| Is Mountaintop Removal Mining a Threat to Watersheds? U.S. EPA is conducting further environmental analysis on 79 pending permits for mountaintop mining , the agency announced today.The agency said the permits issued by the Army Corps of Engineers , identified in a preliminary list released today, could all potentially pose a threat to the mountain watersheds and streams, warranting further review under the Clean Water Act . [More] rss.sciam.com |
Are lower catch limits enough to save the bluefin tuna from extinction? Bluefin tuna fishing in the Atlantic will be reduced nearly 40 percent in 2010, but will that be enough to save this threatened species from extinction? [More] rss.sciam.com |
Wolverine No Match for Climate Change Forget polar bears or penguins. The charismatic megafauna suffering most from climate change may well be the wolverine--a vicious predator known for its uncanny strength and tenacity. Making it the perfect inspiration for the X-Me n superhero. The actual wolverine's super powers extend mostly to a tolerance for Arctic chill and supersized feet to permit quicker movement on snow. Those big feet might be hurting the largest member of the weasel family as snowpack declines across much of North America. [More] rss.sciam.com |
100 Years Ago: Tunneling under the Hudson river MAY 1960 DEVELOPING INFANTS -- “We expected that the shocked rats would be affected by their experience, and we looked for signs of emotional disorder when they reached adulthood. To our surprise it was the second control group--the rats we had not handled at all--that behaved in a peculiar manner. The behavior of the shocked rats could not be distinguished from that of the control group which had experienced the same handling but no electric shock. Thus the results of our first experiment caused us to reframe our question. Our investigation at the Columbus Psychiatric Institute and Hospital of Ohio State University has since been concerned not so much with the effects of stressful experience--which after all is the more usual experience of infants--as with the effects of the absence of such experience in infancy. --Seymour Levine” [More] rss.sciam.com |
Dying to Eat: A Graphical View of U.S. Obesity Heavy toll. More Americans than ever are now over­weight, and one in three adults is obese. [More] Obesity - United States - Health - Conditions and Diseases - Nutrition and Metabolism Disorders rss.sciam.com |