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

Europeans ate their way through the island nation of Mauritius , most famously eliminating the dodo bird. Less well known was their effect on the island now known as Ile aux Aigrettes or Island of White Herons, where they exterminated giant skinks and tortoises, and logged the native ebony trees for firewood

The hunt for extraterrestrial life just lost one of its best tools. The Allen Telescope Array (ATA), a field of radio dishes in rural northern California built to seek out transmissions from distant alien civilizations, has been shuttered, at least temporarily, as its operators scramble to find a way to continue to fund it.

One might think that it would be hard to hide a star some 500,000 times more radiant than the sun, but distance and dust seem to have conspired to do just that.

Hybrid cars have become so eco-friendly they now trump at least one form of human locomotion. [More]

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Most plants capture sunlight.

By Gwyneth Dickey Zakaib of Nature magazine A ground-based telescope that can scan the skies faster than any other of its size could help to protect satellites from collisions with space debris and each other. [More]

If outside influences can make people act badly, can they also be used to help people do good? In "Too Hard for Science?" I interview scientists about ideas they would love to explore that they don't think could be investigated. For instance, they might involve machines beyond the realm of possibility, such as particle accelerators as big as the sun, or they might be completely unethical, such as lethal experiments involving people.

The beautiful thing about disposing of your old electronics is that doing the right thing gives you more than a rosy feeling; it can actually pay you.

Every now and then the public rises up to make an industry clean up its environmental act. As a result, car companies now offer hybrids, electrics and alternative-fuel cars

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

These coeds may be spending some time down at the beach, but as students of the Marine Biological Laboratory at Wood's Holl, Mass., it’s for work rather than play. [More]

Each year, new electronics hit the market and capture consumers' attention, giving them reason to throw away the old VCR or standard television and engross themselves in state-of-the-art gadgetry. Most of the time, the old electronics end up in the garbage, despite holding plenty of reusable material. But a push for recycling them has gained ground in recent years through both new state laws and a developing "e-recycling" industry

SciCafe American Museum of Natural History [More]

In 2009 six weeks of wildfires in Victoria, Australia, killed 173 people and injured hundreds more, but the fires may have also led to the resurrection of a rare tree that was previously on a path to extinction. Only about 670 Buxton silver gum trees ( Eucalyptus crenulata ) were left in the wild before the devastating Black Sunday bushfires , and they weren't healthy