feed info

40,086 articles from Guardian Unlimited Science

Mystery Bird: Eastern Chanting Goshawk, Melierax poliopterus | GrrlScientist

A singing hawk? This common but beautiful African species is named for a special reproductive behaviour that many other birds in the family do not shareEastern pale chanting goshawk, Melierax poliopterus, also known as the pale chanting goshawk, the Eastern chanting goshawk or the Somali chanting goshawk, photographed at Tarangire National Park, northeastern Tanzania, Africa. Image: Dan Logen, 17...

Today's Mystery Bird For You To Identify

This lovely neotropical migrant bird has many remarkable features, but one of them makes it unique in North America. What is that?Mystery Bird photographed at Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center, Minnehaha County, South Dakota, USA. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]Image: Terry Sohl, 28 August 2010 [with binoculars].Canon 50D, 400 5.6L.This lovely neotropical...

Polar Bears, Commercial Aeroplanes and Viral Film

Short-haul airplane flight coming up? Think it doesn't have much impact on our planet? Think again: short-haul flights do impact the climateAviation is the fastest growing cause of climate change, and this film reminds us that each flight that we make has an impact upon the environment. Plane Stupid's Polar Bear ad has been nominated for the Viral Video Award 2010. Out of 500 submissions, 20 were...

Starwatch: Comet Hartley

Jupiter, resplendent low in the ESE at nightfall and climbing into the S by midnight, is the only bright planet on view tonight. Through binoculars view a dim star just a Moon's width above and to its left, while the planet Uranus stands three moonwidths away in the same direction.Binoculars should also reveal a comet swooping within 19 million km of the Earth on the 20th on its way to perihelion...


SUNDAY 10. OCTOBER 2010


Want something? Then learn how to negotiate

Negotiating skills needn't be the preserve of the boardroom, says a Pulitzer prize-winning former adviser to the UNFrom spending cuts and coalition politics to the Israel-Palestine talks, it's hard to escape from negotiations these days. But according to Stuart Diamond, the Pulitzer prize-winning journalist, university lecturer and former adviser to the UN, it's not just the movers and shakers...

Mystery Bird: Western sandpiper, Calidris (Erolia) mauri | GrrlScientist

This stunning and challenging-to-ID mystery bird tells us that scientists are still learning about the mysteries of avian evolution, as made obvious by this bird's two scientific names!Leucistic (nearly totally white) western sandpiper, Calidris (Erolia) mauri, photographed at Iona Beach Regional Park on Iona Island in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. Image: Kevan Cowcill, 15 September 2010...

Today's Mystery bird for you to identify | GrrlScientist

This species closely resembles the bird I showed as yesterday's daily mystery bird, but it is actually a different species. What distinguishes these two species?Mystery Bird photographed at Serengeti National Park, northeastern Tanzania, Africa. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]Image: Dan Logen, 20 January 2010 (a glimpse through binoculars).Nikon D300, 600 mm lens with 1.4 extender,...

Video: Coach Singletary demonstrates that losers need more than God's help | GrrlScientist

Edward Current has some advice for Mike Singletary to improve his American football team's crappy recordIt turns out, the NFL's most God-glorifying Christian is a huge loser! To win, Mike Singletary is gonna need more than wood for Jeebuz, according to Edward Current. Mr Current has some advice for Mike Singletary to improve his American football team's crappy record. GrrlScientistguardian.co.uk...

Carbon breakthroughs win two Nobel prizes for science

Carbon scientists' dual Nobel success prompts calls for more government funding of 'curiosity research'It is the stuff of coal, soot, diamonds, radiocarbon dating, pencils, climate change, graphite lubricants, charcoal – and a startling number of Nobel prizes. Carbon, it turns out, is the element most likely to win you the ultimate scientific prize. Last week two different awards – the...