Jul 29 2011

Scientists Report Dramatic Carbon Loss from Massive Arctic Wildfire

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ScienceDaily (July 28, 2011) — In a study published in this week's issue of Nature, Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) senior scientist Gauis Shaver and his colleagues, including lead author Michelle Mack of the University of Florida, describe the dramatic impacts of a massive Arctic wildfire on carbon releases to the atmosphere. The 2007 blaze on the North Slope of the Alaska's Brooks Mountain Range released 20 times more carbon to the atmosphere than what is annually lost from undisturbed tundra.
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Jul 29 2011

How the boom in climbing, biking and sailing is costing the earth

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In the first of a two-part sport and environment special, Isabella Kaminski reports on how habitat damage, waste, nanotechnology and persistent organic pollutants are increasingly linked to our favourite outdoor pursuits.
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Jul 29 2011

How to avoid being eaten by lions

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Being eaten by lions is probably something we’d all like to avoid. Deadly 60 presenter Steve Backshall shares his top tips to help us steer clear of the killer jaws of big cats. 1. Stay in the car. "Lions don't see a car as prey, so you're safer inside', our director Giles insists, if you're in a vehicle, stay in it. 2. If you go tracking on foot be extra vigilant. 3. Always travel with a local guide. (Our team had two local guides with them at all times.) 4. Carry a big stick and a firearm. (But use them as a deterrent, never intending to inflict harm on the animal. A hurt lion is a very angry lion.) 5. Keep your eyes open: You'd be amazed how close a 500lb lion can get without you noticing. 6. Always have a 'spotter'. Just because you’re filming one lion, doesn't mean there isn't another behind you.
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Jul 29 2011

Tropical storm Don welcome in drought-stricken Texas

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As much of Texas suffers through one of its worst droughts, many rain-starved Texans are doing something they thought they would never do -- looking forward to the arrival of a tropical storm. "Someone's going to get it. We hope that it's us," is how Danielle Hale sums up the situation. She is the Emergency Management Director on Corpus Christi, right in the middle of the area where Tropical Storm Don is expected to come ashore on Friday night. Parts of Texas are 15 inches short their average rainfall for this time of year. Don's expected 5 to 7 inches of rain and the fact that the storm was not seen bringing damaging winds or a destructive surge, makes it a perfect storm for a state sick of water rationing, brown lawns and dying crops, Hale said. "We're not anticipating any evacuation orders," Hale said. "The worst we expect is maybe some beach access roads may have to be closed heading into Friday evening.
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Jul 28 2011

Stem Court Ruling a Decisive Victory for NIH

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The biomedical research community is elated by today's federal court decision to throw out a lawsuit that threatened to shut down federally funded research on human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Chief Judge Royce Lamberth, who earlier had ruled against the National Institutes of Health, this time came down on NIH's side in several key arguments in the case.
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Jul 28 2011

1993 US Northwest Forest Plan Turns Public Forests into Carbon Sink

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Enacted in 1993, before climate change was so prominent in the public media eye, the US Northwest Forest Plan's primary goal was the conservation of old growth forests on public land, and thereby also protecting threatened and endangered species, such as the northern spotted owl. Forest harvests in those public forests dropped precipitously, by 82%, the next year. Nearly two decades later, it turns out that the Plan has yielded unintended, though no less favorable results in terms of mitigating the effect of increasing carbon dioxide emissions.
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Jul 28 2011

How Can Making 3,000 Tons of Ice Every Night Actually End Up Saving Energy?

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Once again the United States is experiencing record hot temperatures this summer, which means that electric grids are working harder than ever to provide the energy needed to keep commercial buildings and their employees cool. And, as businesses try to keep costs down the increased use of air conditioners continues to be a drain on the bottom line. However, in its LEED Platinum-certified building in Newtown Square, Pa., SAP has installed a system that uses "outside the box" thinking to decrease costs, relieve pressure on the local grid and save energy.
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Jul 22 2011

Electric Frog Face

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There are always oddities and strange patterns. For the first time, Tufts University biologists have reported that bioelectrical signals are necessary for normal head and facial formation in an organism and have captured that process in a time-lapse video that reveals never-before-seen patterns of visible bioelectrical signals outlining where eyes, nose, mouth, and other features will appear in an embryonic tadpole. The Tufts biologists found that, before the face of a tadpole develops, bioelectrical signals (ion flux) cause groups of cells to form patterns marked by different membrane voltage and pH levels. When stained with a reporter dye, hyperpolarized (negatively charged) areas shine brightly, while other areas appear darker, creating an electric face.
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Jul 22 2011

Hearing Loss in Teens Linked to Secondhand Smoke

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Researchers have found evidence to add hearing loss to secondhand smoke's growing list of negative health effects. Unusual as it sounds, a recent analysis shows secondhand smoke may harm areas other than the respiratory system in teens.
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Jul 22 2011

Drought continues to worsen in southern Plains

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A historic drought in the southern Plains intensified in the last week and contributed to dry conditions emerging in the heart of the Midwest crop belt, a weekly climatologists' report said Thursday. The weekly U.S. Drought Monitor, produced by a consortium of national climate experts, showed abnormally dry conditions affecting a significant area of the Midwest -- about 10 percent -- for the first time this summer. The areas included parts of Iowa and Illinois, the top two corn- and soy-growing states that annually produce about one-third of the U.S. corn crop. Also affected were southern Wisconsin, northeast Indiana, northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan. Texas remained the epicenter of the crisis, with "exceptional drought," the most severe drought category, gripping 75 percent of the state. Texas climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon said it was the state's third-worst drought since 1895.
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