Grow Plants In Your Backyard, Not Chickens

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Image credit: Lost Albatross, via Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/emilymills/

As the tide of locavorism continues to rise around the world, more and more people are looking closer to home for their food with the idea that, by reducing food miles, they are solving the world’s problems. Instead of seriously questioning the eating of animals, and taking the compassionate approach of veganism, people simply shift the source of their consumption habits instead of actually changing them for ethical and environmental reasons. One of the most … Read More

Off-Road Bike Paths Needed In Transportation Planning “Bible”

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Making the case for off-road bike paths instead of on-road bike lanes (or, ideally, in addition to them), here’s a summary of some recent research I conducted and some recent research out of Harvard Medical School: More or less, bicycle infrastructure policy and its relationship to riderships was the topic of my 2007 master’s thesis. It’s been obvious to some of us for a long time that bicycle infrastructure policy needs to change in order … Read More

How Electric Cars Won Over A Car Hater

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Here’s the story as to why I became an electric car lover after being a car hater: I’m not going to lie — I’ve got issues with cars. My master’s degree is in city and regional planning. From my experience studying that (before, during, and after graduate school), I’m well aware that cars and cities simply don’t mix well. I mean, they could, but the vast majority of cities in the world are overfull of cars. A … Read More

Climate Change And Wildfire — Research Examines Relationship

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Image Credit: Wild Fire via Flick CC

Changes in the climate are intimately connected with wildfires, both causing them and being being caused by them. Recent research has estimated that wildfires will increase by around 50% across most of the US, and by as much as 100% in the West, by 2050, as a result of climate change. And with this increase in the frequency/extent of wildfires, greenhouse gas emissions will rise too. And now, new research, recently published in the journal … Read More

Cave-Dwelling Arachnids — Two New Species Found In Brazil

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Image Credit: Santos AJ, Ferreira RL, Buzatto BA (2013)

Researchers recently discovered two new species of cave-dwelling arachnids in northeastern Brazil — Rowlandius ubajara and Rowlandius potiguara. The arachnids are both a type of short-tailed whipscorpion. The arachnids are a reddish-brown color, and were discovered inhabiting the cool, humid limestone caves present in the otherwise arid northeastern Brazil region. They were both discovered deep inside of these limestone caves. The Arachnids likely prey on the small insects that live in the cave feeding on … Read More

Very Rare Leopards Caught On Camera

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Image Credit: CFIR

Critically endangered Javan leopards have been caught on digital camera traps in West Java. If you have been following conservation news, you know that the Formosan Cloud Leopard was recently declared extinct. They were driven into extinction by human activities. So it is very important that the Javan leopards be protected or they may suffer the same fate. (Javan leopard caught on camera trap from CIFOR stock footage library on Vimeo.) Thirty cameras were placed … Read More

Top Ten New Species Of 2013 — A ‘Musical’ Sponge, World’s Smallest Vertebrate, A ‘Paleolithic’ Fungus, A ‘Trifecta’ Find, & More!

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The list is here!… Yes, the annual list of ‘Top Ten’ New Species has been announced. Organized annually by the Institute for International Species Exploration (IISE) at the University of Arizona, an international committee of experts reviewed animal, vegetable and microbial species culled from 140 top nominations out of a total candidate pool of 18,000 species — all discovered (and properly named according to taxonomic rules) in the previous calendar year (2012). Top Species selections … Read More

Current Approach Of Fishery Industry Is Extremely Risky, Research Finds — May Lead To Collapse

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Image Credit: University of York

Overfishing has had an incredible effect on the quantity and diversity of fish present in the oceans of the world, along with greatly reducing biodiversity. Because of this decline in fish numbers, and a number of complete fishery collapses, the industry is becoming increasingly dependent upon only a handful of shellfish species. And now, new research from the University of York has detailed the extreme risks of such a situation/approach. The research has found “that … Read More

Crazy Ants Are Displacing Fire Ants — Invading Texas And The South (VIDEO)

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Image Credit: Joe MacGown, Mississippi Entomological Museum

Crazy ants are currently invading Texas and the southeastern United States, displacing and eliminating the fire ants throughout those areas, according to new research from The University of Texas at Austin. This is of course not a surprise for many of those throughout those regions who have had experiences with those ants. This is just the most recent of the recurrent ant invasions that have been happening since large-scale human movement between North and South … Read More

3D-Printed Pizza In Space! NASA Funds ‘Food Replicator’ For Space Station [VIDEO]

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tessting foord replicator in micro gravity

Regular readers of PS are aware that we have covered many news items of late involving the remarkably versatile technology known as 3D printing/rapid prototyping in which 3D computer design software, laser printing and materials science combine to create real (3 dimensional) objects or materials. This tech has been used to “print” various useful items: solar energy cells, new pharmaceutical compounds (anti-cancer drugs) and even human embryonic stem cells (for organ/tissue replacement therapy). More recently, … Read More