TOP 100 CAMPING SITES
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| On High, a Fresh Outlook The first phase of the High Line is one of the most thoughtful public spaces in New York in years. nytimes.com |
Weak Link: Fossil Darwinius Has Its 15 Minutes On May 19 the world met a most unlikely celebrity: the fossilized carcass of a housecat-size primate that lived 47 million years ago in a rain forest in what is now Germany. The specimen, a juvenile female, represents a genus and species new to science, Darwinius masillae, although the media-savvy researchers who unveiled her were quick to give her a user-friendly nickname, Ida. And in an elaborate public-relations campaign, in which the release of a Web site, a book and a documentary on the History Channel were timed to coincide with the publication of the scientific paper describing her in PLoS ONE, Ida’s significance was described in no uncertain terms as the missing link between us humans and our primate kin. In news reports, team members called her “the eighth wonder of the world,” “the Holy Grail,” and “a Rosetta Stone.”The orchestration paid off, as Ida graced the front page of countless newspapers and made appearances on the morning (and evening) news programs. Gossip outlets, such as People and Gawker, took note of her, too. And Google incorporated her image into its logo on the main search page for a day. [More] rss.sciam.com |
Laughing Gas No Laughing Matter in Atmosphere [Below is the original script. But a few changes may have been made during the recording of this audio podcast.] There's a whole lot of laughing gas in the atmosphere these days. But it's no laughing matter. Nitrous oxide, or N2O, wafts up from manure and the chemical fertilizer sprayed on fields. Industry contributes as well. [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 |