Zoologger: The hairy beast with seven fuzzy sexes - life - 02 March 2011 Species: Tetrahymena thermophila Habitat: fresh water around the world, having way more sex than you Finding someone to have sex with can be a trial. There are plenty of humans in the world, but the proportion who are desirable, live nearby and – crucially – are willing to have sex with you can be prohibitively small. Most of us make the quest still harder by ruling out half the population before we even start looking. At first glance it looks like the single-celled organism Tetrahymena thermophila has cracked this problem in spectacular fashion. Fuzzy sex Its seven sexes are rather prosaically named I, II, III, IV, V, VI and VII. In most animals, what sex you are is straightforward. Not so for Tetrahymena. Skewed sex As if that weren’t enough, sex itself is different for this animal. With all this going on it should come as no surprise that Tetrahymena populations look a little weird. They built mathematical models of populations of animals with different kinds of sex determination.
This Awesome Urn Will Turn You into a Tree After You Die | Design for Good You don't find many designers working in the funeral business thinking about more creative ways for you to leave this world (and maybe they should be). However, the product designer Gerard Moline has combined the romantic notion of life after death with an eco solution to the dirty business of the actual, you know, transition. His Bios Urn is a biodegradable urn made from coconut shell, compacted peat and cellulose and inside it contains the seed of a tree. Once your remains have been placed into the urn, it can be planted and then the seed germinates and begins to grow. You even have the choice to pick the type of plant you would like to become, depending on what kind of planting space you prefer. I, personally, would much rather leave behind a tree than a tombstone.
Sea level's rise and rise is down to melting ice sheets - environment - 11 March 2011 Greenland and Antarctica are losing ice at a faster and faster rate, according to a new study that has tracked the rate of melting in two independent ways. At this rate, melting ice sheets could dominate sea level rise in the 21st century. The most recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change suggested that sea levels could rise by 18 centimetres to 59 cm by 2100 – but that estimate didn't take the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets into account. The new study, by Eric Rignot of the University of California, Irvine, and colleagues, could make things clearer. Next, they used a mass balance approach, which involves taking monthly measurements of glacier movement and ice thickness and plugging them into a regional climate model to estimate the net accumulation of snow and ice. Fast ice loss Both techniques broadly agreed on the quantity of ice being lost. Because the two data sets agree both methods are validated. More From New Scientist Promoted Stories Recommended by
Earth economist: The food bubble is about to burst - environment - 10 February 2011 We're fast draining the fresh water resources our farms rely on, warns Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute What is a food bubble? That's when food production is inflated through the unsustainable use of water and land. It's the water bubble we need to worry about now. Has this bubble already burst anywhere? Saudi Arabia made itself self-sufficient in wheat by using water from a fossil aquifer, which doesn't refill. With population rising, a fall in grain production would spell big trouble. Yes. What will happen if we carry on as we are now? Civilisation as we know it can't withstand the stresses of continuing with business as usual. How can we avert a disaster like this? In many countries, irrigation water is free or comes at a low price, so it's treated as an abundant resource. Can individuals make a difference? The question I get asked most is "What can I do?" Profile Lester Brown has a background in agricultural science and economics. New Scientist Not just a website!
One Per Cent: Green Machine: Sucking carbon dioxide out of the air Helen Knight, technology reporter (Image: F1 Online/Rex Features) Think of it as a chemical vacuum cleaner for sucking greenhouse gases out of the air. Air capture, in which carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere, has been touted as a potentially promising way to tackle climate change. To demonstrate that the technology works, Christopher Jones at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta tested a CO2 absorbent based on amines - the chemicals predominantly used in power plant carbon capture trials - on gases with CO2 concentrations similar to those found in ambient air. He found the material was able to repeatedly extract CO2 from the gas without being degraded, which will be vital if the technology is to be used economically on a wide-scale. Solid amines release the stored CO2 when heated to just 110 degrees Celsius - much lower than the temperatures required by the water-based liquid amine solutions - reducing the amount of energy required by 75 per cent.
One Per Cent: Green Machine: Electric charging, fast as petrol Helen Knight, technology reporter The humble hairbrush could hold the answer to building fast-charging electric car batteries. Existing batteries used to power electric cars take up to eight hours to charge, compared to the few minutes it takes to fill a tank with petrol. While fast-charging units that can fill up a car in around 30 minutes are available, Amy Prieto and colleagues at Colorado State University in Fort Collins have now built a prototype battery with hairbrush-like electrodes that can be charged in just a few minutes. Lithium-ion batteries are the most popular devices for powering electric cars and portable electronic gadgets thanks to their high energy density and low weight. Prieto's battery contains nanowire anodes made of copper antimonide.
Wind and wave energies are not renewable after all - environment - 30 March 2011 Read full article Continue reading page |1|2 UPDATE, April 6: This article has elicited a considerable amount of interest, and some criticism. We always welcome discussions of the stories we publish. Some readers felt the original headline (Wind and wave energies are not renewable after all) was misleading, so to address these concerns we have changed it. Editorial: "The sun is our only truly renewable energy source" The idea that we can draw endless supplies of clean energy from the wind and waves just doesn't add up WITNESS a howling gale or an ocean storm, and it's hard to believe that humans could make a dent in the awesome natural forces that created them. He concludes that it is a mistake to assume that energy sources like wind and waves are truly renewable. When energy from the sun reaches our atmosphere, some of it drives the winds and ocean currents, and evaporates water from the ground, raising it high into the air. Radical as his thesis sounds, it is being taken seriously.
Shipping noise pulps 'ears' of squid and octopuses - environment - 11 April 2011 It's not just dolphins and whales that suffer from the noise of shipping, sonar and oil prospecting. Experiments on squid, cuttlefish and octopuses show that their balancing organs are so badly damaged by sound similar to submarine noise pollution that they become practically immobile. The consequences seem permanent. "For the first time we are seeing the effects of noise pollution on species that apparently have no use for sound," says Michel André of the Technical University of Catalonia in Barcelona, Spain. "We were shocked by the magnitude of the trauma," he says. The results of the experiments, in which André's team exposed captive cuttlefish, octopuses and squid to low-frequency sound for 2 hours, seem to confirm that "ear" damage in nine giant squid that unexpectedly washed up on Spanish beaches in 2001 and 2003 was caused by low-frequency sounds from nearby seismic surveys for oil and gas. Stuck in the middle Flight and freeze More From New Scientist More from the web Recommended by
Halve your meat intake to stem nitrogen damage Andy Coghlan, reporter I'm contemplating becoming a "demitarian". That's neither a strict vegetarian nor a full-on carnivore. Nitrogen oxide pollution from car exhausts also shortens the lives of Europeans by six months on average, by producing ozone and particles that aggravate respiratory diseases such as asthma. Produced by 200 experts from 21 countries, the European Nitrogen Assessment calculates that the cost of damage from nitrogen in Europe totals between £60 billion and £280 billion. One solution, according to lead research Mark Sutton of the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology near Edinburgh, UK, is for people to become demitarians, halving the amount of meat they eat. Farmers are also urged to take more care when they apply fertiliser and manure, so less nitrogen leaks into the environment. Other important reductions could be made by reducing nitrogen pollution from vehicle exhausts, and by making more journeys by public transport instead of taking the car.
Einstein was right - honey bee collapse threatens global food security The agri-business lender Rabobank said the numbers of US bee colonies failing to survive each winter has risen to 30pc to 35pc from an historical norm of 10pc. The rate is 20pc or higher in much of Europe, and the same pattern is emerging in Latin America and Asia. Albert Einstein, who liked to make bold claims (often wrong), famously said that "if the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, man would have only four years to live". Such "apocalyptic scenarios" are overblown, said Rabobank. However, animal pollination is essential for nuts, melons and berries, and plays varying roles in citrus fruits, apples, onions, broccoli, cabbage, sprouts, courgettes, peppers, aubergines, avocados, cucumbers, coconuts, tomatoes and broad beans, as well as coffee and cocoa. This is the fastest growing and most valuable part of the global farm economy. The reservoir of bees is dwindling to the point where ratios are dangerously out of kilter, with the US reaching the "most extreme" imbalance.