Tip number 154: Bottle your ideas

Before you send your plastic bottles for recycling, think of ways you
can use them in your home that will prevent you from having to buy
more plastic. For instance, cutting the ends off water bottles turns
them into excellent protective covers for seedlings.

Taken from 1001 little ways to save the planet.

Tip number 154: Bottle your ideas

Before you send your plastic bottles for recycling, think of ways you
can use them in your home that will prevent you from having to buy
more plastic. For instance, cutting the ends off water bottles turns
them into excellent protective covers for seedlings.

Tip number 153: Unplug your charger

It takes a forest with an area equivalent to 500 football pitches to
absorb all the carbon dioxide produced by mobile phone chargers that
are left plugged into electrical outlets. In the UK alone, 95% of the
energy used by mobile phone chargers is wasted - only 5% is actually
used to charge the phone and the rest goes to waste when the charger
is left plugged in.

Taken from 1001 little ways to save the planet.

Parrot flower

There is an astonishing flower growing in the jungle of Burma that
closely resembles a parrot. It is uncertain why the flower has
developed this appearance...

You can find more information on any of the following sites:
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/parrot-flower.shtml
http://photowebs.blogspot.com/2006/09/parrot-flower-flower-that-looks-like.html
http://dalesdesigns.net/parrot.htm

Bioscapes photo slideshow - Life Viewed through the Microscope

Taken from the original article at Scientific American

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but it is also in the eye of
a honeybee, the eggs of a lobster and the surface of petrified wood—as
is evident from a selection of images entered in the 2008 Olympus
BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition. In its fifth year, the
competition honors superior images of living organisms or their
components attained with the help of light microscopy.

The judges chose 10 winners and awarded honorable mention to many
others, evaluating entries based on the scientific value of the
images, aesthetics and the difficulty of capturing the information
displayed. This year, as in the past, competitors were free to bring
out specific features through pseudo-coloring and other computer
enhancements.

You can view the slideshow at http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=bioscapes-contest-photos

Here are some of the photos in the slideshow:

Benzene Pollution of Drinking water from Natural gas exploration

There is a article at Scientific American about how drilling
exploration wells for natural gas can contaminate natural aquifers
used for drinking water.

Here are two short extracts from the original article:

'Toxic Brew?
Of the 300-odd compounds that private researchers and the Bureau of
Land Management suspect are being used, 65 are listed as hazardous by
the federal government. Many of the rest are unstudied and
unregulated, leaving a gaping hole in the nation's scientific
understanding of how widespread drilling might affect water resources.

Industry representatives maintain that the drilling fluids are mostly
made up of non-toxic, even edible substances, and that when chemicals
are used, they are just a tiny fraction of the overall mix. They say
that some information is already available, and that releasing
specific details would only frighten and confuse the public, and would
come at great expense to the industry's competitive business.

"Halliburton's proprietary fluids are the result of years of extensive
research, development testing," said Diana Gabriel, a company
spokeswoman, in an email response. "We have gone to great lengths to
ensure that we are able to protect the fruits of the company's
research…. We could lose our competitive advantage."

"It is like Coke protecting its syrup formula for many of these
service companies," said Scott Rotruck, vice president of corporate
development at Chesapeake Energy, the nation's largest gas driller,
which has been asked by New York State regulators to disclose the
chemicals it uses.'

'Dirty Water
"When you just look at the data… the aerial extent of the benzene
contamination, you just say . . . . This is huge," says Oberley, who
is charged with water study in the area. "You've got benzene in a
useable aquifer and nobody is able to verbalize well, using factual
information, how the benzene got there."

Other signs of contamination were also worrying residents. Independent
tests in several private drinking wells adjacent to the anticline
drilling showed fluoride -- which is listed in Halliburton's hydraulic
fracturing patent applications and can cause bone damage at high
levels -- at almost three times the EPA's maximum limit.'

You can find the full article at http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=drill-for-natural-gas-pollute-water

You can find more information on natural gas exploration at any of the
following sites:
http://www.naturalgas.org/naturalgas/extraction.asp
http://www.realestatejournal.com/buysell/regionalnews/20050504-gold.html
http://books.google.co.za/books?hl=en&id=Px-LILS2sfYC&dq=gas+drilling&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=sBXnXPlQO9&sig=YB6DbzBujkOIPWvEZ4sKld3Q1DI&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=8&ct=result
http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article.php?a_id=124728
http://www.propublica.org/feature/buried-secrets-is-natural-gas-drilling-endangering-us-water-supplies-1113/
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_47/b4109000334640.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Cj92H5aQTU

Nanomaterial turns radiation directly into electricity

Researches have developed a new nanomaterial that can turn radiation
directly into electricity. This open the door to a range of new types
of small highly efficient nuclear reactors.

You can read the original article at http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13545-nanomaterial-turns-radiation-directly-into-electricity.html

Rudolph

Dwarf planet's mysterious surface changes

Eris is the largest known object outside the orbit of neptune,
weighing a third more than pluto. It can therefore be seen as another
plutoid body or dwarf planet. Scientists have found it's icy surface
has changed dramatically during the last few months.

You can read the original article at http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16009-mysterious-changes-seen-on-distant-dwarf-planet.html

Rudolph

Oniphobic material repells dirt

There is an article about new materials being designed that can
actually repel dirt.

You can read the original article at http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16006-dirt-wont-stick-to-omniphobic-material.html

Rudolph

Indian probe set to impact moon surface

An Indian Impacter is set to hit the moon's surface sometime later
this week. The information gained from this experiment will help India
in it's own manned mission to the moon in 2010.

You can read the article at http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16015-tvsized-probe-to-strike-moons-surface.html

Rudolph

Man made climate change may have prevented near permanent ice age

Another view of human induced climate change is now appearing. Some
scientists (small percentage) believe that higher than normal levels
of CO2 are in fact preventing earth from going into a extremely severe
and long duration ice age!

You can read the article at http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16026-humans-may-have-prevented-super-ice-age.html

It's always good to know both sides of the story.

Rudolph

Backyard nuclear reactors

A company is building tiny nuclear reactors than can be set up in a
small neighborhood and provide electricity to homes in the area. You
can read more about it at http://gizmodo.com/5054950/backyard-nuclear-reactor-should-be-ready-to-ship-by-2013

Fussy Memory

There is an article over that Scientific American on how memory tends
to become fuzzy the older they are and how a new study using 3000
pictures shown to a group of people we recalled successfully over 90%
of the time. It may shed some light on how we remember things and can
help us improve the memories we have, which is kind of helpful in
everyday life.

The article can be found at
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=why-do-we-forget-things

Rainforest fungus for making biodiesel

Biodiesel is only really environmentally friendly if you can make it
from something which grows without a lot of inputs which in turn
produce greenhouse gasses and deplete resources. Some plants capable
of growing on marginal land are useful for this purpose but scientists
are looking toward third generation biodiesel technologies that can
use other materials now. One of these technologies use algae which are
plentiful in many highly eutrophic inland water bodies. The algae can
be harvested and converted to biodiesel with a few chemical steps
needed. Waste materials, like wood chips can also be converted to
either biodiesel or bio ethanol with the correct strains of
genetically engineered bacteria present.

Now scientists are looking at the use of fungi growing in forests as a
viable source of the raw materials needed to make biodiesel.

Feel free to have a look at what they are doing at the following site:
Physorg at http://www.physorg.com/news144958975.html

Bamboo car

There is another one of those inspirational, if somewhat whacky
stories in Japan where researchers from the Kyoto University has built
a electric car almost completely out of bamboo! Bamboo is a very
environmentally friendly material because it re-grows at an
astonishing rate! The single-seat "BamGoo" weighs about 130 pounds,
can only run about 30 miles on a charge, and probably won't pass any
safety tests, but it sure is cute! Let's just hope that there aren't
any wandering pandas about :-)

Plasma for waste disposal

We have already covered the use of plasma for the destruction of
hazardous wastes. I found an article about its use for household
waste. You can find the article at Scientific American's website at

Here is an extract of that article:
'Every year 130 million tons of America's trash ends up in landfills.
Together the dumps emit more of the greenhouse gas methane than any
other human-related source. But thanks to plasma technology, one
city's rotting rubbish will soon release far less methane—and provide
power for 50,000 homes—because of an innovation in plasma technology
backed by Atlanta-based Geoplasma.

Engineers have developed an efficient torch for blasting garbage with
a stream of
superheated gas, known as plasma. When trash is dropped into a chamber
and heated
to 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit, its organic components—food, fluids,
paper—vaporize into a hot, pressurized gas, which turns a turbine to
generate electricity. Steam, a by-product, can generate more.
Inorganic refuse such as metals condense at the bottom and can be used
in roadbeds and heavy construction.

Several small plasma plants exist around the world for industrial
processes, but Geoplasma is constructing the first U.S. plasma refuse
plant in St. Lucie County, Florida. The plant is scheduled to go
online by 2011; it will process 1,500 tons of garbage a day, sending
60 megawatts of electricity to the power grid (after using some to
power itself).

Emissions are far lower than in standard incineration, and the process
reduces landfill volume and methane release. Power prices are
projected to be on par with electricity from natural gas. The
difference, says Ron Roberts, St. Lucie County's assistant director of
solid waste, is that "you're getting rid of a problem and making it a
positive." '

More information on plasma

You can find additional information about plasma at any of the
following sites

Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_(physics)

Plasma Universe
http://www.plasma-universe.com/index.php/Plasma-Universe.com

New lunar rover

Nasa has been developing a new lunar module with a compressed cabin.
You can find the original article at http://www.nasa.gov/directorates/esmd/home/black_point.html

It seems we are going back to the moon.

Biodiversity Hotspots

There is a very interesting article about biodiversity hotspots on the Scientific American site. 

Here is a short extract from that article:

'In the field of conservation, success stories about saving individual species abound. Bald eagles have recovered from their bout with the pesticide DDT; from fewer than 500 breeding pairs in 1963, the population in the lower 48 states has grown to nearly 10,000 breeding pairs, such that they are no longer listed even as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Gray wolves have returned to Yellowstone National Park, as well as to the Italian and French Alps. The California condor has been brought back from the absolute brink of extinction, after the last surviving birds were rounded up and bred in the San Diego and Los Angeles zoos. And so on.

When human ingenuity and resources are trained on a particular species, usually a charismatic one, it makes a difference—but it does not change the global pattern, which is a steady drumbeat of extinction and of the permanent loss of biodiversity that goes with it. In a recent global assessment, Stuart Butchart and his colleagues at BirdLife International in England concluded that between 1994 and 2004 conservation efforts had saved 16 species of bird from extinction, at least temporarily. During that same decade, however, another 164 bird species listed as threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) had slipped a notch closer to extinction.

Conservationists have many priorities and many strategies. But for the past two decades, a leading priority has been to preserve as much biodiversity as possible, and the most prominent strategy has been to focus on "hotspots"—regions of the world, such as tropical rain forests, that are rich in species and yet losing them fast. The strategy has been arguably successful, yet it has also been controversial.

"The most difficult challenge we face as conservationists today is to answer the question, Why does biodiversity matter?" says Mike Hoffmann, an ecologist based at Conservation International (CI), an organization that has made hotspots the centerpiece of its efforts. All conservationists oppose extinction, it seems, in the same way that they favor apple pie. But not all agree that saving the maximum number of species worldwide should be the number-one priority—or that preserving hotspots on our increasingly crowded planet leads to the best of all possible worlds.

Defining Diversity

The word "biodiversity" first appeared in print in 1988, as the title of a National Research Council report edited by Harvard University entomologist E. O. Wilson. In the opening chapter Wilson guessed that the earth held between five million and 30 million species, more than half of them living in tropical rain forests. "From a single leguminous tree in the Tambopata Reserve of Peru," he wrote, "I recently recovered 43 species of ants belonging to 26 genera, about equal to the entire ant fauna of the British Isles." He went on to make an equally rough estimate of how many species the earth was losing to extinction: about one every half an hour. Most were undescribed tropical insects vanishing without witness.

Wilson's calculation was based on his theory of "island biogeography," which predicts how many species can survive in a given area of isolated or fragmented habitat, and on estimates of how much rain forest was being cut down. An area the size of West Virginia, Wilson said, was being lost every year—confirming predictions made a decade earlier by a British researcher named Norman Myers. Those predictions had been dismissed by some of his peers as alarmist, but it became clear they were not: human beings were causing a mass extinction unparalleled since the demise of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

Over in species-poor Britain, Myers was also coining a new term in 1988—new at least to conservation biology—and it would soon become a buzzword, too: "hotspots." Myers is an independent environmental consultant, an adjunct academic, notably at the University of Oxford, and a self-described "lone wolf." After previous lives as a schoolteacher in colonial Kenya and then as a photographer of African wildlife, he had earned a Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, in the early 1970s and moved into conservation work. By the late 1980s he was frustrated. "It struck me that because of sheer shortage of funds, scientific expertise and government attention, we were not helping many species all that much," Myers recalls. "We were spreading ourselves far too thinly."

Hotspots were his solution: If you had limited resources and wanted to preserve the maximum number of species, Myers reasoned, you should concentrate on regions that had the most "endemic" species—species that were not found elsewhere—and that were losing them fastest. In his 1988 paper Myers identified 10 such hotspots, all of them centered on tropical forests. Two years later he added eight more to the list, including four regions with Mediterranean climates—subtropical grasslands that were under intense pressure from humans.

The hotspot concept caught on almost immediately. From 1990 on the Mac Arthur Foundation supported hotspot preservation to the tune of $15 million a year. Later the idea was adopted by CI, which had initially been formed by defectors from the Nature Conservancy and the World Wildlife Fund. Those older organizations had also been concerned with preventing extinctions, but CI made the preservation of global biodiversity—that is, the total number of species—its main focus. Working with Myers, it refined his concept, defining a hotspot as a region that had at least 1,500 species of endemic plants (0.5 percent of the world's total) and that had lost at least 70 percent of its original vegetation. Hotspots brought a welcome rigor to conservation biology, says Peter Kareiva, chief scientist of the Nature Conservancy. "There was a sense before that conservation was ad hoc—that it was about this pretty place or that charismatic animal. The good thing about hotspots is that they were the beginning of being analytical."

Above all, hotspots made sense to the World Bank and to the foundations that have become increasingly important supporters of conservation work. Even people in the business of healing the world's pain do not like feeling they are pouring money down a bottomless hole. Hotspots divided a vast and intractable problem into more manageable parts, with definable targets, and that made foundation managers want to sign checks. Ask Myers today, 20 years after he hatched his simple little idea, which of its impacts he is proudest of, and he says this: "The mobilizing of $850 million." It is indeed an astonishing sum. CI, which has received much of it into its Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, had fewer than 100 employees in 1990; it now has about 900 in locations all over the world. Recently it increased the number of hot spots to 34. "If our number-one priority is to save as many species as possible, I don't see how you can do much better than hotspots," Myers says.

Focusing Aid and Attention

Hotspots, as Myers and CI define them, are large regions—Central America is one, for instance, as is Madagascar. Within those regions, various conservation strategies are possible, including captive breeding programs for particular species. But because habitat loss is generally the gravest threat, the most obvious strategy is to designate smaller, even hotter spots within those regions as "protected areas." Beside its "Red List" of threatened species, the IUCN also maintains, along with the United Nations, a list of protected areas. They number over 100,000 and cover 11.5 percent of the earth's land surface.

But many, especially in the poorer tropical countries, are what conservationists call "paper parks"—parks in name only. A few years ago Ana Rodrigues of CI and her colleagues compared the ranges of 11,633 species of terrestrial vertebrates with the geographic coverage of the protected areas. They found that a minimum of more than 12 percent of vertebrates— 1,483 species, including 833 listed as threatened by the IUCN—fell into gaps between the parks and thus had no protection at all. Mammals fared the best, amphibians the worst, presumably because people care more about mammals and because amphibians tend to have smaller ranges that are less likely to overlap with a park.

Thus, a large gap exists between conservation need and conservation resources: compared with what it would take to prevent the mass extinction that is now under way, $850 million spread over many years is actually a tiny sum. People such as John Watkin, an ecologist who is also a grant director for the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, feel that gap acutely. "I'm a huge advocate of the hotspots approach," he said recently. He was speaking on his cell phone, stuck in what he said was "the longest traffic jam in my life," on a bus that was taking him from Arusha, Tanzania, to Nairobi, Kenya. Hotspots, such as the Eastern Arc Mountains of those two countries, are not wilderness areas; on the contrary they are areas that are being crushed by a needy humanity. "When I first joined [Conservation International], I was very skeptical of hotspots," Watkin went on. "I've been turned around by looking at the financial resources. Everybody has to draw a line in the sand somewhere."

Biodiversity hotspots channel resources to places that need it most, Watkin observed—not only away from the temperate-latitude industrial countries, which are richer in cash than in creatures, but away from "the Serengeti and the other established reserves that have been popularized by research and tourism." At the northern end of the Eastern Arc Mountains, for instance, CI is working to protect the cloud forests of the Taita Hills. Ninety-eight percent of the forest has been cut down, mostly in the past 40 years, to make way for agriculture; a little more than 1,000 acres are left, a dozen small islands in a sea of farmland and exotic tree plantations. No lions, elephants or giraffes live in the Taita Hills; there are not even gorillas, but there are three species of bird that live only in those beleaguered islands. Saving those birds means saving what is left of the forests.

You can continue reading this article at http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=is-focusing-on-hot-spots&page=3

Looking for scientific articles

If you are looking for scientific articles for your project, have a
look at the following page:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=BrowseListURL&_type=subject&subjColl=17&zone=brws&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=cd4328faff2a1a5eb6589f6eca4d98f4
from here you can browse thousands of journals under Sciencedirect.