Author: David Funkhouser16

I’m a writer and former content manager and science writer for the Earth Institute and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University. I worked for 35 years at newspapers around New England, including The MetroWest News in Framingham, Mass.; The New Haven Register and The Hartford Courant in Connecticut. Visit website »

Undersea Clues to Haiti’s Earthquake History

For all of its violent destruction, the earthquake that struck Haiti on Jan. 12, 2010, hardly scratched the surface of the island. But scientists now say they have found some of the best clues to understanding the quake under water.
Time and Technology and the Really Down Deep

Two years before Google Earth was launched, Bill Ryan and Suzanne Carbotte, oceanographers at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, began a project to transform the way we look at the ocean. They started collecting reams of data that had been gathered by scientists sailing on research vessels all over the world since the 1980s, one ship…
Rhone Glacier Finely Tuned to Climate Changes

By chiseling hunks of stone from recently exposed bedrock near the edge of the Rhone Glacier, scientists were able to decipher the comings and goings of the ice over the past 11,000 years. That should help predict what will happen to glaciers in the warming world to come.
Tree Rings Open Door on 1,100 Years of El Niño

Scientists have used tree-ring data from the American Southwest to reconstruct a 1,100-year history of the El Niño cycle that shows that, when the earth warms, the climate acts up. The research may improve scientists’ ability to predict future climate and the effects of global warming.
Rising Seas Pushing Island Nations to the Brink

Rising sea levels caused by global warming could displace millions of people worldwide who are living on low-lying coastlines, and it may prove fatal to some small island nations. At a conference at Columbia Law School, legal experts explored the implications for the people whose homelands could become uninhabitable within a matter of decades.
Science Education with Trees and Canoes

Students from New York City, Singapore and the Netherlands test their skills this weekend in the woods and on the water near Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in the International Student and Teacher Exchange Program.
The American Climate Gap

There’s a growing gap between scientists’ view of climate change and that of the general public, and it has less to do with scientific “illiteracy,” and more to do with the psychology of how people frame their understanding of the world, say the authors of a paper just published in the journal American Psychologist.
Climate Clock is Ticking for Pinot Noir

New studies of temperature records, grape harvests, and climate fluctuations over the Atlantic Ocean are yielding insights into how climate change might impact the production on Pinot Noir.
Web Diagramming Rocks: Paper Named Among 10 Best

The researchers found the diagramming helped students form “knowledge networks” that led them to a better understanding of the material.

Undersea Clues to Haiti’s Earthquake History

For all of its violent destruction, the earthquake that struck Haiti on Jan. 12, 2010, hardly scratched the surface of the island. But scientists now say they have found some of the best clues to understanding the quake under water.
Time and Technology and the Really Down Deep

Two years before Google Earth was launched, Bill Ryan and Suzanne Carbotte, oceanographers at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, began a project to transform the way we look at the ocean. They started collecting reams of data that had been gathered by scientists sailing on research vessels all over the world since the 1980s, one ship…
Rhone Glacier Finely Tuned to Climate Changes

By chiseling hunks of stone from recently exposed bedrock near the edge of the Rhone Glacier, scientists were able to decipher the comings and goings of the ice over the past 11,000 years. That should help predict what will happen to glaciers in the warming world to come.
Tree Rings Open Door on 1,100 Years of El Niño

Scientists have used tree-ring data from the American Southwest to reconstruct a 1,100-year history of the El Niño cycle that shows that, when the earth warms, the climate acts up. The research may improve scientists’ ability to predict future climate and the effects of global warming.
Rising Seas Pushing Island Nations to the Brink

Rising sea levels caused by global warming could displace millions of people worldwide who are living on low-lying coastlines, and it may prove fatal to some small island nations. At a conference at Columbia Law School, legal experts explored the implications for the people whose homelands could become uninhabitable within a matter of decades.
Science Education with Trees and Canoes

Students from New York City, Singapore and the Netherlands test their skills this weekend in the woods and on the water near Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in the International Student and Teacher Exchange Program.
The American Climate Gap

There’s a growing gap between scientists’ view of climate change and that of the general public, and it has less to do with scientific “illiteracy,” and more to do with the psychology of how people frame their understanding of the world, say the authors of a paper just published in the journal American Psychologist.
Climate Clock is Ticking for Pinot Noir

New studies of temperature records, grape harvests, and climate fluctuations over the Atlantic Ocean are yielding insights into how climate change might impact the production on Pinot Noir.
Web Diagramming Rocks: Paper Named Among 10 Best

The researchers found the diagramming helped students form “knowledge networks” that led them to a better understanding of the material.