Scientific American

Net Loss: How We Continually Forget What the Oceans Really Used to Be Like [Excerpt]

Fri, 24 May 2013 12:00:00 EST

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Will Great Wines Prove a Moveable Feast under Global Warming?

Thu, 23 May 2013 11:00:00 EST

MONTPELLIER, France -- South Africa, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand export their wines all over the world, a feat that was unthinkable here a few decades ago. Fatalists claim it won't be long until there will be more produced in China than in Europe. To some observers, these prognostications illustrate the wide-ranging adaptive capacity of the wine grape, Vitis vinifera.

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Genomics Reveals Great Famine Culprit

Tue, 21 May 2013 18:09:08 EST

The potato famine in Ireland killed a million people and led to mass emigration. The potatoes were destroyed by late blight, caused by the water mold Phytophthora infestans . And we now know exactly which strain of the water mold did the dirty work.

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Good Gut Bacteria May Keep Bad at Bay

Mon, 20 May 2013 23:59:08 EST

Most E. coli bacteria are harmless. It’s the rare, pathogenic strains that can cause bloody diarrhea, kidney disease, or death. But many of us may already be carrying the antidote--a healthy colony of gut bacteria. Because a study finds that when bad E. coli get in, beneficial microbes appear to keep them at bay. In mice, at least.

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What Is It? Mystery Spots

Sun, 19 May 2013 10:00:00 EST

Mystery spots: In southwestern Africa's Namib Desert, the lack of rainfall keeps vegetation sparse. Yet in some areas, mysterious rings of grass with bare centers appear and thrive. Now scientists have discovered these so-called fairy circles are indeed created by wee little creatures--termites.

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Invasive Ladybug Thanks Its Parasite for Competitive Advantage

Fri, 17 May 2013 15:28:08 EST

Ladybugs love to snack on aphids and other pests. So people began importing an Asian species called the harlequin ladybird as natural pest control. But in their new environments, the harlequins wiped out native ladybugs. And they have their parasites to thank. That’s according to research in the journal Science . [Andreas Vilcinskas et al., Invasive Harlequin Ladybird Carries Biological Weapons Against Native Competitors ]

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Rise in Roadkill Requires New Solutions

Thu, 16 May 2013 06:00:00 EST

In the 1960s widening U.S. Highway 27 just north of Tallahassee cut Florida's Lake Jackson into two sections. When water levels fell too low in either part, thousands of turtles, frogs, snakes and alligators would hit the road to head for the other side--where cars and trucks often hit the animals . In February of 2000 Matt Aresco, then a PhD student at The Florida State University in Tallahassee, drove through and was stunned at the sight of dozens of crushed turtles. For the next five weeks he patrolled the road between the lakes, once counting 343 dead turtles in 10 days. "It was so heartbreaking to see dozens of turtles, animals that could be 50 or 60 years old, smashed before they make it two feet onto the road," he says.

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Amazon Be Dammed: Deforestation Undermines Future Viability of Brazil s Hydropower Projects

Wed, 15 May 2013 17:30:00 EST

The Amazon Basin is the epicenter of the world’s hydropower plants--the same gushing rains that give the region its lush foliage make it a prime destination for developers seeking to capitalize on this allegedly renewable energy source. But the long-term sustainability of these projects, which use the natural flow of water to generate electricity, is now under scrutiny.

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West Africa Struggles to Fill a Climate Knowledge Gap

Mon, 13 May 2013 07:00:00 EST

DAKAR, Senegal – Just two seasons exist here: the rainy and the dry. At the best of times, the temperamental rains come for three or four months and turn dusty plains into green pastures, forests and fields.

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Birds of Burden: 7 Ways Humans Harness Avian Abilities [Slide Show]

Sat, 11 May 2013 09:00:00 EST

Many of the 10,000 or so bird species on the planet are pretty, melodic or tasty. But birds are much more than that. Over the centuries, humankind has come up with some distinctive and surprising ways to take advantage of the unique abilities of our feathered friends. At various points in the history of civilizations, birds have served as hunters, guides and messengers. And we haven’t run out of new things for them to do. Farmers have employed raptors to strike terror into the hearts of crop-destroying birds, such as starlings and seagulls, scattering them back into the wild. With the proper training, birds might one day perform search and rescue.

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Produce Industry s Food Safety Push Takes Toll on the Environment

Fri, 10 May 2013 17:41:00 EST

Clean greens are healthy greens.

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Cutting Down Amazon for Agriculture Could Cut Yields

Fri, 10 May 2013 16:00:00 EST

LONDON – Researchers see no winners if agriculture made possible by widespread felling in the Amazon continues to expand.

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Mercury in Seafood Diet Linked to Fox Die-Off

Thu, 09 May 2013 17:15:00 EST

An isolated population of Arctic foxes that dines only on marine animals seems to be slowly succumbing to mercury poisoning.

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Valley Fever Throws Baseball a Curve

Thu, 09 May 2013 11:30:00 EST

Conor Jackson had a big bat and a bright future. But after he contracted a rare illness in 2009 while playing with the Arizona Diamondbacks he was never quite the same.

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Elephants Better Beat the Heat--or Else

Tue, 07 May 2013 19:37:08 EST

When summer hits, I dread jogging outside. But a study finds that elephants can be in true danger in the heat.

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Remember the BP Oil Spill? Malformed Fish Do

Sun, 05 May 2013 09:00:08 EST

You’ve heard of the canary in the coalmine. Well, a species called the Gulf killifish might be the fish in the oil well.

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Lead Poisoning Comes to the Remote Amazon

Thu, 02 May 2013 11:10:00 EST

Inside the simple wood-frame house, a 6-year-old boy plays with a piece of malleable metal, biting it as his younger sister watches. In the background, piled against the wall, are two long strips of the metal – lead sheathing from an electrical cable that the family sold for scrap.

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Transgenics: A New Breed of Crops

Wed, 01 May 2013 16:45:00 EST

When the first genetically modified (GM) organisms were being developed for the farm, says Anastasia Bodnar, “we were promised rocket jet packs” -- futuristic, ultra-nutritious crops that would bring exotic produce to the supermarket and help to feed a hungry world.

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A Hard Look at 3 Myths about Genetically Modified Crops

Wed, 01 May 2013 16:30:00 EST

In the pitched debate over genetically modified (GM) foods and crops, it can be hard to see where scientific evidence ends and dogma and speculation begin. In the nearly 20 years since they were first commercialized, GM crop technologies have seen dramatic uptake. Advocates say that they have increased agricultural production by more than US$98 billion and saved an estimated 473 million kilograms of pesticides from being sprayed. But critics question their environmental, social and economic impacts.

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3,000 Years of Abusing Earth on a Global Scale

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 14:01:00 EST

Wherever you go on this blue, green and white globe of ours, odds are some person has been there before you--and left a mark . That's because the hunting, farming or burning practices of our most distant ancestors have shaped most land areas on the planet , argues an interdisciplinary team of archaeologists and ecologists in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. If we are indeed living in the Anthropocene --a new geologic epoch brought on by the outsized environmental effects of the human species--then this new interval isn't just a few hundred years old, it is older than the industrial revolution. [More]