Short of a global economic collapse or the construction of a new nuclear power plant everyday, stabilizing or reducing greenhouse gas emissions is impossible, says University of Utah atmospheric scientist Tim Garrett.

In his new Climatic Change study – which is based on the concept that physics can be used to characterize the evolution of civilization – Garrett argues that energy conservation or efficiency doesn't really save energy, but instead spurs economic growth and accelerates energy consumption.

While most of the proposals put forth to address climate change so far have called on governments to play a more active role in society, perhaps one of the best things they could do is promote free trade and then get out of the way. 

According to research conducted by an economists at Oregon State University, wealthier countries with competitive crop production and few trade barriers would fare the best if climate change, weather events or other factors cause yields of grain and oilseed crops to become more volatile.

By these criteria, the United States is poised to do well, but France would come out on top, according to the study of 21 countries conducted by economists at Oregon State University.

I recently re-read a classic piece by J.L. Mackie (April 1955), entitled “Evil and Omnipotence,” a stupendous philosophical essay about why theologians like Richard Swinburne are forced by their belief in an omnipotent, omnibenevelont and omnipowerful god into incredible and rather painful feats of mental gymnastics. One of Mackie’s minor points in the essay is that the so-called “free will defense” for the existence of evil in the world is problematic because the concept of free will itself is incoherent. Although, sometimes accusations of incoherence are thrown around a bit too easily in philosophy, I think this one has the potential to stick.

In today's political hotbed of ideological divisions there seems to be no end to the catch phrases that are used to convey some sentiment regarding the evils of government.  A popular bumper-sticker notes "I love my country, but I fear my government".

What does that even mean?  What is a country without a government?  It certainly can't be so trivial as to pronounce a love for the square of dirt someone is standing on, so what is this statement supposed to represent?  

Researchers at the City College of New York say they have developed a new way to generate power for planes and automobiles using piezoelectrics.  Piezoelectrics convert the kinetic energy of motion into electricity. The researchers will present their concept later this month at the 62nd Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society's (APS) Division of Fluid Dynamics.

FOXP2 is known as “the language gene.” When it goes wrong, as it famously did for a family in England, it can cause severe deficits in language ability. In the “KE family" in England, for instance, several family members carry a defective mutation of the gene and have trouble with grammar and writing, and with making the right face and mouth movements for normal speech.  There’s a nice write-up on the gene at “Not Exactly Rocket Science” 

According to a recent GENETICS study, a family of genes (1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate synthase, or ACS genes) are responsible for production of ethylene and since this gas affects many aspects of plant development, it could lay the foundation for future genetic manipulation that could make plants disease resistant, able to survive and thrive in difficult terrain, increase yields, and other useful agronomical outcomes.

The discovery was made with the weed Arabidopsis thaliana but is applicable to plants used in agriculture, they say.

The Paleontologist community in China and around the world are all aflutter over a recent find in the Erlian Basin of Inner Mongolia. Known more for its heavy oil potential and favorite export - pollution, northeastern China is the preferred stomping ground for the savvy petroleum geologist.

As a complete aside, it also boasts the prettiest portion of the gene pool, or so says one of my stomping friends having explored much of Asia. So, home to pretty women today and, as it would seem, an enormous bird-like dinosaur some 70 million years ago.  Fancy that.

A nifty news story about students in a Florida classroom watching a giant squid dissected in Melbourne, Australia, led me to hunt down an article about the dissection itself. Was it really a giant squid, I wondered wearily, or merely a very large squid?

It was indeed a true giant squid! And the article is quite good, gushing alliteratively about "the museum's mollusc master" using "surgical sweeps of the scalpel" to investigate. Just a few points to clarify: