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A Undersea View of Our Earth's Geography

The ocean bottom is divided into three major areas: the continental shelf, the continental slope, and the deep ocean basin. The continental shelf extends underwater from each of the major land masses and can best be characterized as the submerged portion of the continents. The shelf has features similar to those we see on land, including hills, ...

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UnderseaEarthsGeography
Science

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar

NASA's premier X-ray observatory was named the Chandra X-ray Observatory in honor of the late Indian-American Nobel laureate, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (pronounced: su/bra/mon'/yon chandra/say/kar). ... Continue reading

SubrahmanyanChandrasekhar
Astronomy

Two Face? Absolutely!

During the Viking missions to Mars in the mid 1970s, the planet was imaged from orbit by the Viking 1 and 2 Orbiters. These spacecraft returned images of regions of the planet that, while similar to ... Continue reading

TwoFaceAbsolutely
Geology

When This Lake 'Burps,' Better Watch Out!

Nearly twenty years ago, two lakes in Cameroon, a country in Africa, 'burped,' killing hundreds of people. What makes a lake burp? Lake Nyos and Lake Monoun are unusual lakes. They each formed in the ... Continue reading

LakeBurps
Physics

Quarks

Quarks are the most fundamental particles that we know of. Both protons and neutrons are made of quarks. We know quarks exist; we have experimental proof. However nobody has been able to isolate them; ... Continue reading

Quarks

GM: Not For General Motors Anymore

GMNotForGeneralMotorsAnymoreGenetically Modified plants have been given genes from other plants or even other species, that make them better able to resist diseases and pests, or more nutritious, or more productive. The list of qualities that can be provided by genetic modification is long and getting longer. Rice has been given a gene to make beta-carotene so children who eat mostly rice will get enough vitamin A. Cotton has been given a gene that makes a bacterial toxin that kills boll weevils, an insect pest that ruins cotton crops.

How is genetic modification done? Thanks to biotechnology, genes from other plants or other species can be inserted directly into the nuclei of plant cells. Cells from the plant you want to modify are grown in a petri dish, the new genes are put in the growth medium and chemically or mechanically prodded to enter the cells. Then the cells are cultured until they form a new plant, just like the original except that it now contains a foreign gene. This is a much faster and more versatile way of adding new characteristics to a plant than the old method of selective breeding.

But GM crops are very controversial. Many people think they promise better nutrition, cheaper food, and less pesticide use. But many other people fear that GM plants may escape from farmlands into wild areas, or that some people may turn out to be allergic to the 'foreign' substances they contain, or that the companies that produce GM seeds will have too much power.