TOP 100 CAMPING SITES
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| Climate Change Impacts Revealed: Disease in Peru CARAZ, Peru -- Seventeen years ago, Liliana Salvador Ibáñez's year-old son came down with a high fever, then broke out with bleeding lesions on his legs. Four years later, his brother came down with the same illness, and a few years later a young niece died. All had bartonellosis, also known as Carrion's disease, which is caused by a bacterium transmitted by a sand fly. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Cutting Cow Flatulence with Garlic? Methane gas released as flatulence from livestock is a significant source of greenhouse gas, but entrepreneurs may have found a ready antidote to the problem: garlic. Mootral (“moo” and “neutral”), produced by Neem Biotech in Cardiff, Wales, contains a natural garlic extract--allicin--that when fed to cows and sheep limits the growth of certain methane-producing bacteria in the animals’ digestive systems. In two small trials, methane output in cows and sheep was reduced by 15 percent. David Williams, chair and CEO, expects further research will allow output to be cut in half; simulations using laboratory equipment have reached as high as 94 percent.Tests are also being done to determine the best way to feed the natural antibiotic to the animals--as a food supplement or in their drinking water--and whether or not the allicin might taint their milk. But Williams is optimistic that the product will be available for livestock within two years. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Kansas county creates a refuge for snakes “Save the snakes” is not a rallying cry you often hear. But Johnson County in northeast Kansas recently voted to preserve a nine-acre site for the sanctity of the northern redbelly snake and the smooth earth snake, the Kansas City Star reports. [More] rss.sciam.com |
The Tesla Roadster is a rocket. And all-electric, too “Are you ready?” the young driver beside me asked, as we sat in the two-seat Tesla Roadster convertible, facing a straight, steep, quarter-mile road that rises from the water of San Francisco Bay up the headland to the Golden Gate Bridge. Then he floored the accelerator. I was driven into the seat-back behind me--and I mean driven, like I was strapped into some insane amusement park ride--for several full seconds as the car accelerated and accelerated like a rocket up the climb. Only there was no screaming flame blasting behind us. There was no engine roaring either. I was being shot up this road so fast my emergency senses were on full alert, yet all was eerily quiet. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Obama and (climate) change: Indian edition The U.S. launched this week a historic program to advance clean energy in India --where simply moving the 40 percent of the South Asian nation's citizens who still burn coal, dung or wood to electricity could deliver major improvements for development, clean air and climate. Last week, it was a similar historic program to advance clean energy with China as well as a shared commitment to meaningful steps as part of the upcoming Copenhagen climate talks. And, to top it off, Obama has announced plans to swing by the talks on Dec. 9 as well as to publicly commit to U.S. emission reductions "in the range of 17 percent below 2005 levels in 2020 and ultimately in line with final U.S. energy and climate legislation." [More] rss.sciam.com |