Recent Popular Content

President of the Carnegie Institution, Richard A. Meserve, has been elected to the Harvard Board of Overseers—one of two governing bodies of the university...

Carnegie’s Geophysical Laboratory’s newest staff member, Timothy Strobel, will be given the prestigious Jamieson Award on September 26, 2011, from the International Association for the Advancement of High Pressure Science and Technology in Mumbai, India. The Jamieson Award is given to a scientist who has just completed outstanding PhD thesis research or to an exceptional postdoctoral researcher. Strobel’s research focuses on developing new hydrogen-based materials to meet our country’s energy challenges.

In 2004 a very popular study aimed to address climate change by deploying wedges of different existing energy technologies or approaches. According to the study by Robert Socolow and Stephen Pacala, each wedge would avoid one billion tons of carbon (1 GtC) emissions per year after 50 years. The study showed that, at that time, seven wedges could stabilize carbon dioxide emissions relative to what would happen if things remained “business-as-usual.” A new perspective paper from a group including Carnegie’s Ken Caldeira uses the wedge approach to estimate the size of the energy challenge posed by climate change today.

The private sector and an Austrian research institute are chipping in to help support one of the most widely used public biological databases in the world. Although the majority of funding continues to come from the National Science Foundation, The Arabidopsis Information Resource (TAIR) database is now receiving support from other organizations as well. Two corporations have recently signed on as TAIR sponsors: Dow AgroSciences and most recently Syngenta Biotechnology Inc.

Between 2000 and 2004, worldwide CO₂ emissions increased at a rate that is over three times the rate during the 1990s—the rate increased from 1.1 % per year during the 1990s to 3.1% per year in the early 2000s...

A research team, led by Carnegie’s Anna Michalak, has determined that the 2011 record-breaking algal bloom in Lake Erie was triggered by long-term agricultural practices coupled with extreme precipitation, followed by weak lake circulation and warm temperatures. The team also predicts that, unless agricultural policies change, the lake will continue to experience extreme blooms.

Carnegie Institution Geophysical Laboratory director Wesley T. Huntress expressed concerns about the future of America’s Earth and space science in testimony before Congress...

Join a discussion with leading astronomers about how one of the world’s largest telescopes, the Giant Magellan Telescope, will help solve some of the most vexing problems in astronomy today—from the nature of dark energy and dark matter to finding signatures of life on other planets. The event will take place November 20, 2011, at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza, 2025 Avenue of the Stars, Los Angeles, CA, from 1 to 5 PM.