Monthly Archives: November 2011

Music – or language in action?

In present-day Western cultures, we tend to underestimate the remarkable overlap between music and language in the functions they fulfil as communicative media. At first glance, music seems to us quite different from language; after all, we clearly cannot exchange information through music as we do through language. But if we shift our cultural perspective, […] … learn more→

China’s appetite for wood takes a heavy toll on forests

In Chinese folklore, a dragon symbolizes strength. It is an apt icon for a nation whose rise as an economic superpower has been nothing short of meteoric. While China’s stunning economic advances have come at significant environmental cost, the boom has been a plus in a few realms. The country is investing avidly in green […] … learn more→

Packing power

The sun doesn\’t always shine and the breeze doesn\’t always blow and therein lie perhaps the biggest hurdles to making wind and solar power usable on a grand scale. If only there were an efficient, durable, high-power, rechargeable battery we could use to store large quantities of excess power generated on windy or sunny days […] … learn more→

Google phases out clean energy R&D in favor of deployment

Media incorrectly report Google is abandoning renewables. In fact, the company is increasing clean energy investments. Buried at the bottom of an innocuous “spring cleaning” post on Google’s blog yesterday, the internet giant made a very important announcement: it will stop funding its Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal (RE … learn more→

The holiday hiring myth

The weeks between Thanksgiving and the new year are often perceived as the job-seeking equivalent of a lump of coal in your stocking. A perception persists that hiring managers push off hiring until January either to save money before they close the books on the old year’s budget or to avoid the administrative hassle associated […] … learn more→

There is a real climategate out there

Emails from the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit have once again been hacked and released on the internet. The timing is similar to the “climategate” scandal of 2009, with emails published just before an important UN climate conference. Does this mean the science is in doubt? Quite the opposite, says Stephan Lewandowsky. An […] … learn more→

Future Aussie trucking: silent and green

RMIT University researchers have developed Australia\’s first hydrogen fuel cell truck, demonstrating how vehicle design and new sustainable technologies can make freight transport clean, green and silent. The small-scale model – an exact replica of the Scania Highline series – is operated by remote control and simulates the performance of a long-haul diesel truck, typically […] … learn more→

Have you heard the one about the climate scientists’ emails? (Getting tired of the same joke?)

Stop me if you’ve heard this one: computer hackers steal thousands of emails among climate change scientists from a university. They release the emails publicly just days before important climate change negotiations are set to begin. Climate change-denying bloggers and their friends in Congress take the emails out of context to accuse climate researchers of […] … learn more→

Why educators should join Twitter

In late July I decided to join Twitter. To be perfectly honest with you I had no idea what I was supposed to do when I got on there but I heard so much about it I thought it would be a worthwhile experience. The only concern was that we have so many distractions already […] … learn more→