Photo from one of Captain Dave's Dolphin and Whale Safari Boat Tours

In the past week, copious amounts of planktonic krill have drawn large groups of blue whales off the coast of Long Beach in Southern California.

Credit: Photos via facebook.com/meeteater.

I like "Meet Eater," at least on Facebook. Not much happened after I hit the "Like" button to express my, um, admiration. Apparently, though, every time this plant makes a friend on Facebook, an electronic system delivers water and nutrients. No friends, no love? Dead plant.

Ahead of its upcoming report Fossil Foolishness: Utah's Pursuit of Tar Sands and Oil Shale Tags:

• oil
• pollution
• Science & Technology
• united states
• utah

Photo: Flickr, CC

Should Access for Regular Hybrids be Phased Out?
In California, vehicles that meet certain fuel economy and tailpipe emission criteria are granted special access to the high occupancy vehicle lanes (HOV, aka the carpool lane).

Photo: GM

Hopefully It'll Have More Commercial Success than BYD EVs
China will be one of the initial markets to get the Chevy Volt PHEV, and today GM is announcing that the first drivable Volt has landed in the Middle Kingdom. "GM has made a long-term commitment to bringing our industry-leading technology to China," said Kevin Wale, President and Managing Director of the GM China Group.

Nissan LEAF batteries.

Photo: GM

A Significant Drop Predicted
It's all about supply and demand: According to Hideo Takeshita, an analyst at the Institute of Information Technology Ltd. in Tokyo, the price of lithium-ion batteries could drop by about 19% in 2010, while another analyst, Shiro Mikoshiba of Nomura Holdings, said that the worsening oversupply may push prices down as much as 25%.

Image credit: lydurs/Flickr

The heat in the upper six miles of the earth's crust contains 50,000 times as much energy as found in all the world's oil and gas reserves combined.

Image via UCSD

What happens inside a whale's head when it encounters sound? The mammals have highly developed capabilities of detecting and processing sound waves, something that helps them communicate over long distances, but which also spell their demise in an ocean filled with intense, loud human-generated noise.

Image credit: psyberartist/Flickr

In the northern hemisphere, the winter of 2010 was notable for its unpredictability and extreme conditions.