If the 20th century was an expansive era seemingly without boundaries--a time of jet planes, space travel and the Internet--the early years of the 21st have showed us the limits of our small world. Regional blackouts remind us that the flow of energy we used to take for granted may be in tight supply. The once mighty Colorado River, tapped by thirsty metropolises of the desert West, no longer reaches the ocean. Oil is so hard to find that new wells extend many kilometers underneath the seafloor. The boundless atmosphere is now reeling from two centuries’ worth of greenhouse gas emissions. Even life itself seems to be running out, as biologists warn that we are in the midst of a global extinction event comparable to the last throes of the dinosaurs.The constraints on our resources and environment--compounded by the rise of the middle class in nations such as China and India--will shape the rest of this century and beyond. Here is a visual accounting of what we have left to work with, a map of our resources plotted against time. [More] China - India - Energy - Colorado River - Earth

Laying Odds on the Apocalypse: Experts Assess Doomsday (preview)

With all due respect to T. S. Eliot, maybe the world really does end with a bang, not a whimper. Whether of our own creation (nuclear holocaust) or of nature’s (asteroid impact), plenty of cataclysms could doom civilization--perhaps even putting the survival of the species in jeopardy. We assessed the likelihood of several doomsday scenarios, from oft-discussed threats such as climate change to more fanciful ideas such as quantum fluctuations that would destroy our universe. The probabilities listed here are not scientific fact--an impossible goal when estimating the possibility of unprecedented events--but informed conjecture based on researchers’ expert opinions. We also relied on those opinions to approximate how catastrophic each event would be, ranging from 1 (localized chaos) to 10 (good-bye, universe). KILLER PANDEMIC [More] Climate change - Environment - T. S. Eliot - Species - Probability

Death to Humans! Visions of the Apocalypse in Movies and Literature

All things must come to an end, but we humans have an endless fascination with the inevitable. Our September 2010 special issue and our web exclusives explore some of those endings. Writers and filmmakers, of course, have been tackling apocalyptic themes for decades, at times using them to highlight emotional aspects of sacrifice, heroism and dedication, to varying degrees of success. [More] Apocalypse - Human - Art - Death - Writers Resources

One Big Family: Exoplanet System Hosts at Least 5, and Possibly 7, New Worlds

A team of European astronomers has located what may be the largest collection of planets discovered to date outside our own solar system. [More] Extrasolar planet - Solar System - Astronomy - High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher - Technology

The Paradox of Time: Why It Can't Stop, But Must (preview)

In our experience, nothing ever really ends. When we die, our bodies decay and the material in them returns to the earth and the air, allowing for the creation of new life. We live on in what comes after. But will that always be the case? Might there come a point sometime in the future when there is no “after”? Depressingly, modern physics suggests the answer is yes. Time itself could end. All activity would cease, and there would be no renewal or recovery. The end of time would be the end of endings.This grisly prospect was an unanticipated prediction of Einstein’s general theory of relativity, which provides our modern understanding of gravity. Before that theory, most physicists and philosophers thought time was a universal drumbeat, a steady rhythm that the cosmos marches to, never varying, wavering or stopping. Einstein showed that the universe is more like a big polyrhythmic jam session. Time can slow down, or stretch out, or let it rip. When we feel the force of gravity, we are feeling time’s rhythmic improvisation; falling objects are drawn to places where time passes more slowly. Time not only affects what matter does but also responds to what matter is doing, like drummers and dancers firing one another up into a rhythmic frenzy. When things get out of hand, though, time can go up in smoke like an overexcited drummer who spontaneously combusts. [More] Physics - Gravitation - Albert Einstein - General relativity - Alternative

Distant astrophysical beacons reveal masses of the solar system's planets

Electromagnetic pulses from far-flung celestial objects can provide a sort of scale with which to gauge the mass of the planets, according to a new study. [More] Solar System - Mass - Astronomy - Astronomical object - Extrasolar planet

IceCube neutrino observatory nears completion

In December 2010, IceCube -- the world's first kilometer-scale neutrino observatory, located beneath the Antarctic ice -- will finally be completed after two decades of planning. A new article provides a comprehensive description of the observatory, its instrumentation, and its scientific mission

Astronomers find potassium in giant planet's atmosphere

Astronomers have analyzed light passing through the upper atmosphere of the giant planet HD 80606 b, about 190 light years from Earth, and determined that its atmosphere contains the element potassium.

Navigation satellites contend with stormy Sun

Just as we grow used to satellite navigation in everyday life, media reports argue that a coming surge in solar activity could render satnav devices useless, perhaps even frying satellites themselves. Is it true? No.

Ultraviolet source helps NASA spacecraft measure the origins of space weather

With a brilliant, finely tuned spark of ultraviolet light, a physicist has helped NASA scientists successfully position a crucial UV sensor inside a space-borne instrument to observe a "hidden" layer of the Sun where violent space weather can originate.

Recipe for water: Just add starlight

The European Space Agency's Herschel infrared space observatory has discovered that ultraviolet starlight is the key ingredient for making water in space. It is the only explanation for why a dying star is surrounded by a gigantic cloud of hot water vapor.

Did Viking Mars landers find life's building blocks? Missing piece inspires new look at puzzle

Experiments prompted by a 2008 surprise from NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander suggest that soil examined by NASA's Viking Mars landers in 1976 may have contained carbon-based chemical building blocks of life.

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