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  • Kansas Legislator Proposes Bill to Outlaw Sustainability Education
    A bill has been introduced in the Kansas legislature this week that would prohibit the promotion of ...Read more

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    Kansas Legislator Proposes Bill to Outlaw Sustainability Education

    A bill has been introduced in the Kansas legislature this week that would prohibit the promotion of sustainability. Here is a link to the one-page bill: http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2013_14/measures/documents/hb2366_00_0000.pdf. See report on Bloomberg News.
  • Earth's Center Is 1,000 Degrees Hotter Than Previously Thought, Synchrotron X-Ray Experiment Shows
    Scientists have determined the temperature near the Earth’s center to be 6000 degrees Celsius, 1000 ...Read more

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    Earth's Center Is 1,000 Degrees Hotter Than Previously Thought, Synchrotron X-Ray Experiment Shows

    Scientists have determined the temperature near the Earth’s center to be 6000 degrees Celsius, 1000 degrees hotter than in a previous experiment run 20 years ago. These measurements confirm geophysical models that the temperature difference between the solid core and the mantle above, must be at least 1500 degrees to explain why the Earth has a magnetic field. For more information about this study, see the press release from the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility.
  • Ocean Volcanic Rocks Contain Samples of Recycled Crust
    Scientists have long believed that lava erupted from certain oceanic volcanoes contains materials fr...Read more

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    Ocean Volcanic Rocks Contain Samples of Recycled Crust

    Scientists have long believed that lava erupted from certain oceanic volcanoes contains materials from the early Earth’s crust. But decisive evidence for this phenomenon has proven elusive. New research from a team including Carnegie’s Erik Hauri demonstrates that oceanic volcanic rocks contain samples of recycled crust dating back to the Archean era 2.5 billion years ago. Their work is published in Nature. Oceanic crust sinks into the Earth’s mantle at so-called subduction zones, where two plates come together. Much of what happens to the crust during this journey is unknown. Model-dependent studies for how long subducted material can exist in the mantle are uncertain and evidence of very old crust returning to Earth’s surface via upwellings of magma has not been found until now. For more information about these results, see the press release from the Carnegie Institution.
Robert Scott
Public domain image from Wikipedia

Robert Scott

Robert Falcon Scott was an Antarctic explorer, who came in second in a famous "South Pole Race" with Roald Amundsen. Unfortunately, he died while returning from the pole. Scott became a tragic hero of the age of Antarctic exploration.

Robert Scott was born in 1868 in England. He left home at the age of 13 to join the Royal Navy and begin his training. From 1901-1904, Scott commanded the National Antarctic Expedition in which Ernest Shackleton also took part.

In 1910, Scott embarked on his second polar expedition. Soon he found out that Roald Amundsen was also heading for South Pole. The expedition spent a year preparing to reach the pole and making scientific observations. Finally, Scott with four other men reached the South Pole in January 1912, where they discovered that Amundsen has been there a month earlier. On their way back, they suffered from unusually cold weather, frostbite and lack of supplies. Finally, on March 29, Scott made the last entry in his diary: "We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker of course and the end cannot be far.It seems a pity, but I do not think that I can write more. R. Scott. For God's sake look after our people". The tent with bodies of Robert Scott and two of his companions was found eight month later by a search party.

When the news of their tragic death reached Britain, Scott and his companions became national heroes. The race between Scott and Amundsen became a subject of many books and films, and the discussion about reasons for Scott's failure still continues.

Last modified April 29, 2008 by Becca Hatheway.

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