It is a problem of massive plastic proportions — a giant floating debris field, composed mostly of bits and pieces of plastic, in the northwest Pacific Ocean, about a thousands miles off the coast of California. It’s called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and it covers a vast area of hundreds, maybe even thousands, of miles of open ocean
Tag Archives: water
Dogs and the Scent of a Crime: Science or Shaky Evidence?
In detective dramas, a dog’s powerful sense of smell has become a predictable crime solver: the trusty canine takes a sniff of a suspect object and follows the scent, eventually coming to the perpetrator of the evil deed.
Florida Looks at New Ideas for Battling Hurricanes
Hurricane season is two months old and not a single named storm has popped onto the radar. If that makes people complacent, it only makes weather watchers worry even more about what is to come. Officials and insurers are concerned about the ramifications of a “Big One,” and Florida, the most ravaged of states, is looking at several novel approaches to riding out the storms — or even preventing them altogether
Federal Help for Boat Dealers: All at Sea
Should struggling boat dealers get the same sort of bailout from the federal government that is being doled out to the flailing auto industry? The Small Business Administration thinks so.
Expedition Sets Sail to the Great Plastic Vortex
On film, many a desert island castaway has put a message in a bottle and cast it out to sea, hoping it would someday reach land.
Phelps not suited to losing records
When Michael Phelps lost his first major individual competition in four years at the World Championships in Rome it was a defeat which could help define the sport for decades to come.
Looking for a clean beach? Consult the stars
Going to the beach has become a lot like looking for hotel accommodations: If it has a one-star ranking, you know you’re in for nothing but trouble.
Some ignore law to prevent pools from being child deathtraps
Children’s lives are at risk in swimming pools across the country as government agencies waffle on how to enforce a new federal law, child safety advocates say. The law requires new drain covers on pool filtration systems.
Arctic Mystery: Identifying the Great Blob of Alaska
A group of hunters aboard a small boat out of the tiny Alaska village of Wainwright were the first to spot what would eventually be called “the blob.” It was a dark, floating mass stretching for miles through the Chukchi Sea, a frigid and relatively shallow expanse of Arctic Ocean water between Alaska’s northwest coast and the Russian Far East. The goo was fibrous, hairy
Flight recorders located from Yemen crash plane
Investigators have heard a signal from the flight data recorders of the Yemenia Airways plane that crashed last week, they announced Sunday.