TOP 100 CAMPING SITES
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| Mosquitoes adapt and expand diet, threatening Galapagos Islands' reptiles The most widespread mosquito on the Galápagos Islands appears to have developed a taste for reptile blood. Biologists fear that the newly discovered behavior may leave many of the islands' rare reptiles at risk for mosquito-borne diseases, such as West Nile virus, that they haven't adapted to cope with. [More] Presented By:You Need the Speed of Norton 2009Introducing the revolutionary Norton Internet Security 2009. With a one-click, one-minute install, under 7MB of memory usage and fewer, shorter scans, it?s the fastest security suite anywhere. Get your FREE trial today!Click to Learn More www.norton.com/speed Ads by Pheedo rss.sciam.com |
Agriculture's Sustainable Future: Breeding Better Crops We are not going back to the pleistocene age of the hunter-gatherers. Instead experts indicate that the world’s population will increase from approximately six billion to nine billion by 2050--all to be fed, clothed and even fueled by agricultural products. What’s more, as people rise out of poverty, higher living standards such as greater meat consumption and personal mobility will place even more demand on food crop production (wheat, rice), animal feed (corn, soybeans), fiber (wood, cotton) and fuels (sugarcane, switchgrass). How can agriculture’s output expand so dramatically without significantly increasing its environmental footprint, especially reckless deforestation to clear land for farming? Like contemplating office space in Manhattan, we must find a way to grow vertically, by increasing crop yields.Agriculture is not natural; it is a human invention. It is also the basis of modern civilization. Yet agriculture is not uniform in its practices or productivity: some 40 percent of the world’s corn farmers still use nonhybrid, open-pollinated varieties that the U.S. abandoned decades ago, and their yields are far, far lower than what could be achieved with modern seed varieties. Nor is agriculture static. Yield increases through improved genetics are accelerating in crops that receive intense private research funding, such as corn, but are languishing in cassava and other important staples for the developing world, which get little or no support. Agriculture has significant ecological consequences, too: displaced forests and grasslands, greenhouse gas emissions from fertilizers and diesel-fueled farm machinery, and algae blooms from excess nutrient runoff. Clearly, there is much to improve on. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Plastic Not Fantastic in the Ocean [Below is the original script. But a few changes may have been made during the recording of this audio podcast.] The Great Pacific Garbage Patch may be disappearing, and not in a good way. New research presented at the biannual meeting of the American Chemical Society reveals that polystyrene actually can break down in seawater. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Household Hints to Halt Heating [ The following is an exact transcript of this podcast. ]How many times has your mother told you to turn off the lights when you leave a room, or to close the fridge door while you decide what to eat. Well, climatologists are on her side. Because according to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , reducing global carbon emissions should begin at home. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Motored Down: Record number of manatee, Florida panther deaths in 2009 2009 was the deadliest year on record for Florida panthers ( Felis concolor coryi ) and manatees ( Trichechus manatus ), two endangered species that most often lose their lives when their habitats collide with that of humans. [More] rss.sciam.com |