TOP 100 CAMPING SITES
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| Conservation setback may doom Christmas Island pipistrelle bat to extinction When last we wrote about the Christmas Island pipistrelle bat (Pipistrellus murrayi), things didn't look good for this rare species that is both tiny in size and in population. Just 20 or so of the microbats remain in the world, and conservationists hoped to capture the remaining wild population and start a captive-breeding program, a last-gasp chance to save the species for extinction. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Where New Yorkers First Took Flight An old airport in Brooklyn becomes a place of picnics, cricket, bikes, fishing and more. travel.nytimes.com |
One in Four Fish in U.S. Waterways Contaminated with Unsafe Levels of Mercury Mercury contamination found in a quarter of U.S. freshwater fish exceeds federal safe levels for human consumption, according to a study released today by the U.S. Geological Survey.The agency examined mercury in fish, sediment and water drawn from 291 rivers and streams between 1998 and 2005, finding 25 percent carried mercury at levels above the safe standard for human consumption (0.3 parts per million wet weight), while all of the fish had detectable mercury levels. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Editing Scientists: Science and Policy at the White House When Nancy Sutley moved in to her new office as chair of the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ)--a 40-year-old White House environmental policy advisory office created by Congress--she found a lot of red pens. Immediately, she removed the pens from her desk and asked her staff to remove any red pens from their desks, as well. [More] rss.sciam.com |
How Asteroids Built the Continents (preview) Roiling, incandescent magma and boiling gases covered the earth in the wake of its formation 4.6 billion years ago. Regions of this fiery sea eventually cooled enough to crust over, leaving the planet’s first hard rocks floating like slag on the white-hot liquid. But they were nothing more than a thin veneer. The thick roots of terra firma were much longer in the making.Exactly how--and how quickly--continents arose and grew is a matter of ongoing debate. Scientific wisdom long held that the earth’s inner workings alone drove continent formation. But recent findings have turned the spotlight toward a once heretical idea: that large asteroid impacts played a constructive role as well. [More] rss.sciam.com |