stratosphere
stoat | September 4, 2011Those with long memories will note that this is a re-post of this from my old blog. I've hoicked it over here because I read Stratospheric Cooling, April 18, 2010, by scienceofdoom who says "Why Is the Stratosphere Expected to Cool from Increases in "Greenhouse" Gases? This is a difficult one to answer with a 30-second soundbite". But I think he is wrong. Now read on.
One of the strongest predictions of global warming is that the stratosphere will cool - unlike the troposphere, which will warm, of course. See the IPCC here for example. This turns out to be not as useful for detecting climate…
stoat | January 21, 2010This is my first contribution for "Ask Stoat", and I'm doing it because it is low hanging fruit :-). I was going to do the even lower-hanging "airbourne fraction" but that will come. This is for Brian.
So, the issue is in the news because of the 2350 / 2035 kerfuffle, and links to Brian's other question, "What do you think of WG II?" I'll answer that one first, because I can think of a cutting answer, which is "I don't". Oh, cruel. But true: when I was in the game, I was interested in WG I stuff, which is to say, the physical basis. Someone has to be interested in impacts and adaption, of…
grrlscientist | April 8, 2009tags: microbiology, astrobiology, new species, Indian Space Research Organization, bacteria
Bacterial colonies.
Image: Hub Testing Laboratory [larger view].
According to a recently published press release, three new species of bacteria have been discovered in the upper stratosphere by Indian scientists in an experiment conducted by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). This discovery lends some credence to the hypothesis that life might have originated elsewhere in the cosmos and was seeded on Earth after colliding with a foreign body, perhaps a comet or asteroid, that was…