, May 22, 2008

Supernova birth seen for first time

Astronomers have seen the aftermath of spectacular stellar explosions known as supernovae before, but until now no one has witnessed a star dying in real time. While looking at another object in the spiral galaxy NGC 2770, using NASA’s orbiting Swift telescope, Carnegie-Princeton fellows* Alicia Soderberg and Edo Berger detected an extremely luminous blast of X-rays released by a supernova explosion. They alerted 8 other orbiting and on-ground telescopes to turn their eyes on this first-of-its-kind event.
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globe_east_540.small.jpg Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Rise in Atmospheric CO2 Accelerates as Economy Grows, Natural Carbon Sinks Weaken

Human activities are releasing carbon dioxide faster than ever, while the natural processes that normally slow its build up in the atmosphere appear to be weakening. These conclusions are drawn in a new study in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, October 22-26. The report states that “together, these effects characterize a carbon cycle that is generating stronger-than-expected climate forcing sooner than expected.” more »

WPRCohenDanaMedalPicSmForWeb10-30-07.jpg Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Geophysical Lab’s Ronald Cohen to Receive 2009 Dana Medal

Ronald Cohen of Carnegie’s Geophysical Laboratory will receive the 2009 Dana Medal of the Mineralogical Society of America. The announcement was made October 30th, at the Geological Society of America meeting in Denver.
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Tuesday, March 11, 2008

New Twist on Life’s Power Source

A startling discovery by scientists at the Carnegie Institution puts a new twist on photosynthesis, arguably the most important biological process on Earth. Two studies suggest that certain widespread marine microorganisms have evolved a way to break the rules of normal photosynthesis—they can harvest solar energy without a net release of oxygen or uptake of carbon dioxide.
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PRGMTSiteSelectionSmlForWeb.jpg Thursday, October 4, 2007

Giant Magellan Telescope Site Selected

The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) Consortium announces that the GMT will be constructed at Carnegie's Cerro Las Campanas, Chile. This location was selected for its high altitude, dry climate, dark skies, and unsurpassed seeing quality, as well as its access to the southern skies. more »

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Green algae—the nexus of plant/animal ancestry

Genes of a tiny, single-celled green alga called Chlamydomonas reinhardtii may contain scores more data about the common ancestry of plants and animals than the richest paleontological dig. This work is described in an article in the October 12, 2007, issue of Science.

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Thursday, October 25, 2007

Global Ecology Building Wins Another Award

The Center for the Built Environment—an organization where industry leaders and researchers cooperate to produce substantial, holistic, and far-sighted research on buildings—awarded the Department of Global Ecology building its Livable Buildings Award.
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PRRubinPixSml.jpg Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Carnegie’s Vera Rubin to Receive Richtmyer Award

The American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) announced November 27th that renowned astrophysicist Vera Rubin, who confirmed the existence of dark matter, has been selected to receive the 2008 Richtmyer Memorial Award. Rubin is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Institution of Washington’s Department of Terrestrial Magnetism.
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Thursday, March 13, 2008

Meteorites a Rich Source for Primordial Soup

The organic soup that spawned life on Earth may have gotten generous helpings from outer space, according to a new study. Scientists at the Carnegie Institution have discovered concentrations of amino acids in two meteorites that are more than ten times higher than levels previously measured in other similar meteorites. This result suggests that the early solar system was far richer in the organic building blocks of life than scientists had thought, and that fallout from space may have spiked Earth’s primordial broth.
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Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Carnegie’s Ken Caldeira’s New York Times Op Ed Piece

Ken Caldeira, of Carnegie’s Department of Global Ecology, has an Op Ed piece about how to cool the planet in the October 24, 2007, New York Times.

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