Homeland Security commits to fight climate change and “melting Arctic ice”. Audi’s 2010 ‘Green Police’ spoof commercial may not be far off becoming reality with the announcement that the Department of Homeland Security is creating new “environmental justice” units that will be empowered to oversee regulations in conjunction with local government. In its Environmental Justice Strategy... 

Indonesia’s Geophysical Agency has registered an 8.9 magnitude earthquake in the Aceh region, off the coast of northern Sumatra. A tsunami warning has been issued, the US Geological Survey reports. Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency is sending a rescue team to Aceh, after the quake knocked out the province’s electricity and sent locals scrambling for higher ground, Reuters reports. Waves... 

Damage caused by strong storm in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday morning, April 05, 2012 At least 14 people have died and more than 20 others have been injured in Argentina following Wednesday night severe storms in the province of Buenos Aires and surrounding regions. Six people were crushed and one was electrocuted near capital Buenos Aires, while three others died in a neighborhood to the south... 

A new study has revealed that a little amount of crop pesticides is enough to harm bumblebees and honeybees, and interfere with their homing abilities. British and French researchers conducted two studies to find the reasons for the rapid dropping of bee populations in recent years. Scientists believe the reason was partly related to a phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder. They also suggest... 

Imagine a cloth that gets stronger after it is damaged. That is what scientists recently discovered when probing the strength of garden spider webs. A research team tested the resistance of a spider web’s supporting radial threads and compared that with the thinner spiral threads. They found that placing a certain amount of pressure on just one thread caused it to suddenly stiffen and distribute... 

The parents and their three children, all 2 or under, including one buckled in a car seat, held hands on the hallway floor of their neighbor’s mobile home, praying a fast-approaching storm would show them mercy. Mother Nature answered with a fierce tornado, which violently swept them up, separated them and deposited them about 100 yards away. Four of their limp bodies were found soon thereafter.... 

Australians build up a levee to prevent flood waters in the New South Wales town of Charleville on February 4, 2012. Nearly 9,000 people have been ordered to leave their homes in Australia’s flood-stricken south, where the military has joined emergency services to evacuate the residents. Days of heavy rain have caused flooding across three Australian states of New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria... 

An unsettling report prepared by Viktor Seleznyov, director of the Geophysical Institute at the Siberian branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SB RAS), on the 6.8 magnitude earthquake that struck the Tyva Republic in Russia’s East Siberia earlier today warns that more seismic activity should be expected within the coming weeks and that this event is part of an ever increasing body of evidence... 

A juvenile Brookesia micra chameleon sits on the head of a match. Scientists say a chameleon species that has been recently discovered on a tiny island off Madagascar is the smallest of its kind ever found. A team of scientists has found four new chameleon species in northern Madagascar including Brookesia micra, which is small enough to easily perch on a match head. As one of the world’s smallest... 

Around 300,000 organic farmers think that Monsanto, the biotech giant known for genetically modifying Mother Nature’s handwork for profit and pushing over the little guys all the while, is pretty seedy. Now a judge in New York is debating if Monsanto’s questionable methods will go before a jury. Judge Naomi Buchwald of the Southern District Court of New York says she will have a decision on March... 

From an unusual method, the study concluded that stripes serve as the best insect repellent… The stripe pattern of three species of zebra was copied to categorically study the reflection of light. Hungarian and Swedish researchers conducted an unusual study that culminated in a good hypothesis about the function of zebra stripes. According to the team, the patterning would be an antidote against... 

It took researches 30 years of drilling through a four-kilometer-thick ice to reach the renowned subglacial lake. Most importantly, million years-old secrets will be unveiled without causing harm to the lake’s ecosystem. ­“Yesterday [on Sunday] our scientists at the Vostok polar station in the Antarctic completed drilling at depths of 3,768 meters and reached surface of the subglacial lake,”... 

People take pictures of waves on a frozen sea in Constanta, 230 kilometres east from Bucharest, Romania on February 1, 2012 At least 223 people have died during a seven-day cold spell in eastern and central Europe where temperatures are expected to plummet even further over the weekend. Most of the victims are from the European Union’s poorest countries, including Ukraine with as many as 101... 

In mountain permafrost in Mamontovaya, Yakutia (Siberia), Russian researchers discovered a previously unknown species of bacteria. Mice injected in the body with a solution containing these organisms, were healthier and lived longer than their counterparts. Have the scientists discovered the secrets of immortality? The strange bacillus found in mammoth Mountain in the Siberian Republic of Yakutia... 

Seagulls fly over frozen sea as icicles covers a fence in the city of Constanta, 230 kilometers east of the Romanian capital Bucharest, on February 1, 2012. Severe cold spell has killed at least 83 people in Europe as temperatures dropped to below minus 30C (minus 22F) in some eastern regions of the continent. Ukrainian officials on Wednesday reported that the number of the deaths attributed to the...