Category: Month: September 2011
“Video games can unleash a learning revolution,” reports the Boston Globe. We agree. That’s why since 1994 we’ve been producing interactive digital activities—like our SPORE award-winning Molecular Workbench—in science and math for grades 4 and up. We’re tapping into the spirit of games to engage learners. And we’re excited to announce that we’ve just been awarded a new grant from the National Science Foundation. GeniGames will add game-based design elements to our Geniverse software. Students can learn about genetics by solving games of dragons and drakes.
Pumice, a type of volcanic rock, is so porous that it floats on water. Now researchers from Oxford University and the University of Western Australia are suggesting that life on Earth could have formed on floating rafts of pumice. The researchers argue that pumice has a unique set of properties which would have made it […]
What does irrigation have to do with climate change? Possibly a lot. According to a new study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, irrigation has increased agricultural productivity by an amount roughly equivalent to the entire agricultural output of the United States. That’s a lot of increased productivity! All of those growing plants take up more […]
How can you tell when a scientific claim is bad? Look at the results. Compare the results from the models with what happened in real life. An August 2010 study published in Science claimed that drought induced a decline in global plant productivity during the past decade, posing a threat to global food security. Zhao […]
On September 12, 2011, a team of scientists announced that the HARPS telescope has identified more than 50 new planets; this is the largest number of planets ever announced at once. The HARPS telescope works by detecting the movement of stars. A star with an orbiting planet will be pulled towards the planet as it […]
Permafrost, the thick layer of soil that remains frozen throughout the year, currently holds a large amount of carbon. If the permafrost thaws, it will release the stored carbon, which could contribute to further warming. This is not new news. What is new is the idea that high latitude areas will become a carbon source […]