Results tagged “apocalypse” from 60 Second Science

Goddammit, squirrels. One more show of sudden genetic superiority, and I'm going to have to lobby to have you put on the Terrorist Group Watch List.

To protect their winter stores of nuts, gray squirrels have learned how to stage fake burials so that thieves will get stumped when looking to heist their precious cargo of various nutmeats. Dr. Michael Steele of Wilkes University in Pennsylvania found that about a fifth of all nut burials are fake. The incidence goes up when the squirrels believe their stores are under particular threat.

Continue reading 'Sneaky squirrels use fake burials to fool thieves, me' >

The International Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations body tasked with sussing out the severity of forthcoming climate change, has predicted that the Earth will warm 1-4 degrees C by 2100.

Now the International Energy Agency, spurred by unexpectedly rapid emissions growth in China and India, estimates that we are on a collision course with 3 degrees of warming by 2030.

Three degrees C of warming (or 5.4 degrees F) by 2030 would be disastrous.

Continue reading 'As the world burns: scientists project earth will warm at least three times as fast as previously believed' >

Ad copy reads, "It's daylight savings time. Remember to light your Febreze candle one hour earlier."

When I saw this ad in the Sunday newspaper, I couldn't help but notice its striking similarity to a certain global-security bellwether made famous by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.

Maybe Pentagram has both ad accounts?

Or perhaps Febreze is just being forward-thinking with their brand associations. In the event of global thermonuclear apocalypse, they'll have the scented-candle market locked up. (Because nothing hides the odor of fallout and spit-roasted babies like "Meadows & Rain™".)

Yes, the supermassive magma plume beneath Yellowstone National Park is overdue for an eruption, which would dump inches of ash over the entire continent, plunge the globe into a decade-long nuclear winter, and kill a billion people. But that's a small risk to run in return for its real value: keeping the Pacific Northwest earthquake-free.

Beneath Washington and Oregon, the Pacific oceanic crust is crunching into and under the North American continent -- which should result in enough seismic chaos to prevent people from stacking two Legos on top of each other, much less building a worldwide coffee empire. Luckily, the so-called "Yellowstone plume" acts like earth's own Astroglide, lubing up the tectonic plates and ensuring the world's continued access to Pumpkin Spice Lattes.

[via New Scientist]