SCIENCE

Photo via The Independent.

The collapse of the Western Antarctic Ice Sheet, which holds enough water to raise global sea levels by several metres, has already begun and is ‘unstoppable’, say two new reports. . .  They estimated that the fast-moving Thwaites Glacier will probably collapse into the sea somewhere in the next 200 to 1,000 years, raising sea levels by two feet. This glacier acts as a dam for the rest of the western ice sheet and its disappearance could precipitate the collapse of a frozen mass large enough to raise sea levels by three to four metres. Read full article in The Independent. E.T.P. 5'30''

SCIENCE

Anti-carbon tax protesters in Canberra, motivated by politics, not science. Photograph: Torsten Blackwood/AFP/Getty via The Guardian.

Last week Adam Corner in the New Scientist asked why people is not listening what is being said about climate change. This week, John Abraham and Dana Nuccitelli, keep the conversation going in The Guardian pointing out that, being honest, the global warming debate isn't about science. The scientific evidence on human-caused global warming is clear. Opposition stems from politics, not science. Read full article in The Guardian.

Crystals in polarized light (urea) by Fernan Federici via Wired.

Wired published this week a series of microscopic images that belong to Fernan Federici, Biological Sciences Ph.D. from Cambridge University, that will definitely blow your mind. "A couple years ago, Federici was working on his Ph.D. in biological sciences at Cambridge University studying self-organization (...) using microscopes and a process called fluorescence microscopy to see if he could identify these kinds of patterns on a cellular level. Have a look at this amazing colleciton of images in Wired.

Photo The trail left behind by the Chelyabinsk meteorite as it rushed through the atmosphere. Image: Константин Кудинов/Wikimedia, via Wired.

According to Wired and their report on a Russian meteorite, it turns out that Earth gets hit by meteorites more often than we think. "Meteorite collisions are often compared in size to nuclear explosions, but because they are speeding toward Earth they have momentum that makes them far more destructive. And to make matters worse, they may occur more often than currently estimated". Read full article in Wired.

SCIENCE

Photo via Spacetoday.org

Little Spacecraft That Could. On Thursday, scientists declared the Voyager spacecraft had become the first man-made object to exit the solar system, a breathtaking achievement that NASA could only fantasize about back when it was launched in 1977. Since its launch Voyager 1 has traveled over 11.7 billion miles, that is equivalent to traveling to the moon and back almost 25,000 times. Read more about it in The Independent.

Illustration: What is the 'god' particle? By Jordin Isip. Via Brainpickings.

Maria Popova of Brain Pickings proudly recommends the book: The Where, they Why and the How: 75 Artists Illustrate Wondrous Mysteries of Science, one of those amazing intersection of art and science. The guys behind Also Online "invited some of today’s most celebrated artists to create scientific illustrations and charts to accompany short essays about the most fascinating unanswered questions on the minds of contemporary scientists across biology, astrophysics, chemistry, quantum mechanics, anthropology, and more". More info and a short video in Brain Pickings.


Looking for a Plan B. Alok Jha, The Guardian's scientific correspondent writes about some of the measures that should be taken by world leaders if the rise in carbon emissions is not curbed within a couple of decade. Launching mirrors into space, triggering algal blooms in the oceans and seeding clouds are among experimental "Plan B" schemes. This is what astronomer royal Lord Rees calls: hacking the planet's climate through geoengineering. Read more in The Guardian.