Biology Scavenger Hunt News |
Mathematics in Biology |
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For My Biology Girl |
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imaging and computational biology |
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PLoS Biology is Open |
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The Major Unsolved Problem in Biology |
| Scientific American Feb 9 2004 5:17AM GMT |
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Computational Biology Postdoctoral Associate |
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Zygote: A Developmental Biology Website |
| "The
major function of this website is to provide materials to supplement
and enrich courses in developmental biology. It is not a textbook.
While its chapter headings are those of a textbook, the learner is able
to choose his or her own path through the different 'exhibits'. It is
more like a museum than a book." Scott Gilbert, Department of Biology,
Swarthmore College. See also his list of developmental biology websites. |
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UT Southwestern says $12.8 million will help develop biology field |
| Dallas Morning News Feb 20 2004 5:08AM GMT |
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Putting Biology To Work Against Breast Cancer |
| Genetic
research can lead to better treatments... What have all of the
break-hroughs in the understanding of human genetics meant to breast
cancer treatment? Research on genes has led to identifying the BRCA and
CHEK2 mutations that increase risk. While... |
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Vast Opportunties available within Systems Biology as Market value pro |
| Research
and Markets announces the addition of this exciting new report entitled
"Systems Biology - Key to Unlocking the Value within the Omics
Revolution" to its offerings. [PRWEB Jan 31, 2004] |
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RNAi: New technology with potential to revolutionize biology research |
| [PRWEB Feb 21, 2004] |
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Plant Cell biology: Protein degradation protects plants |
| Plant responses to ethylene gas are mediated by SCF |
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MIT News Biology needs a model of complex living systems, Sorger says |
| "Even
with the plethora of existing biological data, Sorger contends that
biology is data-poor in "systematically acquired sets of data. All the
interesting data in what I work in seems to be missing," he said. "We
need to be able to link unstructured data in a systematic way." "The
barrier here is going to be crossed by creativity, not more CPUs,"
Sorger continued. "The goal is to usher in a systems biology approach
without losing the small science that has sustained" the field." |
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One More "Why Hunt." |
| When
you are fed up with the troublesome present, take your gun, whistle for
your dogs, go out to the mountain." -- Jose Ortega Y Gassett, Spanish
philosopher and author of Meditations On Hunting.The Spanish
philosopher had it right. He lived through war-torn Europe in the 1930s
and 1940s, and those hunting thoughts probably offered solace while the
whole world went crazy.Hunters today live in troubled times, and we
face problems more immediate than having... |
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Exposition HUNT |
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Share The Hunt |
| HuntingFootage.com
allows hunters to share their hunting footage with hunters all over the
world. View real hunting footage by real hunters for FREE! [PRWEB Sep
18, 2003] |
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First-Time Hog Hunt |
| My
nephew Rusty and I had hunted together for years. Now it was time for
his first hog hunt, and he was up to the challenge - a hunt both
exciting and fulfilling for everyone involved. First with a rifle... |
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Hunt still on, Rumsfeld says |
| Toronto Star Online Feb 5 2004 9:36AM GMT |
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NPC in new consultant hunt |
| The Korean pension fund seeks advice on investing in fixed income. |
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Volunteering really can help in job hunt |
| San Jose Mercury News Feb 19 2004 1:12PM GMT |
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Hunt for Nalco chief |
| Calcutta Telegraph Feb 20 2004 3:42AM GMT |
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Hunt On For Cockler Gang |
| Sky News Feb 7 2004 7:44AM GMT |
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Md. Sporting on the hunt for sponsors |
| The Statesman Feb 19 2004 11:09PM GMT |
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Police Ask Help In Hunt For Prof |
| New York Post Feb 20 2004 8:15AM GMT |
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Disturbed Hunt For New Bassist |
| Metal Hammer Feb 2 2004 4:57PM GMT |
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Mouse Hunt: Why Roy Disney Is So Mad |
| Fortune Feb 11 2004 2:40PM GMT |
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Texas Goose Hunt |
| Driving
from Florida to Texas just to hunt a few geese? What was I thinking?!
Actually, it turned out quite well, with the usual ups and downs of any
hunting trip. We even got some geese!... |
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Hunt for key Carlie evidence |
| CNN Feb 6 2004 10:38PM GMT |
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Mystery over new hunt for Bin Laden |
| Independent Feb 22 2004 1:38AM GMT |
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GE flowers hunt landmines |
| ONE News Jan 28 2004 7:01AM GMT |
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Hunt for ancient human molecules |
| New technologies may soon allow scientists to identify some of the genes of humankind's oldest ancestors. |
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Firms hiring again, so job hunt shorter |
| Straits Times Jan 31 2004 2:26AM GMT |
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The Hunt For Joi Sandiego, Car keys, and a man in Tokyo |
| [
The San Francisco side ] — [ see the Tokyo Side ]Imagine leaving your
favorite German restaurant in San Francisco, wandering idly towards
your ultimate goal, your car parked a few miles down the blocks, when -
suddenly - you realize your keys are … gone.Well, actually we didn’t.
Peter and I made the trek from Suppenkueche back into the financial
district oblivious to the fact that I had forgotten my keys in Joi’s
car, which - together with Joi - had long since moved on to greener
pastures in his calendar.The time is 11pm, slight rain drizzles down
from an ever-foggy sky. A few homeless guys sleep in the alley across
the street, and I am breaking into my own car. No keys. Calls to
Suppenkueche and a visit to our previous lounge … nothing.One last
possibility - could I have left them in Joi’s car? Calling Joi. No
answer. One open wireless network later, I am on #joiito, where noone
has seen him, either. Suggestions are made, phone numbers are produced
and called, someone carrying Joi’s sidekick is getting very pissed at
repeated calls from strangers.Ado to the rescue. From San Francisco to
Tokyo, back to SF, ado wrestles his way through contact infos and
associated individuals. “Call him again”, says my IRC window. And so I
do. A few short BART rides later, Peter and I enter my car without the
use of a slim jim. The homeless guys still sleep in the alley across
the street.Thanks ado. |
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Billion-dollar oil hunt off the blocks |
| Calcutta Telegraph Feb 6 2004 9:47PM GMT |
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$10,000 Rewards in Kitchenware Manufacturers Hunt |
| Gourmet
Impression LLC offers $10,000 in finders' fees rewards to help meet
overwhelming growing products demand worldwide. [PRWEB Feb 19, 2004] |
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FBI joins Microsoft code hunt |
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FBI Join The Hunt For Music Pirates |
| soundgenerator.com Feb 21 2004 6:44PM GMT |
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Pakistan Steps Up Hunt for Terrorists |
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Sex attacker hunt switches to capital |
| Evening Standard Feb 1 2004 8:44PM GMT |
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Kill Not Needed For Successful Hunt. |
|
To shoot or not to shoot? That was the question.I was in Arizona
several years ago on an elk hunt. Luck had been with me that year, and
I had drawn two of the most difficult elk tags to get. Arizona and New
Mexico, and my New Mexico hunt had ended with me taking a gorgeous
6X5... |
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Book your 2004 Hunt TODAY |
| Ashland
Wisconsin's Backwoods Guide Service is now booking hunts for the 2004
season. Want that bear? Contact us or visit our website for more
information today! [PRWEB Feb 10, 2004] |
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Sex theory in hunt for teachers killer |
| Glasgow Herald Feb 12 2004 4:45AM GMT |
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A Secret Hunt Unravels in Afghanistan |
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Cops hunt kid's rapist |
| New York Daily News Feb 22 2004 10:10AM GMT |
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BB&T Insurance Arm Still in Hunt for Agencies, $30M of Revenue |
| American Banker Feb 23 2004 3:06AM GMT |
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Cops Fly To Africa In Hunt For Lost Explorer |
| Glasgow Sunday Mail Feb 22 2004 3:17AM GMT |
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Garda hunt armed raiders in Dublin |
| IOL Feb 19 2004 4:05PM GMT |
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Hunt for Chief Raises Questions for Coke |
| New York Times Feb 21 2004 6:53AM GMT |
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Police hunt attackers of kibbutz guard |
| Jerusalem Post Feb 8 2004 5:47AM GMT |
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Search engines rule UK supplier hunt |
| Netimperative Feb 11 2004 11:36AM GMT |
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The Boston Globe The big picture |
| "Now,
quite suddenly, biology is being consumed by a fast-moving intellectual
revolution that could profoundly change the course of science -- and
medicine -- in the new century. Called "systems biology," it is an
audacious attempt to transcend molecular biology and understand
organisms as complex interacting systems that are more than the sum of
their parts -- that the best way to understand ants, for instance, is
to study colonies rather than just the individual insects. In only a
few years, ... |
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Designer Hunt 2004 to infuse a dose of fresh talent |
| Budding
Rohit Bal’s and Manish Malhotra’s have an open invitation to showcase
their abilities at Designer Hunt 2004 and stake claim to the hallowed
portals of the fashion world. After the success of last year’s talent
hunt, the competition in its second edition is already witnessing
vigorous activity with over 300 entries from across the country
competing for top honours, an enthusiastic 50% increase in
participation since last year. The only competition of its kind,
Designer Hunt 2004 boasts of an extravaganza of talent who will lead
Indian fashion into the future. [PRWEB Feb 22, 2004] |
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Charles Darwin's Birthday |
| Today would had been the 195th birthday of the naturalist Charles Darwin.
Some evolutionary biology |
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McGreevey Lied, Bears Died? |
| Activists ratchet up the rhetoric against New Jersey Governor over bear hunt. |
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Dawkins on the Mac |
| Richard Dawkins, the pipe-hitting defender of evolutionary biology, praises the Macintosh on its 20t |
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Updated synopsis and photo online for Enterprise's 'Hatchery' |
| Updated information for next week's all-new installment of Enterprise as the hunt for the Xindi WMD continues... |
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First Time's a Charm |
| First
times mean a lot. First hunt, first kill, first buck... they all add up
to something intangible that's unlike anything else I've ever known,
and I'm sure glad I didn't miss out on it!... |
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The New Frontier: Living Machines |
| Technology
and biology are converging fast. The result will transform everything
from engineering to art -- and redefine life as we know it. A Wired
magazine special report. |
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Activists Hail 'Dirty War' Arrest |
| Mexico's
capture of ex-official 'breathes new life' into hunt for those behind
disappearances of 532 leftist prisoners in the 1970s and '80s. |
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South Dakota Proposes Allowing Aerial Hunting on Public Lands |
| Regulatory change would allow private pilots to hunt coyotes and foxes on over one million acres of public land. |
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Friends of Animals Organizes "Howl-Ins" to Protest Aerial Shooting of |
| Friends of Animals tries to duplicate success of 1992 protests that stopped planned Alaskan wolf hunt. |
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Europe Stops Looking for Lost Mars Lander (AP) |
| AP
- European scientists signaled the end of their hunt for the missing
Beagle 2 Mars lander Wednesday by announcing an investigation into the
disappearance of the British-built spacecraft. |
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1Up Info : Science and Technology Encyclopedia |
| Browse
through articles spanning topics such as astronomy, space exploration,
biology, genetics, biochemistry, chemistry, computers & electrical
engineering, mathematics, physics, technology, and biographies. |
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Crytek Follow-up |
| German
developer Crytek (thanks Andy and Jonas) has a follow-up to reports
from yesterday that their offices had been raided in a hunt for pirated
software (story). Apparently no arrests or... |
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Resolutions for a New Year |
| As
a new year dawns, I have decided that this is it - the year that I will
finally put my genealogy in order. You see, I have this tendency of
getting so wrapped up in the hunt for my... |
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Bio Word Dissections |
| Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.
Yes, this is an actual word. What does it mean? Biology can be filled
with words that sometimes seem incomprehensible. By "dissecting" these
words into discrete units, even the most complex terms can be
understood. Read more.... |
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Mystery Continues: Scientists Baffled by Spheres on Mars (SPACE.com) |
| SPACE.com - A new close-up image of the Martian surface reveals more of the tiny
spherical objects that have been puzzling scientists for several days.
Researchers reiterated that they don't know what process created the spheres but
that they don't think biology is involved. |
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The science of boys basketball |
| Mercer
Island head coach Ed Pepple did not teach biology during his teaching
days, but Friday the Islander boys basketball team proved that they
have been taught how to dissect a tough opponent from incision to
suture. |
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NASA's Rovers Continue Missions on Mars (AP) |
| AP
- The Spirit rover laboriously gouged a trench in the martian soil and
its twin Opportunity rolled off to peer at a rock dubbed "El Capitan",
as the robots continued to hunt for signs that the Red Planet was once
wet enough to support life. |
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Review of Charmed Circle |
| As
I continue my hunt for great Pagan fiction, I am pleased to announce
the release of the second novel involving Cassandra Shipton and her
Wiccan circle: Charmed Circle. The women find themselves in trouble
again when neighbours go missing,... |
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2004 Raybestos Rookie Of The Year Preview |
| The
2004 Raybestos Rookie Of The Year candidates have the potential to make
an instant mark on the sport. Brendan Gaughan, Johnny Sauter, Scott
Riggs, Scott Wimmer, Kasey Kahne and Brian Vickers are all in the hunt.
How do their... |
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Robot Scientist |
| "Researchers
said yesterday that they have created the world's first robotic
scientist, a system that can form theories, devise experiments, and
then carry out the experiments almost entirely without human help. The
system, say its British creators, did just as well as biology graduate
students in solving a problem in genetics..." |
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Jimi Hendrix Tabs |
| On
the hunt for Jimi Hendrix guitar tabs? Here is your one-stop resource
for finding Hendrix tabs on the web. Archived both by album, and
alphabetically. Over 85 tabs available!... |
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February 13, 2004, Hour One: AAAS Remote: Oxygen |
| Join
Ira Flatow and guests in this edition of Science Friday as the talk
turns to oxygen--from the story of its discovery, to new discoveries
about the biology of Element 8. Plus, "Oxygen" on stage. We're
broadcasting live from the annual meeting of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science in Seattle. |
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Pixar Eyes March Start for Studio Talks (Reuters) |
| Reuters - Computer animated film maker Pixar
Animation Studios Inc. is eyeing a March start for its hunt to
find a new film distribution partner with the goal of striking
a deal in the fall, Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs said on
Wednesday. |
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Mayor: Up to 38 Dead at Water Park |
| The
death toll from the collapse of the Transvaal Park swimming complex
could reach as high as 38, Mayor Yury Luzhkov said, as rescue workers
gave up their hunt for survivors Monday. -Other stories talk about
substandart materials, cited builders and architects. All a big problem
in the fast growing building industry. |
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Number 1 University for Medicine! |
| Not
only Sunday Times University of the Year, but also, Number 1 University
for Medicine in The Good University guide from The Times Newspaper.
Newcastle is ranked 1st for Medicine, 3rd for Anatomy & Physiology,
5th for
Dentistry, 8th for Molecular Biology and 12th for both Pharmacology and
Psychology.
|
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Protein ID Mapping Service Available Free at Ariadne Genomics Web Site |
| ROCKVILLE,
MD., February 5, 2004 – Ariadne Genomics, Inc., today announced the
availability of its new free web service – Protein ID Mapping, enabling
biology researchers from academia and pharmaceutical industry to map
protein IDs from one database source or microarray platform to another.
The new service is available at www.ariadnegenomics.com. [PRWEB Feb 5,
2004] |
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Electronic tag helped track Sabaya's whereabouts |
| AN
ELECTRONIC tag. A satellite beacon. And Gracia Burnham's voice.Like
scenes from a Hollywood techno-thriller, electronic gadgets and a
telltale voice helped the military track the whereabouts of Abu Sabaya
and his hostages for nearly two months, according to an INQ7.net source
involved in the hunt for the Abu Sayyaf.(inq7.net) |
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Kickoff of Essay Series on Scholar's Box (#0) |
| Today,
I kick off a series of occasional essays about the Scholar's Box and
closely related topics. If the series is successful, readers will be
able to understand the work that the Interactive University is doing on
the Scholar's Box without having to hunt and peck for sundry clues
scattered throughout the many presentations, articles, and weblog
entries in which we have referred to the Scholar's Box. Read the
complete essay.... |
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Worlds of Science and Nature |
| Science
refers to a body of knowledge, or a method of study devoted to
developing this body of knowledge, concerning the universe gained
through methodological observation and experimentation. The scientific
method consists of various principles and procedures that are objective
and repeatable by other scientists. Some of the major branches of
science are astronomy, biology, chemistry, and physics. Sciences are
typically very dependant on mathematics. |
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French headscarf law also bans anti-Semitism, creationism? |
|
Reuters says the controversial new French law banning religious symbols
in schools is also aimed at curbing anti-Semitism, and religious
objections to curriculum content.[Education Minister Luc Ferry] told
Europe 1 radio this meant that "they have no right to contest the
contents of a course, for example the program on the Holocaust in
history or human reproduction in biology or (attending) physical
education."Teachers have complained in recent years of growing
problems... |
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Deal to Offer 600+ Annotated Genomes in Concert with Pathway Analysis |
| ROCKVILLE,
MD, December 9, 2003 - Ariadne Genomics, Inc., a leading developer of
systems biology tools, today announced a strategic partnership with
Integrated Genomics Inc., a leading microbial genomics company. The
deal allows medical research scientists worldwide to easily access and
analyze 600+ annotated microbial and eukaryotic genomes. [PRWEB Dec 9,
2003] |
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SC wine and food festival 'biggest yet' |
| Organisers
of South Canterbury's annual wine and food festival are predicting this
year's event will be the biggest yet, with a line-up of top-class
entertainment. The festival ñ one of the major fundraisers for the
South Canterbury Hospice ñ will be held on Sunday at the old Hadlow
Game Park, with Sam Hunt and Gary McCormick heading the bill with a
mixture of poetry and laughter. |
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The Times of India Sun sets sight on centre for bio-informatics |
| "Software
major Sun Microsystems would set up a Centre of Excellence (CoE) for
medical bio-informatics at Centre for DNA Fingerprinting Analysis and
Development (CDFD) here. The CoE would help in analysis, storage of
biological research in areas like genomics, structural biology and
molecular evolutionary genetics." "The proposed CoE is the ninth major
medical bio-informatics centre established by Sun in the world and
first in India." |
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American Idol of Inventions Underway |
| Inventor
Rich Errera, is a proud semi-finalist in the United Inventors
Association / Inventors' Digest 2003 National New Products Hunt, which
was sponsored by the Procter & Gamble Company. He has an excellent
chance of going all the way to number one, especially since thousands
in over 30 countries are already on a waiting list for his inventions
that create "talking foods" to be manufactured
(http://www.GourmetImpression.com). His two unique Patents Pending food
embossing inventions were elected from a field of more than 400
entries, which were submitted by inventors from across the United
States, having strong competition. The ten finalists will be announced
in early November. [PRWEB Oct 18, 2003] |
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Scientists Call for Protection of Coral |
| BBC
Environment -- More than 1,100 marine scientists have signed a
statement calling on the UN and world governments to stop the
destruction of deep-sea corals. The researchers want a moratorium on
the use of the heavy trawling gear that gouges coral and sponges from
the ocean bottom in search of valuable fish. Some of the coral fields
will contain thousands of species and are sometimes called the
"rainforests of the deep". "Bottom trawling is like fishing with
bulldozers," said expert Elliot Norse. "It's devastatingly efficient in
one sense; it's a way to get fish relatively easily and painlessly, if
you don't mind killing all of the life on the bottom to catch them,"
the president of the US Marine Conservation Biology Institute told the
BBC. The gear is huge. Nets are armed with steel weights or heavy
rollers and destroy everything in their path. At the cold depths of one
to two kilometres, the growth rates of all organisms are incredibly
slow and the coral fields have little chance to re-establish
themselves. Some of the corals resemble trees - they can be up to 10
metres tall - and some specimens have been found to be almost 2,000
years old. "They are sources of future medicines, they are recorders of
global climate change because they live so long, and they provide
habitat for many other species including some really important
commercial fish," says Dr Norse. "They are also exquisitely beautiful
organisms." It is the big and valuable species - cod, orange roughy,
armorhead, grenadier and Chilean seabass - that live among the coral
that draw the trawlers. But these fish species, too, cannot sustain
heavy losses. (02/16/04) |
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Microchip-Grown Nerve Cells Communicate With Brain |
| From
CNEWS: Researchers at the University of Calgary have found that nerve
cells grown on a microchip can learn and memorize information which can
be communicated to the brain. This is a giant leap in answering several
fundamental questions of biology and neuro-electronics that will pave
the way for us to harness the power of nanotechnology. The findings
could help in the design of devices that combine electronic components
and brain cells. That includes controlling artificial limbs or
restoring sight for the visually impaired. Future research will focus
on interfacing silicon chips with the human brain to control artificial
limbs and develop "thinking" computers. The article was published on
Physical Review Letters, February 2004, as "Neuron-Semiconductor Chip
with Chemical Synapse between Identified Neurons". Abstract:
Noninvasive electrical stimulation and recording of neuronal networks
from semiconductor chips is a prerequisite for the development of
neuroelectronic devices. In a proof-of-principle experiment, we
implemented the fundamental element of such future hybrids by joining a
silicon chip with an excitatory chemical synapse between a pair of
identified neurons from the pond snail. We stimulated the presynaptic
cell (VD4) with a chip capacitor and recorded the activity of the
postsynaptic cell (LPeD1) with a transistor. We enhanced the strength
of the soma-soma synapse by repetitive capacitor stimulation,
establishing a neuronal memory on the silicon chip. |
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A handmade URL for Nicolas Kristof |
| Kristof
testily adopts a mildly apocalyptic tone in today's column:After you've
seen how quickly national leaders can bungle national economies, and
how difficult it is to put Humpty Dumpty together again, you have less
patience for high-risk intellectual dishonesty like Mr. Bush's fiscal
policy.
Nick, when you're driven by God, the costs of stoning Satan are legion.
But, what in fact attracted my bilious morning eye in Kristof's column
was an oddly analog-ish note further down. It points us to a document -
an excerpt from a speech given by the President in 2001 to a joint
session of Congress:I've excerpted that speech at
www.nytimes.com/kristofresponds (look for Posting No. 266), and it
makes painful reading.
If the speech makes painful reading, a feckless pointer such as this
makes for awkward reference. One must copy just the right words, paste
them into a new browser window, to arrive at the first of 266 Kristof
replies, etc.
There's something beyond mere digital hamhandedness here. Is the idea
to make the experience of reading the Times' online edition as close as
possible to wrestling with the pulp version? Hunt, peck, and maybe
you'll find that reference before the subway passes your stop? Is it
contempt - personal or institutional - for the hygenic ease of
networked information ("real newspaper readers eat newsprint for
breakfast"), or a fear of the awesome subtractive power of links?
One can theorize all day, but we bloggers should be pitching in to help
journalism reach its full potential through our very best pragmatic and
constructive efforts. In the interests of making the online Times a tad
more user friendly, I've taken the liberty of constructing for Mr.
Kristof's excerpt its very own URL. He and the Times are hereby granted
use of this url free and clear of Intellectual Property restrictions,
fees, attribution requirements and subscription procedures. It's the
least a blogger can do. |
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A New Vision for America |
| Josh
Harkinson writes: Judy Wicks founded the White Dog Café on the first
floor of her Philadelphia home in 1983. Her food took its cue from the
innovative New American cuisine of Alice Waters's Chez Panisse in
Berkeley: updated regional dishes, rebuilt on a foundation of seasonal
local produce. At the White Dog the food was a hit, and diners soon
spilled onto the sidewalk, waiting for a chance to taste farm-fresh
strawberry pie and the succulent local tomatoes on Betty's Beef Kabobs.
As the restaurant grew, so did Wicks's notion that the strength of her
business relied upon the quality and sustainability of its locally
grown ingredients. Six years ago, after reading about the horrors of
industrial hog farms, she stormed into her kitchen, scratched pork off
the menu, and went searching for a farmer with a soft spot in his heart
for pigs. Her hunt took Wicks beyond the meat wholesalers, who knew not
whence their cuts came, to Glen Brendle, a farmer who delivered produce
to the White Dog in his compact pickup truck. Brendle knew Amish
farmers in nearby Lancaster County who still were raising hogs the old
way. But he barely had room in his pickup for vegetables, let alone
pork chops, so Wicks gave him a low-interest loan to purchase a
refrigerated cargo truck. The loan enabled him to deliver meat to more
than fifteen restaurants and caterers, creating an entirely new market
in Philadelphia for locally grown, humanely raised, free-range pigs.
"Judy is an enabler," Brendle says. "Without her encouragement and
financial help I probably wouldn't be doing this." That could have been
the end of the story, but Wicks saw something powerful in what she and
Brendle had done. She began to envision how strengthening relationships
between independent, community-rooted enterprises could inspire broad
and profound cultural change. In 2001, she and cofounder Laury Hammel
unveiled the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE), the
first national network of small, sustainable companies dedicated to
buying and selling products locally. The organization supports
merchants who are deeply committed to their communities and who define
success more holistically than the managers of investor-owned
corporations. (02/06/04) |
| Full Story |
The New Urban Flight |
| Defenders
of Wildlife-- Devotees call it “the hawk bench.” At first glance, it’s
a bench just like the many others scattered around New York City’s
Central Park. What makes this one different is the people who gather
there and the animal that piques their interest. The “hawk benchers”
arrive as early as 5 a.m., and often don’t leave until after sunset,
their eyes baggy and rimmed with indentations from binoculars or
spotting scopes. The sight they’ve come to see would have been nearly
unimaginable three decades ago: a red-tailed hawk plummeting down from
its perch on a high-rise building to snap up an unsuspecting squirrel,
pigeon or a tasty city rat. Seeing the nearly two-foot-long,
broad-winged, round-tailed hawks soaring and diving over the park gives
the hawkaholics a connection with the wild world normally not available
to those that live in metropolises such as New York City. According to
E.J. McAdams, the executive director of New York City Audubon, the
Central Park hawks give people a “sense that wildlife has returned to
the city.” “I love knowing that, just because I live in a big city, it
doesn’t mean that I have to be isolated from the natural world,” says
Marie Winn, a regular hawk bencher and author of Red-Tails in Love, a
popular book about Central Park’s birds. “I love the feeling of
community I’ve found among my fellow Central Park birdwatchers and
nature lovers, who, being city dwellers just as I am, might treasure
the wilderness in our little urban enclave more than those who live out
in the country and in the wide open spaces.” What the hawk benchers are
witnessing in New York is part of a growing phenomenon around the
country—the arrival of large birds of prey in the unfamiliar habitat of
skyscrapers and roads. Since the 1970s, hawks, falcons and other
raptors have populated cityscapes such as New York, Washington, D.C.,
Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Louis, Tucson, San Diego, Los Angeles, San
Francisco and Montreal, among others. There are many reasons for the
raptors’ urban advent, experts say: biologists have reintroduced the
birds to urban areas; the harmful pesticide DDT was banned in the
United States and Canada; the Endangered Species Act and other
environmental legislation offer increased protection for raptors; the
loss of wild habitat forces the birds to be more creative; ample
perching spots allow raptors to hunt and avoid predators; and prey,
such as songbirds, squirrels, pigeons and rats, is abundant year-round.
(02/11/04) |
| Full Story |
It's Raining Science Links |
| Sometimes
there's just so many interesting science stories showing up all at once
that I just can't decide which one to expand into a full length story.
(That's true even when there's stories I'd just love to expand, like
today's flap about scientists that are speaking out against the Bush
Administration's misuse of science. But since I discovered yesterday
that I may already be under observation by the Feds as a suspected
terrorist, I've decided not to rock the boat on politics and science
issues today - I'll wait at least until tomorrow). So lucky you, I do
the digging and you do the reading: Called "the most sophisticated
thing the human race has ever tried to put into space", NASA's Gravity
Probe B satellite is getting ready for launch and so is Demonstration
of Autonomous Rendezvous Technology (DART) but not (for a while longer)
the hypersonic X-43 test vehicle or (ever at all) the Orbital Space
Plane, whose official cancellation has put hundreds of people
out-of-a-job in my hometown of Huntsville, Alabama, an aerospace
community already reeling from the front-page loss of local legend Aunt
Eunice who always tried (and succeeded!) in serving the most tasty
country ham and red-eyed gravy on Earth to those visiting astronauts
with sophisticated tastes who dined at her Country Kitchen as members
of the human race and were later put into space... A private foundation
for continuing the Hubble Telescope is proposed even as more hardware
is built for a large-scale orbiting European instrument to replace
Hubble (and NASA) as the premier source of space based optical
astronomy just as Europe's Mars Express is snapping breathtaking new
views of the Red Planet. Enthusiasts are also trying to set up an
avenue for private funding of Moon-Mars missions which are apparently
going to include a 2009 nuclar powered robot roaming Mars and a robot
airplane above Mars sometime after that, but whether or not people
could ever go to Mars and discover the meaning of Martian life is a
question of radiation... And speaking of life, the $1000 personal
genome reading draws closer, which could tell you if you've got the
genes it takes to live to be 100... as Celeron's private human genome
database is being put into the public domain... CSI-style techniques to
identify life molecules in archeology samples promises to revolutionize
our family tree as much as more traditional genetics and molecular
biology has... a survey of scientists on stem cells is in... a 70
million year old bird fossil is found which fortunately hadn't already
been eaten by other canibalistic birds or hunting parties guided by
satellites... scientists learn about DNA damage from low-level magnetic
fields even as they print out three-dimensional cellular strucures
using a bioprinterand repair damaged nerve cells, a single one of which
can move a rat whisker...many of which started evolving earlier that we
previously thought into a human brain...many of which are now being
compiled into a Chinese brain bank... And speaking of a discovery that
bridges the gap between the living and the nonliving, a new method for
converting nitrogen to ammonia has been discovered. Doesn't sound like
a big deal? Wrong. Understanding this single chemical reaction
literally keeps hundreds of millions of people from starving to death;
it's the key step in how agricultural fertilizers are made. Thus
continuing progress in seemingly mundane chemistry is critically
important to our civilization - heck, we don't even fully understand
water yet. And speaking of non-life and water, global warming will
squeeze Western mountains dry by 2050... a new form of mad-cow disease
is killing cows... black holes are killing stars... hydrocarbon lakes
and oceans deadly to Earth life may be nurturing life on Titan...
clouds of gas in space may provide a better view of distant objects
through lensing... and silicon sees the light... And speaking of... |
| Full Story |
