Conservation biology. It’s interesting when a semi-random tweet by a colleague ends up mobilising a small army of scientists to get pissed off enough to co-write an article. Euan Ritchie of Deakin University started it off, and quickly recruited me, Mick McCarthy, David Watson, Ian Lunt, Hugh Possingham, Bill Laurance and Emma Johnston to put together the article. It’s a hugely important topic, so I hope it generates a lot of discussion and finally, some bloody action to stop the rapid destruction of this country’s national parks system. Note: Published simultaneously on The Conversation. It’s make or break time for Australia’s national parks. National parks on land and in the ocean are dying a death of a thousand cuts, in the form of bullets, hooks, hotels, logging concessions and grazing licences. It’s been an extraordinary last few months, with various governments in eastern states proposing new uses for these critically important areas.
Like this: Like Loading... ResearchGate. Pyrolysis - Wikipedia. Simplified depiction of pyrolysis chemistry. Pyrolysis is a thermochemical decomposition of organic material at elevated temperatures in the absence of oxygen (or any halogen). It involves the simultaneous change of chemical composition and physical phase, and is irreversible. The word is coined from the Greek-derived elements pyro "fire" and lysis "separating". Pyrolysis is a type of thermolysis, and is most commonly observed in organic materials exposed to high temperatures. Pyrolysis differs from other processes like combustion and hydrolysis in that it usually does not involve reactions with oxygen, water, or any other reagents.[6] In practice, it is not possible to achieve a completely oxygen-free atmosphere.
Occurrence and uses[edit] Fire[edit] Pyrolysis is usually the first chemical reaction that occurs in the burning of many solid organic fuels, like wood, cloth, and paper, and also of some kinds of plastic. Cooking[edit] Charcoal[edit] Biochar[edit] Coke[edit] Carbon fiber[edit] The Masonry Heater Association (MHA) WebsiteMasonry Heater Association | A Better Way to Heat Your Home. Meet The Heroic Bomb-Sniffing Rats Of Africa That Are Helping Save Thousands Of Lives. Lassa fever - Wikipedia. Lassa fever, also known as Lassa hemorrhagic fever (LHF), is a type of viral hemorrhagic fever caused by the Lassa virus.[1] Many of those infected by the virus do not develop symptoms.[1] When symptoms occur they typically include fever, weakness, headaches, vomiting, and muscle pains.[1] Less commonly there may be bleeding from the mouth or gastrointestinal tract.[1] The risk of death once infected is about one percent and frequently occurs within two weeks of the onset of symptoms.[1] Among those who survive about a quarter have deafness which improves over time in about half.[1] Descriptions of the disease date from the 1950s.[1] The virus was first described in 1969 from a case in the town of Lassa, in Borno State, Nigeria.[1][4] Lassa fever is relatively common in West Africa including the countries of Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Ghana.[1][2] There are about 300,000 to 500,000 cases which result in 5,000 deaths a year.[2] Signs and symptoms[edit] Cause[edit]
Paul Stamets Speaking on all things Fungi. Agriculture - Sweden - import, export, average, area, crops, annual, system, policy, sector. Only about 2% of Sweden's labor force earned their living in agriculture in 1999, compared with more than 50% at the beginning of the 20th century and about 20% in 1950. Production exceeds domestic consumption; however, a considerable amount of food is imported. About 6.8% of the land area of Sweden, or 2,790,000 hectares (6,894,100 acres), is classed as land cultivated with permanent or temporary crops. In 2000 there were 76,798 holdings with more than two hectares (five acres) of arable land. Farm holdings are intensively tilled; fertilizers are used heavily and mechanization is increasing.
During 1980–90, the agricultural sector grew by an annual average of 1.5%. Most farmers are elderly, and few small farms have a successor waiting to replace the present farmer. Grains (particularly oats, wheat, barley, and rye), potatoes and other root crops, vegetables, and fruits are the chief agricultural products. Hans Bjork Sweden. Torrefaction – A New Process In Biomass and Biofuels.
Nov November 19, 2008 | 15 Comments Torrefaction is a thermo-chemical treatment of biomass in the 200 to 340 degrees Celsius range. In this process the biomass partly (especially the hemi-cellulose) decomposes, giving off various types of volatiles. The remaining torrefied biomass (solid) has approximately 30% more energy content per unit of mass. Annually, photosynthesis is said to store 5-8 times more energy in biomass than humanity currently consumes from all sources.
Biomass is currently the fourth largest energy source in the world – primarily used in less developed countries and could in principle become one of the main energy sources in the developed world. Higher temperature gasification of biomass began in about 1800 and by about 1850 gas lighting for streets was commonplace. With long experience with biomass gasifiers, reliable and large-scale operations continue to suffer from several problems. So what do you get in a torrefaction process? In the U.S. Brain Imaging Technologies. Blood Types Chart | Blood Group Information | American Red Cross. Although all blood is made of the same basic elements, not all blood is alike. In fact, there are eight different common blood types, which are determined by the presence or absence of certain antigens – substances that can trigger an immune response if they are foreign to the body. Since some antigens can trigger a patient's immune system to attack the transfused blood, safe blood transfusions depend on careful blood typing and cross-matching.
The ABO Blood Group System There are four major blood groups determined by the presence or absence of two antigens – A and B – on the surface of red blood cells: Group A – has only the A antigen on red cells (and B antibody in the plasma)Group B – has only the B antigen on red cells (and A antibody in the plasma)Group AB – has both A and B antigens on red cells (but neither A nor B antibody in the plasma)Group O – has neither A nor B antigens on red cells (but both A and B antibody are in the plasma) Blood Types and the Population It’s inherited. Oviparous Animals: Definition & List. European Herbal & Traditional Medicine Practitioners Association. European Herbal & Traditional Medicine Practitioners Association Representing Herbal & Traditional Medicine Practitioners Across Europe Herbal medicine is among the most ancient forms of treatment known and the medicinal use of plants is common to all cultures and peoples of the world.
The Egyptian Ebers Papyrus, dating back to 1500 BCE, describes more than 700 herbal remedies including aloes, caraway seeds, castor oil and squill. A medical manuscript, Wu Shi Er Ming Fang, dating from 2nd century BCE listing some 224 herbal medicines was discovered in 1973 in a tomb at Ma Huang Dui in Hunan Province, China. The Atharva Veda dating from about 1200 BCE is recognised as a major source book laying down the precepts of Ayurveda, the ancient system of medicine from India.
There was significant exchange of herbal knowledge in the ancient world. Hippocrates, "the father of medicine", was tutored by Egyptian priest doctors. "Advantages have accrued to medicine from chemical preparations. Awesome ways To Start a Fire with Water. A brand new type of rock has formed from our plastic waste. Scientists have announced the existence of a new, trash-based rock type: plastiglomerate. The new type of material will stay in the Earth’s rock record forever, according to a new study, and will one day act as a geological marker for humanity’s impact on the planet.
The research from the University of Western Ontario in Canada has revealed plastiglomerates form when melted plastic rubbish on beaches mixes with sediment, lava fragments and organic debris to produce a whole new type of rock. So far the material has only been found at Hawaii’s Kamilo beach, which is considered one of the dirtiest in the world, but the unique geological material likely exists in many other locations, as Joseph Castro reports for LiveScience. Research on the plastiglomerates from Kamilo Beach have found there are two types: In situ and clastic.
The results are published in GSA Today. It’s not great news, especially given the fact today is World Environment Day. Foldit Gamers FTW. The Scale of the Universe 2. ScienceDebate 2012 | Home. Bioluminescence in the Gippsland Lakes | Phil Hart. These pictures of bioluminescence in the Gippsland Lakes in my gallery have proven quite popular, so it seems time to provide a story to accompany them.
But this is not a short story, rather a convoluted one of fires and floods, of microscopic algae and the inspiring, remarkable and surprising beauty of nature. The story begins with alpine bushfires in Victoria, which started on 1st December 2006 when over 70 fires were started by a band of thunderstorms and lightning strikes which moved across the state. This was an early start to the fire season following an extremely dry autumn and several years of drought conditions before that.
The fires were in remote, rugged alpine areas, which combined with bone dry forest fuels to make them very hard to control. The fires burnt for 69 days, merging to become the ‘Great Divide Complex’ and ultimately covering an area of well over a million hectares. In the end, it was not any ordinary rainfall event that arrived that winter. This Micro-Algae Lamp Absorbs 150-200 Times More CO2 than a Tree! (Video)
CleanTechnica/via French biochemist and Shamengo pioneer Pierre Calleja has invented this impressive streetlight that is powered by algae which absorbs CO2 from the air. We have featured algae-powered lamps before but this one takes out 1 ton (!) Of CO2 per year. This is as much CO2 as as a tree absorbs on average during its entire life. It seems to me that this is a pretty amazing idea that could really work and clean the air pollution from urban areas (like parking lots, tested in the video above) and at the same time look good.
See also: Favorite Nature Spots of the TreeHugger Team (Part 1 of 2) Steal My Sunshine. Top row (l to r): Elysia chlorotica; spotted salamander adult; Lotharella globosa. Bottom row (l to r): diatom (Campylodiscus sp.); Paulinella chromatophora; diatom (Thalassiosira pseudonana). For credits, see end of article. Our world is swarming with symbioses. Sea anemones and clownfish, land plants and mycorrhizal fungi, rays and remora cleaner fish, corals and algae. Among the more profitable endosymbioses is one that allows the host to derive energy from sunlight. Catch me if you can The genesis of plastids follows a straightforward and generally agreed-upon plot: about 1.5 billion years ago, a heterotrophic eukaryote, which gained energy by consuming and digesting organic compounds, swallowed and retained a free-living photosynthetic cyanobacterium.
Once established in the Archaeplastida, plastids spread laterally to remote lineages through “secondary” endosymbioses, in which a nonphotosynthetic eukaryote engulfs and retains a eukaryote containing a primary plastid. Moving in 1. Know the signs of paleontology. I must die now. Farewell... Black people problems. Joking around in class will get you nowhere in life. A new drinking game... Watching my parents use the computer. Results are in: Publications. Given the central role of scientific research in MRF, we have created a section for all of the peer reviewed scientific papers produced by MRF staff or papers using MRF material.
Many MRF volunteers helped excavate many of the localities that are now being published on. There is a brief summary of each paper. A pdf of the paper can be downloaded by clicking on the reference. Click on an item to read the full paper. A New Large-Bodied Oviraptorosaurian Theropod Dinosaur from the Latest Cretaceous of Western North AmericaPLOS ONE (2014)Matthew C. Lamanna, Hans-Dieter Sues, Emma R. Schachner, Tyler R. We examine patterns of occurrence of associated dinosaur specimens (n = 343) from the North American Upper Cretaceous Hell Creek Formation and equivalent beds, by comparing their relative abundance in sandstone and mudstone.Transitional fossils and the origin of turtlesBiology Letters (2010)Tyler R.