| Feds draft plan to help protect bats from deadly white-nose syndrome Since its discovery in January 2007 the lethal fungal infection known as white-nose syndrome (WNS) has killed at many as 1.5 million bats in the U.S. Northeast. Now, as temperatures start to drop this autumn into the range where WNS operates at its optimal killing capacity , the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) has drafted a plan to respond to the problem. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Readers Respond on "What Now for Nuclear Waste?" Terrible Thing to Waste One of the most important messages in Matthew L. Wald’s “ What Now for Nuclear Waste? ” is that we really have several options for handling nuclear waste. All the options, whether aboveground storage for a couple of hundred years until we decide on the next step, reprocessing fuel to remove the long-lived isotopes to be burned in a fast reactor, or even the original plan for burying spent fuel will have little to no impact on future generations or the environment. There are no plausible scenarios for controlling climate change that do not require use of nuclear energy. Apart from hydroelectricity, it is the only base-load source that does not require burning fossil fuels. For this country, there are no new major hydro sources available. Unfortunately, as Wald notes, the process for deciding how we ultimately handle nuclear waste has been driven largely by politics and not science. It is time, however, that we mature past the disingenuous arguments about nuclear waste as a roadblock to any new nuclear plants and build the facilities we need. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Can greener gadgets save us from e-waste? One laptop per child seems a simple slogan, chock full of benefit. What could go wrong when you put the power of the Internet and solar cells into the hands of children in the developing world? After all, not only does it train the global underclass in the tools of modern production, it also unleashes a creativity that may allow them to leapfrog the old, dirty, industrial development that has fouled the planet. [More] rss.sciam.com |
10 Hot Spots of Summer Ten places to drink, party and play in New York City. travel.nytimes.com |
Dolores Park Groups Are Upset Over Vendors The San Francisco Recreation and Park Department did not expect its decision to permit two vendors inside the Mission District’s popular Dolores Park to raise many eyebrows. nytimes.com |