| EPA Unveils New Emissions Standards for Cars The Obama administration today released details of its national suite of auto standards that would mandate increased fuel economy and impose the first-ever greenhouse gas standard on the nation's cars and trucks.The proposals are a joint effort by U.S. EPA and the Transportation Department and would go into effect with model year 2012. The standards would push corporate average fuel economy, or CAFE, standards to a fleetwide average of 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016, four years ahead of the schedule Congress laid out in a 2007 energy law. The carbon dioxide limit under the plan -- which will apply to passenger cars, light-duty trucks and medium-duty passenger vehicles -- would reach an average of 250 grams per mile per vehicle in 2016. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Cracked Corn: Scientists Solve Maize's Genetic Maze The complex corn genome--coming in at a hearty two billion base pairs (compared with the human genome's 2.9 billion base pairs)--has been mapped by more than 150 researchers, who worked for years to decipher the grain's genetic code . It's the most complicated plant genome to be deciphered to date and promises to increase the efficiency of the crop itself. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Study Confirms Link Between Older Maternal Age and Autism It is common knowledge: As women get older, pregnancy becomes a riskier enterprise. Advanced maternal age is linked to a number of developmental disorders in children, such as Down's syndrome . Now, a study has confirmed that older mothers are more likely to give birth to a child with autism, too.The authors of the epidemiological study, published February 8 in Autism Research , examined the parental age of more than 12,000 children with autism and nearly five million "control" children between 1990 and 1999, all living in California. The researchers found that mothers over 40 had a 51 percent higher risk of having a child with autism than mothers 25 to 29, and a 77 percent higher risk than mothers under 25. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Trashing Gardens: Is There a Way to Use Compost without Attracting Unwanted Critters? Dear EarthTalk: My husband and I want to start a garden this year. I really want to make compost from leftover food scraps and yard materials. He says it will attract unwanted animals, and refuses to agree to it. Is he right? If so, how do we deal with that issue in a green-friendly, non-lethal way? --Carmen Veurink, Grand Rapids, Mich. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Only you can help prevent firefly extinction Are fireflies disappearing? No one knows for sure, but based on anecdotal evidence firefly (aka lightning bug) populations appear to be fading, with fewer seen every summer. Unfortunately, the bioluminescent insects had always been so ubiquitous to backyards and campgrounds for so long that almost no one bothered to study them. Now the Museum of Science in Boston wants help finding out if any of the dozens of North American firefly species in the U.S. and Canada are in danger.The museum, along with researchers from Tufts University and Fitchburg State University, is running Firefly Watch , a 10-year project (currently finishing its third year) where volunteers (such as you, dear reader), can observe fireflies in their backyards and upload the data to a Web site where scientists can use it to research population trends. (It's not just scientists, by the way, the full data set for the first three years is online and available to all, so anyone is free to go in and examine the findings.) [More] United States - Boston - Museum of Science - Tufts University - Canada rss.sciam.com |