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News Archives
Week of October 24, 2004
I feel like a picture...
How about a bolete mushroom
Fungus are cool.
Posted by Jennifer on Saturday, October 30 2004, 4:59 PM
Scientists are unhappy with Bush
Kevin Drum at the Washington Monthly reports that a friend of his, a professor of geology, believes that it is essential for science that Bush be defeated, and explains why. Read more at the link.
Posted by Jennifer on Saturday, October 30 2004, 4:07 PM
The little people of Flores Island
This kind of delightful discovery happens once in a lifetime, if you're lucky. Researchers on an isolated island have found fossil remains of tiny humans never before confirmed to exist. Because they stood only one meter tall, the scientists nick-named them hobbits, but more formally they are Homo floresiensis, named after the Indonesian island where their remains were found.
The small size of these people is a result of the island size rule of species ecology, which explains why large mammals evolve into smaller than normal forms on islands. The complex reasons for this can be found at the link. Other examples of the island rule have been found in Flores Island fossils, such as the pony-sized elephants which also went extinct thousands of years ago. But the island rule has never before been seen in hominids, and so for scientists this find was exciting from the start. Even more exciting, tools and cultural items found in the caves suggest that these humans were intelligent, made tools, and used fire.
But even this was not the most amazing part of the find. When the scientists carbon-dated the bones, they discovered that these little people were alive only 13,000 years ago. This is astounding! No other human type is known to have survived past the Neanderthals, and they died out 35,000 years ago. This means the Flores people co-existed in the world with Homo sapiens for thousands of years. Suddenly I start to wonder whether our myths of brownies and fairies and leprechauns have a basis in ancient fact. Things like this restore my sense of wonder in the world.
Much more about Flores man and the Flores Island research can be found in this Scientific American interview with the discoverer.
Posted by Jennifer on Wednesday, October 27 2004, 7:45 PM
Japan gets hit again
Bad enough that they've suffered through ten typhoons, now northern Japan has had back to back earthquakes, both over 6.0 in magnitude, followed by a series of more than 400 aftershocks. Scientists warn that another 6+ earthquake might hit soon, and thousands of people are living in shelters, afraid to return home.
Posted by Jennifer on Wednesday, October 27 2004, 5:38 PM
Wangari Maathai wins the Nobel Prize
I was away on vacation when this happened, so I am late in responding here, but I am still very happy that Wangari Mathaai won the Nobel Peace Prize. She has won many prizes for her work, but this is a crowning achievement.
Maathai has been organizing the Greenbelt Movement for many years, and has suffered beatings and harrassment for her work. This award is a recognition not only of Maathai herself; it is the recognition of the importance of environmental stability and security as the underpinning of peace. Peace is not simply the absence of war, and without a decent environment to live in, human conflicts and atrocities are much more likely to occur.
Not everyone is pleased with Maathai as the recipient. Among other things, her views on AIDS are not scientifically sound. And some people don't believe that her work for reforestation and environmental sustainability are sufficient cause for winning the Nobel Peace Prize.
But I agree with the Nobel Committee, who said, "Peace on earth depends on our ability to secure our living environment."
Posted by Jennifer on Tuesday, October 26 2004, 9:23 PM
The Amazon's Bounty
The New York Times today has an excellent article on fishing and over-fishing in the Amazon basin. Local people and commercial fishing fleets are competing for the last remaining schools. The local people have formed fishing cooperatives, and are trying to harvest the fish in a sustainable manner, by controlling harvest size and making sure to restock. The commercial trawlers take advantage of the better fish supply the cooperatives create, and use gill nets to scoop up everything they can find while giving nothing back.
Fish such as the pirarucu are worth an enormous amount of money when sold to Brazil's large city population.
Posted by Jennifer on Tuesday, October 26 2004, 5:22 PM
How to save the birds
Recently the Audubon Society released their report State of the Birds. This is the most comprehensive study of bird populations in many years, and covers over 650 species of North American birds. The news is not good. Populations of many species have declined, and over a third have declined sharply.
The report is organized by habitat — grass, shrubs, wood, water, and urban — and as you might suspect, where a bird lives is a strong indicator of how well it is able to survive. Birds living in grasslands and shrublands are declining particularly fast. Audubon attributes this to poor land use, over-grazing, and other agricultural practices. Woodland birds are doing somewhat better, but declining populations here occur due to clear-cutting. Draining wetlands and general pollution also contribute to the loss of bird species.
Audubon estimates that 69 million people, a full third of U.S. adults, are bird watchers. We love our birds and want them to thrive, which is one reason why campaigns to save eagles and other raptors have been so popular, and so successful. I am one of those people, and so I was particularly happy that Audubon included a section titled "What You Can Do", which contains twelve recommendations, both personal and political, for how we can help our bird populations to recover.
The main priority is providing more habitat for endangered bird species. We can do this in our yards and gardens, and this can make more of a difference than you might imagine. But it is also important to support public land conservation through such government initiatives as the National Park Service's Land and Water Conservation Fund, which provides matching funds to state and local governments for purchasing open space and parks. Unfortunately, under this administration funding for the LWCF and many other conservation programs has been shortchanged. Public awareness and pressure on our representatives is essential if we are going to reverse these declines. The Audubon report points out which programs will help birds survive, so if this issue is important to you, please read the full report.
Comments? Click here.
Posted by Jennifer on Tuesday, October 26 2004, 8:09 AM
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