Philippe Matthews Show Guru Advice, Author Reviews, Tech Reviews, Entertainment News

Dear EarthTalk : Is it true that only a handful of outdated coal-burning power plants emit a sizable amount of the mercury pollution generated in the U.S.? If so, is anything being done to clean these sites up or shut them down? --Frank Pearson, Wichita, Kans

* Power lines connect Tucson to coal-fired power plants * Utility has plans to maintain power if lines go down [More]

(Updates death toll, adds details) BEIJING, June 8 (Reuters) - Heavy rain drenched a [More]

Every year in Lindau, Germany, winners of Nobel Prizes join young researchers for panel discussions, presentations and informal conversation. [More]

The 61st Nobel Laureate Meeting in Lindau, Germany, is taking place from June 26 to July 1. At the event, about 20 past laureates in physiology or medicine will mingle with more than 550 young scientists. In honor of the meeting Scientific American has collected articles that Nobel Prize winners have published in the magazine recently as well as more than 60 years ago.

By Nina Chestney LONDON (Reuters) - China's carbon dioxide emissions rose 10.4 percent in 2010 compared to the previous year as it surpassed the United States as the world's biggest energy consumer, data released by BP on Wednesday showed. [More]

Every computer, modem, server and smart phone that connects to the Internet has a unique Internet protocol (IP) address, so users can find it.

Jellyfish blooms might be more than just a nuisance to beach-goers. These explosions of stinging swarms might also be doing some major disruption to marine food webs , according to a study published online June 6 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

By Timothy Gardner and Ayesha Rascoe WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency raised new concerns about TransCanada Corp's proposed $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline that would bring oil sands crude from Canada to refineries in Texas. [More]

By Marian Turner of Nature magazine Munich Confronted with what has become one of the world's most severe outbreaks of Escherichia coli, physicians and scientists in Germany say that the country's fractured health-management system has failed to handle the crisis properly.

Sticking with a diet can be tough. Which is why so many people end up on the dreaded yo-yo track, dieting for a while, gaining weight when they stop, then dieting again. [More]

Help find the first pristine interstellar dust particles ever brought to Earth [More]

Vast newly discovered natural gas resources and the expectation that demand for the fuel will rise substantially in fast-growing economies are ushering in a "Golden Age of Gas," according to the Paris-based International Energy Agency. Ratcheting up its projections about natural gas consumption, an IEA report yesterday said gas's share of the global energy mix will surpass coal's in the next two decades and by 2035, gas demand will increase by more than 50 percent

In Augusta, Maine, an old paper mill that operated for more than a century will be turned into a new hotel and conference center. In Chicago, soil and ground water polluted with dry-cleaning solvents will be cleaned up to make room for a new library in a poor neighborhood. [More]

Apple's iTunes software has been heralded for the past decade as an example of an application that almost exemplifies what cloud computing is all about. With Monday's launch of iCloud services , Apple takes its digital music offering the rest of the way by allowing iPod, iPhone, iPad, Mac and PC users to store their tunes (and a lot of other content, for that matter) on the company's servers and access it via the Web. For those who want this option, iTunes will now be available online rather than as desktop software