"Quiet, Gordon Hempton says, is a 'think tank of the soul.' The acoustic ecologist has criss-crossed the world searching for and recording some of nature's most elusive sounds. He says the experience of silence is in danger of being lost and explains why nature's 'silence' is vital to our minds, our relationships, and the natural world as well. He walks us through those environments — from the Hoh Rain Forest to thunder in the Kalahari Desert."

"The Heartland Institute's board of directors was not consulted before the group launched an explosive billboard campaign last week, resulting in the resignation of one director and dismaying others, sources said."

"Old collections of irradiated tissues could answer modern-day questions about the dangers of radiation. Now, researchers are making a concerted effort to save the stores."

"WASHINGTON -- After more than 12 years and at least $100 billion in construction costs, NASA leaders say the International Space Station finally is ready to bloom into the robust orbiting laboratory that the agency envisioned more than two decades ago."

"A government scientist sacked for exposing the dangers to firefighters from the caustic air at Ground Zero in the days after 9/11 got her job back on Monday."

"Drivers moving along Chicago’s inbound Eisenhower Expressway on Friday may have been surprised to see Ted Kaczynski, the so-called Unabomber, staring at them from a massive billboard. 'I still believe in global warming. Do you?' the billboard read in large maroon letters. Just below was the Web address www.heartland.org. Hours later, the digital billboard was gone. It seems that the ad campaign, sponsored by the conservative Heartland Institute, had bombed."

"US thinktank launches poster campaign comparing Unabomber and Osama Bin Laden to those concerned about global warming."

"Earth-observing systems operated by the United States have entered a steep decline, imperiling the nation’s monitoring of weather, natural disasters and climate change, a report from the National Research Council warned on Wednesday."

"A Fox TV commentator, midgame, links global warming to home runs, and fans on all sides of the climate debate call foul."

"The Interior Department's inspector general appears likely to join the growing scrutiny over whether the National Park Service falsified data in an environmental review of a California oyster farm."

"Forecast the Facts, the activist group that first confronted GM about its support of climate change doubters the Heartland Institute, now plans to muster a public campaign targeting the Discovery Channel. The purpose: to get Discovery to acknowledge the scientific consensus on man-made climate change in its programming."

A star-studded cast of experts spent two days discussing "Science Writing in the Age of Denial" at the University of Wisconsin April 23-24. Most who attended praised it. Unable to argue the science, science deniers advanced their arguments by trying to silence the conference Twitterfeed with a denial-of-service attack, according to the Knight Science Journalism Tracker.

"Hockey sticks and brawls aren't just for NHL playoff games. Climate scientist Michael Mann has the scars to prove it. But along the way he has picked up some fans as well."

"The world's ice sheets serve as cold-storage for creatures the Earth hasn't seen in eons. Scientists don't expect another Contagion or Andromeda Strain, but the release of unknown life forms does pose new concerns about effects of global warming."

"Two billion years ago, around the time atmospheric oxygen levels were rising, one cell engulfed another, and instead of becoming lunch, the ingestee became an Earth-changer and, eventually, a vital part of you: mitochondria."