TOP 100 CAMPING SITES
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| Slide Show: Life on the Reef at Palmyra Atoll The reef surrounding Palmyra Atoll, an island in the midst of the new Pacific Remote Island Marine Monuments, is practically untouched by people. Other than occupation during World War II and a couple of shipwrecks, the only human impact is the ongoing presence of a small research station for scientists. That gives those researchers the opportunity to study what reefs looked like before the influence of overfishing, sewage contamination and other human activities. And it may provide a baseline for what a pristine reef should look like as the effects of human habitation spread to every corner of the planet. "It will give us better guidance on what some of the restoration targets should be," says marine conservation scientist Dan Brumbaugh of the American Museum of Natural History's Center for Biodiversity and Conservation. "It will tell us what processes need to be restored to more degraded reefs elsewhere." [More] rss.sciam.com |
Cancer joins threats to wildlife Cancer's assault on humans and pets is well known. But how often does the disease prey on animals in the wild? Nobody knows for sure, but the evidence of trouble is growing. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Are Contaminants Silencing Our Genes? Each of us starts life with a particular set of genes, 20,000 to 25,000 of them. Now scientists are amassing a growing body of evidence that pollutants and chemicals might be altering those genes--not by mutating them, but by sending subtle signals that silence them or switch them on at the wrong times. [More] Presented By:Drain the Ocean - Sunday August 9 9P e/pThis is a world you have never seen before, a world normally hidden under miles of water...the landscape of the ocean bed. Click to learn more www.natgeotv.com/draintheocean Ads by Pheedo rss.sciam.com |
Inflammation Brings on the Blues As if being stuck sick in bed wasn’t bad enough, several studies conducted during the past few years have found that the immune response to illness can cause depression. Recently scientists have pinpointed an enzyme that could be the culprit, as it is linked to both chronic inflammation--such as that found in patients with coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis--and depressive symptoms in mice.In the new study, immuno­physiologist Keith Kelley and his colleagues at the University of Illinois exposed mice to a tuberculosis vaccine that produces a low-grade, chronic inflammation. After inocu­lation, production in the mice brains of an enzyme called IDO, which breaks down tryptophan, spiked. The animals exhibited normal symptoms of illness such as moving around and eating less. Yet even after recovering from the physical illness induced by the vaccine, they showed signs of depression--for example, struggling less than control mice to escape from a bucket of water. Surprisingly, their listlessness was solved relatively simply. “If you block IDO, genetically or pharmaceutically, depression goes away” without interfering with the immune response, Kelley explains. [More] rss.sciam.com |
First Passenger Flight Powered by Biofuel--But Are the Petroleum Alternatives Ready to Takeoff? Dutch airline KLM has completed a fifth jet biofuel test flight--and the first with passengers other than flight crew. Using a 50–50 blend of regular jet fuel and biofuel refined from camelina oil in one of its four engines, the flight carried 42 "observers" for an hour on November 23 from Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, enough to fill business class, according to chemist Jennifer Holmgren, who was on board. [More] rss.sciam.com |