This post contributed by Nadine Lymn, ESA Director of Public Affairs Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, coastlines are not circles, and bark is not smooth, nor does lightning travel in a straight line. —Mandelbrot, The Fractal Geometry of Nature As the year 2010 draws to a close and we find ourselves in the midst of winter’s icy grip,…

Here are some highlights from the latest ESA Policy News by Science Policy Analyst Terence Houston.

Several proposals for geoengineering projects are being explored–including cloud seeding, ocean iron fertilization and afforestation–as a plan for mitigating climate change. Monica Kanojia explores these methods and the current economic and technological issues surrounding them.

When it comes to information about climate change, we want to believe that most people make rational, informed decisions based on a careful analysis of data. The truth for many people, though, is that their main source for climate change information is their local broadcast meteorologist. Unfortunately, this information often comes in the few seconds before or after a weathercast when a news anchor might ask the meteorologist if an unusually warm winter day is a “sure sign of global warming.”

 This post contributed by Nadine Lymn, ESA Director of Public Affairs I caught the front end of today’s Energy Innovation 2010 Conference in Washington, DC featuring a range of individuals involved or thinking about national and global energy.  Speakers included the President and CEO of Securing  America’s Future Energy, the Executive Director of the Department of Defense’s Strategic Environmental R&D…

Ecological science comes in all shapes and sizes, and holiday gift-giving is no exception. If you prefer your celebrations to be infused with science, then you might enjoy these holiday gift ideas as well. Who knows, maybe friends and relatives will learn a little bit about ecology too! Games: For those of us who would like to include science in…

Here are some highlights from the latest ESA Policy News by Science Policy Analyst Terence Houston.  Read the full Policy News here. HOUSE: GOP NAMES COMMITTEE CHAIRS House Republican leaders on Tuesday, Dec. 7 announced their roster of committee chairmen, all of whom have vowed to conduct vigorous oversight of the Obama Administration. Rep. Ralph Hall (R-TX), a noted climate…

Go to Google Images and search for “science.” What are the results? More than likely, the search will come up with beakers, protons, lab coats, double helixes, pulsars, microscopes and perhaps a smattering of trees and images of the globe. Photographs of researchers boot-high in streams collecting samples, for instance, or of a Cayman Island blue iguana in its natural habitat, would probably be few and far between. But images such as these—which show an aspect of the biological sciences, environmental processes or a subject of ecological research—rarely show up, even though they are of course also science.

The House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming met one last time December 1, 2010 for a hearing entitled, “Not Going Away: America’s Energy Security, Jobs and Climate Challenges.” Committee Chairman Edward Markey described it as a “fitting title for issues that will be central to the health and survival of our planet and our economy for decades and centuries to follow.” The final hearing of the Committee, formed under the direction of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in early 2007, consisted of testimony both familiar and unique to the ongoing debate over the direction of climate policy.

The following is a story, but it describes a real scientific process: the relationship between acorns, mice, ticks and a bacterium. On a chilly November night, in a deciduous forest in the eastern U.S., a mouse prepares for the season ahead. More specifically, a female white-footed mouse—competing with other mice and animals for acorns—is reaping the fruits from a mast year: The oak trees in the region produced a generous blanket of acorns across the forest floor this autumn.

A builder rethinks standards by designing homes from reclaimed and recycled materials, international climate change awareness expressed through satellite-captured art, sharks turn at high speeds by adjusting their scales, researchers develop a computer game for citizen scientists and ancient rainforest fragmentation led to the rise of dinosaurs. Here is the latest in ecological science from November.

Here are some highlights from the latest ESA Policy News by ESA’s Science Policy Analyst, Terence Houston.