Author name: Michael Ricciardi

Michael Ricciardi is a well-published writer of science/nature/technology articles as well as essays, poetry and short fiction. Michael has interviewed dozen of scientists from many scientific fields, including Brain Greene, Paul Steinhardt, Arthur Shapiro, and Nobel Laureate Ilya Progogine (deceased). Michael was trained as a naturalist and taught natural science on Cape Cod, Mass. from 1986-1991. His first arts grant was for production of the environmental (video) documentary 'The Jones River - A Natural History', 1987-88 (Kingston, Mass.). Michael is an award winning, internationally screened video artist. Two of his more recent short videos; 'A Time of Water Bountiful' and 'My Name is HAM' (an "imagined memoir" about the first chimp in space), and several other short videos, can be viewed on his website (http://www.chaosmosis.net). He is also the author of the ebook 'Zombies, E.T's, and The Super Entity - A Selection of Most Stimulating Articles' and for Kindle: Artful Survival ~ Creative Options for Chaotic Times

U.S. Businessman Conducts Massive and 'Illegal' Ocean Fertilization Experiment Off Canada's West Coast

[UPDATED: Oct. 18, 2012; see below] Geoengineering theories andΒ  experiments have received much attention in recent years, with one recent experiment in “ocean (iron) fertilization” successfully conducted off the coast of Antarctica by a German scientific research team. Past experiments of this kind had mostly failed. The basic idea is to trigger large blooms of […]

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UCS Climate Scientist Corrects Misleading Science Reporting at FOX, Wall Street Journal (VIDEO)

Some major news outlets continue to broadcast or publish what can only be called disinformation regarding the current state of climate science research findings. As previously reported here on Planetsave, FOX News has been at the forefront ofΒ inaccurate (doubt-promoting) climate change reporting.The Wall Street Journal has also continued this questionable reporting on its famous op-ed

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In New Study of 13 Top Competing Nations, US Earns 'Dog' Rating on All Measures But One

Howard Steven Friedman is a statistician and health economist for the United Nations and an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. He also has a new book out called The Measure of a Nation: How to Regain America’s Competitive Edge and Boost Our Global Standing, which is sure to provoke

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Who Are the Worst Air Polluters in the U.S.? The 'Toxic 100' List Announced

  We know they’re out there, silently and ceaselessly dumping and pumping toxins into our air, water, and land.Β  Still, it’s hard for the average citizen to keep track of the worst of them. Polluters never sleep. Concerned citizens will feel more secure knowing that at least one form of pollution — air pollution —

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Controversial French GM Corn Study Under Review By Euro Commission

[UPDATED –Β  Oct. 15, 27, 2012; see below] The results of a controversial French study on the health effects of GM corn and Roundup-tainted drinking water on rats were released this past Wednesday, triggering a Euro-wide ‘media storm’ in the process. The news is barely making a ripple here in the U.S. The study tested

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A 'Living', Artificial Jellyfish Engineered from Rat Heart Cells [VIDEO]

Bioengineering takes another big leap forward with the creation of an artificial jellyfish — called a Β “medusoid” — that undulates and swims just like the real thing. The medusa-like “cyborg” is modeled after the umbrella-shaped Moon jellyfish Aurelia auritaΒ and is made from silicone. But the key “ingredient” is its infusion of heart muscle cells from

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GeoEngineering News: Controversial Ocean 'Iron Fertilization' Experiment Succeeds as Carbon Sink

  Results of the most recent iron fertilization experiment are giving scientists good reason for renewed hope in the great, global challenge of capturing carbon:Β  A team of biologists and oceanographers, working out of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany, seeded 167 square kilometers with 7 metric tons of iron

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Dennis Leary Sings 'Kiss My A$$' – Musical Parody Skewers Americans' Attitude, Apathy [VIDEO]

Comedian and social critic Dennis Leary —Β  star of the cable series Rescue Me — returns to form in the most sardonic of ways with this new video now making the rounds on Youtube. The music video — published in early July — adopts a ‘brat pack’ era, swing sound/style to propel Leary’s (surprisingly well

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Compound Derived from Sea Sponge 'Virtually Eliminates' HIV in Infected Cells

A collaborative research team at the Scripps Research Institute in Florida have successfully concluded experiments on HIV infected cell cultures using a derivative of a natural compound called Cortistatin A which was isolated in 2006 from a sea sponge called Corticium simplex that was first identified over a hundred years ago. The compound was first

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The Idea of Nature in Revolt — Revisiting Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’

A shocking number of bird species are becoming endangered and/or going extinct all over the world. Next to amphibians, our feathered friends — often viewed as agricultural β€œpests” — are perhaps suffering most from an existential triple threat: climate change impacts, land use changes, and habitat destruction (all inter-related impacts), though some, such as red-winged

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Reminders of Death Motivate Concern for Environmental Legacy – New Study Reveals

Researchers from three university business schools recently conducted a pair of ‘death priming’ experiments in which participants were tasked with making decisions about what to do with lottery winnings, and, how to allocate a new-found energy source. Those participants who received the death primes (i.e., subtle reminders of mortality) consistently gave more to “future others”Β when

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Dark Matter 'Tendrils' Observed for First Time — Revealing the Hidden Structure of the Universe

  For the first time, a key component of the mostly “hidden” but large-scale structure of the Universe has been observed by a team of astronomers at the University of Munich Observatory in Germany. The team, lead by JΓΆrg Dietrich, was able to directly observe a “dark matter tendril” or “filament” —Β gigantic structures that (it

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CERN Physicists 'Sure' They Have Found A 'Boson' Particle – But Is It The Higgs Boson?

  Two particle detector teams working at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the CERN facility in Switzerland have announced the discovery of a new particle — a bosonΒ  — that could be THE so-called ‘god’ particle, The Higgs boson. The theoretical Higgs boson was originally postulated as a key particle that confers mass onto

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Scientific Breakthrough: First Ever Photo of the 'Shadow of a Single Atom' Taken

  With all the press and hype in recent months surrounding potential discoveries (i.e., statistical verifications) of sub-atomic particles, such as the Higgs Boson, it is easy to forget one glaring fact: no one has ever seen or captured an image of a single atom.* That is, until now. This week, a research team at

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The International Conservation Photography Awards – Ten Friday Photos

This Saturday, the International Conservation Photography Awards and Exhibition ceremony will once again kick-off at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, located on the University of Washington campus in Seattle, Washington. TheΒ biennial, juried competition, founded in 1997 by acclaimed local nature photographer, Art Wolfe, will feature nearly 80 of the most captivating photographic

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Gene Analysis Reveals Up to 79 New Species of Shark and Ray – May Indicate Greater Endangered Status

  Many species of shark and ray have taken major hits from human over-hunting (e.g., “finning” and sport-killing) as well as marine environment changes brought about by climate change impacts (e.g., the collapse of many smaller fish species). Understanding how these creatures live out their lives is crucial to helping protect them. Most sharks and

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The Race to Make Fake Meat – Saving Animals and the Planet (and Disrupting the Meat Industry)

The hottest buzz-phrase in neo-economic theory is “disruptive innovation,” and innovation-driven companies are actively trying to identify it, foster it (or control it), and seeking ways to adapt to it and exploit it. If one is looking for a prime example of an emerging disruptive innovation, one has no better example than the heated race

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The Science of Apocalypse: Climate ‘Flips’ and Global ‘Collapse’ – Two Dire Visions of the 21st Century

  It is ironic to me that much recent print and media coverage has been given to very scientific-minded folks dispelling the myth known as the Mayan 2012 Apocalypse (based upon a simplistic and narrow reading of the Maya Astronomical Calendar)…. While, in this same year, we have seen an increase in science-based warnings of

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Top Ten New Species of 2012: Sneezing Monkeys, Extreme Nematodes, A Night-Blooming Orchid, An 'Oh Boy!' Sea Jelly, and More

Each year at this time, the International Institute for Species Exploration (IISE, Arizona State University) convenes a meeting of taxon experts (i.e., experts in classifying organisms) toΒ  select the ‘top ten new species’ discovered in the preceding year. It’s no easy task; last year some 18,000 new species were “officially described” (most being microbes).The IISE

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Slow but Micro Powerful: Living Snail Turned into Fuel Cell

I’m sure that if gastropods (snails and their ilk; word mean “stomach-foot”) could speak, they’d have a few words of protest over this exploitation of their enzymes… but one snail at least has been ‘harvested’ — for its energy output — without being harmed, say the experimenters. Recently, researchers (HalΓ‘mkovΓ‘ et al) reported in the

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NanoMedicine: A Pioneering Study Finds Use of 'Quantum Dots' Safe in Living Primates

Despite many recent and remarkable successes in the field of biomedicine using nanotechnology to image, detect, treat and even cureΒ  diseases like cancer (in mice and humans), there have been lingering doubts among health professionals as to the safety of using nanoparticles (such as nanodiamonds) in medical applications. To be sure, some earlier experiments with

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Russia Releases Highest Resolution Satellite Images of Planet Earth Ever (VIDEO)

  That’s the claim, anyway, and most certainly, the images are astoundingly clear and detailed, if a bit oddly hued. The image, released by the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) last week, was taken by the Elecktro-L weather satellite. The satellite is in geostationary orbit about 22,000 miles (36,000km) above the Indian Ocean and was

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The Secret Thoughts of Dogs – Can Brain Scans and 'Contagious Yawning' Reveal Canine Consciousness? [VIDEO]

Looking into the Brain and Mind of Human’s ‘Best Friend’ Celebrated for their loyalty, affection, and occasional acts of heroism, our faithful canine companions are often given attributes, and even some cognitive abilities, compatible with — if not exactly congruent with — our own. But how justified are we in ascribing to dogs (or any

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Earliest Mayan Astronomical Records Found in Guatemalan Ruins — No 'Doomsday' Date Recorded

  Latest Mayan archeological find reveals a lunar calendar that ‘ends’ thousands of years in the future… In a fascinating archeological discovery that is sure to add some debate within the Mayan ‘doomsday” believers camp, a team of archeologists from three U.S. universities has unearthed the earliest known series of Mayan lunar records. The records

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Space Telescope Detects Light from Alien 'Super-Earth' for First Time

  [Updated withΒ  correction] In the ever-growing catalog of extra-solar planets (including many gas giants termed “hot” Jupiters or Neptunes), “super-Earths” — exoplanets that are somewhat to very Earth-like, only larger — are of special interest. Their discovery offers a potential glimpse of an alien world perhaps not too unlike our own (if only in

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New Imaging Technique Uses Sound to Detect Cancer in Early Stages [VIDEO]

Biomedical engineer Lihong WangΒ and his research team at Washington University in Missouri have developed a new, composite imaging technique — photo-acoustic tomography (PAT) — that provides greater functional information about potential cancerous tissue than present x-ray-based imaging techniques. Light and sound are both forms of electromagnetism and can be inter-mingled, even transformed into each other.

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Fracking Update: Fed Loosens Chemical Disclosure Rules, A New Study Predicts Fracking Fluids Can Spread to Aquifers In a 'Few Years'

In the never ending battle between regulators and the fracking industry’s biggest players, yesterday proved to be another victory for industry profits over public safety interests, as the Obama admin backed off on its proposed new fracking chemical reporting rules for drilling operations on public lands. Under present law, oil companies engaged in hydraulic fracturing

Fracking Update: Fed Loosens Chemical Disclosure Rules, A New Study Predicts Fracking Fluids Can Spread to Aquifers In a 'Few Years' Read More πŸ‘‰

Climate Scientists Discover 'Warming Hole' Over Eastern U.S. that Delayed Climate Impacts from GHGs

  Using atmospheric and temperature data collected between 1930 and 1990, climate scientists at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have discovered what they are calling a ‘warming hole’ — a large area of cooler temperature trends — that had kept theΒ eastern U.S. up to 1Β° C (1.8 Β°F) cooler than predicted

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Space News: 'Strange Objects' Punch Holes in Saturn Ring, Will A Plan to Mine Asteroids Help Earth's Economy? [VIDEO]

Β  Half mile-wide objects thatΒ NASA and ESA experts are calling “strange” and “mysterious” have punctured holes in Saturn’s “weirdest” ring, known as the F ring…Ok, that’s three words thatΒ mean unusual, so you know that something odd is happening… The objects were observed by the Cassini orbiter probe and took some time and careful hunting by

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Photos from the First Annual Recycled Art and Resource Expo (RARE)

  Hey Folks, here’s my photo blogging feature from RARE…the Recycled Art and Resource Expo…a three day event happening now in Bellingham, Washington (continues through EarthΒ  Day, Sunday April 22, ’til 3pm). Β  So, if you’re in the neighborhood, I enthusiastically recommend that you stop by for the half day of events (and catch a

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An Ancient Amazonian Farming Technique Could Help Save the Rain Forest

    [Updated post] A team of archeologists investigating a savanna region bordering the Amazon Rain Forest has found more conclusive evidence that a low-impact farming technique has been used for over 1500 years; the ‘alternative’ agricultural practice, used by some native populations including the Maya, is mostly abandoned today. But it just may be

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First Annual Recycled Art & Resource Expo (RARE) to Kick Off Up-Coming Earth Day Weekend

(Bellingham, Washington, USA)Β  The first annual Recycled Art and Resource Expo (RARE)Β  is set to kick off April 20 and continue through Earth Day, April 22, in this cozy little college town just minutes from the Canadian border. The inspiration of sculptor, carpenter and event organizer Thor Myhre (in collaboration with Allied Arts), the ambitious

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Animal News Round-Up: Snowy Owls Everywhere, Test Chimps & iPad Apes, A New Urban Frog & A Speedy Robotic Cheetah [VIDEOS]

There’s always some important or interesting animal news to be found out there….but one can hardly report on all of it. I tend to collect such items, and cull from them those I deem most ‘intriguing’, based upon some half-unconscious criteria…Some, of course, you may have heard about (perhaps already read), others you may have

Animal News Round-Up: Snowy Owls Everywhere, Test Chimps & iPad Apes, A New Urban Frog & A Speedy Robotic Cheetah [VIDEOS] Read More πŸ‘‰

Cancer Treatment Breakthrough: A Single Antibody Drug Found to Shrink or Halt 'All Tumors'

  [UPDATED: Sept. 2013; see update note at bottom] A biomedical research team at Stanford University School of Medicine reported yesterday the results of mouseΒ  experiments using an antibody molecule to treat various types of tumorous cancer cells — with results showing significant tumor shrinkage and slowed tumor growth in all cancer cell types tested.

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'Doomsday Virus' Not as Lethal as Feared, Researcher Now Claims

In the continuing controversy over the 2011 experiments with an ‘mutant’ strain of avian flu (H5N1) virus — making it airborne and potentially contagious to humans — lead virus researcher of growing notoriety, Ron Fouchier, told an audience of microbiologists that he did not believe that either the wild-type avian flu virus or his lab’s

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The Experiment: Using Gene Therapy to Save Coral Reefs 'Stressed' by Climate Change

In what could lead to a milestone in genetic ‘engineering’ in the wild, a microbiologist and her team is trying to help stressed coral reefs adapt to climate change and pollution by promoting “beneficial bacteria growth”. To do this, researches are experimenting with a form of gene therapy. Corals offer several important ecosystem services. Corals

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Science is 'Magical' – John Boswell Remixes TED 2012 [VIDEO]

We can be more, we can be much more… From the earliest literary ‘cut up’ experiments of Gyson and Burroughs to more recent, musical ‘sampling’ pastiches by turn-tablists and hip-hoppers, the ‘remix’ trend has surely reached its full blossoming in our modern digital age. One notable niche in this trend has been the auto-tuned, cut-up-remixes

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How Corporations Corrupt Science at the Public's Expense – UCS Report

In an executive summary report released at this year’s Annual Science/AAAS meeting (Feb, 2012, Vancouver, B.C.), the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) lays out five of the primary “methods of abuse” utilized by private corporations “to exert influence at every step of the scientific and policy-making processes, often to shape decisions in their favor or

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'Green Wash'? Tar Sands Companies Form Alliance to Reduce GHGs & Environmental Impacts

In whatΒ  some enviro groups are calling a ‘nice gesture’, but others, such as Greenpeace, are calling ‘green washing’,Β  twelve Alberta Tar Sands developers — the largest oil sands producers in the world — including Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Cenovus Energy Inc. and ConocoPhillips Co., have joined up to form Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance

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Einstein May Still Be Right – 'Faster Than Light Neutrinos' Now Thought Due to Faulty GPS System

Not so fast…Controversial neutrino experiments showing faster-than-light-speed travel may have been due to equipment installation errors… September, 2011 claims by physicists at CERN that they had probably made sub-atomic particles (called neutrinos) travel faster than the speed of light, are now being questioned and attributed to a faulty GPS system, amongst other possibilities. These earlier,

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Tiniest Chameleon Ever Found May Represent Nature's Limit on Reptile Miniaturization [PHOTOS]

An expedition to the African island of Madagascar has uncovered the world’s smallest chameleon. Adult members of the leaf chameleon species Brookesia micra grow to less than 30 millimeters, from nose to tip of the tail, and are found only on the islet of Nosy Hara, just off the extreme northern edge of Madagascar. As

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The Nereus Project – Predicting the Future of the World's Oceans [VIDEO]

Many environmental and sustainability advocates are deeply concerned about the current state of the world’s oceans; many are even looking at present trends to anticipate oceanic changes in the near future. But when it comes to the long-term future of our blue planet’s marine environments, few are looking further into the future than the international

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