Potential for Storing Meltwater Important for Calculating Sea-Level Rise
Researchers at the University of Utah have discovered a new aquifer in the Greenland Ice Sheet that holds liquid water all year long in the otherwise perpetually frozen winter landscape. The aquifer is extensive, covering 27,000 square miles.
The reservoir is known as a “perennial firn aquifer” because water persists within the firn – layers of snow and ice that don’t melt for at least one season. Researchers believe it figures significantly in understanding the contribution of snowmelt and ice melt to rising sea levels. (more…)
Policy-makers have been warned that premature military action in Syria could lead to uncontrolled access to weapons of mass destruction and a prolonged, bitter insurgency following any intervention that resulted in the sudden collapse of the Syrian security forces.
Despite the desire to prevent further bloodshed, taking direct action to try to end the conflict could be the “worst option” and could only serve to further destabilise the situation in the volatile country.
General (Retd) Professor Sir Paul Newton co-wrote the report alongside distinguished Middle Eastern scholars at the University of Exeter’s Strategy and Security Institute, of which he is Director. He said: “Although it may appear attractive in the short-term, the one scenario that must be avoided is sudden, uncontrolled state collapse. This may seem like a paradox given the pressing need to end humanitarian suffering and the risk of the conflict spreading. However, it could be catastrophic. If unmanaged disintegration of the Syrian state were to occur, access to weapons of mass destruction would be uncontrolled.” (more…)
As a researcher, Yale psychologist June Gruber has confirmed the many positive physical, social and psychological benefits of human happiness.
While working as a clinical scientist at the University of California-Berkeley, however, she witnessed extreme and damaging bouts of positive emotion during periods of mania in bipolar disorder. (more…)
