BP is looking to hire scientists to help it study the Gulf oil spill, but may be setting terms—like keeping research findings confidential for a period of years—that many of them find intolerable.

During the recent, long lived solar minimum, the thermosphere—the largest layer of Earth's atmosphere—shrank by an unprecedented 28 percent. Known influences can only account for half of that (maybe the other half was the cold swim it took moments before it was measured?).

A panel discussion on the future of energy gave some insight into what some of the people who are driving energy and climate research think about the possible solutions to climate change. Among the answers: don't look to fusion, consider thorium, and don't bother with carbon capture and storage unless we completely fail to decarbonize.