Photo via the New Republic It's a widely held notion that politicians have long been in the pocket of Big Oil. And there's good reason for that perception: oil companies' huge campaign donations, vast lobbying power, and close ties to politicians have ensured that their taxes remain low , that hidden subsidies are around to provide extra funding, and that they receive preferential treatment in US energy policy. But there could be a new, ... View original post here: The Next Big Oil: Big Smart Grid?
So there really isn't anything that deep to this image. It's just a (more or less) life-sized blue whale eye. And on the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society site you can educate yourself/be mesmerized/ waste some time for a while staring at it while the entire life-sized animal scrolls across your browser window. Believe me, it's way cooler than you might think:... Read more from the original source: Ever See a Blue Whale Life-Sized on Your Computer? Now You Can
published October 12, 2010 and has No Comments
Photo via aussiegall Mosquitos are the bane of humans as they're a primary way diseases from malaria to dengue fever are spread. Malaysia has been fighting a frustrated battle with dengue fever, and might become the first Asian country to use genetically engineered insects, rather than pesticides or managed water ways, to fight against the spread of the disease. ...
Read more...published October 6, 2010 and has No Comments
Photo: Piotr Naskrecki, Conservation International When it comes to finding fascinating species previously unknown to science, it turns out that forests of Papua New Guinea are a darn good place to look. Researchers have recently disclosed their discoveries from a two-month long expedition to the country last year, in which they happened upon over two hundred species never before ...
Read more...published September 1, 2010 and has No Comments
Example of a sweat bee -- Metallic colored sweat bee species are diverse, and difficult to identify to which species a specimen belongs; photo via zackzen Researchers Jason Gibbs who was working on a study of sweat bees discovered a new species while commuting from downtown Toronto to York University. It is one of 19 new species he found ...
Read more...published August 27, 2010 and has No Comments
photo: minnemom via flickr I admit there's no direct connection between this next one and sustainability, but from a science perspective it's just too interesting to pass by: New research shows that tobacco plants have evolved a "chemical SOS" signal that attracts insect predators when caterpillars are eating their leaves. Like TreeHugger said back in 2007, Plants, they're smarter ...
Read more...published August 24, 2010 and has No Comments
Image via Fast Company A British beekeeper has been working on creating a new strain of honeybee resistant to the varroa mite, a prime suspect in colony collapse disorder (CCD), and it looks like he's hit a high note after 18 years of careful observation and selective breeding. Ron Hoskins found that bees in one of his hives figured ...
Read more...published August 16, 2010 and has No Comments
Photo Peter Shearer, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research via darkroastedblend.com When the sun goes down, the creatures of the night come out: And some have really weird and incredible built-in ways to keep the lights on . The scientific term is Bioluminescence -- or the production and emission of light by a living organism . From a ...
Read more...published August 10, 2010 and has No Comments
Image via New Scientist The use of biomimicry has become increasingly helpful in robotics, but it's mainly been helpful in devising better ways for robots to move, whether swimming like a fish , flying like a butterfly , or See the rest here: Artificial Bee Eye Helps Mini Flying Robots See Better
Read more...published August 2, 2010 and has No Comments
Photo via James Jordan If mosquitoes have nightmares, odds are Huang Yuyen will be making an appearance in them. Yuyen, a pig farmer from Taiwan, may soon find a place in the record books for killing the most winged-bloodsuckers in a month -- over 4 million of them, in fact. The insect slaughter was part of a contest held ...
Read more...published August 2, 2010 and has No Comments
Image via Make Ants are amazing creatures. When we stop to really take a look at them, their status bumps up from pest to anything from hero to inspiration for biomimicry . So it's no wonder some people like to keep ant farms for a close-up look at how these phenomenal insects work. But one ant keeper, Franç... Read ...
Read more...published July 26, 2010 and has No Comments
photo: USDA This past Thursday, the NRDC and Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA) filed suit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to try to force the agency to ban the pesticide chlorpyrifos. Chlorpyrifos, an organophosphate, has been prohibited for residential application since 2001 but is still often used in agriculture. Inhaling the chemical can cause nervous-system reactions ...
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Contrary to previously held notions of how whale songs are shared between neighboring populations, a surprising study finds that whales living the same ocean basin are singing different songs. Read the original post: Study: Humpback Whales Living in Same Ocean ...
"The technology that we have here gives us a first-ever look at the Amazon in its full three-dimensional detail, over very large regions," says the study's lead researcher. Here is the original post: Lasers Used to Generate Remarkably Detailed 3D ...
