Here are a few science-related news articles that recently caught my eye...

1. Pole Position
2. Name of Greenland Becoming Less Paradoxical
3. Not Until Washington D. C. is Under Water
4. Mount Manaro Awakens
5. Science the Big Loser in U.S. Schools

Pole Position

Although the axis of Earth's rotation corresponds to fixed points on the surface of the planet, the magnetic poles (the things your compass points to) do not. They tend to drift around and occasionally swap positions. Movement of the north magnetic pole (currently away from Alaska and toward Siberia) has increased over the last 100 years. As the auroras appear over the magnetic pole it is possible that Alaskans may no longer see the displays in 50 years if the movement is maintained.

From Earth's Magnetic Pole Drifting Quickly (AP via Yahoo! News):

..."This may be part of a normal oscillation and it will eventually migrate back toward Canada," Joseph Stoner, a paleomagnetist at Oregon State University, said Thursday at an American Geophysical Union meeting.

Previous studies have shown that the strength of the Earth's magnetic shield has decreased 10 percent over the past 150 years. During the same period, the north magnetic pole wandered about 685 miles out into the Arctic, according to a new analysis by Stoner...

Name of Greenland Becoming Less Paradoxical

When I was a kid I used to think it funny that Greenland was mostly ice, while Iceland was not (about 81% of Greenland is glaciated versus 10% for Iceland), but lately the glaciers of Greenland have been retreating at an accelerated pace. The cause appears to be climate change and this bodes poorly for those concerned about rising sea levels.

From Scientists: Greenland Glaciers Retreating (AP via Yahoo! News):

...One of the glaciers, Kangerdlugssuaq, is currently moving about 9 miles a year compared to 3 miles a year in 2001, said Gordon Hamilton of the University of Maine's Climate Change Institute...

..."It's quite a staggering rate of increase," Hamilton said at the American Geophysical Union annual meeting.

Glaciers play a major role in discharging water into oceans. Sea levels have swelled globally an estimated 4 inches to 8 inches during the past century due to melting glaciers and polar ice — enough to cause some places to be awash at high tide or during severe storms.

Melting of Greenland ice and calving of icebergs from glaciers is responsible for about 7 percent of the annual rise in global sea level...

Not Until Washington D. C. is Under Water

In related news, our government once again turns down an invitation to join talks on climate change. I understand the concern that reducing greenhouse gas emissions is not easy, and will cost money and impact our economy, but when will it sink in that the alternatives are probably not too good for the economy either? Personally, I am very glad that most of Washington D.C. is on low-lying land...

From U.S. Rejects New Talks on Climate Change (AP via Yahoo! News):

The United States on Wednesday rejected a Canadian bid to draw Washington into future global talks on climate change, a new round that would extend mandatory cutbacks in carbon emissions.

"It is our belief that progress cannot be made through these formalized discussions," U.S. delegation head Paula Dobriansky told reporters as a two-week U.N. climate conference...

Mount Manaro Awakens

Mount Manaro is a volcano on Ambae Island (also known as Aoba Island) located in the South Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu, it features a crater lake known as Lake Vui, and it last erupted in 1995. It has recently begun belching clouds of steam again. Mount Manaro is considered one of the world's top ten most dangerous volcanoes in terms of the impact it could have on people living near it. This is because of the presence of a large body of water in the crater. Such volcanoes can sometimes undergo a phreatic eruption, a phenomenon that occurs when hot magma comes in contact with surface water causing an instantaneous steam explosion. In Mount Manaro's case this would likely result in landslides and tsunamis affecting other islands in the archipelago. Fortunately vulcanologists feel that the mountain's current level of activity is not a cause for alarm. Needless to say, the islanders are pretty nervous about it.

From Vanuatu Volcano Bursts Into Life (AP via Yahoo! News):

...About half of Ambae Island's 10,000 inhabitants have fled their huts built on Mount Manaro's jungle-covered slopes, and four ships are anchored offshore ready to evacuate the rest if necessary...

...vulcanologist, Brad Scott, said his data suggested it is unlikely the volcano will blow. If a large eruption were about to occur "we would see large-scale deformation at the summit, ... the (lake) water level rising, ... ground cracking, high temperatures. ... And we've not seen anything like that at all," he said, surrounded by curious children.

The most likely scenario was that the volcano would continue "like it is for some days or weeks," added Scott, of New Zealand's Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences...

...About 100 villagers sheltering Thursday from the tropical sun under a spreading tree applauded another vulcanologist, Charlie Douglas, as he told them the volcano's readings have been relatively stable for four days...

..."Still we are afraid, we're really frightened ... And if it (begins) erupting very strong ... we are ready to move out from our island," [islander Rosalyn] Garae said.

"We (will be) very sorry to leave our island, but we want to save our people," she added.

Good luck Rosalyn. I'm hoping that your volcano settles down.

Science the Big Loser in U.S. Schools

Given our nation's return to reading, writing, and 'rithmetic, our science scores are suffering. I weep for our culture and for reason--the fourth, forgotten, "R".

From Report Says States Aim Low in Science Classes (New York Times):

Nearly half the states are doing a poor job of setting high academic standards for science in public schools, according to a new report that examined science in anticipation of 2007, when states will be required to administer tests in the subject under President Bush's signature education law.

The report, released Wednesday by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, suggests that the focus on reading and math as required subjects for testing under the federal law, No Child Left Behind, has turned attention away from science, contributing to a failure of American children to stay competitive in science with their counterparts abroad.

The report also appears to support concerns raised by a growing number of university officials and corporate executives, who say that the failure to produce students well-prepared in science is undermining the country's production of scientists and engineers and putting the nation's economic future in jeopardy...

...The report set out to identify how states set academic standards for science, asking whether their courses include suitably challenging content, whether they are properly organized and whether they incorporate "pseudoscientific fads or politics," a reference to the recent drive to teach intelligent design as an alternative explanation to evolution.

The results, a grade ranking for each state and the District of Columbia, serve as a marker for progress as the next phase of the No Child Left Behind law approaches.

Starting with the 2007-2008 academic year, science will become a subject that students will be tested on at least once in grades 3-5, once in grades 6-9 and once in grades 10-12 - although the results will not be used to measure whether a school has made "adequate yearly progress," as is the case with reading and math. Schools that fail to make progress are subject to sanctions...

...In a separate assessment of how states are currently teaching evolution, the authors awarded 22 states a D or F, with Kansas winning a special distinction, F minus, for its recent decision to redefine science so that it would not be explicitly limited to natural explanations, and allow for the teaching of alternative theories, an opening to consideration of intelligent design.

The report cited mounting "religious and political pressures" over the last five years as undermining the teaching of evolution...

"In general," [Paul R. Gross, the report's chief author] said, "science education is not good enough now in the context of what people need to know in a reasonably effective way in our culture."