| A Decade of New Species Discoveries in the Himalayas [Slide Show] Deep in the eastern Himalayas , where two continental plates and four countries converge, a treasure trove of new species has kept scientists on the lookout for the past decade. A recent report , assembled by the World Wildlife Fund International (WWF) based in Washington, D.C., gathered the fruits of these labors--completed by various organizations--and lists the 353 new plant and animal species that years of rugged research have now brought to the wider world's attention. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Can Closing the Ozone Hole Also Help Combat Climate Change? Carbon dioxide is the primary greenhouse culprit in human-generated global warming , most scientists agree, but CO 2 itself, and a handful of other substances, are now being promoted as good alternatives to commonly used refrigerants that threaten Earth's atmosphere and climate. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Environmental ills? It's consumerism, stupid Two typical German shepherds kept as pets in Europe or the U.S. consume more in a year than the average person living in Bangladesh, according to research by sustainability experts Brenda and Robert Vale of Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand. So are the world's environmental ills really a result of the burgeoning number of humans on the planet--predicted to reach at least nine billion people by 2050? Or is it more due to the fact that while the human population has doubled in the past 50 years, we have increased our use of resources four-fold ? [More] rss.sciam.com |
Readers Respond to "How Science Can Help You Fall in Love"--And More... HATING “LOVE” After reading Robert Epstein’s article “ How Science Can Help You Fall in Love ,” I had to go back to the cover and verify that the word “scientific” was indeed part of the title of your magazine. The “Love-Building Exercises” he recommends are more appropriate to a magazine of fantasy and science fiction: [More] rss.sciam.com |
Deepwater doom: Extinction threat for world's smallest sea horse The Gulf of Mexico oil spill this year and subsequent cleanup efforts could drive the world's smallest sea horse into extinction, warns the Zoological Society of London and its marine conservation organization Project Seahorse . The tiny dwarf sea horse ( Hippocampus zosterae ), which grows to a maximum length of 2.5 centimeters, can be found only in the ocean waters off the Gulf Coast. [More] Gulf of Mexico - oilspill - Ocean - Seahorse - Marine conservation rss.sciam.com |