A Blog Around The Clock

Saving The Rainforest With ... Toys?:

Villagers in tiny communities including Guayabo, Sawacito and Mahor, in the rainforest of northeastern Honduras, used to take part in the rampant illegal trade in mahogany, but recently they have formed a cooperative and learned to harvest the prized wood in sustainable ways. Now, they mostly use trees that have fallen naturally or harvest them in a sustainable way from around the fringes of the nearby Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve, and remove planks from the forest, first on their backs, then on muleback to avoid the disruption caused by heavy machinery.

Can Exposure To Intense Underwater Sound Result In Death Of Whales?:

NOAA Fisheries Service is looking at how marine mammals react to underwater sound. Increasing evidence suggests that exposure to intense underwater sound in some settings may cause certain marine mammals to strand and ultimately die. Some of these strandings are associated with mid-frequency active (MFA) military sonar, and most have involved beaked whales; the dominant species is Cuvier's beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris), but the genus (Mesoplodon) has also been involved.

Mysterious Sea Creatures Found In Antarctic Waters:

The return of the last of three Antarctic marine science research vessels marks the culmination of one of Australia's most ambitious International Polar Year projects, a census of life in the icy Southern Ocean known as the Collaborative East Antarctic Marine Census (CEAMARC). Australia's Aurora Australis and collaborating vessels L'Astrolabe (France) and Umitaka Maru (Japan) have returned from the Southern Ocean, their decks overflowing with a vast array of ocean life including a number of previously unknown species collected from the cold waters near the East Antarctic land mass.

No Easy Answers In Evolution Of Human Language:

The evolution of human speech was far more complex than is implied by some recent attempts to link it to a specific gene, says Robert Berwick, professor of computational linguistics at MIT. Berwick will describe his ideas about language in a session at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science on Feb. 17. The session is called "Mind of a Toolmaker," and explores the use of evolutionary research in understanding human abilities.

Is That Sea Otter Stealing Your Lunch -- Or Making It?:

Hunted to near extinction, sea otters are making a steady comeback along the Pacific coast. Their reintroduction, however, is expected to reduce the numbers of several key species of commercially valuable shellfish dramatically, such as sea urchins and geoducks.

Like Owner, Like Dog: One Third Of US Dogs Are Obese, Cats Also Suffer:

Obesity in pets mirrors that of humans, as do the reasons -- decreased physical activity, age, and an increased caloric intake, even genetic predisposition. Like humans, there are also many health problems associated with being obese, such as diabetes mellitus.