In The News

Western US Forests Suffer Death by Degrees

Elizabeth Pennisi January 27, 2009
It's suspected that some redwoods, yellow cedars and hemlocks of the temperate rain forests of the Pacific Northwest can live 1000 years and well beyond. But a new study from the US Geological Survey, reported on in Science, suggests that the lifespan for such confers is on the decline. “Warmer temperatures and subsequent water shortfalls” are pinpointed as the likely cause of the trees...

A Green Revolution Blooms in the Desert

Elisabeth Rosenthal January 15, 2009
Countries in the Middle East have bountiful supplies of oil, but the leaders also recognize that such fossil fuels are limited and make what Elisabeth Rosenthal calls in the International Herald Tribune “a concerted push to become the Silicon Valley of alternative energy.” The countries are using their oil wealth to invest in alternative technologies, create alternative-energy investment funds...

Darwin’s Recessionary Tip: Act Like a Beetle

Jonathan Guthrie January 12, 2009
Darwin’s teachings on evolution, explained in “The Origin of Species,” may offer pointers and solace for those intent on handling global recession. In the Financial Times, Jonathan Guthrie suggests that both companies and species share the drive to survive and expand: “Companies and living organisms share the objective of generating surpluses, either of money or calorific energy. Repeated...

Tropics No Longer Museum of Plant Biodiversity

December 23, 2008
University of Calgary researchers report that the risk of extinction for plants is higher in habitats close to the equator than those that are more distant. The study by researchers by Jana Vamosi and Steven Vamosi also suggests that animals and plants undergo different extinction processes. Latitude could be more influential than human activity, the study also suggests. “"This is not to say...

Insecticide! (An Ecological Disaster That Will Affect Us All)

Michael McCarthy November 28, 2008
The suffix “-cide” means killer, and anyone who presumes that the effects of insecticides are limited to a few select pests are deluding themselves. Biologists explain that insects contribute to the intricate web of life on this planet, but some species are suffering severe population declines, including species of butterflies, bees, mayflies, beetles and moths, reports Michael McCarthy for the...

A Muslim Creationism Debate: Taking on Darwin in Turkey

Daniel Steinvorth September 26, 2008
Fundamentalist Muslims join forces with fundamentalist Christians in protesting the work of British naturalist Charles Darwin, who offered the theory on natural selection as a mechanism to evolution. Darwin theorized that offspring inherit traits from their parents, some traits allow for better survival rates and over time species adapt to changes in the environment – all well documented by...

Biologists Hope to Kill All of Rat Island's Rats

Mike Campbell September 25, 2008
Species have long migrated about the globe, settling into new territories, often with the help of humans. But humans label some species as “invasive” and “unwanted.” In Alaska, a crew of biologists has set out to destroy all Norway rats on Rat Island, because the rodents eat seabirds like puffins and auklets and their eggs. Biologists have successfully eliminated rats from about 300 islands...