Science News

Writer and activist Bill McKibben talks to Scientific American 's Mark Fischetti about his new book Eaarth: Making A Life On A Tough New Planet . [More]

A new sun-studying satellite had its coming-out party Wednesday, when scientists involved in the project presented early imagery and videos from the spacecraft's instruments at a news conference at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. The Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO , launched by NASA in February, gathers a voluminous stream of data about the star nearest Earth, observations that should help heliophysicists better understand the workings of the sun and improve forecasts of solar activity that can cause problems on Earth. [More]

By Timothy Gardner

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military, the government's largest fuel buyer, is leading the fight against climate change by investing in the "Great Green Fleet" and other ways of cutting dependence on oil and coal, according to a Pew Charitable Trusts report released on Tuesday.

By Tim Cocks

ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Six years after the insect killer DDT was globally outlawed on grounds of environmental damage, two researchers say there are new reasons for doubting the chemical is harmful and are urging its use against malaria.

WASHINGTON--Many doctors and medical researchers applauded a new federal focus on comparative effectiveness research that was boosted through the 2009 stimulus package and codified with the signing of the health care reform bill in March. This shift will support--and in many cases require--work to establish which treatments work best. [More]