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As states scramble to understand new educational standards, Gates eyes an opening for video games. Around the country, a new career-minded education standard is slowly edging out the old academic focus on Lord Of the Flies book summaries and five-paragraph essays. So far 42 states have pledged to adopt the (coercively) voluntary standards championed by President Obama, the National Governors Association, and billionaire education crusader, Bill Gates

If we cannot find aliens in the stars, we might create alien intelligences on Earth

Your electric car might get you into heaven, but it's not going to save the Earth if China keeps up at its current pace. But while China may remain the world's largest energy consumer and CO2 emitter--that's just what happens when you represent 20% of humanity--the country can still put a dent in its energy and carbon consumption, stabilizing its emissions before mid-century

Like the billions of tiny neutrinos that zip through the Earth every second, scientific exchanges will be flying thick and fast in Madison.

Dear EarthTalk : What’s the nutritional difference between the carrot I ate in 1970 and one I eat today? I’ve heard that that there’s very little nutrition left. Is that true?

Among the various complex, clever, futuristic solutions to solving the space-junk problem, DARPA's just unveiled a new tool to help with the job that's wonderfully simple. It's a telescope, to look for the stuff.

BOULDER, Colo.

Dear EarthTalk: Is air quality in the United States improving or getting worse? Is it cleaner in some parts of the country than in others?

Nature News and Columbia University team up and produce a Google Earth map that makes nuclear risk stark. Nature News and Columbia University have joined forces to make a Google Earth map showing the world populations at risk from nuclear fallout. The interactive map combines data on population and the locations and sizes of reactors, plotting risk graphically in the form of circles.

It's that time of the year again, when publicists everywhere pitch their most eco-friendly products in the silliest of ways. Let's hope they're at least diluting real environmentalism with reclaimed water. Happy Earth Day, everyone

Dear EarthTalk : My daughter loves those press-on tattoos, and they’re frequently given out at birthday parties and other events. But I’ve noticed the labels say they’re only for ages three and up

Photograph by Chris Floyd FORGET BLUE skies -- for a growing community of stargazing tourists, darkness is all they want. "People have never seen the Milky Way," says Rowena Davis of the International Dark-Sky Association, which identifies the earth's best locales for appreciating the heavens

Modern humans have, up until this point, done a pretty horrible job of cutting down on the amount of greenhouse gases that are released into the atmopshere to stave off climate change. As we inch ever closer to the tipping point where reducing emissions won't make a difference, some scientists are suggesting that we try to "geoengineer" the planet to counteract our emissions with everything from algae-lined buildings and forests of synthetic trees to ships that spray climate-altering clouds into the sky. These are ideas fit for a big-budget Hollywood movie (and they may even work).

The United States Postal Service wants you to "go green in 2011," so its released--just in time for Earth Day, we imagine-- a set of stamps with little tips on how to achieve better harmony with nature.

Dear EarthTalk : We have an invasion of phragmites in the wetlands bordering our neighborhood. I understand they are a non-native plant that, if left unchecked, will overrun the whole ecosystem. How does one remedy this situation in an eco-friendly way?