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From the earliest days of computers, people have found ways to play games on them. These early computer programmers weren't just wasting time or looking for new ways to goof off. They had practical reasons to create games.

During the 1940s and 1950s, computers took up entire rooms and were so expensive that only universities and large companies could afford them. Most people had both a limited understanding of what these electronic behemoths were able to do and an unfamiliarity with the types of mathematical equations these machines were regularly programmed to compute. Games like tic-tac-toe or William Higinbotham's 1958 Tennis for Two were excellent ways to attract public interest and support. As an added bonus, computer programmers were able to learn from the creation of games as well because it allowed them to break away from the usual subroutines and challenge the computer's capabilities.

It was this mindset that led a group of MIT students during the 1960s to create one of the first and most groundbreaking computer games. Students Steve Russell and his friends were granted access to the school's new PDP-1 computer providing they used it to create a demonstration program that (1) utilized as many of the computer's resources as possible and "taxed those resources to the limit," (2) remained interesting even after repeated viewings, which meant that each run needed to be slightly different and (3) was interactive.

Inspired by the science fiction novels Russell and his friends enjoyed, these computers "hackers" decided to create a dueling game between two spaceships. The result, called "Spacewar," caused a sensation on campus and variations on the game soon spread to other universities that had computer engineering programs.

Although Spacewar was fun to play, it was never destined for released to the general public, since computers were still too expensive for personal use. To play Spacewar one needed access to a research facility's computer, which kept the game's influence limited to the small computer technology sphere.

In fact, video games did not get their true start from computer programmers, but from an engineer skilled in another major invention of the 20th century: the television set. By the 1960s, millions of Americans had invested in televisions for their homes, but these television sets were only used for the viewing of entertainment. Engineer Ralph Baer was certain this technology could be used to play games.

In 1966, while working for Sanders Associates, Inc., Baer began to explore this idea. In 1967, assisted by Sanders technician Bob Tremblay, Baer created the first of several video game test units. Called TVG#1 or TV Game Unit #1, the device, when used with an alignment generator, produced a dot on the television screen that could be manually controlled by the user. Once Baer had established how it was possible to interact with the television set, he and his team were able to design and build increasingly sophisticated prototypes.

Sanders senior management were impressed with Baer's progress and assigned him the task of turning this technology into a commercially viable product. After a few years and numerous test and advancements, Baer and his colleagues developed a prototype for the first multiplayer, multiprogram video game system, nicknamed the "Brown Box." Sanders licensed the Brown Box to Magnavox, which released the device as the Magnavox Odyssey in 1972.

With fewer than 200,000 units sold, Magnavox Odyssey was not considered a commercial success. Among the contributing factors, poor marketing played a large role. Many potential consumers were under the impression-sometimes encouraged by Magnavox salesmen-that Odyssey would only work on Magnavox televisions. Ultimately, the problem was that Magnavox saw Odyssey as a gimmick to sell more television sets. Executives at Magnavox lacked the vision to see that television games had the potential to become an independent industry, and did not give the product the support it needed.

Meanwhile, a creative young entrepreneur named Nolan Bushnell remembered playing Spacewar during his years as a student at the University of Utah. He began to think of ways that the game could be retailed. Bushnell had past experience with amusement park arcades and had witnessed firsthand the popularity of pinball machines. He believed that Spacewar would make a successful coin-operated machine.

In 1971, Nutting Associates, a coin-op device manufacturer, released Bushnell's idea as " Computer Space." However, while Spacewar had been an enjoyable game, Computer Spaceproved too complex for the casual game player to understand quickly. The changes that were required to convert the two-player Spacewar to a one-player game made Computer Space frustratingly difficult for those who did learn how to play.

Though Computer Space was a flop, Bushnell still believed that coin-operated video games could be successful. After seeing a demonstration of Magnavox Odyssey's table tennis game in May 1972, Bushnell set about trying to create an arcade version of the same game. He and his business partner, Ted Dabney, formed Atari, Inc., in June 1972, and released Pong, an arcade ping-pong game, that same year. The first Pong machine was installed in Andy Capp's Tavern, a bar located in Sunnyvale, California. A few days later, the tavern owner called Atari to send someone out to fix the machine. The problem turned out to be that the cashbox was filled with too many quarters. The coins had overflowed and jammed the machine. Atari clearly had a sensation on its hands.

Emboldened by Pong 's success, Atari partnered with Sears, Roebuck & Company to produce a home version of the game in 1975. Magnavox sued for patent rights infringement. The case was heavily in Magnavox's favor. Ralph Baer had carefully documented his work. Magnavox could prove that they demonstrated Odyssey to the public in 1972 and that Bushnell had attended the demonstration. (It was even confirmed later that Bushnell had played Odyssey's tennis game.) Rather than face a lengthy and undoubtedly unsuccessful court case, Atari settled with Magnavox.

The home version of Pong was just as successful as the arcade version. Atari sold 150,000 units in 1975 alone (compared to the 200,000 Odysseys that took Magnavox three years to sell.) Other companies soon began to produce their own home versions of Pong. Even Magnavox began to market a series of modified Odyssey units that played only their tennis and hockey games. Of these first-generation video game consoles, the most successful was Coleco Telstar, due in part to some luck and the help of Ralph Baer.

Coleco, a toy company that later became known for the wildly popular Cabbage Patch Doll in the early 1980s, was just beginning to branch out into video games. Acting on a recommendation from Ralph Baer, Coleco was the first company to place a major order for General Instruments' AY-3-8500 chip, on which most Pong console clones were based. When General Instruments, which had underestimated the interest in the chip, had trouble meeting production demands, Coleco was at the top of the priority list. While Coleco's competitors waited for months until General Instruments could complete their orders, Coleco cornered the market.

At a crucial moment, Coleco Telstar did not pass the interference tests needed for Federal Communications Commission approval. Coleco had a week to fix the problem or the unit would need to be totally redesigned before it could be resubmitted for FCC approval. The process could potentially take months, putting the company well behind its competitors. Without FCC approval, Coleco would be stuck with warehouses full of units that they could not sell.

The company turned to Sanders and Ralph Baer in hopes that Baer's experience would be able to help them. Baer found their solution within the week and Coleco received its FCC approval. Telstar sold over one million units in 1976, before being overshadowed by the next generation of video game consoles.

Produced between 1976 and 1983, these second-generation consoles, such as the Atari VCS (also known as the Atari 2600), Mattel's Intellivision, and ColecoVision, featured interchangeable game cartridges that were retailed separately, rather than games that came preloaded in the unit. This advance allowed users to build a library of games. There was soon a wide variety of games to choose from, but, ironically, this surplus proved to be the one of the key reasons that the industry faced a serious crash during the early 1980s.

In a classic case of supply outpacing demand, too many games hit the market, and many were of inferior quality. Further complicating matters, there were too many video game consoles from which to choose. Beyond the flooded market, video games consoles now faced growing competition from computers.

The bulky, room-sized expensive computer behemoths were a thing of the past. The age of the home computer had arrived. For many, purchasing a versatile computer, like the Apple II, Radio Shack's TRS-80, or the Commodore 64, which could play games in addition to running a multitude of other programs, seemed a more logical investment than buying a system devoted solely to gaming.

Sales of video game consoles and cartridges plunged in 1983 and 1984. Many companies like Mattel and Magnavox discontinued their video game lines completely, while Atari, the leader in the field, struggled to remain afloat. Video games remained popular arcade features, but it seemed that the era of home video game systems had ended.

But in 1985, a small Japanese company proved just the opposite. That year, Nintendo released its Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), whose popularity and commercial success surpassed any previous game console. No longer a novelty, video games found a firm foothold mainstream American life, just as Ralph Baer had predicted they would.

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Video Game History | Smithsonian Institution

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From the earliest days of computers, people have found ways to play games on them. These early computer programmers weren't just wasting time or looking for new ways to goof off.... Learn more

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Titanic: A Remembrance | National Geographic

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MORE TITANIC FACTS

* The most expensive tickets to travel aboard Titanic cost about $99,000 in today's money.

* The Titanic was almost as long as three football fields.

* To feed the passengers and crew, Titanic had 86,000 pounds of meat, 40,000 eggs, 40 tons of potatoes, 7,000 heads of lettuce, 3,500 pounds of onions, 36,000 apples, and 1,000 loaves of bread on board.

* Titanic was one of the first ships to have a telephone system and electric lights in all the rooms.

* Including the four smoke stacks, the Titanic was as tall as a 17-story building.

* Titanic had four elevators, a heated swimming pool, a gym, two libraries, and two barber shops.

* Each day, the passsengers and crew used 14,000 gallons of drinking water.

* Titanic' s engines used more than 800 tons of coal each day. The ship's top speed was 24 knots (27 miles an hour).

* Smoke and steam made by the Titanic' s boilers escaped through three stacks. Builders added a fourth stack because they thought it made the ship look better.

* Titanic could carry 3,547 passengers and crew. About 2,200 people traveled on its first voyage.

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Read about the tragic shipwreck in the frigid North Atlantic Ocean.

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How Did the 'Unsinkable' Titanic End Up at the Bottom of the Ocean? | National Geographic

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It was the world's most famous shipwreck, the 'unsinkable' ship, the RMS Titanic. From shows, galleries and videos we explore the history and mysteries of this historical event.

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Home World History Accidents & Disasters
Table of Contents

in full:

Royal Mail Ship (RMS) Titanic

(Show more)

Why did the Titanic sink?

How many people died when the Titanic sank?

Where is the wreck of the Titanic?

Why is the Titanic famous?

Titanic, British luxury passenger liner that sank on April 14-15, 1912, during its maiden voyage, en route to New York City from Southampton, England, killing about 1,500 ( see Researcher's Note: Titanic) passengers and ship personnel. One of the most famous tragedies in modern history, it inspired numerous stories, several films, and a musical and has been the subject of much scholarship and scientific speculation.

Origins and construction

In the early 1900s the transatlantic passenger trade was highly profitable and competitive, with ship lines vying to transport wealthy travelers and immigrants. Two of the chief lines were White Star and Cunard. By the summer of 1907, Cunard seemed poised to increase its share of the market with the debut of two new ships, the Lusitania and the Mauretania, which were scheduled to enter service later that year. The two passenger liners were garnering much attention for their expected speed; both would later set speed records crossing the Atlantic Ocean. Looking to answer his rival, White Star chairman J. Bruce Ismay reportedly met with William Pirrie, who controlled the Belfast shipbuilding firm Harland and Wolff, which constructed most of White Star's vessels. The two men devised a plan to build a class of large liners that would be known for their comfort instead of their speed. It was eventually decided that three vessels would be constructed: the Olympic, the Titanic, and the Britannic.

On March 31, 1909, some three months after work began on the Olympic, the keel was laid for the Titanic. The two ships were built side by side in a specially constructed gantry that could accommodate their unprecedented size. The sister ships were largely designed by Thomas Andrews of Harland and Wolff. In addition to ornate decorations, the Titanic featured an immense first-class dining saloon, four elevators, and a swimming pool. Its second-class accommodations were comparable to first-class features on other ships, and its third-class offerings, although modest, were still noted for their relative comfort.

Understanding the Titanic Disaster

As to safety elements, the Titanic had 16 compartments that included doors which could be closed from the bridge, so that water could be contained in the event the hull was breached. Although they were presumed to be watertight, the bulkheads were not capped at the top. The ship's builders claimed that four of the compartments could be flooded without endangering the liner's buoyancy. The system led many to claim that the Titanic was unsinkable.

Following completion of the hull and main superstructure, the Titanic was launched on May 31, 1911. It then began the fitting-out phase, as machinery was loaded into the ship and interior work began. After the Olympic's maiden voyage in June 1911, slight changes were made to the Titanic's design. In early April 1912 the Titanic underwent its sea trials, after which the ship was declared seaworthy.

As it prepared to embark on its maiden voyage, the Titanic was one of the largest and most opulent ships in the world. It had a gross registered tonnage (i.e., carrying capacity) of 46,328 tons, and when fully laden the ship displaced (weighed) more than 52,000 tons. The Titanic was approximately 882.5 feet (269 metres) long and about 92.5 feet (28.2 metres) wide at its widest point.

Maiden voyage

On April 10, 1912, the Titanic set sail on its maiden voyage, traveling from Southampton, England, to New York City. Nicknamed the "Millionaire's Special," the ship was fittingly captained by Edward J. Smith, who was known as the "Millionaire's Captain" because of his popularity with wealthy passengers. Indeed, onboard were a number of prominent people, including American businessman Benjamin Guggenheim, British journalist William Thomas Stead, and Macy's department store co-owner Isidor Straus and his wife, Ida. In addition, Ismay and Andrews were also traveling on the Titanic.

The voyage nearly began with a collision, however, when suction from the Titanic caused the docked New York to swing into the giant liner's path. After an hour of maneuverings to prevent the accident, the Titanic was under way. On the evening of April 10 the ship stopped at Cherbourg, France. The city's dock was too small to accommodate the Titanic, so passengers had to be ferried to and from the ship in tenders. Among those boarding were John Jacob Astor and his pregnant second wife, Madeleine, and Molly Brown. After some two hours the Titanic resumed its journey. On the morning of April 11 the liner made its last scheduled stop in Europe, at Queenstown ( Cobh), Ireland. At approximately 1:30 pm the ship set sail for New York City. Onboard were some 2,200 people, approximately 1,300 of whom were passengers.

Final hours

Throughout much of the voyage, the wireless radio operators on the Titanic, Jack Phillips and Harold Bride, had been receiving iceberg warnings, most of which were passed along to the bridge. The two men worked for the Marconi Company, and much of their job was relaying passengers' messages. On the evening of April 14 the Titanic began to approach an area known to have icebergs. Smith slightly altered the ship's course to head farther south. However, he maintained the ship's speed of some 22 knots. At approximately 9:40 pm the Mesaba sent a warning of an ice field. The message was never relayed to the Titanic's bridge. At 10:55 pm the nearby Leyland liner Californian sent word that it had stopped after becoming surrounded by ice. Phillips, who was handling passenger messages, scolded the Californian for interrupting him.

Two lookouts, Frederick Fleet and Reginald Lee, were stationed in the crow's nest of the Titanic. Their task was made difficult by the fact that the ocean was unusually calm that night: because there would be little water breaking at its base, an iceberg would be more difficult to spot. In addition, the crow's nest's binoculars were missing. At approximately 11:40 pm, about 400 nautical miles (740 km) south of Newfoundland, Canada, an iceberg was sighted, and the bridge was notified. First Officer William Murdoch ordered both the ship "hard-a-starboard"-a maneuver that under the order system then in place would turn the ship to port (left)-and the engines reversed. The Titanic began to turn, but it was too close to avoid a collision. The ship's starboard side scraped along the iceberg. At least five of its supposedly watertight compartments toward the bow were ruptured. After assessing the damage, Andrews determined that, as the ship's forward compartments filled with water, its bow would drop deeper into the ocean, causing water from the ruptured compartments to spill over into each succeeding compartment, thereby sealing the ship's fate. The Titanic would founder. (By reversing the engines, Murdoch actually caused the Titanic to turn slower than if it had been moving at its original speed. Most experts believe the ship would have survived if it had hit the iceberg head-on.)

Smith ordered Phillips to begin sending distress signals, one of which reached the Carpathia at approximately 12:20 am on April 15, and the Cunard ship immediately headed toward the stricken liner. However, the Carpathia was some 58 nautical miles (107 km) away when it received the signal, and it would take more than three hours to reach the Titanic. Other ships also responded, including the Olympic, but all were too far away. A vessel was spotted nearby, but the Titanic was unable to contact it. The Californian was also in the vicinity, but its wireless had been turned off for the night.

As attempts were made to contact nearby vessels, the lifeboats began to be launched, with orders of women and children first. Although the Titanic's number of lifeboats exceeded that required by the British Board of Trade, its 20 boats could carry only 1,178 people, far short of the total number of passengers. This problem was exacerbated by lifeboats being launched well below capacity, because crewmen worried that the davits would not be able to support the weight of a fully loaded boat. (The Titanic had canceled its scheduled lifeboat drill earlier in the day, and the crew was unaware that the davits had been tested in Belfast.) Lifeboat number 7, which was the first to leave the Titanic, held only about 27 people, though it had space for 65. In the end, only 705 people would be rescued in lifeboats.

As passengers waited to enter lifeboats, they were entertained by the Titanic's musicians, who initially played in the first-class lounge before eventually moving to the ship's deck. Sources differ on how long they performed, some reporting that it was until shortly before the ship sank. Speculation also surrounded the last song they performed-likely either Autumn or Nearer My God to Thee. None of the musicians survived the sinking.

By 1:00 am water was seen at the base (E deck) of the Grand Staircase. Amid the growing panic, several male passengers tried to board lifeboat number 14, causing Fifth Officer Harold Lowe to fire his gun three times. Around this time, Phillips's distress calls reflected a growing desperation as one noted that the ship "cannot last much longer."

As the Titanic's bow continued to sink, the stern began to rise out of the water, placing incredible strain on the midsection. At about 2:00 am the stern's propellers were clearly visible above the water, and the only lifeboats that remained on the ship were three collapsible boats. Smith released the crew, saying that "it's every man for himself." (He was reportedly last seen in the bridge, and his body was never found.) At approximately 2:18 am the lights on the Titanic went out. It then broke in two, with the bow going underwater. Reports later speculated that it took some six minutes for that section, likely traveling at approximately 30 miles (48 km) per hour, to reach the ocean bottom. The stern momentarily settled back in the water before rising again, eventually becoming vertical. It briefly remained in that position before beginning its final plunge. At 2:20 am the ship foundered as the stern also disappeared beneath the Atlantic. Water pressure allegedly caused that section, which still had air inside, to implode as it sank.

Hundreds of passengers and crew went into the icy water. Fearful of being swamped, those in the lifeboats delayed returning to pick up survivors. By the time they rowed back, almost all the people in the water had died from exposure. In the end, more than 1,500 perished. Aside from the crew, which had about 700 fatalities, third class suffered the greatest loss: of approximately 710, only some 174 survived. (Subsequent claims that passengers in steerage were prevented from boarding boats, however, were largely dispelled. Given Smith's failure to sound a general alarm, some third-class passengers did not realize the direness of the situation until it was too late. Many women also refused to leave their husbands and sons, while the difficulty of simply navigating the complex Titanic from the lower levels caused some to reach the top deck after most of the lifeboats had been launched.)
Read our timeline of the Titanic's final hours.

Rescue

The Carpathia arrived in the area at approximately 3:30 am, more than an hour after the Titanic sank. Lifeboat number 2 was the first to reach the liner. Over the next several hours the Carpathia picked up all survivors. White Star chairman Ismay wrote a message to be sent to the White Star Line's offices: "Deeply regret advise you Titanic sank this morning fifteenth after collision iceberg, resulting serious loss life; further particulars later." At approximately 8:30 am the Californian arrived, having heard the news some three hours earlier. Shortly before 9:00 am the Carpathia headed for New York City, where it arrived to massive crowds on April 18.

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Titanic | History, Sinking, Rescue, Survivors, Movies, & Facts

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Titanic, British luxury passenger liner that sank on April 14-15, 1912, during its maiden voyage, en route to New York City from Southampton, England, killing about 1,500 people. One of the most famous tragedies in modern history, it inspired numerous works of art and has been the subject of much scholarship.

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The Titanic leaving Southampton, England, on its ill-fated voyage on April 10, 1912. Credit... Southampton City Council, via Agence France-Presse - Getty Images

LONDON - Maybe it wasn't just the iceberg.

Ever since the Titanic sank more than 104 years ago, killing more than 1,500 men, women and children, mystery has swirled around the tragedy.

No one doubts that the ship collided at high speed with an iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland.

But a new documentary posits that the sinking of the ship - hailed at the time as the largest ever built, and praised for its professed unsinkability - may have been accelerated by a giant coal fire in its hull that appeared to have started as long as three weeks before it set off on its fateful journey to New York from Southampton, England.

In the documentary, which was broadcast on Channel 4 in Britain on New Year's Day, Senan Molony, an Irish journalist who has spent more than 30 years researching the Titanic, contends that the fire, in a three-story-high bunker next to one of the ship's boiler rooms, damaged its hull, helping to seal its fate long before it slammed into the iceberg.

"It's a perfect storm of extraordinary factors coming together: fire, ice and criminal negligence," he argues in the documentary, " Titanic: The New Evidence," which will air in the United States on the Smithsonian Channel on January 21. "The fire was known about, but it was played down. She should never have been put to sea."

Mr. Molony's potential breakthrough can be traced to an attic in Wiltshire, in southwest England, where a previously unpublished album of photographs chronicling the ship's construction and the preparations for its maiden voyage had been gathering dust for more than a century.

The photographs were discovered by a descendant of a director of the Belfast-based company, Harland and Wolff, that built the Titanic. About four years ago, a collaborator of Mr. Molony's acquired the rare photographs of the ship, meticulously taken by Harland and Wolff's engineering chief before it left a Belfast shipyard.

When the two men looked closely at the images, Mr. Molony said, they were shocked to discover a 30-foot-long diagonal black mark on the hull's front starboard side, close to where the ship was pierced by the iceberg. An analysis by engineers at Imperial College London subsequently revealed that the mark was most likely caused by a fire in a coal bunker of the ship.

Mr. Molony called the photographs "the Titanic equivalent of Tutankhamen's tomb," because of the richness of historical detail they conveyed, including the mark highlighting the extent of the damage.

Experts said the theory was compelling but were divided over how important a role the fire may have played.

In an interview, Richard de Kerbrech, a marine engineer based on the Isle of Wight who has written two books on the Titanic disaster, said that the fire would have damaged the ship's bulkhead, a wall of steel within the ship's hull, and made it more vulnerable after it was pierced by an iceberg. An official British inquiry, in 1912, mentioned the fire, but the judge who presided over it, whom critics saw as sympathetic to shipping interests, played it down.

"This discovery is a revelation and could change our knowledge of the history of what happened," Mr. de Kerbrech said.

Mr. Molony contends that the ship's owners knew about the fire but chose to let it go, since delaying the ship's journey would have been financially ruinous. At the time of departure, the ship was berthed so that the marks caused by the fire were facing the sea, away from the dock, and therefore concealed from passengers.

The Titanic disaster has long fanned conspiracy theories, among them that it was not the Titanic that sank on April 15, 1912, but, rather the Olympic, its sister ship; that the Titanic was torpedoed by a German U-boat; or that the ship was brought down by a sarcophagus containing an Egyptian priestess's mummy. Popularized by Hollywood, the story of the Titanic continues to exert a hold on popular culture. Construction of a full-size replica recently began at a theme park in China.

Mr. Molony said his fascination took root when he was 12 and was gripped by "A Night to Remember," Walter Lord's 1955 book recounting the Titanic's final night. He said he was so captivated that he finished the book in two hours and 40 minutes, the same time it took the Titanic to sink.

Now the political editor at The Irish Daily Mail, Mr. Molony, who has also written a book called " The Irish Aboard Titanic," was also drawn to the social divisions reflected on the ship, where first-class cabins hosted millionaires while hundreds of working-class passengers, many of them Irish, stayed below.

Mr. Molony said he believed the fire had been played down, in part because death by iceberg was a more dramatic explanation. "The ship was seen as a heroic unsinkable ship and, as a result, people focused on explanations that fed that narrative," he said.

Not everyone is convinced.

David Hill, a former honorary secretary of the British Titanic Society, who has been studying the cause of the sinking since the 1950s, argued that, while the damage caused by the fire to the steel walls protecting the hull may have hastened the disaster, the blaze was not the decisive factor.

"When the Titanic hit the iceberg close to midnight on April 14, 1912, it created a 300-foot-long line of damage on the starboard section of the hull, including punctures and gashes, that opened up too many compartments to the sea, so that the weight of the water dragged the bow down so low that the ship eventually sank," he said. "A fire may have accelerated this. But in my view, the Titanic would have sunk anyways."

He added: "It amazes me how this ship still captures the global imagination. It was not the worst-ever catastrophe at sea. But it is the one everyone remembers."

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Coal Fire, Not Just Iceberg, Doomed the Titanic, a Journalist Claims

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LONDON - Maybe it wasn't just the iceberg. Ever since the Titanic sank more than 104 years ago, killing more than 1,500 men, women and children, mystery has swirled around the tragedy. No one doubts that the ship collided at high speed with an iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland.

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mwichary on Flickr (original Space Wars!?)
Can you name the first video game? The first game likely was Tennis for Two in 1958 but it could be Space Wars! in 1962 or other games. It's complicated.

Probably the most interesting part of video game history is the role of play and fun in computer science history. For example, Claude Shannon and others built simple electro-mechanical mice with mazes and mechanical Turks to explore ideas about artificial intelligence. While video games we know were not available to the public until the 1970s, games have been a big part of serious scientific research into military strategy, human-computer interaction, and adaptive learning.

Another interesting aspect is how little early researchers cared to save their work once their work was done. Many early games from computer science research and university computer labs were saved by accident or destroyed.

What Was the First Computer Video Game?

The answer depends on whether you mean games available to the public, in bars as an arcade game, or limited to university computer labs.

Video games are, by definition, a combination of software, electronics, control devices, and a computer screen. The Magnavox Odyssey is the first game to meet this definition for public sale. The first video game available to anyone with access to a university computer lab was Spacewars! in 1962. The first game available to the public through bars as a coin-operated arcade game was Computer Space, released in 1971, a knock-off of Space Wars!.

Of these three games, only Space Wars! proved successful, encouraging other computer science students to create games with scarce computer time, and inspiring the Magnavox Odyssey and Computer Space games. DEC included the Space Wars! game in every computer it sold to universities for years after 1962.

How Have Video Games Evolved?

The first video games grew out of computer science research, bored but inspired students operating university computers late at night, and business people like Nolan Bushnell, Ted Dabney, and Ralph Baer who saw the potential of games played on computer monitors. One effort to create video games also grew out of a desire to make early television interactive with viewers. In some cases, these sources mixed. Pong, for example, was first built and made available to the public at Brookhaven National Laboratory in 1958, as Tennis for Two, to amuse guests at their annual Visitor Day, but not formally copied and sold to the public until 1972 by Atari, and then only as an arcade game.

Video game history also depended on the evolution of hardware, software, and programming languages. The Magnavox Odyssey included not only a primitive console but also included four games in the box, four games sold with a light gun, and six more games sold separately. Bushnell and Nolan, after the failure of the Computer Space game, created Atari and released Pong as their next coin-operated arcade game in 1972.

These early games led to an explosion of games, consoles, and companies in the 1970s. However, the game industry suffered a series of boom and bust cycles. In the 1970s, too many different and incompatible types of consoles were sold. In the 1980s, poor software left the market flooded with software few would play. In the 1970s and 1980s, the most popular platform were arcade games. Games played on televisions and early computers were not as popular. Retailers in the 1980s and 1990s also viewed video games as mostly a fad compared to home computers. The way games were sold also limited sales to the public.

Aside from all the obvious types of video games - action-adventure, role-playing, military, mazes, racing, and so on - some video games borrowed from movies to create immersive experiences. The Portopia Serial Murder Case, released in 1983, was the first Japanese adventure game that played like reading a novel or comic book. Ten years later, Myst combined the visual and sound qualities of film with a puzzle and adventure game. Players had to find then read clues by clicking objects in Myst as they wandered around its mysterious world.

Another innovation in video game history are narrative games. In the 1990s, Sims games became popular with people who had patience to create an artificial world. And games like Harvest Moon, Skyrim, and others let players follow story lines they controlled through choices they made as they played the game. Fans of these games buy versions over decades, the way people buy books by a favorite author as they are published.

The near future of video game history likely will revolve around equipment that creates interactive and immersive experiences, although both have existed for some time in arcade games. The Wii was one of the first to allow players to have their hand and body motions impact game play, for example, and dance arcade games let players use their feet to match the game play.

Learn More

History of Video Games (Wikipedia)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_video_games
Video Game History Timeline
http://www.museumofplay.org/icheg-game-history/timeline/
History of Video Games
https://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/History_of_video_games.html
The Art of Video Games (Smithsonian)

http://www.americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/archive/2012/games/
http://www.americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/archive/2012/games/featuredgames/
http://www.americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/archive/2012/games/gamefest/

About the Author

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mwichary on Flickr (original Space Wars!?) Can you name the first video game? The first game likely was Tennis for Two in 1958 but it could be Space Wars! in 1962 or other games. It's complicated. Probably the most interesting part of video game history is the role of play and fun in computer science history.

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Evolution of Video Games In 3 Minutes Or Less (1940-2018)

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Newsela | Veterans Affairs sees health benefits for soldiers who play video games

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Video games can help soldiers relax and reconnect with others.

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Newsela | Goodbye lonely video gaming, multiplayer games are the new thing

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The gaming world has come a long way, with players these days forming on-screen bonds.

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Newsela | Video gaming keeps booming; E3 peers into future of this hot market

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Here's a first look at what's ahead in the world of video games.

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The Future of Human Space Exploration Video - English Version

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Watch and learn about NASA's future of human space exploration.

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The Cold War between the United States and former Soviet Union gave birth to the space race and an unprecedented program of scientific exploration. The Soviets sent the first person into space on April 12, 1961. In response, President John F. Kennedy challenged our nation "to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to earth." It took eight years and three NASA programs -- Mercury, Gemini and Apollo - but the United States got to the moon.

Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin on the Moon. Look for Neil Armstrong reflected in Aldrin's visor. During the following three-and-a-half years, 10 astronauts followed in their footsteps.
Image Credit: NASA

Project Mercury

Project Mercury, the first U.S. program to put humans in space, made 25 flights, six of which carried astronauts between 1961 and 1963. The objectives of the program were: to orbit a human spacecraft around Earth, to investigate a person's ability to function in space, and to recover both the astronaut and spacecraft safely. More than 2 million people from government agencies and the aerospace industry combined their skills, initiative and experience to make the project possible. Mercury showed that humans could function for periods up to 34 hours of weightless flight.

Mercury Astronauts
Image Credit: NASA
Mercury astronauts, the "Original Seven." On April 9, 1959, NASA introduced its first astronaut class. Front row, left to right: Wally Schirra, Deke Slayton, John Glenn, Scott Carpenter; back row, Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, and Gordon Cooper.

The Gemini Program

The Gemini program primarily tested equipment and mission procedures and trained astronauts and ground crews for future Apollo missions to the Moon. The program's main goals were: to test an astronaut's ability to fly long duration flights (14 days); to understand how a spacecraft could rendezvous and dock with another vehicle in Earth orbit; to perfect re-entry landing methods; and to further understand the effects of longer spaceflights on astronauts. NASA selected "Gemini" because the word is Latin for "twins," and the Gemini was a capsule built for two.

Spacewalk
Image Credit: NASA
Gemini IV spacewalk, June 3, 1965. NASA astronaut Ed White became the first American to walk in space.

The Apollo Program

Exactly eight years, one month and 26 days after President Kennedy challenged Americans to reach for the Moon, Project Apollo landed the first humans on the lunar surface and returned them safely to Earth. The Apollo program also developed technology to meet other national interests in space, conducted scientific exploration of the Moon, and developed humanity's capability to work in the lunar environment.

The ascent stage of the Apollo 11 lunar module approaching the command module for docking before the crew returned to Earth. Image Credit: NASA

The Apollo program was hit by tragedy as the first crew prepared to fly. On Jan. 27, 1967, fire swept through the Apollo 1 command module during a preflight test on the Cape Kennedy launch pad. Astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee lost their lives. NASA was not deterred, but rather changed how things were done to ensure the safety and success of future missions.
Image Credit: NASA Image Credit: NASA
Apollo 13
Image Credit: NASA
A makeshift arrangement of equipment, parts and duct tape on the Apollo 13 Lunar Module (LM) saved the crew's lives after an oxygen tank explosion in the Service Module left them with the LM to use as a "lifeboat." Using materials only found on the spacecraft, NASA engineers on the ground designed and tested a system that removed carbon dioxide from the LM; the Apollo 13 crew then made the system onboard, April 17, 1970, and returned safely to Earth.

Skylab

In 1973, Skylab expeditions paved the way for the International Space Station. The four, windmill-like solar arrays were attached to the Apollo Telescope Mount. Observations of the Sun were one of this space lab program's primary achievements.

Apollo Soyuz Test Project
Image Credit: NASA
In the 1970s, U.S.-Soviet political tensions that had accelerated the space race began to thaw. Competition gave way to cooperation between the two nations with the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. International collaboration among many nations would become the norm during the space shuttle era and current cooperation in human spaceflight with the International Space Station. These partnerships have taught us more about the universe, improved our lives at home, and expanded the possibilities for future exploration into deep space.

Handshake
Image Credit: NASA
Astronaut Tom Stafford (foreground) and cosmonaut Alexei Leonov make their historic handshake in space on July 17, 1975. The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project docked together U.S. and Soviet spacecraft and paved the way toward international partnerships in space.

Space Shuttle Era

Over 30 years, NASA's space shuttle fleet-Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour-flew 135 missions and carried 355 different people to space. Humanity's first reusable spacecraft, the space shuttle carried people into orbit repeatedly; launched, recovered and repaired satellites; conducted cutting-edge research; and built the largest structure in space, the International Space Station. The space shuttle pushed the bounds of discovery ever farther, requiring not only advanced technologies but also the tremendous efforts of thousands of civil servants and contractors throughout NASA's field centers and across the nation. Tragically, NASA lost two crews of seven in the 1986 Challenger accident and the 2003 Columbia accident.

Space Shuttle Columbia, the world's first reusable space vehicle, landing at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center (now NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center) at Edwards Air Force Base, California, April 14, 1981. Image Credit: NASA

Space Station Era

The International Space Station is a model for global cooperation and scientific advancements that is enabling growth of private industry in low-Earth orbit and development of new technologies to advance human space exploration. Built between 1998 and 2011, the space station has housed humans continuously since Nov. 2, 2000. Because molecules and cells behave differently in space, research in microgravity helps advance scientific knowledge. The space station is a U.S. National Laboratory, which the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) manages for research investigations that improve life on Earth. NASA has contracted with commercial companies SpaceX, Orbital ATK, and Sierra Nevada Corporation to deliver science investigations, cargo, and supplies to the crews living in space, and soon Boeing and SpaceX will transport astronauts to and from the station.

This picture of the International Space Station was photographed from the space shuttle Atlantis as the orbiting complex and the shuttle performed their relative separation in the early hours of July 19, 2011 Image Credit: NASA

Spot the Station
Image Credit: NASA
Nighttime view of the eastern U.S. and Canada from the International Space Station. You can see the station too. Go to Spot the Station and sign up for text and email updates of sighting opportunities.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASA Official: Brian Dunbar

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Newsela | Alyssa Carson plans to follow her dream, all the way to Mars

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Alyssa Carson, 17, of Louisiana, hopes to be one of the first to set foot on the Red Planet.

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On January 3, China's space program made a landing on the so-called dark side of the moon, bringing the country closer to its goal of becoming a global space power.

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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History for kids - Free history network for kids

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Hiroshima and Nagasaki - History for kids

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Atomic Bomb Background Before the war, many scientists had been investigating the possibility of generating energy and even weapons from the atom, the building block of the universe and everything that surrounds us. The famous scientist Albert Einstein represented these leading thinkers by writing to the American president Franklin Roosevelt in August 1939. He told

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Kids learn about the history of the Atomic Bomb during World War II. Dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki of Japan to end WW2.

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While Germany had surrendered, the continued. One of the most significant events of World War Two happened in 1945. This was the dropping of on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by American forces.

The decision to drop the atom bomb was taken by President Harry S. Truman, who had replaced Franklin Roosevelt following his death in April 1945. On 6 August 1945, Truman ordered an atom bomb to be dropped on the city of Hiroshima. It was dropped by a bomber plane named the Enola Gay. It is thought that at least 140,000 people were killed, of a total population of around 350,000.

When the atom bomb was dropped:

The temperature at the centre of the explosion reached 3000ºC - 4000ºC - three times hotter than volcanic lava.

Everything within a mile of the centre of the blast was flattened.

Fires spread and around 67 per cent of Hiroshima's buildings were destroyed.

Three days after the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a second one was dropped on the city of Nagasaki by a bomber plane called Bockscar. A further 74,000 people, at least, were killed. The Japanese Emperor, Hirohito, announced that Japan would surrender on 15 August. They formally signed a surrender agreement on 2 September.

This brought World War Two to an end.

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Find out about World War Two with BBC Bitesize History. For students between the ages of 11 and 14.

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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Scholastic Teaching Tools | Resources for Teachers

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Explore Scholastic Teaching Tools for teaching resources, printables, book lists, and more. Enhance your classroom experience with expert advice!

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History for kids - Free history network for kids

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Hiroshima and Nagasaki - History for kids

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Atomic Bomb Background Before the war, many scientists had been investigating the possibility of generating energy and even weapons from the atom, the building block of the universe and everything that surrounds us. The famous scientist Albert Einstein represented these leading thinkers by writing to the American president Franklin Roosevelt in August 1939. He told

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Titanic: Captain Went Down with the Ship

The Titanic had eight officers, including Captain Edward Smith.

Smith was a veteran, decorated sailor, having been with the White Star Line since 1880. He was captain of the Majestic for nine years, including a stint transporting British troops to the Boer War.

Beginning in 1904, he was the captain on all of White Star Line's new ships. He was captain of the Baltic when it sailed from Liverpool to New York in June 1904 and of the Adriatic when it made a similar voyage three years later.

Smith was captain of the Olympic, a ship as big as the Titanic, in September 1911, when the Olympic collided with another ship, the Hawke, resulting in the Hawke's losing its prow and the Olympic's losing one of its giant propeller shafts. Smith and the Olympic got the blame for this incident.

Despite this incident, the White Star Line appointed Smith captain of its newest ship, the Titanic, for its maiden voyage. His first major action was to ensure that the Titanic didn't collide with the New York, a ship that broke free from its moorings because of the huge amount of water displaced when Titanic initially sailed.

Smith did not survive the sinking of the Titanic. Various accounts of his last actions have him jumping into the sea at the last second, standing in the wheelhouse as the ship went down, and even rescuing a child as his final act.

His body was not recovered. He left behind a wife and daughter. A statue of him stands in Beacon Park in Lichfield, Staffordshire, in England.

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Titanic: Captain Went Down with the Ship

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The Titanic captain was experienced in the extreme.

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Titanic: Passengers Famously Separated by Class

In many ways, the Titanic passenger list reflected the wide class divide of the times. Of the 1,296 total passengers onboard the massive ocean liner, 319 were labeled as first class, 269 were termed second class, and 699 were called third class, or steerage.

A closer look at the casualty figures reveals that of the 319 first-class passengers, 200 survived and of the 269 second-class passengers, 117 survived. Only 172 of 699 third-class passengers survived. A similar percentage can be found among crew and staff: 215 of 918 survived.

First-class passengers included wealthy businessmen, famous entertainers, high-ranking members of the military, and professional athletes. Among the second-class numbers were professors, authors, tourists, and clergymen. Most of the third-class passengers were immigrants seeking a new life in the U.S. or Canada.

Some of the people aboard the Titanic were very famous in their day.

The most prominent name was probably John Jacob Astor IV (right), the latest millionaire in a family of rich businessmen. He and his wife, Madeleine, were returning to the U.S. so Madeleine could give birth to their first child at home.

Also onboard were these famous people:

Isidor Straus, owner of the Macy's department store, and his wife, Ida

Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company founder George Wick

Charles Hays, the president of Canada's Grand Trunk Railway

John Thayer, a vice-president with the Pennsylvania Railroad

George Widener, owner of the Philadelphia Traction (streetcar) Company

Benjamin Guggenheim, a member of the powerful mining family whose brother Solomon established the eponymous New York museum.

All of these famous people died when the Titanic sank.

Among the famous people surviving the disaster were J. Bruce Ismay, chairman of White Star Line; Thomas Andrews, the ship's builder; millionaire and women's rights activist Margaret Brown; and silent film star Dorothy Gibson.

Among the more than 700 survivors were the "Titanic Orphans," Michel Jr. and Edmond Navratil, infant sons of Michel Navratil, who kidnapped his sons and took them aboard the Titanic to get them away from their mother, who lived in Nice, France. Michel, the father, died, but the boys survived and were cared for by fellow survivor Margaret Hays until their mother arrived in New York to take them home. (Hays had widely circulated photographs of the twins, and their mother had eventually seen the pictures.)

Also surviving was Violet Jessop, a nurse who was working as a stewardess on the Titanic and went on to survive the sinking of the Britannic four years later. Jessop went on to work for another ship company, the Red Star Line, and went on two round-the-world cruises.

The last remaining survivor was Elizabeth Dean, who was only a few months old when she and her family boarded the Titanic in hopes of immigrating to the American Midwest. Elizabeth, known as Millvina, and her mother and brother survived. Elizabeth died in 2009, at age 97.

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Titanic: Passengers Famously Separated by Class

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In many ways, the Titanic passenger list reflected the wide class divide of the times.

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Titanic Facts for Kids | 8 Hidden Facts about Titanic

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Everybody knows the story of Titanic and the iceberg it hit on the night of April 14, 1912. When it first set sail, the Titanic was known for its extraordinary size and was thought to be “The Unsin…

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The Unknown About The Unsinkable Titanic

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Did more than just the iceberg lead the "unsinkable" Titanic to sink?

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Demographics of the
TITANIC Passengers:
Deaths, Survivals,
Nationality,
and Lifeboat Occupancy

I hesitated before creating yet another Titanic Web site, but after I saw the movie Titanic [that tells you how long this page has been around], I was inspired to finish up some research I had started quite some time before. I was curious about the demographics of the passengers and crew of the Titanic -- who perished, who survived, and who occupied which lifeboats. How gravely was the tragedy enhanced by gender, class distinction, and prejudice?

On this site I have compiled numbers, comparing several different sources. The numbers make it all too clear that a rule of First Class First far outweighed the principle of Women and Children First. In addition to simply compiling numbers, however, I have included some notes and analysis and share the sources I used to compile the data.

Deaths and Survivals
Compared:
Women, Children, and Men

Breakdown of Passengers by Class

Women

Children

Men

Total

First Class
Women (Servants*)

First Class
Men (Servants*)

Second Class
Women (Servants*)

Second Class
Children

Total: 25
Died: 0
Survived: 25
% Survived: 100%

Second Class
Men (Servants*)

Further Steerage Breakdown

Breakdown of Passengers by Nationality

Nationality FIRST CLASS SECOND CLASS THIRD CLASS Total

Total

Survived

Died

Percent Survived

Total

Survived

Died

Percent Survived

Total

Survived

Died

Percent Survived

Total

Survived

Died

Percent Survived

Belgian

1

1

0

100%

1

0

1

0%

22

5

17

23%

24

6

18

25%

Bulgarian

0

0

33

0

33

0%

33

0

33

0%

FIRST CLASS SECOND CLASS THIRD CLASS Total

Total

Survived

Died

Percent Survived

Total

Survived

Died

Percent Survived

Total

Survived

Died

Percent Survived

Total

Survived

Died

Percent Survived

The nationality numbers were adapted from lists and raw data compiled by Hermann Söldner. Note: the numbers on this chart do not match the totals on the two tables above. Although I can account for some of the discrepancies (for example, I think he included the musicians among the British Second Class passengers, but I did not), I do not have enough information about his sources to be able to square his numbers with my own.

Breakdown of Officers and Crew
by Employment Category

Women

Men

Total

Total
Female Sailing Crew

None.

Total
Female Staff, non-White Star Employees

Total
Female Staff and Crew

Demographics
of the Lifeboats

Order launched

Time
launched

Number of boat, location

Approx. No. aboard / Capacity / Percentage

Class of
passengers

Men, other than crew, aboard?

5th or 6th

1:10

1
OFFICERS Deck,
Starboard

12/40
30%

only FIRST

10 of the 12 were men

15th

1:45

2
OFFICERS Deck,
Port

20/40
50%

FIRST & THIRD

men were removed from the boat before it was moved for launch. At least 1 aboard by the time of launch.

16th

34/65
52%

Primarily FIRST

none initially, but a few male passengers were hauled aboard; only First Class Deck lifeboat to haul up passengers.

17th

1:50

39/49
80+%

primarily THIRD,
some FIRST

at least 10, including J. Bruce Ismay, White Star director

18th

2:05

17/49
35%

all

at least 4, including those hauled out of water

not launched;
floated off
partially
submerged

2:20

unknown (only 13 reached the Carpathian alive)/49

all but 1 were men

2:20

unknown (only 28 reached the Carpathian alive)/49

all men, but few were passengers

NOTES ON THE TABLES ABOVE

1. There is no exact or definitive number for the people aboard the Titanic, nor for those who survived. Estimates you can find on the web range widely, and even among reputiable scholars, numbers differ by as many as 40 passengers. There are official documents, such as a Contract Ticket List, a Certificates of Clearance, lists of alien passengers prepared for the United States Immigration Service. There were two official lists of deceased passengers created in 1912. There are discrepancies, inaccuracies, inconsistences, omissions, and other mistakes with both names and numbers. Researchers, such as Michael A. Findlay, Philip Hind, and Lester J. Mitcham, have been able to correct many errors and solve many mysteries, but there will always be a few problems that will never be solved. Because of their research, however, even if an exact number will never be known, wild guesses and faulty estimates from the past can now be rejected.

2. In several cases the distinction between a passenger and a member of the crew is not clear. Some employees, such as musicians and employees of Harland and Wolff (the shipbuilder), were on board for work. So, even if they were given First or Second Class accommodations, I have included them among the crew, not among the passengers. Until recently, 1296 was my total for number of passengers in the first table. That figure was based on research done by Michael Findlay in the 1990s. With the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, I did some more tabulations, based on more recent estimates and revised it upward to 1300. The number of passengers in the first and second tables now agree. The total numbers in the table for nationalities do not agree, however, since they are based on calculations done by Hermann Söldner, who must have used different sources than I have.

3. Despite the discrepancies, I think the numbers are close enough to draw some legitimate conclusions. However, I urge you use caution and skepticism as you review them.

4. Figures for the crew are even less reliable than the numbers for passengers. No accurate crew list was compiled at the time.

DISCUSSION OF THE TABLES ABOVE

To me, a non-statistician, the tables above show significant indications of class discrimination. Evidence of numbers and testimony have proven that only on one side of the Titanic did the rule "Women and children first," apply. What becomes even more clear when looking at the numbers is that a more important concept of the day was "First Class first."

CLASS DISTINCTIONS

1. For some perspective, here is the price of tickets: First Class tickets ranged from £30 for a berth to £870 for a luxury suite with a private fifty-foot promenade and the only private lavatory and toilet facilities in all the ship. A Second Class ticket could be purchased for as little as £12. Steerage tickets ranged from £3 (for children) to £8, but family tickets were also available to make tickets even more affordable to large families. I have seen various estimates of how much that would be worth in current US dollars, so I think it makes more sense to make a different comparison. The cheapest ticket would have cost a clerk, typist, or shipyard worker a month's salary, and in many cases families would have had to use all their savings to afford the passage. The most expensive First Class ticket was similar in price to that of a very expensive luxury automobile.

2. The lifeboats were launched from the First Class decks first and the Second Class decks second. There were no decks or lifeboats dedicated to the Third Class.

3. First Class suites, berths, and social rooms were located principally on the center of the ship on decks A, B, and C (or more poetically the Boat Deck, Promenade Deck and Bridge Deck), with additional cabins on decks D and E. They had either immediate or easy access to the Boat Deck where all of the lifeboats were housed. Lifeboats numbered 1 through 8, which were the first to be launched, were located in the fore of the ship, the First Class Deck. The numbers indicate that First Class Passengers utilized any lifeboat available without compunction.

4. Second Class rooms were mostly located on decks D and E, with some on lower decks F and G. Where Second Class passengers were on the same deck as First Class passengers, the Second Class passengers were further aft. Some Second Class passengers would have had easy access through a stairway to the stern of the Boat Deck (Second Class Deck) where lifeboats numbered 9 through 16 were located. More by cultural than physcial barriers, the Second Class passengers would have been prohibited from entering the First Class section of the Boat Deck.

5. Steerage passengers had rooms on lower decks F and G, with some exceptions, and no direct or immediate access to lifeboats on the boat deck. Many steerage passengers who survived did so only by reaching the last of the lifeboats that were launched.

6. It is difficult for us now living more than a century later to realize and imagine how different people lived and thought. Bigotry of all sorts, especially classism and racism were commonplace and accepted or expected by both the privileged classes and races and the underprivileged.

7. By law, passed for public health reasons, gates separating steerage passengers from the other passengers had to be locked. Back then steerage passengers were equated with emigrants who were equated with disease and pestilence, and it was thought important to give passengers in more luxurious accommodations peace of mind that the ship would not breed contagion or other hazards to their well-being. The locked gates proved to be the most deadly, but there were other measures used on steerage passengers alone. Before boarding, steerage passengers had to submit to a health inspection, for at least obvious signs of infection, lice, or disease.As a public health measure, the public toilets in steerage had an automatic flushing feature.

8. Since adult male passengers were more likely to die than women and children, the sex of the passengers should probably by factored in when comparing the survival rate by class, but the percentages are not significantly different. More than 62% of the steerage passengers were adult males, compared to and 64% in Second Class, and 57% of the First Class passengers.

9. There is contradictory evidence about the degree of physical restraint used to keep steerage passengers from getting to the lifeboats. In addition to the reports that the locked gates remained locked, there were stories that passageways were blocked by armed guards. Testimony by at least one steerage passenger indicated there was no such restraint, which if true would indicate at least one crew member to unlock and free the passageways.

10. Annie Kelly, an Irish steerage passenger, said that the stewards not only did not wake the steerage passengers with an alarm but told alarmed third class passenger who came up to the deck to go back down as there was no danger. However, similar assurances were given to First and Second Class passengers.

11. Colonel Archibald Gracie testified at the American inquiry that a "mass of humanity" from steerage poured up onto the boat deck only after all the lifeboats had been launched.

12. According to several writers and historians, indifference toward steerage passengers and resignation by many steerage passengers may have been more responsible for the low percentages of steerage passenger survival than physical barriers.

13. Walter Lord, in A Night To Remember, indicates that the White Star Line always denied class distinction in filling the boats, and that both US Senate and British inquiries backed them up.

14. A contempt for "foreigners" was admitted by the crew in their own testimony, especially when telling stories of men who showed cowardice. The testimony of one officer at the U.S. Senate hearing so angered the Italian ambassador he demanded (and received) a retraction and an apology.

WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST?

1. In simple terms, almost all of the women and children in First and Second Class survived, while most of the women and children in steerage died. In contrast, most of the men in First, Second, and Third Class died.

2. The "Women and children only" rule was applied on the port side of the ship. It is not clear whether or not the "Women and children first" rule was applied on the starboard. Men comprised the majority of passengers aboard the First Class starboard deck lifeboats, but there was testimony that the men did wait until all the women present and willing had already boarded.

3. First Class women and children were about 6% of those aboard the Titanic, but constituted 20% of the survivors. In contrast, steerage passengers were a third of all aboard, but only one fourth of those saved.

4. At least three of the four women in First Class who perished had the opportunity to board a lifeboat but elected to stay with their husbands and/or family. When they initially made their decisions, most passengers still believed that the Titanic would and could not sink and may have been fearful for the safety of the lifeboats and the boarding process itself. There were several

5. Over half of the women in steerage perished.

6. All of the lifeboats launched from the starboard First Class Deck had more men than women aboard.

7. Who was a child was relative depending on class. For example, 14 year old Lucile Carter in First Class was considered a child, but a 14 year old Annie McGowan in Steerage was considered to be an adult. The only child in First Class to go down with the ship was Lorraine Allison. The Allison family was separated from their infant son. The Allisons refused to board a lifeboat until they could find their missing baby. Since the child's nurse had already been taken him on board a lifeboat, the rest of his family never found him and died together.

8. It may be statistically insignificant because of low numbers, but children from Second Class were the only members of a group to have a 100% survival rate.

9. Less than a third of the children from steerage survived.

10. Although half of the Irish women (defined as women boarding in Queenstown) survived, only one of the six Irish children survived (and I am including 14 year old Annie McGowan, whom some do not).

ADULT MALE PASSENGERS

1. Honor and shame ruled society in 1912 unlike they do a hundred years later. Gentlemen were expected to be honorable and feared being shamed. Men aboard the Titanic, especially those among the upper class, had to weigh their own survival with doing what society would deem the right thing. To survive but live in shame was a risk some men would not take. Different men, dispite which class they belonged to, made different decisions. Famously several of the wealthiest men, John Jacob Astor, George Widener, and Isodor Strauss, refused to board a lifeboat on grounds of honor, even after it was clear that the Titanic would sink.

2. Men in First Class had no better than a one in three chance of surviving, so compared to women, even women from steerage, they fared poorly. Compared to men from other classes, they did remarkably well. At the time when most of the lifeboats from the First Class decks were launching, it was not certain among the passengers that the Titanic was doomed, and many of the men from First Class who could have gone aboard a lifeboat (those on the starboard side) elected to remain behind.

3. Even though some men had no trouble boarding lifeboats, there was a report that the wealthiest man on the Titanic, John Jacob Astor, attempted to board the lifeboat with his wife, but was rebuffed by Second Officer Lightoller, who told him, "Women and children, only, sir." Other accounts are differ, however, including one that he was seated in a lifeboat, but gave up his seat at the last minute. Another is that Astor chose to stay behind to encourage William Carter to get on board, promising the boy that he would take care of his dog.

4. An adult male in Second Class had only an 8% chance of surviving. Even adult male steerage passengers had a better chance of surviving than that. Without supporting evidence, it is hard to say that the men from Second Class gave up their seats to women from steerage, but if it was true, they were more gallant by far than the men from First Class.

5. Men in Second Class had no physical barriers to pass, so honor and resignation may have reigned high. However, more compelling than a sense of good manners and gentlemanliness was probably the stigma of shame and cowardice that would be attached to many adult males who had the audacity to survive the sinking. As a result, adult male survivors had compelling reasons for their defensiveness and inventions of excuses for boarding a lifeboat.

6. Panic and confusion may have been an even greater consideration for the loss of life by many men. As Lawrence Beesley, a Second Class passenger, reported in his 1912 book, The Loss of the SS Titanic, a false rumor that men were allowed to board lifeboats on the port side caused many men to cross over to the side of the ship where they had a much smaller chance of being allowed on board a lifeboat.

7. A high percentage of the men in steerage who got to lifeboats reached them only by leaping onto them after they were launched or by scrambling aboard the two emergency lifeboats as they floated off moments before the Titanic finally went down.

1. The numbers used above are adapted from a list of country of origin created by researcher Hermann Soldner. His compilations were published in Switzerland in 2000 as a booklet, "RMS Titanic: Passenger and Crew List 10 April 1912-15 April 1912." His research was used as the primary source for the Country of Residence section of the Encyclopedia Titanica.

2. Most official lists provide no breakdown by nationality beyond British and Non-British.

3. If any stereotype can be read in the demographics, one might be tempted to cite those spunky Irish, almost all of whom were in steerage, but whom survived by greater precentage than the British, of whom only slightly more than half were in steerage. However, to put that premise in doubt, even more significant is that almost half of the Irish were women, and gender, not nationality, may have been a greater factor in determining likelihood of survival.

4. Passengers with Third Class tickets are usually billed as immigrants and refugees, and the image that that description can be bring is one of disreputable, disease-laden, dark complected foreigners. However, almost two thirds were English-tongued British, Americans, and Irish, or fair skinned Scandinavians. The British and Swedes had among the worse survival rates among nationalities in steerage.

5. By percentage, the Japanese did the best, with a 100% survival rate, but since there was only one Japanese passenger on board, that's a meaningless statistic. The Chinese, Spanish, and Swiss also had a very high survival rate, but there numbers were also all very small. The French survived as well as the Americans, but there were one tenth as many French as Americans.

6. Nationality is not equivalent to ethnicity. For example, although there is a designation for Finland, ethnic Finns living in Sweden were counted among the Swedes. As result, the number is imprecise. I have altered the number I orginally had based on figures determined by the Swedish Emigrant Institute. The majority from Austria-Hungary were neither German nor Magyar (Hungarian), but from the various Slavic ethnic groups. There were contemporary accounts of many Italians aboard the Titanic, but the statistics do not bear this out. It appears likely "Italian" was the label given most any foreigner with a dark complection.

7. Haiti is not listed, but one passenger who must have been listed as French was Joseph Philippe Lemercier Laroche, who had been born in Haiti. He had been living in France for more than a decade, and his wife and two children were all born in France. He has been called the only passenger aboard the Titanic of known African ancestry.

8. Countries, borders, and geopolitical understanding were quite different in 1912 than they are today. There were two Australians and five South Africans, but both nations were considered to be part of the British Commonwealth, so they were originally tallied as British. I have separated them out and subtracted the number from the British totals. There are probably many others from Commonwealth nations that should also be separated out. Turkey and Syria were both part of the Ottoman Empire, but researchers have discovered that most Middle Easterners aboard the Titanic were actually Lebanese Christians. Those listed as Syrians had one of the best survival rates of any nationality in steerage.

9. Because of the small sample sizes and inexact determination of ethnicity, it seems inappropriate to make any broad conclusions about the personalities of national groups based on survival rates. There was a controversy back in January 2009 that caused this site to get a huge number of hits. The controversy occurred after the BBC and other journalists reported on research that concluded that British passengers were more likely to perish than Americans because they were more polite. In any eyewitness accounts I've read, I've seen no evidence that British men failed to get on lifeboats because of a greater degree of gentlemanliness. Surely the stigma of shame and cowardice, as well as opportunity, fear, confusion, and panic, were greater factors than politeness in who boarded the lifeboats.

TITANIC CREW, EMPLOYEES, AND SERVANTS

1. The crew of the Titanic were divided into Deck Crew, Engineering Crew, and Victualling Crew. I have created my own employment category of Sailors to single out officers, able-bodied seamen, quartermasters, lookouts, and masters-at-arms from other members of the deck crew.

2. Seventy percent of the 60 sailors on board survived, many, but not all, because they had been commanded to take charge of lifeboats or to serve as rowers. It may have been the duty of the captain to go down with the ship, but that was not true for most other officers.

3. Other members of the deck crew were non-sailors. The non-sailing crew were 38% of those aboard the Titanic but only 25% of the survivors. Non-sailing crew members included trimmers, firemen, greasers, window cleaners, carpenters, messmen, engineers, stewards and stewardesses, bell boys, lift attendants, boots, baths, barbers, chefs, cooks, butchers, bakers, confectioners, platemen, scullions, medical staff, and a gymnasium instructor. Only a couple of the non-sailing crew, all firemen, were recruited as rowers on lifeboats.

4. All 30 engineer and electrical engineers perished. They were true heroes who stayed down below until almost the end trying to keep the ship afloat and the electrical system working.

5. Some members of the Titanic's crew were not employees of the White Star line. These included nine Guarantee Group members (employees of the shipbuilder, Harland and Wolff, who were on board to familiarize the crew with the ship), eight musicians, two Marconi operators, five postal clerks, and the nearly seventy members of the staff of the First Class a la carte restaurant. This group of non-White Star line crew members had the worst rate of survival.

6. The musicians, who traveled in Second Class, and the Guarantee Group, three of whom traveled in First Class and five of whom in Second Class, are included among passengers in some lists, as is Frans Olof Carlsson, who was the first mate on the liner St. Louis, but had been stranded by the coal strike and was traveling in First Class to return to his ship. I have included them with the crew. All were men; all perished.

7. Almost all of the a la carte restaurant workers were French. All but two were men. Both women, neither of whom were French, reached a lifeboat. Only one male restaurant worker survived.

8. As an indication of class distinction, the first official lists of Titanic passengers did not include the names of the maids and manservants who traveled with the First Class passengers. They were merely extensions of the passenger. For example, "Cardeza [sic], Mrs. J. W. M. and Maid."

9. The story quickly emerged that four maids died, trapped below deck, because they had been sent down to the purser's office to fetch their employers' valuables. In the first official lists, indeed, four maids are listed among those who perished, the maids of Mrs. Cardeza, Mrs. Douglas, Mrs. Hays, Mrs. Penasco y Castellana. Researcher Michael Findlay, however, has disproved the myth by documenting that all four of these women, Bertha LeRoy, Fermina Oliva y Ocana, Annie Perreault, and Anne Ward, survived. In fact, all female servants traveling in First and Second Class survived.

10. While maids, nurses, and valets traveled in First Class, three chauffeurs and a cook traveling with First Class passengers were given Second Class accommodations. The cook (a female) survived, but none of the chauffeurs (all male) did.

11. Only two menservants survived. One was Henry Sleeper Harper's Egyptian dragoman (an interpreter and guide) named Hamad Hassah, "whom he picked up in Cairo as a sort of a joke [according to Walter Lord]." The Harpers also brought on board the lifeboat their other "pet," a Pekingese, named Sun Yet-sen. The other surviving manservant was Gustave Lesueur, valet to Mr Thomas Cardeza. Cardeza was traveling with his mother, and there was a report that the mother, son, and two servants boarded Lifeboat 3 as an entourage.

LIFEBOATS

1. Lifeboats were the luxury of the First Class. The White Star Line staff was deferential to the First Class in all things, so it was natural that the launching of the lifeboats began on the First Class decks. Half the lifeboats, and all of the first six launched, contained only passengers from First Class, plus crew members to do the work. Although no one but First Class passengers could board a First Class deck lifeboat, First Class passengers were welcome to board First and Second Class deck lifeboats.

2. Lawrence Beesley, a surviving Second Class passenger, reported that several women in Second Class were turned away when they tried to enter the part of the deck reserved for First Class where half the lifeboats were located. Later, however, First Class passengers easily found their way to the lifeboats not located on the First Class deck.

3. The total capacity of the combined total of lifeboats was rated at 1,178, but the rating was not necessarily a practical number. According to testimony provided at the British inquiry, a more realistic capacity for a lifeboat rated for 65 was closer to 50, except on the most favorable conditions. On the night of the sinking of the Titanic, the sea was absolutely smooth and still -- "most favorable conditions."

4. All of these early launched "First Class" lifeboats were notorious for being launched at less than half capacity. The number of passengers was also far below what would have been a comfortable number.

5. All of the lifeboats launched from the starboard First Class Deck had more men than women aboard. Whether or not they boarded after all the women were given a chance is not certain.

6. The crew loading passengers on the port side were quite extreme in enforcing a "Women and Children Only" policy. They not only refused to allow men to board, but in at least one case, physcially removed men who had seated themselves.

7. According to testimony of Dr. Washington Dodge, a third of the lifeboats had been launched, including those furthest from capacity, before there was a general consensus among the passengers that the Titanic would or could sink.

8. Especially early on, when only the First Class passengers had the option to board, most believed that boarding a lifeboat was not wise or necessary. The crew was not well trained in lowering the boats, the pulleys did not function smoothly, so anyone watching the jerky, delayed, and hesitant lowering might easily conclude that the safer option would be to stay aboard the world's largest most luxurious lifeboat, the Titanic itself.

9. Although lifeboat 4 picked up six or eight passengers from the water and D hauled in at least one man before they distanced themselves from the ship, the only lifeboat to go back to try to rescue people after the Titanic went under was 14, not a "First Class" lifeboat. It was only able to pick up three or four passengers from the water.

10. Testimony has made it clear that Captain Smith and the chief officers of the Titanic knew before the first lifeboat was launched that the Titanic would sink, but no one among the crew took measures to ensure that all boats were adequately filled.

11. Naval traditions and social customs and some absence of knowledge did not give the crew doing the actual loading of the lifeboats any capacity for planning or making any but the most pressing reasoned judgments.

12. The decision to allow so many lifeboats to be launched at less than half capacity when it was known that the Titanic would sink in a matter of hours rested with Captain Smith. Some have charged that it was his indecision, rather than any overt decision by him, that cost so many lives.

RESOURCES WITH TITANIC FACTS AND STATISTICS

RESOURCES USED FOR CALCULATING THE TABLES:

My initial source for compiling passenger statistics was Titanic Passenger List, 10 April 1912, by Michael Findlay. Mr. Findlay is probably the world's leading authority, having spent years of research tracking down individuals from around the world to produce his list. It can be found in two print sources that I have seen. It is an appendix found inTitanic: Women and Children First, by Judith B. Geller (Norton, 1998) and Titanic: Triumph and Tragedy by John P. Eaton & Charles A. Haas (Patrick Stephens, 1994).

I have also extensively used Philip Hind's Encyclopedia Titanica, beginning when it was called R.M.S. Titanic: Her Passengers and Crew. Hind has also used Michael Findlay's list as a starting point and adapted and added to it, especially with biographical details. His is the best and almost only readily available source I know of for information about the Titanic's crew.

Hermann Soldner's booklet, "RMS Titanic: Passenger and Crew List 10 April 1912-15 April 1912," once available on the web, was my principle source for nationality information. His research data are still available in different and expanded formats on Encyclopedia Titanica.

Two researchers who have presented Titanic statistics online are Lester J. Mitcham and Chuck Anesi. Although I didn't discover their pages until after I had created my own tables, I have since compared my numbers with theirs, and though none of our statistics quite agree, their compilations were helpful as I tried to get my tables to mesh with each other.

Titanic: A Tragic Destiny, a site no longer maintained, featured a chronology and other information that I found helpful in putting together the the lifeboat table.

Titanic Inquiry Project provides the official transcripts of the inquiries made by both the British Board of Trade and the United States Senate. Thousands of pages are available and searchable.

There were earlier efforts attempted to compile passenger names and information, as well:

Walter Lord included as an appendix the passenger section of the White Star Line's final list of lost and saved, dated May 9, 1912 in his A Night To Remember (Henry Holt, 1955). The list was official, but it was full of errors.

Lists were also reported in the London Times in the days following the disaster. By April 20, the Times reproduced an official list supplied by the White Star Line. It differs in form and content from the list in A Night To Remember.

Colonel Archibald Gracie's The Truth about the Titanic (1913) was the first published attempt to compile information about who was on which lifeboats. It is incomplete and for the most part ignores steerage passengers.

All photographs used on this page are in the public domain. The animated illustration at the top of the page showing the sinking of the Titanic is based on the following six sketches of the sinking drawn by Jack Thayer, a 17-year old surviver, who also drew them while on board the Carpathian on April 15, probably not long after he came aboard. His sketches were first published to illustrate an account he wrote that was included as a chapter in Sinking of the Titanic and Great Sea Disasters - As Told by First Hand Account of Survivors and Initial Investigations edited by Logan Marshall, was published in 1912 by several publishers, including The International Bible House, which was my source. Thayer controversially showed the Titanic breaking in two. This fact was not widely believed until after Robert Ballard's underwater team proved him to be right in 1985.

This page maintained by John R. Henderson (jrhenderson9 @ gmail.com).
I am a retired librarian who created this page when working at Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY.
First created on 6 June 1998. Links last checked on 26 January 2023.
URL: http://www.icyousee.org/titanic.html

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icyousee titanic titanic unsinkable demographics sinking passengers crew lifeboat lifeboats

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ICYouSee: discussion and analysis of the demographics of the passengers and crew of the Titanic

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Climate change describes a change in the average conditions in a region over a long period of time.

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Traditional practices have also undergone the impact of climate change. Before her grandfather died, Jennifer interviewed him about his favorite spot for hunting seals, which was only reachable when the water was frozen solid. "It doesn't get that cold anymore, so it doesn't actually freeze anymore," Jennifer says. "The traditional knowledge that has been passed down orally, telling stories of that particular place, it was gone with him. He was the last of his family to have known all the traditional knowledge of that specific place."

A week before we were in Cape Dorset, ice barricaded the Inuit community. Ships normally can get through the Arctic for only about six weeks in the summer. The only way out most of the year is by snowmobile or airplane, according to what locals told me.

In July, the roads are ditches of mud. Clouds of mosquitoes swarmed Brianna Rowe, 26, a shipmate I followed as she interviewed Inuit children and teachers about their lives, school, family, and traditions.

Brianna, who works for Reach the World and is director of the climate-change education project Disappearing Ice, connects classrooms with travelers via the Internet, so kids can travel the world virtually. She was using her vacation, as a student member of the Explorers Club, to connect U.S. classrooms with Arctic classrooms so kids can learn about one another's cultures - including how the U.S. is one of the main countries affecting the climate much farther north.

"The decisions that people make in the U.S. have a global impact," Brianna tells Teen Vogue. "It is important for everybody to be aware of their decisions, and their impact on the environment has an effect on the entire world's environment."

Kristin Gates, a park ranger who trekked alone across the Brooks Range, knows this all too well. Part of the year, 30-year-old Kristin patrols Denali National Park by dog sled, and she's making a short film about plastics pollution and garbage in the Arctic. "Climate change is something that affects us every day during the winter months," she tells Teen Vogue. Frozen rivers are Alaska's highways, and when they don't freeze solid, travel becomes dangerous and difficult.

Unfortunately, mushing (a form of travel that relies on dogs to pull a sled), which Kristin was hoping to learn about first-hand, is now almost nonexistent. Dog mushing as a practice mostly died out after Inuit communities were settled in villages by the Canadian government in the 1950s, so she heard stories about the old days but has not found anyone traveling by dog sled. Nowadays, travel mostly uses motors and gas, in four-wheelers, snowmobiles, and trucks. Kristin enlisted some of us from the ship and others from the community to clean up the beach. In about an hour we collected 17 bags of trash, a potential threat to seabirds and mammals.

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I Went to the Canadian Arctic and Saw Climate Change's Impact First-Hand

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In this reported piece, 12-year-old writer Roxanna Pearl Beebe-Center explains what she learned about the impact of climate change on animals while visiting the Canadian Arctic.

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Though the Girl Scouts of the USA initially declared itself a space for all girls, the reality was different for girls of color

Erin Blakemore

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As of Monday, October 24, content that was on TweenTribune.com will now be available here on our new educational resources page and on our learning pages. While much of the content that you enjoyed will still exist, educators will unfortunately no longer be able to assign content to students.

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This page will help you understand the science behind climate change, the impacts of a changing climate, and how you can help slow climate change and prepare for it. We've also created a list of resources and activities for educators and students of all ages.

The Science

Science paints a clear picture: Climate change is happening; it is caused mostly by humans; and it creates many serious and damaging effects. The primary cause of climate change is human activities - like driving cars, creating electricity, and cutting down forests - not natural changes in the climate. These human activities release gases into the atmosphere called greenhouse gases, which slowly warm the planet, creating climate change.

The climate is very complex, and there are still some things we don't know about it. But through centuries of studies and experiments, we've been able to create a strong understanding of how the system works, and how humans are changing it.

The Greenhouse Effect

Imagine a greenhouse made of glass used to grow plants, like flowers and vegetables. The greenhouse keeps the plants inside warm even when it's cold outside because it traps heat from the sun. The earth's atmosphere acts like a greenhouse: When light from the sun passes through the atmosphere, some of it is absorbed by the Earth's surface to heat it, but some heat is also trapped in our atmosphere by certain gases. These heat-trapping gases are called greenhouse gases, and they act like a blanket, keeping the earth warm. This greenhouse effect is a natural process that makes the planet comfortable to live.

But human activities are increasing the amount of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. One type of greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, has reached a level in our atmosphere that the Earth hasn't seen for more than 400,000 years! Plants, soils, and the ocean can absorb carbon dioxide, but they can't keep up with all the extra greenhouse gases that we have been releasing. And some greenhouse gases stay in the atmosphere for a long time, from hundreds to even thousands of years. All these gases are making things hotter than natural, so we need to stop producing them to avoid climate change.

Weather vs. Climate

Weather refers to the state of the atmosphere in a short period of time, like minutes or days. It includes lots of things we are familiar with, like temperature, humidity, precipitation, and wind speeds. The weather changes every day, but the climate is much more consistent because it measures the patterns of weather over long periods of time (at least several decades). Let's say you were going to visit Florida for a few days in June. You would expect it to be hot and humid, because that's what the climate of Florida is usually like in June. It might turn out to be hot during your trip, or it could rain or be cloudy. All of those are examples of possible weather during those days.

The Greenhouse Effect Explained

Where do greenhouse gases come from?

Up until about 150 years ago, humans did not produce many greenhouse gases. That changed as the human population grew, we cut down forests to make way for cities and farms, and important inventions and technology, like in-home electricity and cars, transformed the way we live.

These inventions and technologies need energy. Some types of energy called fossil fuels - like coal, oil, and natural gas - have become important sources of that energy. Burning fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. We call the release of these gases emissions.

Today in the United States, electricity and transportation (cars, trucks, and planes) are responsible for almost 60 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. The rest comes from agriculture, industry - such as factories that make products we use - and from energy we use in our homes and businesses.
Learn more about U.S. greenhouse gas emissions here.
Greenhouse Gases

The most common types of greenhouse gases are:

Carbon Dioxide (CO ₂): Carbon dioxide is the most common greenhouse gas created by human activities. It makes up 80 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Most carbon dioxide enters the atmosphere when fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, and coal) are burned for electricity and transportation, and because of other processes like making cement. Carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere and stored when it is absorbed by plants, soils, animals, and the ocean as part of the carbon cycle.
Learn more about how energy emissions are controlled in the United States.

Methane (CH ₄): Methane is the next most common greenhouse gas emitted by human activities. It makes up 10 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Most methane emissions come from raising livestock (like cows), but methane is also released when coal, natural gas, and oil are produced and transported, and when organic waste (like food) decays in landfills. Methane is a stronger gas than carbon dioxide, meaning it creates more warming, but it stays in the atmosphere for a shorter time.
Learn more about how industrial greenhouse gases like methane are controlled in the United States.

Nitrous Oxide (N ₂ O): Most nitrous oxide is emitted by agricultural activities, like applying fertilizer, but it also comes from industrial activities, burning fossil fuels, and other sources. It makes up 6 percent of U.S. greenhouse emissions. Nitrous oxide is even more powerful than methane and carbon dioxide at warming the atmosphere.

Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), Perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and Sulfur Hexafluoride (SF6): Try saying these gases three times fast! They're called "fluorinated gases" for short. These gases combined make up only 3 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. That may sound small, but they are very important to solving climate change because they stay in the atmosphere for a very long time (sometimes for thousands of years!) and are much more powerful warmers than all other gases. These gases are made by humans and are used to cool our refrigerators, freezers, buildings and cars.

U.S. Greenhouse Gases by Gas Type and Sector, 2021

Impacts of a Changing Climate

Because of increases in greenhouse gas emissions, global temperatures are rising. Each of the past four decades has been warmer than the previous one. 2016 and 2020 were the warmest years on record, and the six warmest years have all been since 2010.
Learn more about the relationship between extreme weather and climate change.
The following charts show how emissions and temperatures have gone up since 1900, and how they could continue to change in the future. If we continue to emit more and more greenhouse gases, the temperature of the Earth will rise a lot - maybe as much as 5 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2100. Even if we reduce our emissions right now, the temperature of the Earth will still rise slightly, but we might be able to keep the rise below 2 degrees Celsius (or about 4.8 degrees Fahrenheit). Two degrees might not sound like much, but scientists agree that even that small amount of warming can have large impacts on humans and the environment.

Past and Projected Changes in Carbon Emissions and Temperature

Rising global temperatures affect many things, like extreme weather, human health, food supply, and ecosystems. These impacts are already being felt today, and groups like the poor, elderly, and others are especially vulnerable.
Impacts of climate change include:

Heat waves. Heat waves are long periods of time with temperatures that are hotter than normal. As the Earth warms, more areas will be at risk for hotter and more common extreme heat waves. Learn more about the link between climate change and extreme heat.

Heavy precipitation and storms. Heavy precipitation - like rain or snow - is becoming more common in many locations, which can lead to flooding and other dangerous weather. As seas warm, coastal storms like hurricanes are also becoming more frequent and damaging. Learn more about the link between climate change and heavy precipitation and hurricanes.

Sea level rise. Sea levels have risen about 8 inches since 1880 because glaciers and ice sheets are melting and seas are warming. Scientists predict that, with 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming, sea levels could rise by as much as 1.8 feet this century, which would harm communities living on islands and near coasts. These rises could be even higher if glaciers in Greenland or Antarctica melt very quickly.

Threats to habitats and animals. Warming temperatures, rising seas, melting ice, and other impacts of climate change can threaten the habitat of many plants and animals. Some species are moving to new habitats, but others may struggle to adapt and become endangered or extinct.

Ocean acidification. Extra carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is absorbed by the oceans, making them more acidic. This can make it difficult for corals and organisms that form shells to survive, which can create problems in the food chain for other sea animals.

Wildfires. These are fires that burn large amounts of forests and brush. When they are not controlled, wildfires can destroy homes and be deadly. The number of large wildfires and the length of the season when they're most likely and threatening have been increasing in recent years. Find out how climate change will worsen wildfire conditions.

Drought. A drought is a period with little rain and not enough water. Global warming will increase the risk of drought in some places and make it harder to grow food. Learn about the links between climate change and drought.

How can you help?

Even though climate change sounds scary, we still have time to avoid some of the worst impacts. Everyone can play a part, including government, businesses, and you.

There are two main things we need to do:

The first is to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change. By choosing cleaner ways to power our homes, offices, and cars, and being more efficient and less wasteful, we can produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions.

There are lot of things you can do to help, like turning off the lights when you leave a room to reduce the electricity you use, walking or biking where you can, or planting trees to absorb carbon dioxide. If you do any of these things, make sure you communicate with other people (like your family, teachers, and friends) about why you're doing them! Communication can inspire more people to change their habits and help save the climate.

Look for more ideas on what we can do together and individually.

The second is to prepare for life in a changing climate. Even if we could stop creating greenhouse gases tomorrow, the climate would still change some because of our past emissions. So we need to make sure our buildings, roads, businesses, and communities are ready for the climate changes that we can't avoid. This includes things like helping cities on the coast prepare for floods, preventing wildfires in our forests, and more.

Learn how communities and companies are preparing.

The power of YOUth

Around the world, young people are learning about climate change and taking action. In fact, young people are some of the most important voices in the climate movement because you can inspire powerful people to create a better future for you.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist or a politician to make a difference in the fight against climate change. Whatever your talents are, there's a role for you to play. Some young people, like Greta Thunberg, Vanessa Nakate, and others, are leading the Fridays for Future movement to tell their governments to create strong policies to fight climate change. Other students are inventing new technologies to cut emissions and reduce waste. And others are using their creativity to bring awareness to climate change by writing music and creating art.

You can also look for ways to get involved in your community - maybe you can help your school set up a composting program to keep food waste out of the landfill. Maybe your synagogue or mosque needs help switching to energy efficient lights. Maybe you can write a letter to your local government to encourage your community to prepare for extreme weather or wildfires. Everyone can do something to fight climate change.

Check out our Educator Resources page for activities you can do to learn more about how climate change works and how you can be a part of the solution.
C2ES thanks the Alcoa Foundation for its support, which allowed us to develop our Climate Classroom content. As a fully independent organization, C2ES is solely responsible for its positions, programs, and publications.

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This page will help you understand the science behind climate change, the impacts of a changing climate, and how you can help slow climate change and prepare for it. We've also created a list of resources and activities for educators and students of all ages.

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The Science of Climate Change in National Parks Video Series - Climate Change (U.S. National Park Service)

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The discussion surrounding climate change is often focused on natural resources. The National Park Service is also tasked with preserving and protecting cultural and historical resources, and they are relevant to climate change too. In this video, National Park Service staff and partnering scientists talk about climate change in the context of Jamestown Island in Virginia, the site of the first permanent English settlement.

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For those seeking to deny the realities of climate change, a popular counterpoint is simply: "The climate has changed before." A straightforward argument and difficult to refute. Thankfully, the ever amusing xkcd comic has just released a new visualization showing just how misleading this statement can be.

For the uninitiated, xkcd is the brainchild of Randall Munroe, a cartoonist, physicist and former NASA roboticist. The darling of scientists and nerds everywhere, Munroe has knack for humorously and insightfully illustrating complex scientific topics. From fun themes like time travel to foundational scientific concepts like DNA, Munroe has dabbled across disciplines.

For Monday's comic, xkcd tackled climate change. Looking back as far as the last glaciation-when Boston was buried under a mile of ice and glaciers stretched towards Manhattan-Munroe traces changes in the Earth's climate up through modern times. Along the way, he tracks how the climate responds to melting ice sheets, changes in the Earth's orbit and changing ocean circulations, all relative to the average temperature of the late 20th century.

Munroe aptly shows what the statement, "the climate has changed before," actually means. As you continue to scroll down and down and down, it becomes obvious that past climatic changes progress slowly and incrementally. The sudden final veer to the right at the bottom of the graphic, which represents human-caused climate change, is a stunning contrast to the otherwise minute changes.

With two climate items of note headlining the news this week, the new comic could not have been timed any better.

On Monday, NASA announced that August 2016 was the warmest August ever recorded in 136 years of recordkeeping. August 2016 actually wound up tied with July 2016 as the warmest month ever recorded, despite the fact that the seasonal temperature cycle typically peaks in July.

On the same day, Brazil announced that it had ratified the Paris climate agreement, lending a dash of optimism to the foreboding data released by NASA. Home to the largest tropical rainforest on Earth, Brazil has the third-largest emissions of any country to sign the agreement, behind only the U.S. and China. In order for the climate agreement to enter into force, 55 countries accounting for 55 percent of global emissions must sign and ratify, or otherwise approve, the agreement. Not including Brazil, 27 countries representing just over 39 percent of global emissions have signed and ratified the agreement, according to the World Resources Institute. The announcement that Brazil has now ratified the agreement is significant.

With these things in mind, take a scroll through time and check out Munroe's comic:

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New xkcd Comic Masterfully Shows How Climate Has Changed Through Time

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Scroll through 20,000 years of humorously illustrated climate data

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The greenhouse effect occurs when Earth's atmosphere traps solar radiation because of the presence of certain gases, which causes temperatures to rise.

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It is often very hard for humans to fathom how they are products of evolutionary processes. However a closer look reveals that evolution is not uncommon but instead continuous across all Earth-born species.

A familiar instance of human adaptation can be found in the tolerance of lactose, the primary sugar in milk, by some humans. If you are able to drink milk without gastrointestinal discomfort, you are the lucky recipient of a genetic mutation that allows your body to make lactase enzymes as an adult. As recently as 7,500 years ago, our ancestors were unable to digest milk. But a random mutation that permitted lactose consumption gave some of our ancestors a survival advantage by having extra sources of food to eat, and so the mutation persisted. If you are a human adult that can consume ice-cream with no feelings of pain (caused by the happy proliferation of intestinal bacteria that release carbon dioxide gas, which distends your guts), thank the process of evolution.

Another naturally occurring process that does not receive all the positive attention it deserves is genetic modification. Modern sequencing techniques have provided much evidence that gene transfer events do not only happen within a species, but also across different species. The sea slug (Elysia chlorotica) is one well-known example of an organism that has both "animal" and "plant" genes. It contains its own set of slug genes in addition to genes for the maintenance of chloroplasts that were transferred from algae, which are the photosynthetic organisms that oxygenate Earth. But the sea slug is only one such example that humans are aware of. Earth has many other species that we have yet to explore and understand deeply by way of sequencing.
Given that no known humans have evolved in space, it does not come as a surprise that a human who spends a lot of time there suffers many physical effects, from brittle bones to weakened muscles. This video will also give you some ideas of the effects of space on the human body: 5 Ways Space Travel Affects the Human Body.

The human body does not have the capacity to keep up with the brutality of space; that is, evolutionary processes happen too slowly for us to be able to build adequate defenses and adaptations. What, then, can we do to make our longer journeys into space a little easier? By combining what we know about natural evolutionary processes and gene transfer events, can we better equip ourselves for unpredictable rigors?

CRISPR gene drives allow scientists to change sequences of DNA and guarantee that the resulting edited genetic trait is inherited by future generations, opening up the possibility of altering entire species forever. More than anything, the technology has led to questions: How will this new power affect humanity? What are we going to use it to change? Are we gods now? Join journalist Jennifer Kahn as she ponders these questions and shares a potentially powerful application of gene drives: the development of disease-resistant mosquitoes that could knock out malaria and Zika.

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Could we survive prolonged space travel? - Lisa Nip

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Prolonged space travel plays a severe toll on the human body: microgravity impairs muscle and bone growth, and high doses of radiation cause irreversible mutations. As we seriously consider the human species becoming space-faring, a big question stands: even if we do break free from Earth's orbit, can we adapt to the extreme environments of space?

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Since its inception in 1958, NASA has accomplished some pretty spectacular feats of science. Our country has landed humans on the Moon six times. We've successfully put laboratories onto the surface of Mars, and we've flown by every single planet in our solar system, including the recently promoted asteroid-turned-dwarf planet, Ceres.

Despite decades of scientific and technological achievements, some people still think that funding NASA is a waste of money. However, when you do the calculations, it turns out we are actually getting a great value from this government-run agency.

What NASA Gives Us

We can thank the Cold War for NASA's existence in the first place. After the launch of Sputnik in 1957, President Eisenhower realized we were losing the space race. So, on July 29th, 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration was born. Upon signing the Space Act, Eisenhower said this about the new program: "There are many aspects of space and space technology which can be helpful to all people as the United States proceeds with its peaceful program of space and exploration. Every person has the opportunity to share through understanding in the adventures which lie ahead."

For 57 years NASA has provided the world with new perspectives on our species and our place in the cosmos. After the Apollo 8 mission sent back the famous "Earthrise" image, we were able to see ourselves for the first time. There we were, a beautiful blue ball, where everyone lives. Then on Valentine's day in 1990, the Voyager 1 spacecraft turned around on its way out of our solar system, and took the ultimate family portrait. This time, from a distance of 3.7 billion miles away, we were tiny, just a speck among the stars. It was because of moments like these that for decades when children were asked what they wanted to be when they grew up, they answered, "an astronaut!" This dream only existed because of NASA.

Gorgeous, super hi-res image of Pluto

The colors have been enhanced to highlight Pluto's variety of compositions.

Recently, the world was united once again in the spirit of space exploration as the New Horizons spacecraft flew by Pluto. Always the underdog of the solar system, and discovered only in 1930, we never really knew what Pluto looked like; it is 3 billion miles away, after all. On July 14th it seemed as though the world stopped; people tweeted, Facebooked, and cheered on the streets while humankind accomplished something great. And while no one could see the spacecraft, we all watched in awe as the nine-year journey came to a close and we flew past Pluto, only to find out it was more interesting than anyone could have ever imagined.

The Price Of Awe And Amazement

Getting inspired by science and discovery is one of the most rewarding parts of being a human. But exploring isn't free, especially not in the space case. What is the price of awe and amazement?

Since the end of the Apollo program in 1972 NASA has operated with an average 0.5 percent of the total US budget. That's not even a percent of the total 3 trillion dollars allocated to the U.S. in 2014. Although that may still seem like a lot of money, let's compare it to the beginning of the Apollo program.

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy decided that NASA would send humans to the Moon before the end of the decade. At that time, each U.S. citizen was paying $20 per year to NASA. JFK needed that number to go up to $26 a year to help get our astronauts to the Moon. In 2015 dollars, the Apollo era budget would have been equivalent to each American paying over $200 a year to the space administration. If NASA still had that sort of funding in 2015, that would make its budget a whopping $65 billion dollars per year, compared to its actual budget of $17.5 billion. Instead, in 2014 each American paid an average of $54 per year to NASA.

That money gets spread out over many different projects. So even though the Curiosity rover had an astounding $2.6 billion price tag, each citizen only paid about about $0.41 per year to put the SUV-sized robot on Mars.

The Real Cost Of NASA Missions

Since 1972, NASA's budget hasn't increased, but has been cut by roughly 75 percent, and it's stayed that way for 42 years. While the Apollo era budget was arguably not sustainable, it raises questions as to what might be possible if NASA once again had access to more financial support.

NASA has made a little bit of money go a long way. In addition to organizing science missions, the space agency employs over 60,000 people including private organizations. But NASA can't do it all. Budget cuts are delaying the development of the Commercial Crew program, which would get astronauts launching from American soil again. In the meantime, we'll be forced to continue buying tickets on the Russian Soyuz.

NASA's budget has flatlined in recent decades

What Lies Ahead

Despite its ongoing budgetary battles, NASA continues to do good science.

Next on the horizon for NASA's space exploration agenda is a flyby of Europa. The mission to Jupiter's icy moon has created a lot of excitement for astrobiologists. Because Europa has more water in its oceans than all of the water combined on Earth, it has the potential to harbor life.

There won't be another "Apollo moment" for our space program.

The quest to land humans on Mars in the 2030's is also something scientists at NASA are trying to plan for.

It's widely accepted that there won't be another "Apollo moment" for our space program. NASA will probably never receive the amount of funding it did when JFK set his sights on the Moon. There also probably won't be another Cold War, but there will always be this question: What else is out there?

We've barely scratched the surface of the solar system-there are so many more questions, and many more questions we don't even know we have. The price of understanding is small, and for people around the globe to feel connected over a rocket launch, a rover landing, a photo, or a spacewalk is priceless. Let's not stop. Let's keep pushing forward and as NASA says, let's continue to "dare mighty things."

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Space travel has given us a wealth of knowledge which has in turn helped us create inventions and technologies that have made human life easier and helped us learn more and explore further into the universe.

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20 Inventions We Wouldn't Have Without Space Travel

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Space travel has given us a wealth of knowledge which has in turn helped us create inventions and technologies that have made human life easier and helped us learn more and explore further into the universe.

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How big is space? Interactive infographic

Our top 12 stories of 2014 - #3: Fancy riding a rocket through our Solar System?

Then check out our amazing interactive infographic.

To celebrate our second anniversary, we've created an interactive version of a previous infographic, which is so big, it's too big for this page.

This time round you get to pilot a rocket through the Solar System. There's even more information packed into this graphic: you'll see how close comets have come to our planet; what is the farthest travelled by a human being; how long the trip will take if you were on the Starship Enterprise... as well as a few surprises too.

So buckle up and scroll (and scroll... and scroll) through our interactive infographic of space to explore our cosmic neighbourhood.

If you would like to comment on this, or anything else you have seen on Future, head over to our Facebook or Google+ page, or message us on Twitter.

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Buckle up and ride a rocket through the Solar System to explore our cosmic neighbourhood.

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For more than 50 years, NASA's Human Research Program (HRP) has studied what happens to the human body in space. Researchers are using what they learn to design procedures, devices, and strategies to keep astronauts safe and healthy throughout their missions.

NASA engineers use the lessons learned to better design spacecraft and improve the fit and functions of spacesuits. The research also aids in the development and assessment of medical standards, physical fitness programs and standards, physiological and psychological adaptation training, sensorimotor training, and nutritional health protocols.

Understanding the effects of spaceflight on humans is essential as astronauts move from the International Space Station in low-Earth orbit to deep space destinations on and around the Moon, and beyond. With the Artemis program, NASA will land the first woman and next man on the Moon using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before, gathering new data while keeping astronauts healthy and safe.

NASA is particularly interested in investigating how the body reacts to long-duration spaceflight as the agency plans for extended missions on the Moon and Mars. Scott Kelly and Christina Koch were the first American astronauts to spend nearly one year in space onboard the space station, twice the previous average. Scott, Christina, and seven other astronauts have spent more than 200 days in space during a single spaceflight.

In addition to spending almost a year in space, Scott was involved in the unique Twins Study. Scott participated in several biomedical studies onboard the space station while his identical twin brother, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, stayed on Earth as a control subject, someone who provides a basis of comparison.

The study provided valuable data about what happened to Scott, physiologically and psychologically, as compared to his brother Mark. Their contribution to science helped generate data that researchers will use for decades to come.

NASA is planning more dedicated extended-duration research on the space station. The studies are expected to shed light on how the body adapts to living in the spaceflight environment for various longer time periods, which will be pivotal for future deep space missions.

What exactly happens to the body in space and what are the risks? Are the risks the same for astronauts who spend six months on the space station versus those who may be away on a Mars mission for years?

The simple answer is: No. NASA is researching risks for Mars missions which are grouped into five human spaceflight hazards related to the stressors they place on the body. These can be summarized with the acronym " RIDGE," short for Space Radiation, Isolation and Confinement, Distance from Earth, Gravity fields, and Hostile/Closed Environments.

Space Radiation

On Earth, we are shielded by the planet's magnetic field and atmosphere from the majority of particles that make up the space radiation environment. Even so, everyone on Earth is exposed to low levels of radiation every day, from the food we eat to the air we breathe.

In space, astronauts are exposed to varied and increased levels of radiation that are different from those on Earth. Three major sources contribute to the space radiation environment: particles trapped in Earth's magnetic field, solar energetic particles from the Sun, and galactic cosmic rays.

A big challenge in reducing the risks of radiation exposure is that some space radiation particles (especially galactic cosmic rays) are difficult to shield against. Exposure to increased radiation can be associated with both short- and long-term health consequences, depending on how much total radiation astronauts experience and the time frame in which they experience that exposure.

Increased risk of cancer and degenerative diseases, such as heart disease and cataracts, have been observed in human populations exposed to radiation on Earth. Health risks for astronauts from radiation exposure in space are mainly driven by long-term impacts.

Additionally, animal and cellular research indicate that the type of radiation in the space environment has a larger impact on health outcomes compared to the radiation experienced on Earth. Not only will astronauts be exposed to more radiation in space than on Earth, but the radiation they are exposed to could pose increased risks.

The Key: The current strategy to reduce the health risks of space radiation exposure is to implement shielding, radiation monitoring, and specific operational procedures. Compared to typical six-month space station missions, later Moon and Mars missions will be much longer on average. Consequently, the total amount of radiation experienced and associated health risks may increase.

NASA is developing new radiation detectors to monitor and characterize the radiation environment, which will provide better estimates of the dose and type of radiation to which the crews are exposed. Scientists and engineers are optimizing and implementing operational procedures that use available vehicle stowage and materials to reduce radiation exposure effectively.

To investigate the health risks of space radiation exposure beyond low-Earth orbit, NASA supports research that analyzes the biological effects of simulated cosmic rays at ground-based research facilities. Research at these facilities helps NASA understand and reduce the risk of space radiation, ensure proper measurement of the doses that astronauts receive on the space station and in future spacecraft, and develop advanced materials that improve radiation shielding for future missions.

Studies of radiation-exposed human cohorts are also being conducted to estimate the health risks in populations relevant to astronauts.

Isolation and Confinement

Expedition crews selected for a stay onboard the space station are carefully chosen, trained, and supported to ensure they will be able to work effectively as a team for the duration of their six to 12-month missions. Crews for a Moon or Mars mission will undergo even more careful assessment, selection, and preparation since they will travel farther and potentially for longer than previous humans in an isolated and confined environment, with only a few other people. Additionally, crews will likely be international and multi-cultural, making cross-cultural sensitivity and team dynamics paramount to mission success.

Ensuring astronauts get quality sleep is also important; otherwise, their internal biological clocks, or circadian rhythm, might be altered by factors like different dark and light cycles, a small and noisy environment, the stress of prolonged isolation and confinement, and a 37-minute extended day on Mars.

It is important to prepare for the fatigue astronauts may experience during spaceflight, given that there will be times with heavy workloads and shifting schedules. To prevent crew boredom, NASA considers the kinds of activities in which the astronauts will participate during a multi-year round trip to Mars.

Communication and understanding among crew members are vital to the success of the mission, and changes in morale and motivation are possible as the mission unfolds. This may relate to reduced stimulation, the longing for loved ones, or feeling unable to assist with family emergencies back on Earth, regardless of how long the mission lasts.

Using spaceflight analogs on Earth, NASA's research has revealed that both the duration and type of confined and isolated experience are important to consider. The more restricted the space, and the less contact with people outside the environment, the more likely humans are to develop behavioral or cognitive conditions or psychiatric disorders.

The Key: NASA has been studying people in isolated and confined environments for years, and has developed methods and technologies to counteract possible problems.

NASA scientists are using devices, such as actigraphy, that help assess and improve sleep and alertness by recording how much people move and how much ambient light is around them. New lighting, spurred by the development of Light-Emitting Diode (LED) technology, is used on the space station to help align astronaut's circadian rhythms and to improve sleep, alertness, and performance.

A 10-minute self-test of vigilance and attention assesses the effect of fatigue on performance. Astronauts write in journals as a safe place to vent frustrations and provide researchers a tool to study behavioral issues that are on the minds of crew members who are living and working in isolation and confinement.

Researchers are also looking into using virtual reality to simulate relaxing environments to help improve the mood of crews in isolation. Engaging in relevant, meaningful activities, including learning a language or learning new medical skills, could help ward off depression and boost morale. Crews may even tend to a space garden, which could have positive behavioral health benefits in addition to providing a fresh source of food and helping to purify the air.

Researchers are using Earth-based analogs to investigate how muchprivacy and living space will be needed on longer missions where crew members will be restricted in a relatively small spacecraft together. NASA is also determining strategies to formulate the best crew by studying individual and team attributes, composition, and dynamics.

Distance from Earth

The space station orbits 240 miles above Earth. The Moon is 1,000 times farther from Earth than the space station. In contrast, Mars is on average 140 million miles from Earth. With a communication delay of up to 20 minutes one-way while on Mars, astronauts must be able to solve problems and identify solutions as a team without help from NASA's mission control.

The types of food and medicine to be packed for a multi-year trip without access to a grocery store or pharmacy are also important to consider. Unlike space station crews, which regularly receive supplies from cargo flights from Earth, astronauts going to Mars will have to bring all of the food, equipment, and medical supplies they need.

The Key: NASA is using its human spaceflight experience on the space station to figure out what types of medical events happen in space over time and what types of skills, procedures, equipment, and supplies are needed so that they will have a good idea of what to pack for future missions to the Moon and Mars.

Space station astronauts already receive medical training before and during space missions that teach them how to respond to health problems as they arise. For example, astronauts learn how to use onboard space station equipment to produce an intravenous (IV) solution from purified water, which can be used for medical administration.

Crew members also perform ultrasound scans on each other to monitor organ health. If one crew member becomes sick during the mission, crews are ready to perform laboratory testing to help make the right diagnosis and guide treatment.

NASA is working on developing a medical data architecture for spacecraft that enables the capabilities of clinical decision support tools, which could use artificial intelligence and machine learning to further help diagnose and treat various illnesses. Researchers are also looking into the role that virtual assistants could play to help crews identify and respond to spaceflight anomalies quickly for more distant missions.

Additionally, the agency is studying and improving food formulation, processing, packaging, and preservation systems to ensure the nutrients remain stable and the food remains acceptable for years. Space-resilient medications and packaging systems that preserve the integrity of pharmaceuticals for long-duration missions are another significant part of NASA's research.

Gravity Fields

Astronauts will encounter three different gravity fields on a Mars mission. On the six-month trek between the planets, crews will be weightless. While living and working on Mars, crews will be in approximately one-third of Earth's gravity. Finally upon returning home, crews will have to readapt to Earth's gravity.

Transitioning from one gravity field to another is trickier than it sounds. It affects spatial orientation, head-eye and hand-eye coordination, balance, and locomotion, with some crew members experiencing space motion sickness.

Landing a spacecraft on Mars could be challenging as astronauts adjust to the gravity field of another celestial body. When shifting from weightlessness to gravity, astronauts may experience post-flight orthostatic intolerance where they are unable to maintain their blood pressure when standing up, which can lead to lightheadedness and fainting.

NASA has learned that without Earth's gravity affecting the human body, weight-bearing bones lose on average 1% to 1.5% of mineral density per month during spaceflight. After returning to Earth, bone loss might not be completely corrected by rehabilitation; however, their risk for fracture is not higher. Without the proper diet and exercise routine, astronauts also lose muscle mass in microgravity faster than they would on Earth.

Moreover, the fluids in the body shift upward to the head in microgravity, which may put pressure on the eyes and cause vision problems. If preventive or countermeasures are not implemented, crews may experience an increased risk of developing kidney stones due to dehydration and increased excretion of calcium from their bones.

The Key: By analyzing how the body changes in weightlessness and after returning to Earth's gravity, NASA is developing protective measures against these changes for a Mars mission.

Functional task testing is in place to help detect and improve balance control after landing on a gravitational surface. Fine motor skill testing is done to detect any changes in the ability of astronauts to interact with computer-based devices.

Distribution of the fluids in the body is closely monitored to help evaluate any connection to changes in vision. Compression cuffs worn on the thighs help keep the blood in the lower extremities to counteract those fluid shifts. A lower-body negative pressure device could help draw fluids from the head into the legs as well.

Back pain, which some astronauts have reported experiencing during spaceflight, is monitored by obtaining spinal ultrasounds. Muscle size and bone density are assessed for deterioration using MRI and high-resolution imaging techniques, before and after flight. Crew members perform periodic fitness self-evaluations to help researchers better understand the decline in heart function that can occur during spaceflight.

Medicines that NASA is studying, such as potassium citrate, may help combat the physiological change that could increase the risk of developing kidney stones. Bisphosphonate medications have been shown in NASA studies to be effective in preventing bone loss.

NASA has also designed an efficient way to collect and measure how much urine a crew member produces in space, which is essential to human research since it reveals key information about a person's health. For example, researchers can analyze different levels of certain substances in an astronaut's urine to determine whether they are at risk of developing a kidney stone in space, and make modifications to the diet, exercise routine, and water intake as preventive measures.

Aerobic and resistive exercise has been shown to keep the heart healthy, bones and muscles strong, the mind alert, as well as maintain a more positive outlook, and may even help with balance and coordination. Software-generated workout partners could be used to help motivate astronauts to exercise regularly for longer space missions. NASA has even completed a joint Earth-based bed rest study to determine whether centrifuge artificial gravity may be an effective way to counter the physiological effects of weightlessness.

Hostile/Closed Environments

NASA has learned that the ecosystem inside the spacecraft plays a big role in everyday astronaut life in space. Microbes can change characteristics in space, and micro-organisms that naturally live on the human body are transferred more easily from person to person in closed habitats, such as the space station. Stress hormone levels are elevated and the immune system is altered, which could lead to increased susceptibility to allergies or other illnesses.

Earth-based analogs do not perfectly simulate the spaceflight environment, making them insufficient for studying on the ground how human immune systems react in space. However, NASA-funded Antarctic analog studies could provide insight into how certain spaceflight stressors may affect the human immune system. What is known is that spaceflight changes the immune system, although crews do not tend to get sick upon returning to Earth. Even though astronauts' acquired immunity is intact, more research is needed into whether spaceflight induced altered immunity may lead to autoimmune issues, in which the immune system mistakenly attacks the healthy cells, organs, and tissues present in the body.

Beyond the effects of the environment on the immune system, every inch and detail of living and working quarters must be carefully thought-out and designed. No one wants their house to be too hot, too cold, cramped, crowded, loud, or not well lit, and no one would enjoy working and living in such a habitat in space either.

The Key: NASA is using technology to monitor the air quality of the space station to ensure the atmosphere is safe to breathe and not contaminated with gases, such as formaldehyde, ammonia, and carbon monoxide. Thermal Control Systems function to maintain temperatures of the space station and keep astronauts comfortable.

Blood and saliva samples are analyzed to identify changes in the immune system and the reactivation of latent viruses during spaceflight. NASA uses advanced molecular techniques to evaluate the risk of microbes that may cause illness for crew members. Various parts of the body and the space station are swabbed regularly for analysis of the microbial population that inhabits the environment. Crews change out air filters, clean surfaces, and treat the water to prevent illnesses that may result from the accumulation of contaminants.

Astronauts are advised to get a flu shot to boost their immunity and are quarantined before their missions to avoid catching any sort of illness before launch. During the Twins Study and One-Year Mission, Scott Kelly administered a flu vaccine to himself while his brother received his on Earth. The immunization proved to work as well in space as it does on Earth, which is a good finding for longer missions to the Moon and Mars.

Living quarters and work environments are carefully planned and evaluated to ensure that designs balance comfort and efficiency. Lighting onboard the space station is similar to what would be experienced naturally on Earth, thanks to the new LED lighting system.

NASA is taking action on all of these risks and working to solve the challenges of human spaceflight with some of the most brilliant minds in their fields. The results garnered from laboratories, ground analogs, and space station missions will provide more insight into these adaptations and present a stepping stone for longer missions.

On upcoming Artemis missions to lunar orbit and the surface of the Moon, even more data will be collected as this work continues. On future longer duration missions to the Moon and Mars, astronauts will benefit from years of research that will ensure they will be able not just to survive, but thrive on their spacefaring missions.

Click here for an infographic summarizing the risks of human spaceflight and the safeguards against them.
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NASA's Human Research Program, or HRP, pursues the best methods and technologies to support safe, productive human space travel. Through science conducted in laboratories, ground-based analogs, and the International Space Station, HRP scrutinizes how spaceflight affects human bodies and behaviors. Such research drives HRP's quest to innovate ways that keep astronauts healthy and mission-ready as space travel expands to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
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For more than 50 years, NASA's Human Research Program has studied what happens to the human body in space.

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For centuries, people dreamed about leaving Earth and travelling to other worlds. Then, in 1957, the Soviet Union made the first small step into space by launching a small satellite, called Sputnik. The Space Age had begun.

Early space activities were dominated by the United States and the Soviet Union. However, as time went by, Europe and Japan also learned how to build their own satellites and rockets. Today, countries such as China, India, South Korea, Israel and Brazil are developing their own space industries.

During the last 60 years, unmanned probes have been sent towards all of the planets in the Solar System, as well as many satellites, asteroids and comets. Spacecraft have soft-landed on half a dozen worlds, while rovers have driven over the surfaces of the Moon and Mars. The Sun has also been explored in great detail by a fleet of spacecraft.

Many space observatories, such as the Hubble Space Telescope, have been launched to look at the distant Universe. They have sent back some amazing pictures taken in visible light. But they can also observe stars and galaxies at wavelengths that are invisible to human eyes - radio, infrared, ultraviolet, X-rays and gamma rays. The flood of discoveries has changed the way we look at the Universe.

More than 500 people have also flown in space since Yuri Gagarin paved the way in 1961. 20 people have travelled to the Moon and 12 of them have walked on the Moon. Space stations have been built, and astronauts have learned to live and work in space for many months, or even years.

Last modified 26 January 2011

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For centuries, people dreamed about leaving Earth and travelling to other worlds. Then, in 1957, the Soviet Union made the first small step into space by launching a small satellite, called Sputnik. The Space Age had begun.

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Here's what your food would look like if it weren't genetically modified over millennia

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Bet you've never seen fruits and veggies that look like these before.

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In the 1990s, a bunch of gene jockeys brought the first genetically engineered food to market.  The business crashed but biotech science has flourished far beyond the produce aisle.

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The New York Times Upfront — Alessandra Potenza

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Genetic engineering - Variation - AQA - GCSE Biology (Single Science) Revision - AQA - BBC Bitesize

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Revise how variation in species can be generated by genetics and environmental influences for GCSE Biology, AQA.

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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As of Monday, October 24, content that was on TweenTribune.com will now be available here on our new educational resources page and on our learning pages. While much of the content that you enjoyed will still exist, educators will unfortunately no longer be able to assign content to students. Tween Tribune has been a valued educational brand of Smithsonian magazine, and we appreciate your continued support.

Though the Girl Scouts of the USA initially declared itself a space for all girls, the reality was different for girls of color

Erin Blakemore

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As of Monday, October 24, content that was on TweenTribune.com will now be available here on our new educational resources page and on our learning pages. While much of the content that you enjoyed will still exist, educators will unfortunately no longer be able to assign content to students.

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Can you think of some possible risks of growing plants that contain genes from other organisms? Let's examine our earlier examples: the beetle-resistant tomato, the vaccination banana, and the saltwater rice plant. We've already covered the potential advantages of these plants, but what are the concerns?

Cross-breeding with wild populations. For all of these examples, a primary concern is preventing genetically modified versions from mixing with the naturally existing populations of plants from which they're derived. Plants rely on the transfer of pollen, via insects or the air, to breed and produce offspring, and it's difficult to control how they cross-breed in the wild.

In most cases, it's not yet clear how introduction of the non-native gene would affect wild populations. Critics of genetically modified plant technology cite the need to learn more about the potential long-term impacts of genetically modified plants on the environment before mass-producing them.

Toxicity or allergic reactions. Many people suffer from allergies to various food items, including nuts, wheat, eggs, or dairy products. There is concern that the protein products of introduced genes may be toxic or allergenic to certain individuals.

When farmers start growing genetically modified crops, they stop growing the old varieties. These old varieties are important sources of diverse genes that give plants other desirable characteristics. For example, a new pest or disease could come along and destroy the genetically modified rice. If one of the old rice varieties has a gene that makes it resistant, it could be cross-bred to make the saltwater rice resistant as well. If we lose the old varieties, we also lose their useful genes.

It has been estimated that 70% of all processed foods in the United States contain at least one genetically modified ingredient-usually a product of soy plants. There are initiatives afoot to require food manufacturers to provide clear labeling on processed food products that contain genetically modified ingredients. This would make it easier for people with allergies to avoid foods that might pose a danger to them, and it would allow those who oppose genetically modified foods to opt out of buying them.

Unlike countries such as Australia and Japan, the United States currently has no laws requiring companies to label products containing genetically modified ingredients.

Despite the controversy surrounding them, genetically modified plants have taken root in our world. As with any new technology, members of society have the responsibility to become informed about genetically modified plants, in order to make decisions about their responsible use and regulation.

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Can you think of some possible risks of growing plants that contain genes from other organisms? Let's examine our earlier examples: the beetle-resistant tomato, the vaccination banana, and the saltwater rice plant. We've already covered the potential advantages of these plants, but what are the concerns? Cross-breeding with wild populations.

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THE FIRST ATOMIC BOMBS: "Little Boy"and "Fat Man"

There were actually two new bombs, one using uranium, the other plutonium, with different triggering devices for each. The main research and production sites were Los Alamos, New Mexico; Hanford, Washington; and Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The entire project operated under top secrecy, mobilizing top scientists and engineers, and at unprecedented high costs.

The Hiroshima bomb

Nicknamed "Little Boy"(for President Franklin Roosevelt), the bomb's size was 3 meters in length by 0.7 meter in diameter, using uranium 235 as its critical material. Inside a shortened smooth-bore 76.2 mm (3 in.) naval gun, a subcritical projectile of U-235 was fired at a subcritical target of U-235. At the moment of impact, a supercritical mass was formed, triggering a nuclear chain reaction, or atomic explosion. The gun barrel and heavy casing gave it a weight of over four metric tons (8,900 lbs). The subcritical material was an alloy called Oralloy, a code named derived from the secret laboratory at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where it was fabricated.

For use in the gun device, the fissile materials had to be made into geometric shapes capable of withstanding the violence of being shot down the gun's tube, then stoipped abruptly at the target, and held together long enough to detonate.

The Nagasaki bomb

Nicknamed "Fat Man" (for England's Prime Minister Winston Churchill), this bomb had a core of plutonium 239, was 3.5 meters in length by 1.5 meters in diameter, and it weighed 4.5 tons. Its plutonium core was surrounded by 64 explosive charges arranged in an inner and outer shell. The explosive charges were fabricated in geometrical shapes in a configuration similar to a soccer ball-an extremely difficult and demanding procedure. When the two shells were detonated, the shockwave slammed into a tamper surrounding the plutonium nucleus, causing a rapid increase in density that compressed the slightly sub-critical plutonium core, rapidly increasing its density, making it supercritical, thus exploding in a nuclear chain reaction.

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There were actually two new bombs, one using uranium, the other plutonium, with different triggering devices for each. The main research and production sites were Los Alamos, New Mexico; Hanford, Washington; and Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The entire project operated under top secrecy, mobilizing top scientists and engineers, and at unprecedented high costs.

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Ingeniously Charting The Horrifying Power Of Today’s Nuclear Bombs

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The mushroom cloud of Russia’s biggest nuke was 8 times the height of Mt. Everest. This infographic will give you a visceral feel for that that means.

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Major energy forms

The major explosive energy forms that dominate research and reports on the atomic bombings are three:

Fireball: air absorbs heat, swells to a fireball with a 50-ft. radius and a temperature of 300,000 degrees C.

Shock Wave + Air Blast: 50% of total energy

Radioactivity: two kinds. initial radiation (explained above), andinduced radiation (also called "residual radiation").

Of these three energy forms, the most radically different, and most deadly over time, was the high level of radioactivity.

A deadly new threat: radioactivity

1. "Black rain"

The Hiroshima and Nagasaki explosions yielded some 200 different kinds of radioactive isotopes, that is, nuclear fission particles of uranium and plutonium that escaped fission. Following the explosions, these and other materials irradiated by neutrons from the bomb, were carried high into the atmosphere.

The mixing of enormous amounts of airborne irradiated materials combined with heat and thermal currents from the firestorms led to rainfall in both cities within 30-40 minutes of the bombings. As the fallout particles were mixed with carbon residue from citywide fires, the result was the awesome-and injurious-"black rain."

This "black rain" reached ground level as sticky, dark, dangerously radioactive water. It not only stained skin, clothing, and buildings, but also was ingested by breathing and by consumption of contaminated food or water, causing radiation poisoning.

2. Initial radiation from the bombs

About 3% of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs' energy was spent in generating ionizing radiation -high-energy particles and rays with enough energy to "ionize" neutral atoms, i.e., strip electrons away from them. Some of this ionized radiation was absorbed by the air, but neutrons (electrically neutral sub-atomic particles) and gamma and X-rays (extremely high energy forms of light) did reach the ground, and these rays damaged exposed living tissues. Close to ground zero of both explosions, dosages were high enough to be immediately lethal for persons not already killed by flash, blast, or fire.

3. Induced radioactivity

Initial bursts of radiation from the two bombs also created induced or residual radioactivity. Soil and other materials were irradiated in the blast areas. Absorption of "slow neutrons" by all kinds of substances caused the creation of new isotopes that then emitted ionizing radiation.

Japanese physicists examining the areas near ground zero in Hiroshima found unusually high levels of radioactivity in the soil, in the bones of a horse, and even in the sulphur content of electrical insulators on telephone poles. Eventually, a variety of unusual radioactive elements were found in soil, roofing tiles, asphalt, and concrete near ground zero in the two cities. There were many instances of radiation effects on animals and plants.

4. Radioactivity and living tissue

Living tissue may be exposed to ionizing radiation directly (emitted by explosion) or by exposure to, or ingestion of, fallout matter that emits residual radiation. The danger is the same either way.

Key: Ionizing radiation transforms a neutral atom into a charged atom that may bond to another atom, altering (i) the structure of the original molecule, (ii) the way it reacts chemically, and (iii) the function it performs when part of a living organism. The altered molecules may act as poisons, hindering the normal functions of the cells of which they are a part.

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The major explosive energy forms that dominate research and reports on the atomic bombings are three: Fireball: air absorbs heat, swells to a fireball with a 50-ft. radius and a temperature of 300,000 degrees C. Shock Wave + Air Blast: 50% of total energy Radioactivity: two kinds.

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An activist is anyone who sees the need for change and devotes their time to doing something about it. And, as successful teen activists prove, structural, social, or economic barriers don't have to stop you from pursuing your passion and creating positive change. If you are interested in making a difference for a cause you care about, you can do so by educating yourself about the issue, finding ways to get involved in-person and online, and possibly even pursuing a career in a field related to your cause.

Add New Question

Is registering people to vote a form of activism?

Bridget Connolly has volunteered on political campaigns at the local and federal level for over 10 years, most notably for the 2008 Obama campaign in Nevada and Josh Harder's Congressional race in 2018. She has gone door-to-door to help register voters and get out the vote in both California and Nevada.

Yes! Registering people to vote helps remove barriers for people who have been marginalized by educational systems, culture, and misinformation about the importance of their vote. I've had so many experiences where every vote counts. If 500 people are registering people to vote in a specific county, and we each get 1 person, and somebody wins by 400 votes, that's a really big deal. I think it's a civic duty for people who understand how politics work and understand that voting is at the bedrock of all of that. The people who don't vote are essentially disenfranchised; they aren't playing a part in what's happening with their tax dollars and who is representing them at the local, state, and federal level. All levels. It takes a lot of work to stay informed, but that's how our system is set up. You're voting people into power, so it's a civic duty.

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This article was co-authored by Bridget Connolly and by wikiHow staff writer, Christopher M. Osborne, PhD. Bridget Connolly has volunteered on political campaigns at the local and federal level for over 10 years, most notably for the 2008 Obama campaign in Nevada and Josh Harder's Congressional race in 2018. She has gone door-to-door to help register voters and get out the vote in both California and Nevada. This article has been viewed 888,355 times.

Updated: November 19, 2023

If you feel passionately about an issue and want to become an activist, start by contacting local or online organizations with a similar mission. Ask them if you can volunteer your time or donate your money to contribute to the cause. Alternatively, you can also promote your cause on social media, share news articles, and circulate online petitions to raise awareness. Be sure to stay well-informed by keeping current with any news related to your cause! For tips on finding organizations that support your cause, read on!

Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 888,355 times.

"I was doing a schoolwork about teen activism, and all of these thoughts and ideas helped me with what I could write about! I loved how you explained it, and it's a really well-written article. Congrats, you should be proud!" ..." more

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An activist is anyone who sees the need for change and devotes their time to doing something about it. And, as successful teen activists prove, structural, social, or economic barriers don't have to stop you from pursuing your passion and...

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Rachel Atcheson is the Humane League's Philadelphia director. I wanted to interview her to shine a light on her incredible work as an animal rights activist and, hopefully, encourage and inspire teens to take action on behalf of animals.

Why did you decide to become an animal rights advocate?

I decided to help animals because they are the most underrepresented group of beings in today's society. Some might think that animals get sufficient attention, but cats and dogs receive the bulk of it. When we hear of a hoarder with 100 cats and none of them sufficiently nourished, we empathize with those cats. But farm animals are suffering every day in factory farms and we rarely hear their stories. I decided to help farm animals because they need a louder voice.

How did you think you would be able to make a difference?

I didn't start out thinking I could make much of a difference. I began volunteering with a local animal protection group (the group I work for now, the Humane League), but I had no idea the ripple effect my activism would have in the world. With the help of many mentors, I've been able to hone my activism skills and influence many people to be more involved in activism.

Has your life changed since you started helping animals?

My life has changed dramatically. I have become more compassionate and more empathetic toward the plight of both human and non-human animals. I have taken on the role of an activist - and I think this is the most important change in my life, because now I understand that no matter how much a person wants to change the world, it's the hard work, the elbow grease, that really creates meaningful change.

What is the main problem animals face right now?

These issues of confinement and mutilation are common for farm animals everywhere. All factory farms treat animals as if they were commodities, property, and this is, I believe, the biggest problem facing farmed animals right now.

I'd love to tell you the story of one animal in particular. Buttercup is an egg-laying hen who has lived her entire life in a cage smaller than a piece of paper. She has never met her mother. Because of her close confinement with other chickens, Buttercup's beak was seared off with a hot blade soon after she was born so she wouldn't peck any other chickens in her cage. Ever since she was young, Buttercup has lived in this battery cage. She has never been outside, never felt the sun on her feathers or the grass beneath her feet. And she'll remain there for her whole life. Her feet might become mangled in the wire mesh she stands on. If she develops an infection, she will not receive veterinary attention.

On a typical egg-laying farm, there could be 500,000 chickens, so Buttercup is just one of many chickens who will never see the outside of that warehouse.

What does it take to become an effective activist?

Be positive, set a good example, read literature on effective activism and, most of all, practice. If you want to learn more about animal activism, consider getting involved with groups such as the Humane League, Mercy for Animals, or Compassion Over Killing. All of these groups are very effective in their work.

How can we make a difference in the lives of animals?

The number-one way you can make a difference in the lives of animals is to cut back on the amount of animals you eat; consider trying Meatless Monday. And if you already do not consume much meat, consider going vegetarian. Are you already a vegetarian? Cut back on the amount of eggs and dairy you consume. And finally, try veganism.

While it may seem daunting to do anything in this list, if you take it one step at a time, one meal at a time, you'll find it easy, exciting, and fulfilling. We have an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of animals three times a day - breakfast, lunch, and dinner - and with your help, we will see changes for farm animals.

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Rachel Atcheson is the Humane League’s Philadelphia director. I wanted to interview her to shine a light on her incredible work as an animal rights activist and, hopefully, encourage and inspire teens to take action on behalf of animals.&nbs

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Nine stories made by and about young people making a difference

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Teen producers find and tell stories of young people making a difference in their communities for this special PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs feature.

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"Do you think this is the right color ribbon?" asked a petite brunette, her hair pulled back in a haphazard ponytail, her college sweatshirt engulfing her tiny frame. "And do you think these are the right length of sections I'm cutting? I don't want it to be all funky when we pin them on."

"Mmm ... I'm not sure," said the guy next to her, sucking on a lollipop, his football-player physique totally evident in his tight band T-shirt.

"Looks good to me," his roommate said without even glancing over at the ribbon or the girl.

Meet the college anti-war movement.

I just got back from a two-week campus speaking tour during which I had the privilege of hanging out in a women's center at a Catholic college, eating bad Mexican food with Mennonite feminists, and chatting with aspiring writers and activists at a college in which half the students are the first in their families to experience higher education. I heard the stories of transgender youth in Kansas City, jocks with food addictions in Jacksonville, and student organizers who are too overwhelmed to address all the world's problems in Connecticut.

When my plane finally landed with a resounding bump at LaGuardia, I felt totally inspired by the earnest enthusiasm that beamed out of almost every student I encountered -- and also terrified that the university system is sucking the life out of them. At the risk of biting the hand that feeds me (I am usually paid to speak, in part, by student organizations and women's centers), I have to attest that the institutionalization of activism on college campuses seems to be a key culprit in the absence of visible youth movements in this country.

The scene above illustrates just the kind of vibe you can find at an anti-war or nonviolence club on college campuses any day of the week. It is sweetly collaborative, mainly focused on raising awareness among students, very keyed in to particular dates (Love Your Body Day, Earth Day, Black History Month), and most of all, safe. This is not terribly surprising considering that these clubs are sanctioned and funded (sometimes with upward of thousands of dollars a year) by the school administration through a formal application process. They are structured to legitimize but also to domesticate student passions and actions from the start.

And students do have passions, contrary to what some hippies-turned-well-paid-pundits argue. A survey conducted just this year by the National Association of Campus Activities (NACA) found that 98 percent of students at their annual meeting saw the war in Iraq as one of the issues most important to them. Erin Wilson, the director of communication for NACA, reports that student involvement in campus activities is increasing all the time and adds that among their 1,040 member schools, a yearly total of $150 million is spent on campus programming.

As great as it might seem that colleges and universities are supporting student causes, I actually believe that it has tamed the critical energy necessary to be young, outraged, and active. When you're being funded by a team of white-haired academics in suits, taking real risks -- acts of civil disobedience like sit-ins, hunger strikes, boycotts -- don't seem like such a smart idea. Students rightly wonder whether they will "ruin it" for the next class if they cross the line and lose the school leadership's support. Plus, it's so much easier to just eat the free pizza and cut the three-inch ribbons than to mastermind a rebellious and potentially dangerous student uprising.

The academy, in general, encourages specialization, intellectualization, civility -- not exactly the key ingredients for effective social action. Students are surrounded by professors reminiscing about the glory days of youth activism, when groups like Students for a Democratic Society, the Weather Underground, and the Black Panther Party really ignited social change. But the professors don't seem to make the connection that none of these were school-sanctioned organizations.

Today's youth activism is largely enacted within the gated fortresses of higher learning. Students are overwhelmingly and often motivated by applying to law school or resumé-building. (How do you think they got into these undergraduate institutions in the first place?) They funnel their outrage into weekly club meetings and awareness campaigns that look good on paper -- activities that convey to future employers and institutions that they are socially involved and aware but not at odds with the system. Students seem to join sanctioned, existing clubs, rather than launch their own radical actions, without much resistance or critical questioning. Perhaps they've been socialized to accept the status quo, but even more, I believe they simply don't have the time or energy to start innovative revolutions from scratch because they are so busy taking standardized tests and building their resumés with internships and assistantships.

I watched a group of them sort through a brightly colored stack of anti-war quotations to make sure that every single one, literally, bore the stamp of approval from the college activities office so they could hang them around campus without getting in trouble. It made me cringe. This is where their energies were being diverted during the deadliest month yet in the Iraq War.

It made me reflect on my own undergraduate days -- just about five years ago now. I wasn't a rah-rah student government officer, but I certainly did my share of club activities: school newspaper, writing fellows program, resident assistant, volunteering at a Harlem preschool, even the hip-hop club (talk about taming outrage). I remember feeling so busy, so responsible, so important. Now I realize that there was a real cost to that frenzy of school-sanctioned productivity. I rarely thought beyond the borders of folding tables that lined the student activities fairs. I rarely put my body or my future on the line. While I was tutoring fellow students in grammar and composition and making door tags for my residence halls, I missed the escalation of a bogus justification for a messy war in my name.

In one of the largest studies ever conducted of Generation Y, psychology professor Jean M. Twenge found that college students "increasingly believe that their lives are controlled by outside forces" -- called "externality" in the psychology field. Twenge writes, "The average college student in 2002 had more external control beliefs than 80 percent of college students in the early 1960s."

Is it any wonder? We were raised to organize our adolescent lives in pursuit of external approval: church awards, athletic scholarships, and college admissions. More than any generation in history, we've been signed up, roped in, and overscheduled. When we get to college, many of us rush to join clubs in an attempt to recreate this safe feeling of sanctioned activity, of organized energies, of potential approval by authorities. Our innate passions and spontaneous actions have essentially been bred out of us.

The LearningWork Connection, a consulting firm on youth issues, reports that from September 2004 to September 2005, 79 percent of first-year males and 87 percent of first-year females described themselves as "volunteers." They add, however, that "Gen Y is less engaged with civic and political activities than they are with other causes."

Which prompts me to ask, what are "causes," really? The word stinks of bureaucracy and timidity, of the most educated, wanted generation in history sprawled across standard university furniture -- not planning the next revolution, but eating free cookies and voting on whether buttons or ribbons will be less destructive to students' clothing.

I saw the surefire glimmer of pure passion in these students' eyes. I know they are capable of great and ingenious uprisings, a type of protest that is totally 21st century, a trademark Generation Y invention. Viruses in campus administrators' computers with pop-up windows demanding no more expansion into poor, local neighborhoods? Mock draft cards sent home to their parents? A dance party -- 1 million youth strong -- on the Washington lawn? It all seems possible.

They need to stay out of the student center long enough to figure out what their version of outraged activism really is. Small as it may sound, big change would happen if college students today could protect their purest intentions from the pacifying force of free pizza and resumé kudos. Our generation needs to step into our raw power -- the priceless power of being young and mad. We need to stay hungry long enough to get angry.

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The institutionalization of activism on college campuses is a key culprit in the absence of visible youth movements in this country.

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Volunteering reduces teens’ risk of addiction

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Having trouble with your rebellious teen? Get them involved in community volunteer work. A new study suggests volunteering makes youth less likely to turn to drugs and alcohol.

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Kids Are Making A Difference In The World: The Real Story Of Gabriel

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This is a heartwarming story of hope, one that can inspire kids to take action, and adults to listen to the younger generations.

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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Alex Lin (Courtesy of Alex Lin) Living on Earth interviews Alex Lin, who won the Brower Youth Award for his pioneering work on electronic waste. Lin recycled and refurbishes computers for kids in the U.S. and around the world.
Transcript

CURWOOD: One kid who needs no New Year's resolutions on the environment is 14-year-old Alex Lin. When he was 11 he came across a newspaper article about the massive piles of E-waste-that's waste from electronics and computers that's generated around the world.

When the electronic devices we use every day get taken apart or dumped, toxic substances, like lead, leech into the environment. Alex decided to attack E-waste, starting at home. He founded WIN - Westerly Innovations Network (named after his town of Westerly, Rhode Island).

And this year he received the prestigious Brower Youth Award for young environmental leaders. Alex Lin, welcome to Living on Earth.

LIN: Thanks a lot.

CURWOOD: So one day you're reading the newspaper. You see this article about E-waste and you decide to do something about it. What was it that grabbed you? What made you decide to make this your mission?

LIN: I think what helped me choose to do this was that it's such a little known problem, really. When we started our project in our town, like, when we found out how many people knew about it, it was just less than 15 percent. It was like, ten percent or so of residents even knew what E-waste was, so I mean, just the fact that it's so little known and that by raising awareness we could just do so much to help it. That kind of grabbed our attention when we started the project.

CURWOOD: So how many computers are you guys recycling?

LIN: Recycling-wise we're not really sure about the amount. We just kind of hear back from CR2 Recycling because they weigh the trucks and they let us know how much we've been recycling every month or so. Because whenever a container fills up, the people at the transportation station they call them and they'll send down a truck to bring it to the facility in Massachusetts.

CURWOOD: So it's what-5,000 pounds a month or something like that?

LIN: Something like that. I mean it varies between month and month. I mean, some months it's like 25 hundred, some months it's a lot more. It all depends.

CURWOOD: Now you're working internationally. You've taken the whole thing that you started in Westerly, Rhode Island and you've taken it to people around the world. How's that working?

LIN: Yeah, it's working really well right now. Right now one of our contacts and friends in Cameroon-Rosemary-and she's been helping us to establish WIN teams in Africa and she's been looking around in Kenya, Tanzania, Cameroon. Right now we have two definite set-up WIN teams in Kenya and Cameroon and the rest are on the way. And she's also helped us a lot by looking for schools that need computers so that computers in the U.S. used by companies in large numbers can be reused and sent to people across the world who really need these computers to help better their lives. And we have a Mexican WIN team who's raising awareness. And right now I think Rosemary's been talking with a team in the UK about starting a group there and we're just kind of dealing with it as it comes because it's been coming pretty fast for the past couple of months. But we're going to have to do the work and we're ready to do it, I guess.

CURWOOD: Hey, Alex. Can you tell me a story of where you know one of your computers helped change somebody's life?

LIN: Yeah, I definitely have a pretty good one that we did. You know, after the tsunami in 2004 there was a lot of shortages of computers, learning equipment, schools, teachers. We actually had a local pediatrician from our area-she went to Malaysia and Sri Lanka I think at the time to help out and she met an English teacher there and he contacted us saying there's a need for computers over there and we ended up sending five computers and a laptop. And it was really cool because he sent us some pictures afterward of the children singing to like Barney software and other educational stuff that we put on there and afterwards they named the school the WIN learning center after our team and that was just like really cool that we could have such an impact on the other side of the world.

CURWOOD: By the way, how do you find the time to do all this work on top of what-homework, sports, piano, and well, let's face it, being a kid?

LIN: Yeah. I don't know. It kind of just depends. Like it's more of a-I remember one of my friends I met at Brower in Boston-Carlos. He said it's more of a lifestyle and I totally agree with him. Environmental justice community work is like a lifestyle. You kind of incorporate time to do it into every day and if not every day, definitely on a regular basis because I mean, sure there are times where I would have projects, reports, tests the next day. Or, even sports games and stuff that I need to get with, but usually I'm able to find time during the week to do the work.

CURWOOD: Alex Lin's organization is called WIN, Westerly Innovations Network. Alex received the prestigious Brower Youth Award for young environmental leaders. Congratulations Alex, and thank you so much for taking this time.

LIN: Thanks a lot, Steve.

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Living on Earth interviews Alex Lin, who won the Brower Youth Award for his pioneering work on electronic waste. Lin recycled and refurbishes computers for kids in the U.S. and around the world.

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Volunteering not only provides us with the opportunity to get involved in a cause that we are passionate about, but also provides the chance to look beyond our own circumstances and appreciate what others are experiencing.

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Ruhy Patel, 17, lives in Doylestown, Pa. When she was 15 she was planning to run for student council office. "All the other people running were boys," she says, "and people were like, 'Well, you're not going to win.' You feel intimidated because you're the only girl in the room. It makes you question if you'd be OK in the field of politics."

Did she drop out? No.

Did she win? "I did!"

"I feel like it kind of makes you want to try harder when people say no," says Patel.

That could be the motto for the activists of Girl Up. There are nearly 5,000 teenage girls in 66 countries who volunteer for the U.N. Foundation group. They speak out and raise money so every girl can go to school - there are an estimated 62 million who don't - and can receive official government identification papers, can get proper health care and gain the skills to pursue her dreams.

This week, we met with 13 "teen advisers" from Girl Up. They were a few of the 225 members in Washington, D.C., for the annual leadership summit.

Unlike the 62 million out-of-school girls, these Girl Up girls are all in school. They're thinking about college; they lead comfortable lives. Sometimes their friends can't understand their activism. "They don't think we're able to make a difference," says Janet Ho, 18, who lives in Los Angeles. But that's not true, she says.

Kennede Reese, 18, from Denver, mentions a SchoolCycle fundraiser. The proceeds were used to send bikes to girls in Malawi: "Because even though they have the school supplies, there's no way to get to school to get the education they need. We think of the small things."

The girls we spoke with all live in the U.S., but some have roots in the countries they're trying to help. So they know firsthand what life can be like outside the American bubble.

"My family is from the most rural part of China," says Amy Gong Liu, 18, of Alameda, Calif. "My dad was chosen to go to school instead of my aunt. My aunt was very brilliant, very outspoken about women's issues." But she never learned to read and write.

"When [my dad] told her he was going to have a daughter - me - she said, 'Make sure you educate her, keep her in the loop at the dinner table, make sure she has a voice.' "

Liu pauses: "It's hard not to think, 'What if I was born in China and my aunt was born in America, and she had the opportunity [for] success and I didn't?' "

Does the unfairness of it all make the teen leaders feel guilty?

The unanimous reply: Yes, yes, yes!

Yet they've learned that even though girls in low-income countries face many obstacles, they have a sense of hope and gratitude.

Ishana Nigam, 17, from Charlotte, N.C., visits India every year or so. That's where her parents are from. The girls she meets have "a lack of education, poor health care," she says. "But they're not jealous of me. They always tell me, 'I'm thankful for what I have, thankful just to be breathing.' And that takes a toll on me because I have so many more things than they have."

Meanwhile, all the girls bond over pop culture.

"I tutor refugees in Chicago," says Celia Buckman, 16. "They're 10 to 12, from all over, Malaysia, Kenya, India, Iraq. And they like to listen to ' Shake It Off' by Taylor Swift. They come from all over the world, they practice different religions, speak different languages, but they can all sit down and watch Taylor Swift videos, and that's great!"

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Haters Gonna Hate. Teen Girl Activists Shake It Off And Try Again

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These Girl Up leaders know that it's hard being a girl anywhere in the world - whether you're fighting to go to school or convincing boys that yes, girls can run for student council, too!

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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Six people under 20 who’ve already helped change the world

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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A herbicide is a pesticide used to kill unwanted plants. Selective herbicides kill certain targets while leaving the desired crop relatively unharmed. Some of these act by interfering with the growth of the weed and are often based on plant hormones. Herbicides used to clear waste ground are nonselective and kill every plant with which they come into contact.

History

The first widely used herbicide was 2,4 dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, often abbreviated 2,4D. It first saw widespread production and use in the late 1940s. It is easy and inexpensive to manufacture, and kills many broadleaf plants while leaving grasses unaffected. Its low cost has led to continued usage today. Like other acid herbicides, current formulations utilize either an amine salt (usually triethyl amine) or ester of the base compound. These are easier to handle than the acid.

There are earlier examples of cultural controls, such as altering soil pH, salinity, or fertility levels to control weeds.

2,4D exhibits relatively poor selectivity, meaning that it causes stress to non-target plants. It is also less effective against some broadleaf weeds, including sedges and many vinous plants. Many other herbicides have been developed to address these limitations.

The 1970s saw the introduction of atrazine[?], which has the dubious distinction of being the herbicide of greatest concern for groundwater contamination.

Glyphosate[?], which is nonselective, was introduced in the late 1980s but did not become popular until the development of crop plants that were resistant to it. The pairing of the herbicide with the resistant seed led to the consolidation of the seed and chemistry industry in the late 1990s.

Uses

Herbicides are widely used in management of landscape turf and in agriculture. They are used in total vegetation control [tvc] programs for maintenance of way for highways and railroads. Relatively smaller quantities are used in forestry, pasture systems, and management of set-aside areas for wildlife habitat.

Classification of herbicides

Herbicides can be grouped by chemical family, mode of action, and type of vegetation controlled.

They are also classified by their activity:

Contact herbicides destroy only that plant tissue in contact with the chemical spray. Generally, these are the fastest acting herbicides. They are ineffective on perennial plants that are able to re-grow from roots or tubers.

Systemic herbicides are foliar-applied and are translocated through the plant and destroy a greater amount of the plant tissue.

Soil-borne herbicides are applied to the soil and are taken up by the roots of the target plant.

Pre-emergent herbicides are applied to the soil and prevent germination or early growth of weed seeds.

Application

Most herbicides are applied as water-based sprays using ground equipment. Ground equipment varies in design, but the greatest number of acres is sprayed with self-propelled sprayers equipped with a long boom (typically 60-80 feet) with flat fan nozzles spaced about every 20". Towed, handheld, and even horse-drawn sprayers are also used.

Herbicides can also be applied aerially using helicopters or airplanes, and can be applied through irrigation systems ( chemigation[?]).

Terminology

Control is the destruction of unwanted weeds, or the damage of them to the point where they are no longer competitive with the crop

Suppression is incomplete control still providing some economic benefit, such as reduced competition with the crop

Crop Safety, for selective herbicides, is the relative absence of damage or stress to the crop. Most selective herbicides cause some visible stress to crop plants.

Some major herbicides in use today

Glyphosate[?], a systemic nonselective herbicide used in no-till burndown and for weed control in crops that are genetically modified to resist its effects

Paraquat[?], a nonselective contact herbicide used for no-till burndown and in aerial destruction of marijuana and coca plantings. More acutely toxic to people than any other herbicide in widespread commercial use.

2,4 D[?], a broadleaf herbicide in the phenoxy group used in turf and in no-till field crop production. Now mainly used in a blend with other herbicides that act as synergists.

clopyralid[?], another phenoxy herbicide used mainly in turf, rangeland, and for control of noxious thistles. Notorious for its ability to persist in compost.

metoalachlor[?], a pre-emergent herbicide widely used for control of annual grasses in corn and sorghum; has largely replaced atrazine[?] for these uses

dicamba[?], a persistent broadleaf herbicide active in the soil, used in turf and field corn

picloram[?], a phenoxy herbicide mainly used to control unwanted trees in pastures and edges of fields.

atrazine[?], a triazine herbicide used in corn and sorghum for control of broadleaf weeds and grasses

Other herbicides of historical interest

2,4,5T was a widely used broadleaf herbicide until the 1970s. The manufacturing process for 2,4,5T contaminates this chemical with trace amounts of dioxin, which is a human carcinogen. For this reason 2,4,5T is no longer used. It was largely been replaced by dicamba[?], which is still in widespread use.

Agent Orange was a herbicide blend used by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War as a defoliant. It was a mixture of 2,4,5T, 2,4D, and picloram; because of dioxin contamination it caused serious illnesses in many veterans who were exposed to it.

See also; Weed control, weed, farming, agriculture, FIFRA[?]- Federal insecticide, fungicide, and rodenticide act (USA) (also covers herbicides despite the title), Organic farming, Organic gardening

External links

Manufacturers and distributors

http://www.dowagro.com

http://www.syngenta.com

http://www.basf.com

http://www.monsanto.com

Regulatory policy http://www.epa.gov

Usage statistics http://www.nass.usda.gov

All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

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Let's Begin...

11-year-old Birke Baehr presents his take on a major source of our food -- far-away and less-than-picturesque industrial farms. Keeping farms out of sight promotes a rosy, unreal picture of big-box agriculture, he argues, as he outlines the case to green and localize food production. (Filmed atTEDxNextGenerationAshevillen.)

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What's wrong with our food system - Birke Baehr

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11-year-old Birke Baehr presents his take on a major source of our food -- far-away and less-than-picturesque industrial farms. Keeping farms out of sight promotes a rosy, unreal picture of big-box agriculture, he argues, as he outlines the case to green and localize food production. (Filmed atTEDxNextGenerationAshevillen.)

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Later this year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture may approve the Arctic Granny and Arctic Golden, the first genetically modified apples to hit the market. Although it will probably be another two years before the non-browning fruits appears in stores, at least one producer is already scrambling to label its apples GMO-free.

The looming apple campaign is just the latest salvo in the ongoing war over genetically modified organisms (GMOs)-one that's grown increasingly contentious. Over the past decade, the controversy surrounding GMO facts has sparked worldwide riots and the vandalism of crops in Oregon, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Philippines. In May, the governor of Vermont signed a law that will likely make it the first U.S. state to require labels for genetically engineered ingredients; more than 50 nations already mandate them. Vermont State Senator David Zuckerman told Democracy Now!, "As consumers, we are guinea pigs, because we really don't understand the ramifications."

But the truth is, GMOs have been studied intensively, and they look a lot more prosaic than the hype contends. To make Arctic apples, biologists took genes from Granny Smith and Golden Delicious varieties, modified them to suppress the enzyme that causes browning, and reinserted them in the leaf tissue. It's a lot more accurate than traditional methods, which involve breeders hand-pollinating blossoms in hopes of producing fruit with the desired trait. Biologists also introduce genes to make plants pest- and herbicide-resistant; those traits dominate the more than 430 million acres of GMO crops that have already been planted globally. Scientists are working on varieties that survive disease, drought, and flood.

So what, exactly, do consumers have to fear? To find out, Popular Science chose 10 of the most common claims about GMOs and interviewed nearly a dozen scientists. Their collective answer: not much at all.

1) Claim: Genetic engineering is a radical technology.

Humans have been manipulating the genes of crops for millennia by selectively breeding plants with desirable traits. (A perfect example: the thousands of apple varieties.) Virtually all of our food crops have been genetically modified in some way. In that sense, GMOs are not radical at all. But the technique does differ dramatically from traditional plant breeding.

Here's how it works: Scientists extract a bit of DNA from an organism, modify or make copies of it, and incorporate it into the genome of the same species or a second one. They do this by either using bacteria to deliver the new genetic material, or by shooting tiny DNA-coated metal pellets into plant cells with a gene gun. While scientists can't control exactly where the foreign DNA will land, they can repeat the experiment until they get a genome with the right information in the right place.

That process allows for greater precision. "With GMOs, we know the genetic information we are using, we know where it goes in the genome, and we can see if it is near an allergen or a toxin or if it is going to turn [another gene] off," says Peggy G. Lemaux, a plant biologist at the University of California, Berkeley. "That is not true when you cross widely different varieties in traditional breeding."

2) Claim: GMOs are too new for us to know if they are dangerous.

It depends on how you define new. Genetically engineered plants first appeared in the lab about 30 years ago and became a commercial product in 1994. Since then, more than 1,700 peer-reviewed safety studies have been published, including five lengthy reports from the National Research Council, that focus on human health and the environment. The scientific consensus is that existing GMOs are no more or less risky than conventional crops.

3) Claim: Farmers can't replant genetically modified seeds.

So-called terminator genes, which can make seeds sterile, never made it out of the patent office in the 1990s. Seed companies do require farmers to sign agreements that prohibit replanting in order to ensure annual sales, but Kent Bradford, a plant scientist at the University of California, Davis, says large-scale commercial growers typically don't save seeds anyway. Corn is a hybrid of two lines from the same species, so its seeds won't pass on the right traits to the next generation. Cotton and soy seeds could be saved, but most farmers don't bother. "The quality deteriorates-they get weeds and so on-and it's not a profitable practice," Bradford says.

4) Claim: We don't need GMOs-there are other ways to feed the world.

GMOs alone probably won't solve the planet's food problems. But with climate change and population growth threatening food supplies, genetically modified crops could significantly boost crop output. "GMOs are just one tool to make sure the world is food-secure when we add two billion more people by 2050," says Pedro Sanchez, director of the Agriculture and Food Security Center at Columbia University's Earth Institute. "It's not the only answer, and it is not essential, but it is certainly one good thing in our arsenal."

5) Claim: GMOs cause allergies, cancer, and other health problems.

Many people worry that genetic engineering introduces hazardous proteins, particularly allergens and toxins, into the food chain. It's a reasonable concern: Theoretically, it's possible for a new gene to express a protein that provokes an immune response. That's why biotech companies consult with the Food and Drug Administration about potential GMO foods and perform extensive allergy and toxicity testing. Those tests are voluntary but commonplace; if they're not done, the FDA can block the products.

One frequently cited study, published in 2012 by researchers from the University of Caen in France, claimed that one of Monsanto's corn GMOs caused tumors in lab rats. But the study was widely discredited because of faulty test methods, and the journal retracted it in 2013. More recently, researchers from the University of Perugia in Italy published a review of 1,783 GMO safety tests; 770 examined the health impact on humans or animals. They found no evidence that the foods are dangerous.

6) Claim: All research on GMOs has been funded by Big Ag.

This simply isn't true. Over the past decade, hundreds of independent researchers have published peer-reviewed safety studies. At least a dozen medical and scientific groups worldwide, including the World Health Organization and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, have stated that the GMOs currently approved for market are safe.

7) Claim: Genetically modified crops cause farmers to overuse pesticides and herbicides.

This claim requires a little parsing. Two relevant GMOs dominate the market. The first enables crops to express a protein from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), which is toxic to certain insects. It's also the active ingredient in pesticides used by organic farmers. Bt crops have dramatically reduced reliance on chemical insecticides in some regions, says Bruce Tabashnik, a University of Arizona entomologist.

The second allows crops to tolerate the herbicide glyphosate so that farmers can spray entire fields more liberally yet kill only weeds. Glyphosate use has skyrocketed in the U.S. since these GMOs were introduced in 1996. But glyphosate is among the mildest herbicides available, with a toxicity 25 times less than caffeine. Its use has decreased reliance on more toxic alternatives, such as atrazine.

8) Claim: GMOs create super-insects and super-weeds.

If farmers rely too heavily on Bt or glyphosate, then pesticide resistance is inevitable, says Tabashnik. That's evolution at work, and it's analogous to antibiotics creating hardier bacteria. It is an increasing problem and could lead to the return of harsher chemicals. The solution, he says, is to practice integrated pest management, which includes rotating crops. The same goes for any type of farming.

9) Claim: GMOs harm beneficial insect species.

This has been been partly debunked. Bt insecticides attach to proteins found in some insects' guts, killing select species. For most insects, a field of Bt crops is safer than one sprayed with an insecticide that kills indiscriminately. But monarch butterflies produce the same proteins as one of Bt's target pests, and a 1999 Cornell University lab experiment showed that feeding the larvae milkweed coated in Bt corn pollen could kill them. Five studies published in 2001, however, found that monarchs aren't exposed to toxic levels of Bt pollen in the wild.

A 2012 paper from Iowa State University and the University of Minnesota suggested glyphosate-tolerant GMOs are responsible for monarchs' recent population decline. The herbicide kills milkweed (the larvae's only food source) in and near crops where it's applied.

10) Claim: Modified genes spread to other crops and wild plants, upending the ecosystem.

The first part could certainly be true: Plants swap genetic material all the time by way of pollen, which carries plant DNA-including any genetically engineered snippets.

According to Wayne Parrott, a crop geneticist at the University of Georgia, the risk for neighboring farms is relatively low. For starters, it's possible to reduce the chance of cross-pollination by staggering planting schedules, so that fields pollinate during different windows of time. (Farmers with adjacent GMO and organic fields already do this.) And if some GMO pollen does blow into an organic field, it won't necessarily nullify organic status. Even foods that bear the Non-GMO Project label can be 0.5 percent GMO by dry weight.

As for a GMO infiltrating wild plants, the offspring's survival partly depends on whether the trait provides an adaptive edge. Genes that help wild plants survive might spread, whereas those that, say, boost vitamin A content might remain at low levels or fizzle out entirely.

The Rise of GMO Crops

In the U.S., farmers have been planting increasing amounts GMO crops since the seeds became commercially available in 1996. Corn, cotton, and soy-which together occupy about 40 percent of U.S. cropland-are the three crops with the highest GMO fraction by area, each more than 90 percent in 2013.

The GMO fraction by area of corn, cotton, and soy in the top states that grow those crops. Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Graphic by Rebecca Lantner.

Dinner, Dissected

Very few genetically modified crops end up on plates, but the ones that do can be found in roughly two-thirds of processed foods sold in the U.S. Genetically modified bacteria and yeasts are also critical to the production of some foods, including many wines and cheeses.

Cheese

Rennet is key in making firm cheeses-specifically, an enzyme called chymosin in the rennet helps harden cheese. Traditionally, cheesemakers use rennet from the lining of cow stomachs to get their chymosin-but an estimated 80 to 90 percent of hard cheeses in the U.S. are made with bacteria modified with the rennet-producing cow gene.

Corn

Trait: Tolerates herbicides; resists insects
Total U.S. crop, by acreage: 85% herbicide-tolerant; 76% insect-resistant
Found in: Processed foods, such as crackers and cereals; corn on the cob; livestock feed

Cotton

Trait: Tolerates herbicides; resists insects
Total U.S. crop, by acreage: 82% herbicide-tolerant; 75% insect-resistant
Found in: Processed foods, including salad dressings; livestock feed

Papaya

Trait: Resists ringspot virus
Total U.S. crop, by acreage: More than 50%
Found in: Whole fruit and other products

Rapeseed

Trait: Tolerates herbicides
Total U.S. crop, by acreage: More than 50%
Found in: Canola oil; processed foods

Soy

Trait: Tolerates herbicides
Total U.S. crop, by acreage: 93%
Found in: Processed foods, such as cereals and breads; food additives, such as lecithin; livestock feed

Squash

Trait: Resists various viruses
Total U.S. crop, by acreage: 12%
Found in: Whole vegetables and other products

Sugar beets*

Trait: Tolerates herbicides
Total U.S. crop, by acreage: 95%
Found in: Refined sugar

Wine

Certain wine yeasts have been modified to make wine production easier, and prevent the production of harmful fermentation byproducts. One example is yeast strain ML01 in the U.S., which prevents the production of histamines that can trigger headaches. It also improves flavor and color.

*No modified proteins remain in the final product.

The Future Of GMOs: Gene Editing

Today's most common GMO technology, recombinant DNA, inserts genes into a plant's cells via bacteria or specialized delivery tools, but it involves some trial and error. A new method called gene editing uses enzymes to snip out a specific bit of DNA to either delete it or replace it. This allows for more precise changes to a plant's genome. Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley are already working with it to create virus-resistant cassava.

Gene editing may also provide fodder for fresh controversy. Current GMO methods leave a trace behind-for example, a bit of the DNA from bacterium used to insert new genes. The enzymes used in gene editing don't leave such a fingerprint, so future genetically modified plants will be harder to detect with tests.
This article originally appeared in the July 2014 issue of_ Popular Science_. Note (7/17/2014, 6:30pm EDT): Due to an editor's mistake, a previous version of this story misstated several details about genetically modified wines and cheeses. We regret the error.

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GMO Facts: 10 Common GMO Claims Debunked

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Genetically modified organisms have become the world's most controversial food. The science is clear-cut. Read on.