Category Archives: Technology

Energy-Efficient Lights Could be Making Light Pollution Worse

Earth’s city lights. Image by Craig Mayhew and Robert Simmon/NASA GSFC.

City lights drive back the night a little more each year, disrupting ecological cycles, and the switch from orange-yellow sodium lights to bluish-white LEDs might be making the problem worse.

Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
Artificial Light Pollution On The Rise Globally, LEDs Might Be Making It Worse

Arizona Fireball Captures Regional Attention

Phoenix CityCam caught the flash of light around 8:30 p.m. on Nov. 14, 2017. Image courtesy Phoenix.gov/CityCam.

Arizonans were treated to an unusual spectacle Tuesday night as a fireball flashed across the sky around 8:30 p.m.

The American Meteor Society received reports from six states describing the object, which flashed brighter than the full moon before quickly fizzling out.

Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
Arizona Fireball Visible Across 6 States

The Potential Human Cost of Waiting For Perfect Self-Driving Cars

As companies like Waymo ramp up tests of their self-driving cars in Phoenix, state and federal officials continue to debate when “good” will be “good enough.”

Now, a report from the RAND Corporation says pumping our brakes and holding out for the perfect automated car is a mistake.

Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
Waiting For Perfect Self-Driving Cars Could Cost Lives

El Nino CO2 Levels Suggest Grim Carbon Future

Image: OCO-2 /JPL-Caltech/NASA.

The years 2015 and 2016 saw record levels of excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, even though human carbon emissions have stabilized in recent years. Now, scientists think they know why.

Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
NASA: Spike In Atmospheric CO2 Related To El Nino

Detecting Gravitational Waves from Prescott, Arizona

This year’s Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to three men, but the detection of gravitational waves was the work of a thousand scientists and students — 10 of them from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott.

Read/listen to my full story at KJZZ’s Arizona Science Desk:
Embry-Riddle Scientists, Students Contribute to Nobel-Winning Research