Three researchers at the DOE Berkeley Lab have gotten techie attention because they found a way to build the world's most accurate and efficient climate prediction supercomputer by using the same microprocessor technology of the iPod.

But there's something more fascinating about why the research was needed in the first place.

The super machines used to predict climate change today are the Hummers of the computer world.

New research out of Australia's Monash University claims that mining uranium for nuclear power is spewing more greenhouse gases than the world's been led to believe when you account for the entire nuclear energy chain -- and it's going to get worse.

How come?

The results of the Statistical Assessment Service’s (STATS) survey of 489 climate scientists were just announced.

And they highlight the triumph of scientific reason over climate denialism.

Again.

In his immortal hit New York, New York, Frank Sinatra croons:

And if I can make it there, I'm gonna make it anywhere

He doesn't sing about the other possibility, which is the oblivion of failure that New York can also confer -- as it did last week upon the Heartland Institute and its International Climate Deniers Conference.

They swaggered into town on the back of an expensive full-page ad in the New York Times and a favorable editorial preview provided for free by fellow-travellers at the Wall Street Journal -- and skipped town three days later exposed, ignored, ashamed and ridiculed.

They didn't make it here, and making it anywhere has now gotten that much harder.

Nine of Earth's ecological systems are in danger of being "tipped" into irreversible, dangerous states -- beyond the point of repair. Obvious, to some. But what's staggering is just how quickly it could happen.

That's the latest finding from a prestigious group of climate scientists. It grabbed the attention of the mainstream media. And it could redefine the climate threat.