published November 11, 2009 and has No Comments
A new article in the journal Marine Biology brings to light the interesting feeding habits of the deep sea crab Munidopsis andamanica , better known to the world (somewhat perplexingly) as the squat lobster . It seems that the this particular animal eats exclusively discarded wood that sinks to the seafloor -- trees, leaves, old wooden shipwrecks are all ...
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published November 6, 2009 and has No Comments
A worker sprays carbofuran on a tree in Kannenfeldpark, in Basel, Switzerland. Photo by pppspics via Flickr. As of the end of the year, one more pesticide will be absent from food crops grown in the United States. In May the EPA ruled that the current residue limits of the insecticide carbofuran on
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EPA Bans Pesticide Insecticide ...
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published October 29, 2009 and has No Comments
Cattle used to graze in Boston Commons until 1830... photo: David Berkowitz via flickr. If you've been around the environmental movement for more than a week you've surely heard someone toss out the notion of the tragedy of the commons . It's fully established as conventional economic and environmental wisdom at this point. But should it be? Cool Green ...
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published October 28, 2009 and has No Comments
Greater short-nosed fruit bat feeding on kapok, photo: Wikipedia . New research published in the online journal PLoS ONE demonstrates for the first time that a non-human adult animal species regularly engages in oral sex behavior. While the behavior has been seen in juvenile animals before, this is the first time it has been observed in adult animals. Warning: ...
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published October 23, 2009 and has No Comments
Andover, Massachusetts is starting a pilot project that will use grazing goats to maintain a 3.5-acre meadow. Photo by Jon Stammers via Flickr. A Boston suburb is sidelining commercial mowers in favor of a local farmer's goats to maintain a public meadow. Six dairy goats will chow down on a 3.5-acre meadow that is part of the Virginia Hammond ...
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published September 27, 2009 and has No Comments
After decades of use, Filoha Meadows in central Colorado is being allowed to return to its natural state. Photo by Jennifer Hattam. A refuge for the Ute Indians and a transit corridor for the marble quarried for the Washington Monument, Filoha Meadows in central Colorado has been used as farmland, an arthritic retreat center, and a movie set. Developers ...
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published September 26, 2009 and has No Comments
Aspen's famous trees are at risk. Photo by Jennifer Hattam. Every year around this time, "leaf peepers" from all over the world descend on Colorado's mountain towns to gape at the white-trunked aspen trees as they don their fall colors, setting the hillsides ablaze with bright swaths of yellow and orange foliage. But a mysterious syndrome may leave the ...
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published September 18, 2009 and has No Comments
Image via spatialepidemiology.net A new smart phone app called EpiCollect from researchers at Imperial College London will help epidemiologists and ecologists out in the field gather and submit data for research as well as access data while out and about, essentially putting their labs on their Android-based smart phones. It also puts all that information on your phone so ...
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published September 15, 2009 and has No Comments
Last year we talked about how scientists are looking for ways to make dandelions replace rubber trees as a source of latex . The up side is that latex from dandelions has fewer impurities than latex gathered from rubber trees, which means the material is better for things like medical gloves and even tires. However, in order to ramp ...
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published September 11, 2009 and has No Comments
Image from Tilley's Hut With autumn days coming soon, what a lovely place to stay and watch the leaves: an original shepherd's hut in the heart of the Dorset Downs. It's not exactly rough and ready any more and the shepherd wouldn't know what to do with it, but what a delight. The narrow (4 feet wide) hut has ...
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