TOP 100 CAMPING SITES
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| A "Complex" Theory of Consciousness Do you think that your newest ac­quisition, a Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner that traces out its unpredictable paths on your living room floor, is conscious? What about that bee that hovers above your marmalade-covered breakfast toast? Or the newborn who finally fell asleep after being suckled? Nobody except a dyed-in-the-wool nerd would think of the first as being sentient; adherents of Jainism, India’s oldest religion, ­believe that bees--and indeed all living creatures, small and large--are aware; whereas most everyone would accord the magical gift of consciousness to the baby.The truth is that we really do not know which of these organisms is or is not conscious. We have strong feelings about the matter, molded by tradition, religion and law. But we have no objective, rational method, no step-by-step procedure, to determine whether a given organism has subjective states, has feelings. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Geoengineering wars: another scientist teases out surprising effect of global deforestation AUSTIN--A new and unpublished analysis of the regional impacts of a hypothetical scheme to mitigate global warming via radical deforestation was unveiled here Sunday at a gathering of science journalists and writers, on the heels of a blogging firestorm about geoengineering and climate change in anticipation of the release of S uperfreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance . [More] rss.sciam.com |
Hoving’s City Parks Legacy To the Editor:. nytimes.com |
Can Climate Models Predict Global Warming's Direct Effects in Your City? Nobody lives in the global average climate. Nor are the massive grid cells favored by climate models run on today's supercomputers as useful as they could be for planning purposes, given that they can encompass 10,000 square kilometers. Now the National Science Foundation (NSF), along with the U.S. Energy and Agriculture departments are teaming up to financially support the development of new computer models aimed at revealing the anticipated effects of climate change at the regional level. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Invasive Species Lets Other Species Disrupt Environment At Point Reyes National Seashore in Marin County, California, a plant called Tidestrom’s lupine is holding on for dear life. Its survival has been threatened by the appearance of another plant, an invasive species called European beachgrass. So, does the beachgrass simply outcompete the lupines for land and light? Not at all, according to researchers at Washington University in St. Louis.Tiny deer mice have a taste for the seeds of the lupines. These critters would ordinarily think twice about approaching the plants. Because exposed out on the sand, they’re easy pickings for birds interested in a rodent repast. But the beachgrass provides excellent cover. The mice use the grass to get close enough to pilfer seeds before any hungry birds pilfer the mice. The research appears in the August issue of the journal Ecology . [Emily Dangremond, Eleanor Pardini and Tiffany Knight, http://bit.ly/9yaeIK ] [More] Invasive species - Point Reyes National Seashore - Plant - California - United States rss.sciam.com |