Month: February 2013

  • Climate change could impact wave height, says study

    Average wave size will increase in many parts of the southern hemisphere over the twenty-first century, but decrease in the north, according to an international study on the impact of climate change on oceanic activity. The study, published in Nature Climate Change last month (13 January), predicts a wave height increase of between 20 and…

  • The California Coyote Hunt Will Go On Despite Petition Drive

    State wildlife officials in California declined to call off a coyote-hunting contest in Modoc County this weekend but, in response to public outcry, agreed to take steps to clarify the scope of the hunt and protect OR-7, the first wild wolf in California in nearly nine decades. The precautionary steps were recommended by a coalition…

  • Invasive Striga Weed Serious Problem in Sub-Saharan Africa

    Rising soil temperatures are increasing the spread of a deadly, parasitic weed that significantly reduces crop yields in Sub-Saharan Africa, Striga, according to scientists. The noxious weed, also known as witch-weed, usually thrives in the warm and humid tropics but is now spreading to cooler and wetter highlands as a result of warmer soils driven…

  • The Worlds of Red Dwarfs

    A red dwarf is a small and relatively cool star on the main sequence. Red dwarfs range in mass from a low of 0.075 solar masses (the upper limit for a brown dwarf) to about 50% of the Sun and have a surface temperature of less than 4,000 K. So they are not very impressive…

  • In Tapping REI Chief for Interior Secretary, Obama Sends Latest Signal on Climate Agenda

    On Wednesday, President Barack Obama nominated REI CEO Sally Jewell to be the next Secretary of the Interior. Jewell, who took over REI in 2005, has a record both as a successful businesswoman and a longtime conservation advocate. REI, which was founded in 1938, grew rapidly under Jewell’s tenure, and the company today operates over…

  • Clean Coal

    Coal is somewhat notorious for not being the cleanest of fuels. Similarly all combustion systems release a good deal of carbon dioxide. A new form of clean coal technology reached an important milestone recently, with the successful operation of a research-scale combustion system at Ohio State University. The technology is now ready for testing at…

  • Supernova Stars Start With a Pre-Event

    Supernova stars are spectacular stars which suddenly get much brighter. This occurs in certain stars that are reaching the end of their lifetime. Before they go all-out supernova, certain large stars undergo a sort of “mini-explosion,” throwing a good-sized chunk of their material off into space. Though several models predict this behavior and evidence from…

  • TaKaDu: Using The Power Of Math To Solve The World’s Water Leaks

    According to the Asian Development Bank, Asia loses around 29 billion cubic metres of urban treated water every year due to leaking pipes, valued at nine billion dollars annually. The bank says that “by cutting physical losses to half the present level, 150 million people could be supplied with already treated water.”

  • New Research Questions Invasive Bird Introduction to Manage Tick Populations in Turkey

    As Turkey raises and releases thousands of non-native helmeted guineafowl (Numida meleagris) to eat ticks that carry the deadly Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus, new research suggests guineafowl actually eat few ticks, carry the parasites on their feathers, and further spread the disease.

  • Orphaned Siberian Tiger Cubs Prepared to be Returned to Nature

    Last fall, in the frigid, snowy forests of the Russian Far East, three wild tiger cubs lost their most important ally: their mother. Our story began on Nov. 29 with a phone call to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) office in Vladivostok from Vladimir Vasiliev, the head of the regional wildlife department, Okhotnazor. He requested…