Spray insulation is commonly used to fill spaces in unfinished walls, attics and floors. Most of it is made from polyurethane and “closed foam cells,” which means it forms a nearly impenetrable barrier. The material is widely recognized as a highly efficient insulator, effectively reducing heat transfer.
In his book <I>Our Final Hour</I>, Cambridge professor and Britain’s "Astronomer Royal" Martin Rees predicts humanity has no more than a 50-50 chance of survival into the next century and that by 2020 a million people will perish due to scientific error or terror. Some would call him prescient, while others would interpret his words as alarmist, resembling a layer cake with environmental fears on top of nuclear fears on top of chemical and biological threats, ad infinitum. With a sci-fi flare, he warns of runaway technology, human clones and an ability to insert memory chips into the brain.
A federal appeals court has ruled unanimously that Vice President Dick Cheney need not make public records and notes from private meetings with energy industry officials in 2001 designed to help formulate White House energy policy. The ruling is the latest round in a lawsuit filed four years ago by Judicial Watch and the Sierra Club hoping to shed some light on how much influence energy industry executives–some of whom are now convicted felons due to their unethical business dealings–had on the development of White House energy policy.
As a result of hunting and the draining of its wetlands habitat for development, the whooping crane was virtually extinct on American soil by the 1940s. But due to the efforts of a wide range of committed individuals and government agencies, the majestic bird’s population has soared–sort of.
How are coral reefs faring around the world?
I wanted to know more about the Gulf Stream, and so went to Answers.com, which informed me that this warm, slow-moving current was first described by Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon in 1513. "The Gulf Stream originates in the Gulf of Mexico and, as the Florida Current, passes through the Straits of Florida and along the coast of the southeastern United States with a breadth of 50 miles.
Aluminum can be toxic if ingested in large amounts, but there is no evidence that it causes health problems through the kinds of minor skin or airborne exposure one might receive from a window frame. As such, aluminum window frames are certainly healthy alternatives to fiberglass or vinyl,
After a month and a half of debate, the Senate has finally confirmed Stephen Johnson to head up the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Johnson, an EPA lifer and the first scientist to be tapped to lead the agency in its three-decade history, must have breathed a sigh of relief after enduring criticism of agency policies from several Democratic Senators.
Scientists from Stanford University and the Monterey Bay Aquarium are calling on fisheries managers to place tighter restrictions on harvests of bluefin tuna from the western Atlantic Ocean, where they say populations have dwindled as much as 80 percent since the 1970s.
