40 articles from SATURDAY 10.8.2019

Why stress and anxiety aren't always bad

People generally think of stress and anxiety as negative concepts, but while both stress and anxiety can reach unhealthy levels, psychologists have long known that both are unavoidable -- and that they often play a helpful, not harmful, role in our daily lives.

Amid protest, Hawaii astronomers lose observation time

This is some of the research astronomers say they missed out on as a protest blocked the road to Hawaii's tallest mountain, one of the world's premier sites for studying the skies. Astronomers said Friday they will attempt to resume observations, but they have already lost four weeks of viewing — and in some cases, they won't be able to make up the missed research. Astronomers across 11...

Germany to suspend Amazon aid to Brazil

Germany said Saturday it would suspend Brazilian aid aimed at helping protect the Amazon forest in light of data that showed deforestation had surged since President Jair Bolsonaro took office. "Brazilian government policies in the Amazon raise doubts about continued, sustained declines in the rate of deforestation," Environment Minister Svenja Schulze told the television news show Tagesspiegel....

Greta Thunberg, on German coal mine visit, questions 2038 fuel exit date

Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg, on a visit to a German anti-coal protest camp, questioned whether the country should continue to use the fuel to generate power for another 20 years as the government plans. Thunberg, the most visible spokeswoman of the Fridays for Future movement of students striking to demand climate action, was talking to reporters at the western German Hambach...

Greta Thunberg, on German coal mine visit, questions 2038 fuel exit date

Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg, on a visit to a German anti-coal protest camp, questioned whether the country should continue to use the fuel to generate power for another 20 years as the government plans. Thunberg, the most visible spokeswoman of the Fridays for Future movement of students striking to demand climate action, was talking to reporters at the western German Hambach...

Damage to Germany's storied forests stokes climate debate

Germany's forests — long a source of pride and national identity — are feeling the heat. Officials say droughts, wildfires and hungry beetles destroyed 110,000 hectares (270,000 acres) of forest in Germany in 2018 and the damage this year could be even worse. The sight of bare trees has stoked debate about the impact of climate change and what measures this heavily industrialized nation...

Do we have a right to know if we could have the Huntington’s disease gene?

Not telling your child that this hereditary condition is in the family can be devastating later onOn a lazy Sunday morning in May last year, Isobel Lloyd was at her boyfriend’s house, having coffee with his mum. The conversation had worked around to Lloyd’s grandma – her mother’s mother – who’d died in her 50s, when Lloyd was very young. Lloyd’s only memories of her had been hospice...

‘Perhaps the most important isotope’: how carbon-14 revolutionised science

The discovery that carbon atoms act as a marker of time of death transformed everything from biochemistry to oceanography – but the breakthrough nearly didn’t happenMartin Kamen had worked for three days and three nights without sleep. The US chemist was finishing off a project in which he and a colleague, Sam Ruben, had bombarded a piece of graphite with subatomic particles. The aim of their...

Greenland’s Rapid Melting Is a Hugely Underplayed Story

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- The announcement that 11 billion tons dropped off  the Greenland Ice Sheet in one day turned out to be a made-for-television example of the effects of climate change.  Dramatic videos of water pouring off the glaciers went viral.  But apart from the occasional spectacular image, it’s hard to focus the attention of the news media on the Greenland Ice Sheet.  And...

Russia says five died in missile test explosion

Russia's nuclear agency on Saturday said an explosion at an Arctic missile testing site had killed five of its staff after the military had put the toll at two. In a statement, Rosatom said the accident killed five of its staff and injured three, who suffered burns and other injuries. The statement came after authorities in a nearby city said the accident had caused a spike in radiation levels...