
IEEE Spectrum - 2 days 6 hours ago
Construction underway on a remote island nearly 400 kilometers west of India's mainland could demonstrate, for the first time, the commercial viability of a vast, untapped renewable resource: the ocean's thermal layers. Here, on the Lakshadweep Archipelago, surface waters are more than 20 C warmer than the depths below, and with the right equipment that temperature differential can be exploited to generate electricity. Known as ocean thermal energy conversion, or OTEC, such power plants...

Retraction Watch - 2 days 6 hours ago
The journal PeerJ has retracted a study that attempted to capture tourists' "authentic responses" to venomous snakes by putting plastic models and dead vipers around popular hiking destinations and secretly watching how people reacted to the encounters. Study author Angel Valentinov Dyugmedzhiev of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences assessed their reactions from a few meters … Continue reading PeerJ retracts study that secretly observed tourists' reactions to snakes...

Australian Geographic - 2 days 13 hours ago
Graceful, intelligent and mysterious, manta rays are among the ocean's most extraordinary creatures. The post Ray of hope appeared first on Australian Geographic .