grrlscientist | March 7, 2007
The mountain gazelle, Gazella gazella, is considered by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) to be facing a high risk of extinction. Seventeen mountain gazelle were recently released into the wild.
For the first time in ten years, captive-bred mountain gazelles have been successfully released into the wild. Conservationists released 17 of the creatures into the Ibex reserve in Saudi Arabia.
The mountain gazelle, Gazella gazella, is at a high risk of extinction because of factors such as habitat loss and hunting. Some of the gazelles have now been tagged with radio collars so scientists can…
grrlscientist | March 7, 2007The Food and Drug Administration is demonstrating a stunning lack of forethought by preparing to approve a new antibiotic to treat a pneumonia-like disease in cattle, despite warnings from health groups and a majority of the agency's own expert advisers that the decision will be dangerous -- for people.
The drug, cefquinome, is one of a class of highly potent antibiotics that are among medicine's last defense against several serious human infections. No drug from that class has ever been approved in the United States for use in animals.
The American Medical Association and about a dozen other…
grrlscientist | March 7, 2007Tamiflu (Oseltamivir), the world's first line of defense against avian influenza, is correlated with teen suicides. This expensive and difficult-to-find drug has been linked to 64 cases of psychological disorders and two teenage suicides in Japan, according to media reports there.
In February 2004, according to an online edition of Japan Times, a 17-year-old high school boy under treatment with Tamiflu died after he jumped in front of a truck.
A year later, a 14-year-old junior high student, also taking the drug for influenza, jumped to his death from the ninth floor of his condominium.
In…
grrlscientist | March 6, 2007tags: Tanzania, biodiversity hot-spot
The Eastern Arc Mountains in Tanzania are home to many species that live nowhere else in the world, including butterflies, frogs, trees and chameleons. Image: NYTimes.
"This is a really important place," said Neil Burgess, an expert on the Eastern Arc Mountains at the University of Cambridge and the World Wildlife Fund. "Biologists who go there just keep finding more and more species."
In fact, The Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania, Africa contain the highest density of endangered animals found anywhere on earth. Many species that live on these…
grrlscientist | March 6, 2007Underweight baby girls are at a increased risk for depression, according to a recent study. Researchers found that girls who weighed less than 2.5kg (5.5lb) at birth were more likely to suffer depression when they are between the ages of 13 to 16 than those girls born at a normal weight.
The study, which was led by Duke University, examined data on more than 1,400 children, aged nine to 16. The Duke University study found that among girls, 5.7% were born weighing less than 2.5kg, and of these, 38% experienced depression at least once between the ages of 13 and 16. Previous studies have…
grrlscientist | March 6, 2007I have been out of the psychiatric hospital for three months, can you believe it? I hadn't even thought about it until today, when they conducted their three month follow-up interview.
For those of you who don't know the story, I was caught attempting suicide early in August, was taken to the ER and then placed in a state psychiatic hospital against my will for four months where I was diagnosed with a rapidly cycling bipolar disorder.
So basically, today was a time of reflection about my previous three months of freedom. It probably wouldn't surprise any of you to know that the first month…
grrlscientist | March 6, 2007
Image: Sylvain Duford.
As long as you send images to me (and I hope it will be for forever), I shall continue to share them with my readership. My purpose for posting these images is to remind all of us of the grandeur of the natural world and that there is a world out there that is populated by millions of unique species. We are a part of this world whether we like it or not: we have a choice to either preserve these species or to destroy them in search of short-term monetary gains. But if we decide to destroy these other life forms, the least we can do is to know what we are destroying…
grrlscientist | March 6, 2007You can't call yourself a thinktank if all your ideas are stupid ... Bill Maher explores this idea a little further in this streaming video.
grrlscientist | March 5, 2007Are humans hard-wired to believe in God? And if we are, how and why did that happen? Certainly, many great thinkers believe this is the case. "A belief in all-pervading spiritual agencies," Charles Darwin wrote in his book,The Descent of Man, "seems to be universal."
Atran, who is 55, is an anthropologist at the National Center for Scientific Research in Paris, with joint appointments at the University of Michigan and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.
According to anthropologists, religions that share certain supernatural features -- belief in a noncorporeal God or gods…
grrlscientist | March 5, 2007The March edition of Mendel's Garden is now available for you to read. Be sure to check it out!
grrlscientist | March 5, 2007Anyone who doubts the existence of global warming should visit Shishmaref. Shishmaref is a tiny town located on a barrier island in Alaska. It is inhabited by approximately 600 people. Already, the glaciers melting are causing sea levels to rise; the frozen ground on which the village was built, also known as permafrost, is thawing, making the ground crumble like sand; and two homes have already tipped into the sea while many others are set to follow them to their watery demise.
Village elder Tony Weyiouanna estimates the tide moves an average of 10 feet (three metres) closer to the land…
grrlscientist | March 5, 2007The 18 edition of the Circus of the Spineless is now available for your squishy pleasure-seeking.
grrlscientist | March 5, 2007
Atmospheric gases scatter blue wavelengths of visible light more than other wavelengths, giving the Earth's visible edge a blue halo. At higher and higher altitudes, the atmosphere becomes so thin that it essentially ceases to exist. Gradually, the atmospheric halo fades into the blackness of space. This astronaut photograph captured on July 20, 2006, shows a nearly translucent moon emerging from behind the halo.
Image: NASA.
As long as you send images to me (and I hope it will be for forever), I shall continue to share them with my readership. My purpose for posting these images is to…
grrlscientist | March 5, 2007Our nation's long-range fiscal situation is in grave peril, according to David Walker, and our deficit is growing daily. If nothing changes, the federal government will only be able to pay for the interest on the accumulated debt, and will be unable to cover health care, social security, education, national defense, homeland security, and other perks. Walker, the nation's top accountant and head of the Government Accountability Office has gotten tired of being ignored by government officials so he now is taking his message directly to the taxpayers as you will see in this streaming video.
grrlscientist | March 5, 2007I volunteered to host Tangled Bank many many months ago, and I specifically chose this date because it was closest to PZ's 50th birdthday. So won't you all help PZ celebrate his birdthday by making this issue of TB the best ever? This means that I am now requesting submissions from all of you, faithful and new readers alike. I am specifically seeking written submissions about nature, science, medicine and I will also accept images of squids, PZ's favorite animal. I am asking you to please get your submissions in early because I have a court date on the publication date, the 14th (yikes, I am…
grrlscientist | March 5, 2007
Atlantic Puffin numbers on two islands off the coast of Scotland crashed from 28,000 pairs in 1999 to only a few thousand when an invasive plant called tree mallow established itself. The Scottish Sea Bird Centre has received £250,000 to remove the plant and encourage the birds to return to their nests.
Image: J. Cunningham/BBC News.
People Hurting Birds
Scientists in eastern China say they have succeeded in controlling the flight of pigeons with micro-electrodes planted in their brains, state media reported recently. Scientists at the Robot Engineering Technology Research Centre at…
grrlscientist | March 5, 2007Those of you who agree with the death penalty will rethink your position after you read John Grisham's first nonfiction book, The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town (NYC: Doubleday; 2006), while those of you who disagree with the death penalty will find your position reinforced after you've read this stunning book.
And stunning it is due to the obvious and egregious miscarriage of justice that was so casually carried out in a small town. This book tells the tragic story of former major league baseball hopeful, Ron Williamson, who was the first major league draft choice from…
grrlscientist | March 4, 2007
Darwin's Origin of Species (1859) is now available for free as an audio download. LibriVox volunteers have just completed a public domain audio recording of Charles Darwin's pivotal work, "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection" -- free to download, copy, and share. It's unabridged and over twenty-four hours long.
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tags: Darwin, evolution
grrlscientist | March 4, 2007
Can you see the lizard?
Orphaned Image. Please contact me to receive proper credit.
As long as you send images to me (and I hope it will be for forever), I shall continue to share them with my readership. My purpose for posting these images is to remind all of us of the grandeur of the natural world and that there is a world out there that is populated by millions of unique species. We are a part of this world whether we like it or not: we have a choice to either preserve these species or to destroy them in search of short-term monetary gains. But if we decide to destroy these other life…