Wendy Science

The report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, drawing on three mammoth scientific reports published since September 2013, shows the need for urgent and ambitious action October 26, 2014 | By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent OSLO, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Climate change may have "serious, pervasive and irreversible" impacts on human society and nature, according to a draft U.N. report due for approval this week that says governments still have time to avert the worst. Delegates from more than 100 governments and top scientists meet in Copenhagen on Oct 27-31 to edit the report, meant as the main guide for nations working on a U.N. deal to fight climate change at a summit in Paris in late 2015. They will publish the study on Nov. 2. European Union leaders on Friday agreed to cut emissions by 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030, in a shift from fossil fuels towards renewable energies, and urged other major emitters led by China and the United States to ...

CURIOUS AND CREATIVE “Creativity Is Collective,” by S. Alexander Haslam, Immaculada Adarves-Yorno and Tom Postmes, and enjoyed it very much. I am a partner and creative director at a Toronto-based graphic design firm and always look forward to anything you publish on the subject of creativity. After spending many years participating in and observing the creative process, I found myself searching for explanations as to what makes for a successful and gratifying collaboration. That search led me to a close examination of curiosity and its importance in creativity. Over the past few years I've lectured to designers and students throughout North America about curiosity and written several articles on the subject. Last year I noticed an unusual dynamic while our studio was producing “Bees,” an issue of magazine. The younger designers on our team did not contribute nearly the quality of ideas and energy as our senior designers. In trying to understand why, I isolated several areas where ...

ARCHITECT:Eva Jiricna STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING FIRM:Techniker HEIGHT:62 feet CANTILEVERED STEPS:104 CONCRETE SHRINKAGE:Up to 0.15 percent HIGH-PERFORMANCE CONCRETE SHRINKAGE:Less than 0.06 percent The Miles Stair is a 12-foot-wide that winds through five stories of , a cultural center in London. Staircases typically use surrounding walls for support, but the Miles Stair relies on a core built from a latticework of lightweight stainless steel. Engineers managed to pull off this improbable structure because the steps are built from high-performance concrete, which is stronger, lighter and more stable than regular concrete. Mixed with steel or nylon fibers, high-performance concrete is almost as strong as cast iron. It was invented to fill in gaps in large concrete works such as bridges, but within the past five years, engineers have increasingly used it to built entire structures. It also does not shrink over time like ordinary concrete does, so “what you cast is what you get,” says Matt...

Alan Eustace during his record-breaking ascent into the upper stratosphere on Friday. Courtesy of J. Martin Harris Photography & Paragon Space Development Corporation This morning in Roswell, New Mexico, a spacesuit-clad 57-year-old Google executive, Alan Eustace, strapped into a harness beneath a giant helium balloon and lifted off to new heights in the upper stratosphere. After reaching an altitude of 135,908 feet—more than 25 miles high, with a black sky overhead and a visibly-round planet beneath—Eustace severed his connection to the balloon with a small explosive charge, and fell to Earth. As first reported by John Markoff in the , during his descent Eustace broke the world record for highest-altitude jump, soaring more than a mile higher than the previous record-holder, Austria’s Felix Baumgartner, who ascended to 128,100 feet in October 2012. In his descent Eustace broke the sound barrier, reaching a top speed of more than 800 miles per hour. He safely touched down via para...

Should ebola continue to crop up in the U.S., having fewer people coming to emergency rooms with the similar symptoms of flu will help the public health system respond. Steve Mirsky reports. October 24, 2014 | | “There are only 101 reasons why something as simple as a makes all the sense in the world right now.” is a . Want to help ? Get a flu shot. “Come this winter, the last thing the public health system needs is a whole bunch—meaning hundreds of thousands—of people who have fever with an ill-defined and undifferentiated illness, who could have prevented those febrile illnesses by simply taking a flu shot. Because should Ebola show up more in this country, every emergency room and clinic is going have to be mindful of what does it mean to see someone with a fever and muscle aches and headache and even diarrhea. It would be a wonderful thing to be able to take influenza off the table and not have to worry about that in the midst of everything else.” —Steve Mirsky

The Peripheral G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2014 (($28.95)) Famed speculative-fiction author Gibson writes of a noir reality where technology dominates a society possessing mind-controlled smartphones, an advanced Web that permits time travel, and robots that appear human but are actually mentally remote-controlled by people. In this dark, Big Brother–esque world, the main characters live in near and distant futures connected by a wireless device called “the server.” An unknown employer hires the story's heroine, Flynne, to beta-test a virtual game. While playing, she accidentally witnesses a homicide and soon discovers that the game is actually a window into the future. She has no choice but to traverse time to help solve the whodunit.

Greenhouse gas emissions will be cut by at least 40 percent by 2030, relative to 1990 levels, under the agreement October 24, 2014 | and | Greenhouse gas emissions in the EU have already dropped by almost 20% since 1990. In a move which analysts hope will liven up international climate policy efforts, European Union (EU) leaders have agreed on a set of mid-term climate and energy targets for the world’s third-largest economic bloc. The EU’s new climate and energy policy framework, finalised in the course of an all-night session of the European Council, obliges the bloc’s member states to collectively reduce domestic greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% by 2030, relative to 1990 levels. Unless countries such as China and the US unexpectedly pledge substantially more ambitious targets — in which case Europe would follow suit — the agreed target will form the EU's contribution to a planned global climate agreement early next year. European heads of state also agreed on a p...