Scientific American - Environment

Fight to protect California condors from lead ammunition moves to Arizona

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:57:00 EST

It has been 22 years since the last 22 California condors ( Gymnogyps californianus ) were collected from the wild and placed in captive breeding programs. The species, which nearly went extinct due to habitat loss, poaching, DDT and lead poisoning, has since rebounded to 332 birds, according to counts maintained by the Zoological Society of San Diego . But despite that conservation success, condors still face a major threat from lead poisoning, which often occurs when the birds eat carcasses killed by hunters' lead ammunition. [More]

What to Do About Endocrine Disruptors? A Q&A with Linda Birnbaum

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:37:00 EST

Nearly a year ago, toxicologist Linda Birnbaum was named director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Toxicology Program. She sat down with Environmental Health News journalist Jane Kay in San Francisco on Wednesday to answer questions about the environmental health risks we face today. [More]

Homes That Use Thermal Inertia to Maintain Comfortable Temperatures

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:00:00 EST

Dear EarthTalk: I recently saw a reference to “Enertia houses” that require little in the way of external sources for heating or cooling. Do you have any information on this housing design? --Alan Marshfield, via e-mail [More]

The Jellyfish Menace

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:00:08 EST

A silent, blobbing menace swarms the seas , thanks to overfishing, climate change and even "dead zones " . Jellyfish seem set to regain their dominance of the oceans in future--and that could be bad news for humans.

The two-meter long jellyfish known as Nomura have begun swarming year after year off the coast of Japan, 500 million or more of them fouling fishing nets thanks to agricultural runoff from China spurring plankton blooms. With fewer fish, the Nomura giants can dominate.

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Cracked Corn: Scientists Solve Maize's Genetic Maze

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:48:00 EST

The complex corn genome--coming in at a hearty two billion base pairs (compared with the human genome's 2.9 billion base pairs)--has been mapped by more than 150 researchers, who worked for years to decipher the grain's genetic code . It's the most complicated plant genome to be deciphered to date and promises to increase the efficiency of the crop itself. [More]

Can Flywheels Help Balance Electricity Supply and Demand?

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:48:00 EST

Beacon Power Corp. broke ground today on a 20-megawatt, energy-storage facility in southeastern New York. [More]

Measuring the Daily Destruction of the World's Rainforests

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:00:00 EST

Dear EarthTalk: Do you have current facts and figures about how much rainforest is being destroyed each day around the world, and for what purpose(s)? --Teri, via e-mail

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Skate punk'd: Taxonomic "oops" put rare fish species in danger of extinction

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:09:00 EST

The common skate ( Dipturus batis ), a type of ray, isn't common at all. The rare fish species is already critically endangered , but now new research indicates that the common skate is actually two species , so both are more at risk than previously thought. [More]

Sinking Global Warming: Is There a Reliable Way to Track Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Levels?

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:31:00 EST

The planet soaks up excess carbon dioxide via oceans, plants and soils, among other natural systems, locking away some of the greenhouse gases emitted by burning fossil fuels . In fact, every year these natural "sinks" absorb a larger and larger tonnage of emissions--but thanks to the increasing amount of CO 2 and other greenhouse gases dumped in the atmosphere by human activity, the proportion that is reabsorbed is beginning to dwindle, according to new studies. [More]

Illuminating the Lilliputian: 10 Bioscapes Photo Contest Winners Revealed

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:31:00 EST

We are approaching the millennial anniversary of the first meaningful written description of how lenses and light could be used to magnify objects. It was in 1011 that Arab scientist Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) began writing the Book of Optics , which described the properties of a magnifying glass, principles that later led to the invention of the microscope. The entrants in the 2009 Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition provide fitting tribute to nearly 1,000 years of making the invisible visible.

Optical microscopy, energized by generation after generation of technological advance, continues to furnish dazzling proof that beyond the resolution of the human eye resides a sweepingly large world of small things, both around and within us. The artistic beauty of the microcosm can be witnessed in these photographs of the beadlike band of toxin-carrying compartments on the tentacle of the Portuguese man-of-war, the gemlike quality of row on row of single-celled algae and the red-and-yellow patterning of a Triceratops bone, reminiscent of a loud necktie. A selection of winning and honorable mention images that particularly appealed to us at Scientific American follows.

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Getting Those Varmints to Vamoose without Lethal Measures

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:00:00 EST

Dear EarthTalk: What would you recommend as a non-toxic/non-lethal way to keep squirrels, gophers and groundhogs away? --Faye Gillette, Coarsegold, CA

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Tree Ring Science and Tomorrow's Water

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:42:08 EST

Tree ring expert Kevin Anchukaitis, of the tree ring lab at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, part of Columbia University’s Earth Institute, talks about the information available in tree rings. And Colin Chartres, the director general of the International Water Management Institute, talks to Lynn Peeples about water issues. Plus, we test your knowledge of some recent science in the news, specifically the November issue of Scientific American magazine. Web sites related to this episode include http://snipurl.com/sciamwater ; http://snipurl.com/sciamnov

The transcript of this podcast wil be posted in two to three weeks.

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More important than Copenhagen? U.S.-China deal on energy and climate

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:31:00 EST

When the presidents of the two nations that are responsible for 40 percent of Earth's climate-changing greenhouse gases sit down to talk, big things can happen. In the case of Barack Obama and Hu Jintao on Monday and Tuesday, that meant flatly stating that emission reduction targets should be set at an international negotiation on climate change in Copenhagen this December, along with financial assistance figures to help poorer countries mitigate emissions and adapt to a changing climate. Oh, and the world should cut back on deforestation. [More]

Fish Kill: Nanosilver Mutates Fish Embryos

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:44:00 EST

Smaller than a virus and used in more than 200 consumer products, silver nanoparticles can kill and mutate fish embryos, new research shows.

Tiny particles of silver – potent anti-microbial agents that can kill bacteria on contact – are becoming increasingly popular in consumer goods, including washing machines, refrigerators, clothing and toys. [More]

E-Transportation Jump-Start: Coalition Seeks to Pave the Way for Electric Vehicles

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:00:00 EST

Although the widespread adoption of electric vehicles and their related infrastructure has always suffered from chicken-and-egg syndrome , Nissan and FedEx, along with several utilities and technology companies have formed a coalition to break the stalemate. At a press conference Monday in Washington, D.C., the Electrification Coalition announced its formation as well as a new 130-page report on the dangers of oil dependence, the benefits of electric vehicles, and ways to overcome roadblocks that have kept these vehicles from being deployed en masse. [More]

Putting Madness in Its Place: Can the Environment Explain Schizophrenia's Hereditary Patterns?

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:00:00 EST

Schizophrenia hides its heritability well. Although fewer than 1 percent of the general population will be diagnosed as schizophrenic based on symptoms such as hallucination and disorganized thought, for children of a schizophrenic parent, those odds jump to about one in 10. And yet the condition’s genetic underpinnings have stubbornly resisted discovery. In the latest attempt, three crack teams of investigators pooled genomic data from 8,000 schizophrenics of European ancestry but could lay claim to only a handful of weak genetic risk markers.

Analyses such as these, which appeared online July 1 in Nature ( Scientific American is part of the Nature Publishing Group), have led researchers to question the value of brute-force genomics for analyzing schizophrenia. “I think we need to pause and think through the risk pathways to disease more clearly,” says Dolores Malaspina, director of the social and psychiatric initiatives program at New York University Langone Medical Center. In particular, devotees of genetics might want to cede a little ground to their colleagues in epidemiology, who over the past decade have amassed a provocative, interlocking set of studies implicating urban birthplace and migrant status as persistent risk factors.

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Are lower catch limits enough to save the bluefin tuna from extinction?

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:23:00 EST

Bluefin tuna fishing in the Atlantic will be reduced nearly 40 percent in 2010, but will that be enough to save this threatened species from extinction? [More]

Climate Treaty Delayed Past Copenhagen Meeting

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:19:00 EST

COPENHAGEN -- Denmark's prime minister, the host of next month's U.N. climate change conference, has proposed pushing back the deadline for binding greenhouse gas emission targets until next year in hopes of salvaging a political agreement at the upcoming talks.

Speaking in Singapore at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit yesterday, Lars Løkke Rasmussen proposed that next month's talks result in a political declaration on emission cuts and financing while leaving a legally binding treaty for later .

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Grizzly Details: Salmon Collapse Could Be Bad News for Bears [Slide Show]

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:01:00 EST

For most of May Chris Darimont, an environmental scientist at the University of California, Santa Cruz , poured liters of fermented cattle blood mixed with pureed rotten fish guts on 3,000 square kilometers of British Columbia's coastal wilderness. [More]

Hive and Seek: Where Have the Honeybees Gone?

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:00:00 EST

Dear EarthTalk: Not long ago there were concerns about honey bees disappearing. Are the bees still disappearing, and if so do we know why and do we have a solution? --David, Grand Rapids, MI

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