Straight ahead on "Our World" ... A record-breaking storm season ends... World AIDS Day ... and a school teacher joins scientists on a research ship...
GREEN: "I had no clue what I was in for, but anytime I learn anything first hand it's better for my students because I can bring it back more personal to them. So I'm the first elementary educator that they've ever picked."
Those stories, music and math on our Website of the Week, and more... I'm Art Chimes. Welcome to VOA's science and technology magazine, "Our World."
British scientists say the ocean currents that moderate Europe's climate are slowing.
The Atlantic currents, which carry warm water north, have slowed down by almost one-third since 1957.
The findings are based on limited data, but they conform to computer projections of what might happen in a world made warmer by greenhouse gas emissions, according to a separate article, which calls the research "alarming." In pre-historic times, northern air temperatures have dropped by as much as 10 degrees [Celsius] within decades based on changes in ocean circulation. The articles are published in the British science journal, "Nature."
This weekend marked the end of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, and the head of NOAA, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, calls it a record-breaker.
LAUTENBACHER: "The most named storms ? we're up to 26 now with Epsilon in the Atlantic; the most hurricanes, 13; and the most category five storms in a season, three. And arguably, although the data is not completely in, it probably has been the most devastating hurricane season that the country has experienced in modern times."
That's the assessment of Conrad Lautenbacher, who heads NOAA, the U.S. agency that handles weather and climate matters. And Mr. Lautenbacher said next year could be just as bad.
NOAA scientists blame the severe storm season on natural cycles lasting twenty to thirty years, says Gerry Bell, with the government agency.
BELL: "Well, NOAA attributes the increased hurricane activity to naturally-occurring cycles in the tropical climate patterns near the equator. NOAA's research shows that the tropical multi-decadal signal is by far the dominant cause of the increased hurricane activity that we've seen since 1995."
NOAA's explanation for the severe storm season downplays a factor that many other scientists see at work: global warming. Among them: Judith Curry, who heads the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology, better known as Georgia Tech.
CURRY: "It's very difficult to untangle the role of global warming and natural variability. But there is no way that we can explain this without some element of global warming."
Dr. Curry dismisses NOAA's main explanation for this year's record-breaking hurricane season.
CURRY: "They're talking about this 'tropical multi-decadal mode.' But nobody, no oceanographers, no climate dynamicists have any evidence of a global tropical multi-decadal mode."
Judith Curry says the different conclusion reached by the government scientists may reflect the different focus at NOAA, whose expertise, she says, centers less on long-term climate trends than on short-term storm forecasts ? which, incidentally, have improved dramatically in recent years.
Thursday was World AIDS Day. A statement from the United Nations' AIDS organization, UNAIDS, notes some signs of hope, including lower adult infection rates in some countries of Africa and the Caribbean, thanks in part to safer sexual practices. Still, the epidemic continues to spread in other areas, says UNAIDS director Dr. Peter Piot.
PIOT: "The fastest growth is in eastern Europe and central Asia, in the countries of the former Soviet Union, where the number of people living with HIV has increased twenty-fold in less than ten years."
Because a person can be infected with HIV for a long time before symptoms develop, it's important for people to know if they may be carrying the AIDS virus. This normally involves a trip to a doctor or clinic, and waiting for the results.
But the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is considering approval of a convenient, do-it-yourself HIV test. VOA's Andrew Baroch reports that the aim is to encourage more people to get tested by making the procedure ? the test and the results ? easier to obtain than ever before.