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Lack of universal health care in the US: morally and fiscally bankrupt

The idea that if the United States joins the rest of developed nations and finally adopts a universal health care system it will bankrupt itself is not based in reality. The reality is that the US spends a larger proportion of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) than any other developed nation. By far. Not even close. CDC has just documented it from data collected by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in its 2008 health data yearbook (statistics and indicators for 30 countries). It suggests we are being bankrupted by our lack of a universal health care system: CDC…

The origins of projectile weaponry - Sigma Xi pizza lunch

From Sigma Xi: We'll reconvene at noon, Tuesday, Oct. 20, at Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society, with a peek at one of the many ways technology helped our species survive and prosper long ago. Steven Churchill, an associate professor of evolutionary anthropology at Duke University, will discuss the origins of projectile weaponry, and how that fit with the emergence of other aspects of modern human behavior. He'll talk about his fascinating forensics work exploring ways our ancestors may have used weapons against evolutionary cousins who no longer roam this planet. American Scientist…

ConvergeSouth05 - some pictures

Hey, it was fun last year, I bet it will be fun this year, on October 14th... You can see some pictures from ConvergeSouth here, here, here and here. For now, here's a few that prove that I was there: This is just before our sessions started: L-to-R (but not politically) me, Ruby and Dave. Chatting after Tiffany's session. Waiting for Atrios (who got lost on campus) on Saturday morning. Adrian and I used to be next door neighbors and saw each other walking our dogs. It never occured to us to mention blogging. What a surprise when we bumped into each other at ConvergeSouth: "What are you…

Good work, Australia!

You've eliminated measles in Australia. High take-up rates of the infant measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine has led to the elimination of the endemic measles virus in Australia, immunisation experts say. Researchers from the University of Sydney, writing in the Bulletin of the World Health Organisation, claim that in 2005 and 2007, Australia satisfied the main criteria of having a low level of measles infection, with less than one case per million people. Cool. Now if only certain people would stop making up nonsense about vaccinations… Unfortunately, there are occasional setbacks. A total…

A truly pointless poll

I don't even see how one could vote on this incredibly biased and stupid poll. It's another of these homophobic fundamentalist christianist sites trying to argue that homosexuality is evil, and is a conspiracy to promote an anti-Christian agenda. It contains a collection of questions that are a beautiful example of how not to design a poll. One example: Should homosexuals be given the same special rights extended to African-Americans and other minorities? Your choices are "yes", "no", and "undecided". They leave out the reasonable options, "Minorities aren't given special rights", "We want…

An Okapi born in Chicago Zoo

Zoo trumpets birth of rare African okapi : The Brookfield Zoo announced this week the birth of a baby okapi - an endangered African animal that looks as if it were put together by committee. With a dark brown body and striped upper hind legs, the 1-month-old female looks a bit like a zebra, but claims closer ties to a giraffe. Her name, Sauda, means "dark beauty" in Swahili. Not yet on public display, except through a video feed from her quiet nesting area with her mother, baby Sauda will make her debut in the zoo's African forest exhibit in the spring. ------------------------------- The zoo…

Ask me an easy question too!

Between the fact that I'm still not completely recovered from my epically awful day last Friday and the blogging lethargy that always comes as my summer blogging break approaches, all the blogging-related brain cells I have left are completely fried. Fortunately, Chad comes to the rescue with a great idea! I'll run this more or less the same way he's doing it: Ask me any relatively straight forward question here in the comments and I'll answer it either in the comments or in it's own post. Think questions that I could answer in a paragraph or so. No topic restrictions -- library stuff, pop…

Conference on Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence

The SETI Institute is sponsoring the Second Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Conference at the San Jose Santa Clara Convention Center this weekend. The Conference is an unusual blend of hard science, science fiction and media: with Geoff Marcy, Alex Filippenko and Debra Fischer, among others, mixing in with NASA honchos, Silicon Valley enthusiasts and Bill Nye the Science Guy. There are three days of talks, presentations and parallel sessions on topics ranging from "The Kepler Mission" to "Would Discovering ET Destroy Earth's Religions". Saturday night Jill Tarter is being honoured…

Friday Blog Roundup

Bloggers react to Bush's proposed budget: Science Progress has the totals for science-based agencies Heather Taylor at Switchboard thinks it's lame Gerald Epstein at SEA probes a mystery $2 billion for Homeland Security R&D Climate Progress bemoans its anti-efficiency stance  Amie Newman at RH Reality Check looks at its treatment of women's health Elsewhere: Sonya at Enviroblog applauds a CPSC move toward safer furniture. Lisa Stiffler at Dateline Earth explains the findings about dust from Africa and Asia. Jeffrey Ball at Environmental Capital reports on Wall Street's new…

Unclear on the concept

Just what we need — another evangelical Christian theme park, this one in the planning stages in Tennessee. This one has one particular instance of blinkered blindness, though, that I thought was rather funny. The Park is planned as an "edutainment" experience, combining education and entertainment. The Park is without a particular religious ideology or theology and does not promote specific religious beliefs of any kind; instead, it is designed to bring to life history of Biblical times and stories from the Holy Bible. If you read the rest, you'll learn that this thing is taking…

What it takes to sway the religious right

The fundagelicals were all up in arms over the human papilloma vaccine — it was recommended for all girls to prevent the sexual transmission of a virus that can lead to cancers of the female reproductive tract. They were agin' it; it might give their womenfolk the idea that sex is not a punishment, and a few thousand dead girls is a small price to pay for sin. That might change now, though. Clinical testing has revealed that HPV can cause oral cancers in men, and they are recommending that all adolescents, not just girls, should consider getting the vaccine. Now the religious right is going…

Making A Business of Going Out of Business

In Adam Sandler's 2008 masterpiece, You Don't Mess with the Zohan, the actor is offered a job at an electronics store called "Going Out of Business." This is a shady operation that constantly makes false claims about products and rips people off. Sandler was mocking a real phenomenon--the liquidation companies named "going out of business" or "total liquidation sale." The Journal has a fun article on the issue today, focusing on a rug salesman who has settled down in Texas for a permanent going out of business sale. Barry Newman reports: Many localities do have rules against such claims.…

Berkeley's New Monument to Itself [Updated]

So, here it is. Titled "Berkeley's Big People," it is installed along I-80, so those of you driving north of San Francisco will probably see it, as it is 30 feet tall and visible from a mile away. Given the landscape of "free speech," it would have been much more appropriate to have erected a large Don Quixote, fending off autism-causing vaccines, and tilting at a windmill atop a stolen shopping basket full of junk but missing it because he was high. And then declaring victory. Updates: my Berkeley friends respond! All of these responses are incredibly valuable, so you are to be subjected…

Your daily exercise in the free expression of your opinion, i.e., poll crashing

The Catholic church is always ripely ridiculous, and it's a fine fillip on the rococo elaborations of their dogma when some silly news organization tries to turn them into a poll. Here you go, two, count 'em, two polls at once on the absurd entity called the Virgin Mary. You get to vote on "Do you believe the Virgin Mary has appeared as an apparition?", which is silly as it stands, but then there's also this ambiguous question, "Are you surprised the church officially recognized the Virgin Mary sightings from the 1600s?". So we've got "do you believe in ghosts with hymens?" and "are you…

A new Jack Chick tract!

And it's a classic! It starts off with a little boy getting a lesson in "evolution" from his mother. This version of evolution has nothing to do with what biologists teach, of course — it's bizarrely teleological, with everything striving towards becoming human. After having evolution explained to him, the little boy turns into an "atheist" (one who's planning to become a god — Chick isn't quite clear on what the whole atheism thing means), and it all means you get to be as evil as you want. There's the usual stereotypical Chick interlude where a cute little girl tells the little boy all…

9/11 cranks sure are paranoid - of each other

One of the latest discussions going on at the 9/11 conspiracy sites is the big question of who are the 9/11 disinformation agents being paid by the government to spread lies and confusion about the events of 9/11. George Washington gives the simple 5 d's of disinformation to help you figure out who the splitters are: * Distracting, disrupting, or derailing 9/11 truth efforts; * Dividing the truth movement; or * Discrediting leading 9/11 activists What inflated egos they have to tihnk the government is actually afraid of them or cares enough about their crankery to pay money to influence…

Student posts 2012

As long-term readers know, I've previously featured student posts on various topics of their own choosing. I'm doing it again this year with my summer course on Applied Infectious Disease Epidemiology. In this course, students learn to take the theories and information from a basic ID epi course and apply them to real-world experiences--analyzing math models, determining the cause of an outbreak, and designing their own studies to test a research hypothesis, for example. As part of the course, communication is also a big segment, examining how information (and misinformation) is communicated…

C-sections, allergies, and probiotics

Student guest post by Shylo Wardyn I recently read the book 'Good Germs, Bad Germs' by Jessica Snyder Sachs. I became intrigued by parts of her book that discussed how babies become colonized with bacteria during birth. The most interesting part was the differences between vaginally-delivered and Caesarean-delivered babies. It was not something I had ever thought of before. With my interest piqued, I did a Google scholar search to see what kind of research was being done on this topic. I stumbled upon an article looking at C-sections and risk of childhood allergies, namely asthma. I…

Swine flu link roundup

Revere on quarantine versus isolation. This is a topic I've covered previously (here) as well, and an important distinction (though the two are often muddled together in the press). Christine Gorman talks about getting the facts straight on swine flu, and offers up many additional resources to keep you updated. Skepchick provides "Things More Likely to Save You From Swine Flu Than Homeopathy". Colon cleanse and chiropractic are noticeably absent... 1976 swine flu Public Service Announcements. They don't make 'em like that anymore... (h/t http://twitter.com/tomburket) Finally, my…

New Weekly Toll Posted

Tammy has posted another edition of the Weekly Toll: Death in the American Workplace at her Weekly Toll blog. It gives short writeups on 117 workplace deaths, including the following: Vernon Christensen, a 72-year-old resident of Stayton, Oregon, was crushed by a reversing logging truck while working as a flagger on a logging road. Lina Shearer, a 43-year-old resident of Clay City, Kentucky, was killed when a piece of machinery broke in the manufacturing plant where she worked and struck her in the neck. Lt. Corey Dahlem, a 45-year-old police officer from Gainesville, Florida, died after…

"New pet" update

In many ways, I'm like my kids: it doesn't take much to amuse me. I mentioned previously my kids' enjoyment of catching all things crawly, and our "pet" wolf spider, "Wolfie." Well, Wolfie is now a mommy to hundreds of spiderlings. I'll put the pics below the fold so that those of you with an aversion to spiders won't be subjected to them. She's now dropped the egg sac and is just carrying around the babies. We plan to put her into a box or somewhere where I can get a few better photos, and then send her and her family back out into the garage from whence she came. In the meantime,…

Magnets "zap" headaches

...according to a new Nature News story. Migraine sufferers might soon be able to block an imminent attack using a device that targets the brain with a powerful magnetic field. The technique, called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), triggers activity in the brain's nerve cells and is already being tested as a way to treat depression. Two small clinical trials have now shown that delivering TMS to the brain in the early stages of a migraine seems to halt it in its tracks. Since I've dealt with migraines for a long time, this sounds great (though I'll note that the research hasn't yet…

New "pet"

I mentioned here my kids' penchant for catching, um, pets. Well, 'tis the season. I'll put the pics below the fold for those of you on dial-up or who lean toward arachnophobicity. From the top of the jar: Side view: Eating a fly: The last one was pretty cool because the kids watched her catch the fly; it was so quick, they almost missed it. One minute it's just buzzing around the jar, the next it's dinner. We always fed last year's spiders crickets, but they're not in abundance yet, so flies will have to do for awhile. This spider ("Wolfie McSpidery" is her current moniker) is also…

Bird flu update meta-post

It's been about a week since my last "bird flu" post--and I know that many people, including myself, tend to get burned out on the same ol' thing, but there's some interesting news out that I wanted to share. First, two posts from Effect Measure. Here, Revere discusses the newest reports of H5N1 spread: swans in Austria, Germany, and Iran. Revere also discusses one of GrrlScientist's favorite topics, spread of the virus caused by wild birds vs. domestic poultry. I agree with his conclusion (and not just because he linked my "small world" post): Another (and in our view more likely)…

A salvo in the War on Christmas

You've got a whole 66 shopping days until Christmas, but as you all know, the War on Christmas is fought all year 'round. I'm already getting email from people who have started their Christmas shopping (I hate you all) and who toys and games to educate and introduce kids to science and learning (OK, you're forgiven.) This is a tough call, especially if you want something to do with evolution — it has been deemed 'controversial', you know, so there has been a kind of de facto self-censorship going on among those manufacturers who want our money, but want Christian money just as bad. One…

Tet Zoo picture of the day # 22

This photo depicts an assortment of hominid species, including most of the australopithecines and Homo ergaster (front left, facing camera). A neanderthal is at top right. The reconstructions (obviously, these are photos of the models) were produced by Wolfgang Schnaubelt and Nina Kieser in co-operation with GEO-magazine; an exhibition displaying the models opened in 1998 at the Landesmuseum, Darmstadt (Germany), which is where this photo was taken. Photo taken in 2005 by D. Martill. Oh yeah, and... ... (given that it was only a matter of time before someone made the 'grad students' joke)…

Tet Zoo picture of the day # 15

Among the most surreal snakes are (in my opinion) the turtle-headed sea snakes, or Aipysurus-group hydrophiids... They are specialist predators of fish eggs: with their reduced compliment of stiffened labial scales, they scrape the eggs off rocks, and also use the spike on the snout tip to dig eggs out of the substrate. Their jaw musculature is unique (probably because they employ suction to get the eggs into the mouth), and they have a strongly reduced dentition. I published two articles on sea snakes on ver 1 here and here, and have yet to get round to publishing the promised third article…

Change your attitude

Since the publication of Taylor et al. (2009) - the sauropod neck posture paper - we've been running a whole series of articles on necks and neck posture, and all that it implies, over at SV-POW! Please check it out. I've been too busy to contribute anything, but that changes later today. Sorry, this is an annoying teaser... Oh - while I'm here... I've been informed by Morgan Wirthlin that I've been nominated for the 3 Quarks Daily awards. Please go here for the link to the voting area. I never win these sorts of things so find it hard to get excited, but thanks for the nomination (and…

The No Underwear Subway Ride: Uncensored

tags: The No Underwear Subway Ride: Uncensored, NYC, New York City, prank, humor, funny, comedy, satire, Improv Everywhere, streaming video This is the "uncensored" version of Improv Everywhere's amazing April Fool's prank video, The No Underwear Subway Ride. This video shows how the group pulled off the hoax. Although they claimed that 1,000 people had exposed their genitals on the train, they actually just filmed 20 actors wearing skin-colored underwear, and then pixelated the footage to make them look naked. The "uncensored" version of the video embedded below will show you what they…

Mystery Bird: Heermann's Gull, Larus heermanni

tags: Heermann's Gull, Larus heermanni, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery bird] Immature (1st winter/second summer?) Heermann's Gull, Larus heermanni, photographed somewhere along the Pacific coast of the United States [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours] Image: Joe Fuhrman. I encourage you to purchase images from this professional photographer. NOTE: Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification. This species has a special natural history character that makes them especially vulnerable to extinction. Can you tell me what that is? Heermann's…

Chock-full of rodent bones

I picked up a lot of dead stuff in Morocco. One of the neatest things I brought back was this very large owl pellet (now broken into bits), discovered by Dave Martill at the same place where we were awoken at night by big, hooting owls assumed to have been Desert eagle owls Bubo ascalaphus [back-story here]... As you can see (close-up below), it's stuffed full of rodent bones, at least some of which are (I think) from jerboa. So far I've only had a cursory look, but bones belonging to several individuals of more than one species are present. If and when I get round to extracting and…

Bockenheimer Turm, 2

tags: Bockenheimer Turm, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, travel, nature, cities, image of the day Bockenheimer Turm. Bockenheimer Warte, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Image: GrrlScientist, 6 April 2010 [larger view] This is an astonishingly gorgeous day in Frankfurt am Main; warm (but not too warm) and everything is exploding into bloom under an impossibly blue sky. I wish you were here with me because I would bring you to my favorite coffee shop in Bockenheimer Warte; Cafe Extrablatt, where they not only give me FREE wifi, but they also cheerfully provide powerpoints (that's a "plug in" or an "…

Ten Commandments poll

The town of Lockland, Ohio is another of those places that worships a graven idol, an ugly stone block with the ridiculous 10 commandments on it . They never read it, though, or they'd notice that Commandment #2 says they shouldn't worship graven idols…and actually, if they read them at all, they'd know that the only two that even come close to real laws in our nation are the ones that say don't kill and don't steal. The rest? Dross and superstition. The town is being sued to have the nonsense removed, and of course the newspaper has to run a poll. Do you think that if we run this up to a…

Harold Varmus is everywhere!

Look what came in the mail yesterday! The Art and Politics of Science by Harold Varmus and, since he is in some way my boss, with a very nice personal inscription inside the cover. I am excited and already started reading it. And speaking o Varmus, he seems to be everywhere. See this article in TimesOnline: A major investment in fighting tropical infections and chronic conditions like heart disease and diabetes in poor countries would transform international perceptions of the US, according to Harold Varmus, who co-chairs the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology. In an…

A banner year for me, in a sense....

Every year, when I go to ConvergeSouth (and I still need your help with my session this year), I look forward to seeing again some of my good blogospheric friends. And somewhere very, very high on the list of people I am most excited about seeing again, are Dan and Janet, journalists and bloggers from South Carolina who are regular, annual participants there. Their blog Xark has been one of my regular reads for a few years now. So, I was astonishingly flattered when I went there the other day and saw my own face on top of the page! Yikes! What have I done? Oh, Xarkers just thought they…

Bruce Alberts, next Friday at Duke

From Center for Science Education: When: Friday, January 30, 2009 1:30 PM - 2:30 PM Where: LSRC B101 Love Auditorium Description: Bruce Alberts, a prominent biochemist strongly commited to the improvement of science education, began service as Editor-in-Chief of Science in March 2008. He is a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco. Alberts has been instrumental in developing the National Science Education standards implemented in school systems nationwide. He is a major proponent of "science as inquiry" teaching that…

Cartoons, comic strips and original art for the Open Laboratory 2009

In 2006 we did not include any comic strips in the anthology. In 2007, the Evolgen cartoon, The Lab Fridge was included in the book. In 2008, the winner was an XKCD comic, Purity, while original art by Glendon Mellow was featured on the cover. Many bloggers make original visual stuff on their blogs - they draw, scan in their kids' drawings, play with photoshop, do photography or make art. Let's see some more of that submitted for the next edition. So far, the only submissions in this category are: Articulate Matter: Proper Lab Technique The Flying Trilobite: 'Science-Chess Accommodating…

The Open Laboratory 2008....and 2009?

The Lulu.com page has already been viewed 1160 times, 30 blogs linked to it so far (see the bottom of the announcement post for the list), a very nice number of books (not tellin', sorry) has already been sold, and review copies are on their way to American Scientist, The New Scientist and Seed (I am also expecting a call from Nature as they reviewed the previous two anthologies as well). The book was the homepage Buzz on Scienceblogs.com the other day - see this for photographic evidence. And the Discover Magazine highlighted it in their March issue - see this. The guest editor for 2009 will…

It's a good thing Orac is surrounded by medical professionals

I know how much Orac dislikes the Huffington Post — I despise it myself as the doman of airheaded woo of the type represented by Deepak Chopra, and the only time I glance at it is to remind myself that the left can also sink into sloppy stupidity as deeply as the right. But poor Orac — his head might just explode into flames when he reads this simperingly stupid piece on vaccines from Jim Carrey. The Huffpo is a little island of pampered fluff, where celebrities are asked to 'blog' (it really isn't, though—they tend to drop these little turds of pseudo-wisdom, and then never hang around to…

On Voting

Vote early and vote often. - Al Capone, 1899 - 1947 Suffrage, n. Expression of opinion by means of a ballot. The right of suffrage (which is held to be both a privilege and a duty) means, as commonly interpreted, the right to vote for the man of another man's choice, and is highly prized. - Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary, 1881 - 1906 Ask a man which way he is going to vote, and he will probably tell you. Ask him, however, why, and vagueness is all. - Bernard Levin Truth is not determined by majority vote. - Doug Gwyn Always vote for principle, though you may…

Privileging belief

A horrible little cult in Baltimore committed an ugly crime. …they denied a 16-month-old boy food and water because he did not say "Amen" at mealtimes. After he died, they prayed over his body for days, expecting a resurrection, then packed it into a suitcase with mothballs. They left it in a shed in Philadelphia, where it remained for a year before detectives found it last spring. The child's mother, Ria Ramkissoon, and others are on trial for murder, reasonably enough. Here's the kicker, though: Psychiatrists who evaluated Ramkissoon at the request of a judge concluded that she was not…

Circus! Science Under the Big Top

Yesterday, I met Janet and her charming and brilliant sprogs at the Lawrence Hall of Science, where they have a cool exhibit called CIRCUS! Science Under the Big Top (which reminded me that I wanted to join the circus back when I was 18). One thing I did not know was that to get to the museum from Berkeley campus, it is a couple of miles of steep uphill, which I climbed on foot. Should have hitchiked! Wifi is iffy right now, so I'll post as many pictures per post as the system will let me. First, just to show how high up the place is, the entire Bay Area is clearly visible - though, of…

Primaries....

So far, Obama has a 1st and a 2nd, Clinton a 1st and a 3rd, and Edwards a 2nd and a 3rd. In terms of delegates they are all three very close (25 Obama, 24 Clinton, 18 Edwards). All the candidates have spent most of their money and their big donors have all maxed out, so they are all strapped for cash and all three have roughly equal amounts of money to go on. Now that the phase of retail politics is pretty much over, the national polls are starting to be important as indicators how Super Tuesday may work out. Here is the latest summary of the Rassmussen tracking national poll: The…

Blogger Blowback

On Sunday, LATimes published a viciously uninformed piece about blogging by some Skube guy (who appears to be here in NC though I have never heard of him before). The blogosphere, as expected, responded with laughter and dismay. Today, LATimes published a response by NYU J-school professor (who I have most definitely heard of, and even met in person once) Jay Rosen - The journalism that bloggers actually do: Blowback! That's what you're in for when a great American newspaper runs a Sunday opinion piece as irretrievably lame as "Blogs: All the noise that fits" by Michael Skube... The…

To read or not to read...

I have discovered that I sometimes suffer from paralysis by analysis on the blog. I write the best stuff when I concoct a post in my head during a dog walk and then immediately pour it into the computer while it is still hot. Whenever I set out to do some real lit research on the topic I realize that other, smarter people have already written all that, and did a better job than I could ever dream of doing, so I abandon the post. So, I am getting really nervous now, as I am thinking of writing a post about the history of the scientific paper and how the Web and the Open Access will change…

Birds in Serbia

From John I learned that Serbia is becoming a birding hot-spot! Two species of pelicans (Pelecanus crispus and Pelecanus onocrotalus), which used to nest in Serbia before but were driven out by draining of marshland for agriculture in the late 19th century, are back (not nesting yet, but some individuals are back) and you can see a picture of one of them here. A journalist for 'Birdwatch' magazine went to the very first birding tour in Serbia back in 2004 and he wrote about his trip and his impressions. This website provides a lot more information about birds and birding in Serbia. I wish…

Taking the Fifth

Monica Goodling worked for the Justice Department and is rumored to be invoking the fifth amendment rather than testify in front of congress regarding Alberto Gonzales's misbehavior. In my opinion, it should be inexcusable for people in the Justice Department to invoke the fifth amendment to avoid testifying to Congress. People there must testify. But astonishingly, they are beginning to "plead the fifth", rather than tell the American people that Bush's appointees are really a bunch of lying fraudulent hucksters. Monica Goodling, a senior Justice Department official involved in the firings…

Tangled Bank: Request for Submissions

I 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…

When Giant Hornets Attack

Swarms of giant hornets are getting ready to invade Britain. The 1.8 inch long insects feed their young with the larvae of bees and they can destroy a nest of 30,000 honeybees in several hours. Already, they have devastated bee populations in large areas of France. The Asian hornets, with a three-inch wingspan, can also attack humans with their stings. Their string has been compared to a hot nail entering the body. "There's no doubt that these hornets are heading north and will probably find their way to Britain," said Stuart Hine, of the Natural History Museum in London. "However, they…

Global Warming Threatens Polar Bears

Polar bears, Ursus maritimus, stranded on melting iceberg. Scientists are finding bodies of dead polar bears in the sea near Alaska and in the Arctic. Apparently, the bears are being overcome with exhaustion and starvation as they are forced to swim hundreds of miles in search of food. "As the ice gets farther out from the shore because of warming, it's a longer swim that costs [the bears] more energy and makes them more vulnerable," said Dr Ian Stirling of the Canadian Wildlife Service. A comprehensive report published today by a United Nations panel says there is a 90 per cent…