| New York Eyes ‘No Smoking’ Outdoors, Too New York City’s health commissioner announced that he would seek to ban smoking at public parks and beaches as part of a plan to further curb smoking rates. nytimes.com |
Homes That Use Thermal Inertia to Maintain Comfortable Temperatures Dear EarthTalk: I recently saw a reference to “Enertia houses” that require little in the way of external sources for heating or cooling. Do you have any information on this housing design? --Alan Marshfield, via e-mail [More] rss.sciam.com |
How many scientists (and scientific instruments) does it take to sample seawater? Editor's Note: Journalist and crew member Kathryn Eident and scientist Jeremy Jacquot are traveling on board the RV Atlantis on a monthlong voyage to sample and study nitrogen fixation in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, among other research projects. This is the second blog post detailing this ongoing voyage of discovery for Scientific American.com . RV ATLANTIS MAIN DECK--The winch makes a whirring sound as it slowly winds the quarter-inch galvanized wire out of the water, through the block and onto the drum. Rigged over the side of the ship, the sturdy wire extends deep below the water's surface where it is attached to a round metal frame holding plastic bottles and various sensors. [More] rss.sciam.com |
The Other Orchid Thief: Virus Ravages the Popular Flower [Slide Show] For hobbyists like Colette Theriault, a photographer who lives in Ontario, orchids are an addiction. Theriault bought her first Phalaenopsis in 1999 and nurtured it for three years before it bloomed its first pink flowers. The success led to more, until she had 25 orchids crowding her windowsills. In March she discovered yellow spots on the leaves of her collection--a telltale sign of a virus, like those plaguing the orchid industry. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Genetically inserted insecticide contaminates U.S. waterways Add another compound to the long list of agricultural pollutants in the nation's streams, rivers and waterways: the Bacillus thuringiensis or Bt toxin , a protein crystal known as Cry1Ab that kills caterpillars and other agricultural pests. A wide variety of crops, including 63 percent of the corn planted in the U.S. in 2009, have been genetically engineered to build the bacterial protein in their leaves and stems. [More] Agriculture - Bacillus thuringiensis - United States - Maize - Genetic engineering rss.sciam.com |