Lily, a wild three-year-old black bear, began labor on Thursday. People around the world anxiously waited and watched for the arrival, which was shown live on the Internet. While most first-time litters include one or two cubs, after nearly 22 hours of labor, Lily gave birth to a single cub on January 22, 2010. Read the rest of this entry »
As people around the world watch the unimaginable images being streamed out of Haiti, humanitarian aid is finally reaching the people that have been devastated by the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck on January 12, 2010. Food, water, medical provisions, shelter and supplies are slowly reaching those affected by the catastrophe. Read the rest of this entry »
In what is being touted as the first time humans have remotely controlled insects, University of California at Berkeley engineers successfully implanted radio-equipped, “miniature neural stimulation” systems into flying beetles–most notably, the “elephant” beetle Megasoma elephas (pictured above), which can grow up to 20 cm (about 7 + inches) in length.
While many people enjoy eating a nice lobster or crab dinner, the methods often used to kill the crustaceans are sometimes seen as barbaric and cruel. It can take live lobsters up to three minutes to die when plunged into a pot of boiling hot water. It takes even longer for the crab – up to five minutes when boiled alive. Read the rest of this entry »
In a recent international conference on ‘Climate Change: Technology Development & Transfer’ held in Delhi, the Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh began his speech by stating that climate friendly and environmentally sound technologies should be viewed as global public goods.
The panel, also chaired by the Maldives President after his country’s recent underwater stunt, called for the Northern countries to do (much) more than just emissions reduction. The statement also comes shortly after media reports suggest India could change its national position on climate change to drop the ‘deal-breaker’ tag put on it by the West.
Yearly, 1.8 million people will die due to waterborne diseases. Sadly, most of these deaths are children under the age of 5, at rate of 5000 children a day. There is a way to reverse and end this tragedy. The Water Solution is available and saving lives in Africa. Imagine a small, portable, straw-like device that hangs around the neck of a child and each straw can save a child’s life for one year.
“WATER IS LIFE!” a child exclaims as he sees his siblings live instead of die. Genius inventions like these are changing the world on a global scale — saving lives and bringing children and families back into healthier states.
NATO’s Science for Peace program and the Middle East Desalination Research Center (MEDRC) have awarded a team of three universities, one Jordanian, one Israeli and one American a grant to set up two parallel water desalination plants at one site each in Jordan and Israel. This grant is meant to promote collaboration across borders and between the two neighbouring countries, in a region not known for its congenial ties between neighbours. Read the rest of this entry »
The short-term goal here is an overall reduction in global atmospheric temperatures to slow, or even reverse, warming trends. These solutions include increasing the amount of reflective particles surrounding the Earth by placing reflective particles (“mirrors”) outside the atmosphere. Such a solution may be justified to quickly curtail an emergent crisis–such as the rapid disintegration of the polar icecaps. Another strategy is to blanket the upper atmosphere with sulfur particles to block shortwave energy from reaching the Earth’s surface, thus producing a pronounced cooling effect (of variable duration).
However, in a recently published paper, Climate Engineering Responses to Climate Emergencies by Blackstock et al, this and other controversial strategies are analyzed in terms of feasibility, short-term impact, and also, the potential risks and dangers. The authors are also calling for a study phase. The major criticism in the paper is that current geoengineering strategies focus on a reduction of temperature without due consideration of the impact on precipitation, which also drives climate change. The cooler the surface temperature, in general, the less overall precipitation ( due to the fact that there is less energy for evaporation). Focusing only on temperature reduction, via incoming solar radiation, could backfire, leading to a shift in global hydrology cycles and, possibly, drought. Also, sulfur in the atmosphere combines with water to form sulfuric acid–the primary source of “acid rain”–a problem dramatically reduced since the passage of the Clean Air act.
The Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) is launching a high-tech initiative in an effort to promote awareness, tourism, and gorilla conservation. The unique Friend a Gorilla project will launch on September 26th in Kampala. Gorilla enthusiasts will now be able to watch, track and befriend real live gorillas from the comfort of their own home. But wait – there’s more! Read the rest of this entry »
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