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The chemistry behind the colors of autumn leaves infographic | Visual.ly

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Every fall, Americans around the country get into the holiday spirit by appreciating the beauty of autumn colors. As the seasons change from summer to

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Ecosystem Services and Resilience | Visual.ly

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Ecosystem services are the benefits that human beings get from the nature. Using an ecosystem service-based approach can increase agricultural prod

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Have you ever wondered how fast Santa would really have to travel in order to deliver gifts to every child on earth? Inspired by an article on Popsci

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A little confession: at school, I liked science as much as art. I like to think that graphic design is somewhere between the two, even if it would be more of a social science. I've been having a clear out recently and came across my old GCSE science books and worksheets (oh, the excessive use of Comic Sans and Marker Felt). So I thought I'd do a bit of revision... By making some basic infographics on the Periodic Table groups.

I hope those revision notes are still accurate. I'm looking forward to making some more fun looking ones!

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A little confession: at school, I liked science as much as art. I like to think that graphic design is somewhere between the two, even if it would be more of a social science. I've been having a clear out recently and came across my old GCSE science books and worksheets (oh, the excessive use...

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As part of our How Energy Works series, this blog explains how particle accelerators work.

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Modern Artificial Intelligence Infographic

Modern Artificial Intelligence Infographic

The history of Artificial Intelligence isn't a long one, around 60-70 years, but the advances in recent years has been huge. The Modern Artificial Intelligence Infographic shows how technology coupled with studies of the human brain have aided in making AI a reality, and a reality we can use everyday.

Machines are already intelligent, but we fail to recognise it. When a machine demonstrates intelligence we counter it by saying 'it's not real intelligence'. Therefore Al becomes whatever has not been accomplished so far by a machine.

Artificial Intelligence and General Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence and General Artificial Intelligence are distinct areas of research.
Artificial Intelligence refers to intelligence exhibited by machines, and can be broken down into reasoning, knowledge, planning, learning, communication, perception and the ability to move and manipulate objects.

General Artificial Intelligence refers to replication of natural intelligence (i.e. the ability of a machine to successfully complete any human intellectual task it is confronted with). Most researchers agree that such an accomplishment lies far in the future, however a subset of credible scientists believe that GAI could be achieved by the year 2045.

Modern Applications of Artificial Intelligence
1. Learning / Knowledge / Planning

Deep Blue
In 1997, the IBM developed Deep Blue computer programme beat world chess master Gary Kasparov. The machine was seen to be acting intelligently.

TOPIO
2007 saw the introduction of TOPIO, a robot designed to play table tennis against human opponents. It used advanced Al systems to continually learn and improve its overall game.

2. Communication

Speech Recognition
Online telephone systems use speech recognition, which is a component of human communication. Siri also uses natural language to accept commands from users.

The Vocaloid
Released in 2000, Vocaloid is capable of singing any song. Users input the melody and lyrics and Vocaloid will sing the song, changing stresses in pronunciation and deploying vocal effects (such as vibrato).

3. Combination of abilities

ASIMO
Honda's ASIMO can walk, run, kick a ball and climb stairs, using predicted movement control. It has been called an autonomous machine, with decision-making capability. ASIMO utilises postural balancing, external recognition capability (like sight) and the ability to predict movement within its environment. Thus ASIMO combines movement with perception, planning, learning and knowledge.

REEM Robot
The REEM robot was developed between 2006 and 2010. The robot is capable of perceiving its environment and moving around it. It can also recognise faces and understand speech. It can accept voice commands, explore its surroundings and guide people around the environment. Thus the REEM robot combines movement with perception, planning, learning and knowledge.

4. Artificial body organs

Smell
Artificial noses are capable of replicating the human olfaction process on a significantly more powerful scale. They have a detection system that reacts to volatile molecules.

Sight
Neuron-stimulating electrode implants have been used in over 70 blind patients to restore partial sight. The implants receive data from a camera integrated into a pair of glasses worn by the patient.

Brain
It has been argued by some scientist that it would be possible to simulate an intelligent human brain. Ray Kurzweil argues that it should be possible to copy the human brain into hardware, producing a simulation that would be identical to the original and produce the same thought processes.

Cochlear implants are used to partially restore hearing. They bypass the hair cells that would normally process sound frequencies and instead stimulate the cochlear nerve cells directly - the brain interprets this as sound.

Taste
In 2014, researchers working with 'artificial tongues' found that they were far more capable of judging the quality of wines from around the world than human wine critics.

Limbs
Modern science is capable of producing artificial limbs that can be controlled by the mind and possess a sense of touch. In 2014 a pioneering artificial arm used 19 sensors in order to send signals directly to the nerves in the body and then to the brain. The arm replicated touch, and could be controlled by thought.

How Close Are We To Hollywood Artificial Intelligence?

The vision of Al delivered by Hollywood - think HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey, the machines from The Matrix, the personal assistant from Her and Ava from Ex Machina for good examples - portrays machines as having incredible intellect, resourcefulness and cunning, often striving to wipe out or usurp mankind in one form or another.

But how close to reality are the machines we often see in film and television? Are we likely to see a Skynet-esque situation anytime in the near future?

It's hard to come up with a definitive answer, given the range of predictions made by scientists, but looking at how far individual elements of artificial intelligence and robotics have come, Hollywood-style artificial intelligence may not be as far away as you might think...

Via: www.buddyloans.com

Embed This Education Infographic on your Site or Blog! Copy and Paste the following code!

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Modern Artificial Intelligence Infographic - e-Learning Infographics

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The history of Artificial Intelligence isn't a long one, around 60-70 years, but the advances in recent years has been huge. The Modern Artificial Intelligence Infographic shows how technology coupled with studies of the human brain have aided in making AI a reality, and a reality we can use everyday.

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ABOUT THIS POLL The TIME Invention Poll, in cooperation with Qualcomm, was a survey of 10,197 people in seven mature markets (South Korea, the U.S., Germany, Sweden, Australia, the U.K.

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Coral bleaching | Save Our Seas Foundation

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Coral bleaching in the Western Indian Ocean. How does coral-bleaching occur and how does it affect other animals in the ecosystem?

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Nuclear power accounts for 5.7% of the world's energy and 13% of the world's electricity. Uranium, used in nuclear power, is a relatively clean source of energy that does not produce greenhouse emissions.

Uranium is extremely dense - it is nearly as heavy as gold. It is, however, about 500 times more common than gold in the earth's crust.

This infographic covers the history of uranium, its properties, the supply and demand forecasts, the advantages and disadvantages of nuclear power, uranium as an energy source, and military applications.

Jeff Desjardins is a founder and editor of Visual Capitalist, a media website that creates and curates visual content on investing and business.

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Uranium: The Metal of Tomorrow - Visual Capitalist

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Nuclear power accounts for 5.7% of the world's energy and 13% of the world's electricity. Uranium, used in nuclear power, is a relatively clean source of energy that does not produce greenhouse emissions. Uranium is extremely dense - it is nearly as heavy as gold.

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what can you learn from your dna? #infographic

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visualistan: what can you learn from your dna? #infographic

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What Can You Learn From Your DNA? #infographic

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23andMe looked at how much Americans know about genetics. While people are starting to understand what they can learn from genetic testing, we still have a long way to go.

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Here are the laws that Isaac Asimov, Google, and Microsoft wrote to keep robots on our side.

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Today, computers are an inescapable part of our work and personal lives. As technology develops, computers are increasingly more integral to our lives, and the more we understand them and how they work, the better we're able to use them.

Learning to code is not only necessary if you're looking to start a lucrative career as a computer programmer, but it's also an incredibly useful skill that will help you develop in-demand job skills. Employers are looking to hire people who are skilled in software proficiency, technical knowledge, and the ability to obtain and process information and analyze data, and being fluent in a programming language proves to those employers that you have those skills.

Learning programming isn't always about creating a finished product, whether you're building software, apps, or websites. Understanding how programming works teaches computational thinking, logic, and problem-solving skills, which can be applied in any field.

It's not difficult to teach yourself programming with all the free resources available online today, but getting started is impossible if you don't know which programming language you should learn. And the choice isn't easy: thousands of computer programming languages exist, and dozens more are being created every year. Even if you narrow down your choices to only the most popular ones, there are still a lot to choose from.

It can be hard to know which language is best when you're not a programmer yet, but you don't have to understand everything about each programming language to choose the one that's right for you. Each language has it's own particular uses, as well as pros and cons. If you have a clear idea of your reasons for learning to program, and know exactly what you want to accomplish with your new coding skills, then you'll be able to make the right choice by comparing the options below.

Learn the Language: <What Code Should You Learn?>

There are many languages to code in, so many, in fact, the beginner can easily be overwhelmed. Learn about the top choices so you can be successful and raise your earning potential.

Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP)

This is a server-side interpreted, non-compiled, scripting language. It can be written within HTML. Because the code is executed by the server, the result is displayed to the user as plain HTML.

PHP's development started in 1994, created by Rasmus Lerdorf.

Code was released to the public in 1995

2.0: 1996

3.0: 1997/1998

4.0: 1999/2000

5.0: July 2004

PHP files can support:

PHP can:

Generate dynamic page content

Create, open, read, write, and close files on the server

Collect form data

Send and receive cookies

Add, delete, modify data in your database

Restrict users to access some pages on your website

Encrypt data

Output:

PHP files end in the .php extension

Images

PDF files

Flash movies

Any text, such as XHTML and XML

Why use PHP?

Runs on various platforms (Windows, Linux, Unix, Mac OS X, etc)

Compatible with almost all servers used today (Apache, IIS, etc)

Supports a wide range of databases

Free, and open source so many hosting providers run it on their servers.

Easy to learn

Runs efficiently

PHP Jobs

PHP is used on 65.45% of the top 1 million websites.

The most popular content management system (CMS), WordPress uses PHP
WordPress runs on 19% of websites on the Internet

PHP powers more than 20 million websites, including: Facebook and Wikipedia

JavaScript

This is a client-side scripting language. It is the only language embedded in all web browsers. Developed in 1995 by Netscape. Used in website: advertising, analytics, widgets

JQuery is the most detected JavaScript library in use on the web, used for 22.9% of the top million websites on the Internet. It provides features and functions to make:

JavaScript browser agnostic

An easier development process

JavaScript Jobs

Tidbits of Wisdom

You can use JavaScript to:

Check username availability as user enters it, preventing the need to reload the page

Build an autocomplete function on your website

Fix layout issues

Enhance HTML text boxes so users have a combination of presets and the ability to enter their own text.

Structured Query Language (SQL)

This is not a programming language or a markup language. It is the standard way to interact with databases, moving information in and out of them. MySQL is the most common way to interact with databases, and is a good start for a web developer.

SQL was first developed in 1979. SQL files have a .sql extension.

SQL can:

Execute queries against a database

Retrieve data from a database

Insert records in a database

Update records in a database

Delete records from a database

Create new databases

Create new tables in a database

Create stored procedures in a database

Create views in a database

Set permissions on tables, procedures, and views

SQL Jobs

There are different developers of SQL, such as:

Their SQL programs all fundamentally work the same way. MySQL is open-source (free), and popular with developers.

Objective-C

Objective-C is an object-oriented programming language, based on C, used by Apple developers (and others). Objective-C was first developed in the 1990s. Objective-C files have an .m extension.

Objective-C can:

Develop mobile apps for iOS

Develop applications for OS X

Objective-C Jobs

Though considered the "correct" language for iOS development, it cannot be scaled for other platforms such as Android.

C++

C++ is an object-oriented programming language used to develop software, video games, and more. C++ was first developed in 1983, as an enhancement to the C programming language. C++ files have a .c++ extension

C++ can

C++ Jobs

Tidbits of Wisdom

C++ is highly portable across multiple devices.

C++ is supported by Apple, Android, Windows Phone, and Blackberry.

Java©

This is a server-side interpreted compiled language, using a virtual machine. It is not JavaScript, and is not related to it.

Java was developed in 1995, and is one of the oldest programming languages on the web.

Java lets you:

Play online games

Upload photos

Take virtual tours

Use interactive maps

Java Job Information:

Tidbits of Wisdom

Python™

This is a server-side interpreted, open-source, non-compiled, scripting language. It can be used on its own, or as part of another framework, like django.

Build websites

Provide database access

Build desktop graphic user interfaces (GUIs)

Build software and games

Python Job Information

Average Salary: $83,000

Job Count: 19,627

Top Employers:

Tidbits of Wisdom

NASA's shuttle support contractor, United Space Alliance (USA) uses Python.

Learn to code faster compared to other languages like C++

Ruby

This is a server-side interpreted, non-compiled, scripting language. It is Japanese in origin, with no set of specifications. It was released to the public in 1995. Ruby is gaining popularity because of its use with Rails: Ruby on Rails. Rails is a rapid development framework, like django for Python.

It is a blend of the following programming languages:

Ruby can:

Ruby Job Information

Ruby is highly portable; it works on many types of UNIX, Mac OS X, Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP, DOS, BeOS, OS/2, and more.

Ruby has multiple implementations, including:

Active Server Pages (ASP) .Net

This is a server-side interpreted, non-compiled, scripting language. It is similar to PHP, but will only run on a Windows® server, because it is a Microsoft product, in the .net suite of programming languages.

ASP.Net can:

ASP.Net Job Information

Average Salary: $90,000

Job Count: 16,710

Top Cities:
Top Employers:

You can mix and match programming languages within ASP.NET, as long as each page only contains one language.

Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax)

This is not a programming language, but rather a way to use multiple programming languages together. It works by using JavaScript in the background to communicate with the server, to allow the page to change (send and receive information) without requiring the user to refresh.

It is used extensively today.

You won't be able to use this effectively until you've mastered JavaScript, CSS, and XML.

Ajax Jobs:

Ajax combines:

Standards-based presentation - XHTML, CSS

Dynamic display and interaction - Document Object Model

Data interchange and manipulation - XML, XSLT

Asynchronous data retrieval - XMLHttpRequest

Functionality - JavaScript

Learning to Code for the First Time
What programming language should you learn?
What do you want to do?

Your end goal determines what language(s) you need to learn.

To create and edit static web pages:

To make web pages interactive:
JavaScript: adds drag and drop functionality

To store user information:
Server-side languages such as:

To build mobile apps:

Objective-C: iPhone apps

Java, C++: Android apps

PHP and SQL are easy to learn, even for beginners.

You can use PHP with MySQL to learn without investing in software.

Since they run the most popular content management system (WordPress), they are a good place to start.

No matter which language you choose, these programming skills are in demand from top companies, with a hefty salary attached.

Online Programming Courses

These online resources can help you learn to code:

Codecademy: Considered by many as the most renowned source on the web, you can learn many languages with easy, interactive tutorials.

Coursera: Get access to full college courses, even beyond programming, for free, though additional fees may sometimes apply.

OpenCourseWare Consortium: Get access to full college courses from a number of partners, for free. You'll be on your own navigating the material, but it can be a great help.

Code.org: Get free tutorials for a number of languages to teach yourself how to code.

Page last updated: July 6th, 2016

Sources

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Learn to Code: Choosing a Programming Language

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Today, computers are an inescapable part of our work and personal lives. As technology develops, computers are increasingly more integral to our lives, and the more we understand them and how they work, the better we're able to use them.

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Infographic: What Climate Change Means for Africa and Asia

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Urgent action is needed to mitigate carbon emissions and build resilience in the face of climate change that threatens food, water and livelihoods.

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Chemical Bonding | Piktochart Visual Editor

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Computers come in many shapes and sizes these days, but one thing is constant no matter what the device a person is using, the data has to make a long

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Tasting food is something we do without even thinking about it. Our sense of taste tells us that we like certain foods or that we dislike others. But what is taste exactly and how does it really work? Have you ever stopped to think about the way your brain deciphers this information?

Actually, four "official" categories, salty, sweet, sour, bitter and a fifth "unofficial" one named umami, are involved in the perception of a combination of chemical signals all across the mouth. A mix of food and saliva creates a chemical reaction that stimulates the sensation of taste. Your taste buds, sensory organs located in the mouth, are the ones that send the signal to your brain.

But taste also includes the way food looks as well as how it smells, and those three senses combined maximize the experience. Therefore, there are other components involved like temperature, texture and, of course, flavor. Those are the foundation for food preferences and they usually begin very early in life, even before birth. There are four main factors that intervene:

- Environmental influences (cultures, social classes, etc.)
- Learned behaviors (food preferences)
- Mother influences (what our mother ate or drank while pregnant and breastfeeding)
- Innate factors (the instinct that tells us that the food isn't good anymore)

There is also a common misconception about taste that says that each part of the tongue specifically perceives a category of tastes. This notion has been demolished in 1974 by a scientist named Virginia Collings. She proved that any type of tastes are equally detectable all over the tongue, although certains areas of the tongue are more sensitive to a particular kind of tastes.

To learn more information about the science of taste, check out the infographic below, created by foodydirect, where you will find numerous facts on how we experience taste and what happens inside our body so we can experience it. With this infographic, you will also discover why you have a "sweet tooth" or why you like peanuts so much!

Photo credit: Billy Wilson Photography / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC 2.0)

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The Science Of Taste: What It Is Exactly And How It Really Works (infographic)

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Tasting food is something we do without even thinking about it. Our sense of taste tells us that we like certain foods or that we dislike others. But what is taste exactly and how does it really work? Have you ever stopped to think about the way your brain deciphers this information?

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NaturalON - Natural Health News and Discoveries

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It's the winter season again, and it's time to make sure we're protected from colds and the flu. There are many ways to avoid getting ill, but if you're already suffering from a sore throat, sneezing, a runny nose, coughing or a fever, it's too late for prevention.

In this case, you need to take more serious action to fight the unfortunate illness and speed up your recovery. There are many myths and beliefs about the right cure for colds or the flu, but how many of those are actually true and how many are nothing but fiction? Find out!

Click on image

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Cold & Flu Remedies: What's True And What's Fiction Infographic

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It's the winter season again, and it's time to make sure we're protected from colds and the flu. There are many ways to avoid getting ill, but if you're already suffering from a sore throat, sneezing, a runny nose, coughing or a fever, it's too late for prevention.

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Pill Robots: The Future of Non-Invasive Surgery [INFOGRAPHIC]

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These digestible "robots" can be packed into a pill casing and swallowed like any old aspirin. Meet the future of medical robotics.

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GMO? Genetically Modified Organism | Visual.ly

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What are GMOs, how often do we consume them, and what do people know and think about them? The answers in this infographic.

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There may be more Earth-like planets outside of our solar system than we once thought, but as this infographic from the great webcomic xkcd shows, we're still outnumbered by plenty--and plenty bigger--planets.

The infographic shows all exoplanets within 60 light years of Earth that sit in a habitable, or "Goldilocks" zone: not too close, and not too far from a star. In other words, just the right distance to support liquid water. All of the planets are organized by approximate size, with Earth placed in the center for a sense of scale.

What the infographic _doesn't give _is a sense of distance or position. Obviously, Earth doesn't have a nice little square of space cut out around it, and the actual distance between these exoplanets is absurdly huge. It provides the _what, _not the _where. _

This might also provide a litmus test for cynics. Your thoughts when you see this either go along the lines of a) Wow, so many planets right next to us! or b) In 60 light years, that's it?

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A Snapshot Of Earth's Exoplanet Neighbors [Infographic]

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There may be more Earth-like planets outside of our solar system than we once thought, but as this infographic from the great webcomic xkcd shows, we're still outnumbered by plenty--and plenty bigger--planets. The infographic shows all exoplanets within 60 light years of Earth that sit in a habitable, or "Goldilocks" zone: not too close, and not too far from a star.

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If you've ever made the mistake of wearing a black shirt on a sweltering day, you know that dark colors absorb the sun's heat, while light colors reflect it. Our planet works the same way. White surfaces, like the snow on the world's glaciers, reflect the sun's rays back toward space. Darker ones, like forests and oceans, absorb more heat. Overall, about 30 percent of the energy sent to Earth bounces back into outer space, stabilizing the global thermostat. But climate change could upend that balance.

Scientists developed a ratio, called albedo, to describe just how much solar energy any given surface reflects. Albedo can range from zero to one: zero is a perfect absorber, an impossibly dark substance that takes in 100 percent of the sun's energies, while one is a perfect reflector, an incredibly bright material bouncing all that energy back. For example, a shirt with an albedo of 0.1 is 10 percent reflective and 90 percent absorbent.

Now climate scientists are looking into how Earth's albedo fluctuates over time. They're also investigating whether it will decline as our climate changes. If our albedo takes a nosedive, the same principle that currently helps keep everything in balance could make the world heat up even quicker in the future.

A warming planet causes glaciers to shrink and sea ice to melt, revealing darker and more heat-absorbent surfaces that reduce Earth's albedo. At the same time, pollution-in the form of black and gray soot-lands on ice sheets and makes them darker. This allows ice to absorb more of the sun's heat, melting it more quickly.

Driven by this cycle, the planet could take in too much energy from the sun and not cast enough back. As global warming continues, it might be even harder for Earth to keep its cool.

This article originally appeared in the Extreme Weather issue of Popular Science.

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30 percent of the energy sent to Earth bounces back into outer space. Climate change could upend that.

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If you've ever made the mistake of wearing a black shirt on a sweltering day, you know that dark colors absorb the sun's heat, while light colors reflect it. Our planet works the same way. White surfaces, like the snow on the world's glaciers, reflect the sun's rays back toward space.

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a brief history of computer science #infographic

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visualistan: a brief history of computer science #infographic

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A Brief History of Computer Science #infographic

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In the past sixty years or so, computers have migrated from room-size mega boxes to desktops to laptops to our pockets. But the real history of machine-assisted human computation ("computer" originally referred to the person, not the machine) goes back even further.

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Computer Science: Facing Challenges and Improving the World Computer science is faced with many challenges as the digital universe expands. From mobile and cloud computing to data security, addressin...

Did you work on this visual? Claim credit!

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Computer Science: Facing Challenges and Improving the World Computer science is faced with many challenges as the digital universe expands. From mobile and cloud computing to data security, addressin... Did you work on this visual? Claim credit!

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Advertisement

Some butterflies migrate thousands of miles a year, yet scientists have conjectured that most other insects spend their lives pretty much in one place. Not so. A 10-year study found that more than 3.3 trillion insects migrate high above southern Britain every year, especially in spring and fall. "People thought insects were passive and just got accidentally blown about," says researcher Jason W. Chapman of the University of Exeter in England. "That is absolutely not the case. Insects make active choices about when to migrate and how to use the winds, often moving fast and over long distances, in beneficial directions." What they are looking for, he surmises, is greener vegetation and better weather for breeding. Initial studies in Texas, India and China are showing similar patterns. Insect migration, Chapman says, "is starting to look universal."

This article was originally published with the title "Trillions of Insects Migrate"

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN ONLINE

For a video about butterfly and dragonfly migrations, go to ScientificAmerican.com/apr2017/graphic-science

ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)

Mark Fischetti

Mark Fischetti is a senior editor at Scientific American, overseeing coverage of energy and the environment.

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Some butterflies migrate thousands of miles a year, yet scientists have conjectured that most other insects spend their lives pretty much in one place. Not so. A 10-year study found that more than 3.3 trillion insects migrate high above southern Britain every year, especially in spring and fall.

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Every year, the planet loses nearly a third of its food-a staggering 1.4 billion tons. That's according to a 2011 United Nations study that assessed food networks in 152 countries. The researchers' results reveal where in the food-supply chain farmers, engineers, and consumers might more effectively get comestibles into mouths.

What to do about it

The planet may have to feed a global population of 10 billion people by 2050. With that milestone looming, organizations like the U.N., the Natural Resources Defense Council, and Food Tank are working on ways to make food systems more efficient.

Agriculture

Problem: Agricultural loss particularly plagues industrialized nations, where farmers often need to overproduce in order to guarantee a steady supply to grocery stores.
Solution: With better food labeling-for example, using a spoils-on date rather than a sell-by date-markets could keep their stock longer and ease demand on farmers.

Post-harvest

Problem: Food loss after harvest is a bigger problem in developing countries-where food infrastructure is often less modernized-than in industrialized ones.
Solution: Improving roads would enable unrefrigerated perishables to reach market faster, cutting down on spoilage. Investment in cold-storage facilities would also prevent losses.

Processing

Problem: Developing countries lose the most fruits and vegetables at the processing stage because it's expensive to maintain facilities big enough to handle large seasonal influxes.
Solution: If the owners of processing facilities enter into contracts with individual farmers before they sow seeds, the timing and size of the harvest may be more predictable and manageable.

Distribution

Problem: If a supermarket rejects food once it leaves a processing plant-say, for having too many tomatoes already-the truck driver may not be able to find another buyer before the food spoils.
Solution: New mobile-phone apps, including one called Food Cowboy, help drivers locate nearby food banks that might take the shipment.

Consumption

Problem: At the last stage, consumers in industrialized countries waste five times as much food as those in developing ones. In the U.S., that means 35 million tons of food each year head to landfills and incinerators.
Solution: In the U.K., a public-awareness campaign cut household losses by 20 percent, by encouraging actions such as taking more frequent shopping trips to prevent groceries from spoiling.

_Data used to develop this graphic come from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report ©FAO 2011 " Global Losses and Food Waste," part of the Save Food initiative. _

To tackle food waste, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and partner Worrell Water Technologies developed a one-square-inch packet that extends the refrigerated life of fruits and vegetables by up to five weeks. Each permeable packet contains Curoxin vapor, a proprietary disinfectant that releases slowly inside a clamshell container and envelops fresh food in an antimicrobial cloud. The effect? Water loss and fungal growth are significantly arrested, which maintains produces' firmness, color, and taste. Currently in trials, Curoxin should be available in 2015. -MATT JANCER

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Every year, the planet loses nearly a third of its food-a staggering 1.4 billion tons. That's according to a 2011 United Nations study that assessed food networks in 152 countries. The researchers' results reveal where in the food-supply chain farmers, engineers, and consumers might more effectively get comestibles into mouths.

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2016 WAS OUR PLANET'S HOTTEST YEAR since humans began keeping records, with average global land and water surface temperatures spiking to 58.69 degrees Fahrenheit. That's 1.69 degrees warmer than the 20th-century average. It might not sound like a lot, but the difference between our current global average and one during an ancient ice age-when the U.S. sat under glaciers 3,000 feet deep-is only 5 degrees or so, according to the climate record preserved in ice and trees.

The same record shows that changes of this magnitude simply don't happen over a mere century. Human fingerprints are all over the recent temperature trends. Industry boomed in the late 1800s, sending new pollutants into the air. As a result, carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, which trap heat inside Earth's atmosphere, have multiplied. One estimate suggests that CO2 emissions in 2011 were 150 times higher than in 1850.

Natural fluctuations, such as El Niño, played a part. But if global warming is like riding the up escalator, these cycles amount to jumping up or crouching down along the way: Temperatures might rise or fall, but overall, climate change keeps pushing them skyward.

1. The Record Begins

Meteorologists in England started collecting weather statistics back in 1659, but it wasn't until 1873 that countries began to share annual data through what would later become the World Meteorological Organization. So the official global record doesn't begin until 1880.

2. The 1940s Spike

Booming industry and widespread car ownership likely spurred this jump above average. It was cut short, ironically, by a burst of aerosol pollution from coal and oil, which actually cools the planet by seeding clouds that scatter sunlight. But by the 1970s, emissions of compounds like CO2 outpaced any pollutant-related cooling effects.

3. The Upward Climb

You don't need a science degree to see that our average global temperature is going up. Natural weather fluctuations may keep 2017 from breaking yet another heat record, but as our hottest years get hotter, so do the ones that don't manage to hit a new benchmark.

This article was originally published in the July/August 2017 Extreme Weather issue of Popular Science.

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Don't believe our planet is warming up? Look at this.

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2016 WAS OUR PLANET'S HOTTEST YEAR since humans began keeping records, with average global land and water surface temperatures spiking to 58.69 degrees Fahrenheit. That's 1.69 degrees warmer than the 20th-century average. It might not sound like a lot, but the difference between our current global average and one during an ancient ice age-when the U.S.

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How Many Species Are On Earth? | Visual.ly

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This infographic communicates a prediction of the number of eukaryotic species on Earth in relation to the number of known species.