ANIMALS - Koalas' low-pitched voice explained by unique organ
The pitch of male koalas' mating calls is about 20 times lower than it should be, given the Australian marsupial's relatively small size. Now, researchers have discovered their secret: koalas have a specialized sound-producing organ that has never before been seen in any other land-dwelling mammal. The key feature of this newly described organ is its location outside the voice box, what scientists call the larynx .. ...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/12/131202121445.ht
ANIMALS - Mice can inherit learned sensitivity to a smell
A surprising example of apparent inheritance of an experience: Researchers found that when a mouse is trained to become afraid of a certain odor, his or her pups will be more sensitive to that odor, even though the pups have never encountered it .. ...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/12/131202121544.ht
ANIMALS - Rights Group Sues to Have Chimp Recognized as Legal Person
The Nonhuman Rights Project is using the novel strategy in seeking to have the chimp removed from his owners and placed in a sanctuary .. ...
http://www-nc.nytimes.com/2013/12/03/science/rights-group-su
ART - Prix Pictet photography prize shortlist is out and it's all about consumption
Consumption is the theme of this year's Prix Pictet and there are many different interpretations of it .. ...
BOOKS - Book Excerpt: The Prophet of Dry Hill
On transforming ourselves in nature by turning outwards .. ...
http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/books/excerpts.php?id
CLIMATE - Evolution of Himalayan flowers sheds light on climate change
Flower colour in some parts of the world, including the Himalayas, has evolved to attract bees as pollinators, research has shown for the first time ..http://phys.org/news/2013-12-evolution-himalayan-climate.htm
CLIMATE - More droughts, heavier rains in warmer Europe, study reports
Europe will likely be a much warmer place by century's end, plagued by frequent downpours over its entire landmass and heatwaves and droughts in the south, new research showed Monday .. ...
http://phys.org/news/2013-12-droughts-heavier-warmer-europe.
CLIMATE - Photo: Stranded houses tell a story of super storms and shifting shorelines
This photo from 2011 shows houses stranded near Pea Island NWR after Hurricane Irene blew through the area. With climate change causing both stronger storms and rising sea levels, beach front property is no longer the investment it once was .. ...
CLIMATE - UN Climate Panel Warns Of Rising Temperatures
UN climate panel warns of rising temperatures (via AFP)A UN panel said Friday it was more certain than ever that humans were the cause of global warming and predicted temperatures would rise another 0.3 to 4.8 degrees Celsius (0.5-8.6 degrees Fahrenheit) this century. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate… .. ...
CLIMATE - UN panel's climate report sparks concern
Scientists, environmentalists and politicians reacted with concern Friday as a UN climate panel warned temperatures could rise by as much as 4.8 degrees Celsius (8.6 degrees Fahrenheit) this century due to man's voracious energy consumption .. ...
http://phys.org/news/2013-09-panel-climate_1.htm
CLIMATE - Climate Panel Says Upper Limit on Emissions Is Nearing
Top climate scientists have reinforced the finding that global warming is caused primarily if not exclusively by humans, and is likely to get significantly worse if efforts to limit the emissions are not rapidly accelerated .. ...
http://www-nc.nytimes.com/2013/09/28/science/global-climate-
EARTH - Rare, spectacular photos show the Grand Canyon filled to the brim with fog
National parks always make for great nature porn, but the photos taken at the Grand Canyon this weekend are uniquely breathtaking. In what the Grand Canyon National Park, on its Facebook page, referred to as a "once in a lifetime, outstanding, crazy, amazing, mind blowing" temperature inversion, the gorges on Friday filled entirely with rolling clouds of fog. About 4.17 trillion cubic meters of it .. ...
http://www.salon.com/2013/12/02/rare_spectacular_photos_show
EARTH - What drives earthquake aftershocks?
On 27 February 2010 an earthquake of magnitude 8.8 struck South-Central Chile near the town of Maule. The main shock displaced the subduction interface by up to 16 meters. Like usually after strong earthquakes a series of aftershocks occurred in the region with decreasing size over the next months. A surprising result came from an afterslip study: Up to 2 meters additional slip occurred along the plate interface within 420 days onlyhttp://phys.org/news/2013-12-earthquake-aftershocks.htm
ECONOMICS - Enron’s revenge: Forget about retirement
It’s official: America has entered a retirement crisis. Or, as Forbes understatedly put it, “the greatest retirement crisis in the history of the world.” And, while the causes are manifold — the demographic bulge of baby boomers leaving the fulltime workforce; greater worker longevity; the disastrous, 30-year shift from traditional defined benefit pensions to costly 401(k)-style planshttp://www.salon.com/2013/12/02/enrons_revenge_forget_about_
ECONOMICS - Researchers analyze growth potential in African bank loans
In Africa, small women-owned business owners find it easier to obtain loans than their male counterparts. The reason for this distortion is that politicians and foreign aid organisations with their focus on bank loans for women encourage African banks to base their credit availability on gender. Contrary to intentions, there is thus a risk of inhibiting growth in the private sector, conclude researchers from the University of Copenhagenhttp://phys.org/news/2013-12-growth-potential-african-bank-l
EDUCATION - I'm Not Just Gaming, Ma! I'm Helping The World's Farmers
A computer game wants you to help survey the world's cropland. The hope is that the map will be used by organizations around the globe that are working with farmers to manage their crops better and get more out of each harvest.http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/11/25/247210031/i-m-no
EDUCATION - Parents' work hours in evenings, nights, weekends disadvantage children
A comprehensive review of studies on parents’ work schedules and child development spanning the last three decades shows that parents’ work schedules in evenings, nights and weekends, so called “nonstandard work schedules” or “unsociable work hours”, may have negative consequences for children. When parents work such hours, children tended to have more behavioral problems, poorer cognitive ability, and were more likely to be overweight or obesehttp://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/12/131202082410.ht
EDUCATION - Schooled: Does Class Size Matter?
To listen to Schooled, Episode 5, use the player below .. ...
http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/education/2013/12/sch
EDUCATION - Survey: Rich kids reap benefits of online courses
Most people taking free online courses worldwide are among the best-educated and wealthiest of the population, casting doubt on the idea that the classes will benefit the disenfranchised, a survey showed.More than half of those taking massive open online courses, or MOOCs, were men and the majority were already employed, according to Ezekiel Emanuel, vice provost for Global Initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania and one of the authorshttp://www.salon.com/2013/12/02/survey_rich_kids_reap_benefi
ENERGY - City-Owned Texas Utility Already Serves 40% Renewable Energy
Is having local control of a utility the key to ramping up renewable energy?In 2011, Boulder citizens voted to have their city take over the electric utility, joining 1 in 7 Americans served by municipal electric utilities. Their feasibility study suggests they can more than double renewable energy on their system to over 50%, slashing greenhouse gas emissions. A study in Santa Fe, NM, suggests a similar increase (to 45% clean energy)http://cleantechnica.com/2013/12/02/city-owned-texas-utility
ENERGY - Deep Green Power Plant Taps Low-Velocity Tidal Energy With Underwater Kites
A Swedish start-up company is generating electricity from low-velocity tidal currents with a system of underwater kites called "Deep Green." The kites are equipped with turbines tethered to the ocean floor and move through the current in an 8-shaped trajectory .. ...
http://www.forbes.com/sites/williampentland/2013/12/02/deep-
ENERGY - Germany To Consider ‘Virtual Baseload’ In Expanding Renewable Targets
Originally published on RenewEconomyGermany is expanding its renewable energy targets under a grand coalition agreement by the country’s two major political parties, but is also toying with the idea of introducing the concept of “virtual base-load”.In a 168-document released by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s centre right CPD party and the smaller centre left SPD, it is clear that the two parties remain committed to the “Energiewende”,http://cleantechnica.com/2013/12/02/germany-consider-virtual
ENERGY - Households to Play Key Role in Financing Distributed Storage
The potential for many thousands of battery systems to act as a grid stabilizer has been highlighted at a renewable energy storage conference underway this week in Berlin. The distributed storage solution has been touted as cost-effective, as it mobilizes low-interest investment from private households. A series of presenters at the 8th International Renewable Energy Storage Conference (IRES), in the German capital, have set out how distributed ...
ENERGY - Province of Ontario bans coal power plants, Al Gore cheers
But will the biomass replacing it at one power plant any better for the environment .. ...
ENERGY - Renewable sources can provide stable power
Renewable energy sources - an area in which Germany is a leader - are becoming increasingly important for the worldwide power mix. Nevertheless, experts are still deliberating which market model is best for transitioning to renewables. However, one of the major technological challenges in this regard, namely balancing the fluctuations that are caused by wind and solar power, may soon be solved. The research project Kombikraftwerk 2http://phys.org/news/2013-12-renewable-sources-stable-power.
ENVIRONMENT - Busted! Google Earth reveals weir fishing is "grossly underreported", could be 6x official number
One of the big problems with fighting overfishing is that the quality of the data is often bad. A lot of fishing takes place off the books .. ...
ENVIRONMENT - Greenpeace Shows That Fukushima And Chernobyl Are So Safe That We Should All Go Nuclear
This isn't, of course, what Greenpeace thinks it is showing in this latest report that they've backed but it is indeed the conclusion that we should draw from the research that has been done.http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/12/02/greenpeac
ENVIRONMENT - Microplastics make marine worms sick
Tiny bits of plastic trash could spell big trouble for marine life, starting with the worms, say a team of researchers from Plymouth University and the University of Exeter who report their evidence in a pair of studies in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on December 2. Those marine worms play a key ecological role as an important source of food for other animalshttp://phys.org/news/2013-12-microplastics-marine-worms-sick
ENVIRONMENT - Study: It's not easy 'being green'
Think you don't recycle enough? You're not alone. However, people's ability to overcome self-doubt plays a critical role in how successfully they act in support of environmental issues, according to a new study .. ...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/12/131202134848.ht
ENVIRONMENT - What’s All This About The World Bank Not Financing Any More Nukes?
As the cleanup drama continues to unspool around the tsunami-damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan, the Internets have been cheering the news that the World Bank will not be financing any more such facilities in the future. That’s nice, really, except that it’s not exactly news. The World Bank has not directly financed any nuclear power plants since it put up $40 million for a 150,000 kilowatt plant in Italy back in 1959, and to da .. ...
FASHION - Around The World, Notions Of Beauty Can Be A Real Beast
In pursuit of beauty, women around the globe subject themselves to complicated and bizarre, not to mention dangerous, procedures. In the West, that can mean going for darker skin. In Africa and parts of Asia, the opposite is the goal. Seriously, a sister just can't win.» E-Mail This » Add to Del.icio.uhttp://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2013/09/26/226565319/arou
MOVIES - 'Hobbit' actor Ian McKellen admits 'I never understand the plot' of the movies
Whether Ian McKellen is discussing his latest movie, "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug," sharing photos of his Thanksgiving dinner with Patrick Stewart or admiring TODAY's Matt Lauer's "No-Shave November" beard, he's always got a smile on his face .. ...
http://www.today.com/entertainment/hobbit-actor-ian-mckellen
PEOPLE - Carolyn Hax: Should they move in together after dating for five months?
Adapted from a recent online discussion. Hi, Carolyn: Recently, my boyfriend of five months has brought up living together. I’m totally on board, mainly because the couples I know who have made it to the altar (whose relationships I look up to), all recommend doing this before getting married.http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/carolyn-hax-sh
PEOPLE - Paul Salopek seeks to retrace the path of modern mankind
Paul Salopek is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and National Geographic fellow who is one year into an epic seven-year project to walk around the world, retracing the ancient footsteps of modern mankind. The first of his magazine stories about the project runs in this month’s issue of National Geographic.http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/paul-salopek-s
PEOPLE - They Asked If She Had Anything Else She Wanted To Say To The Audience. That's When She Took It Home.
At the end of this clip, she gives a great goal for what I hope young men achieve in the coming generations.http://www.upworthy.com/they-asked-if-she-had-anything-else-
SCIENCE - Cotton breeding researchers take giant leap
Narrow germplasm base and limited technology have made it difficult for cotton researchers to identify specific DNA markers needed to locate genes that confer desirable traits. But that's no longer the casehttp://phys.org/news/2013-12-cotton-giant.htm
SCIENCE - Invisibility cloak hides parts of objects, leaves other parts visible
(Phys.org) —When Harry Potter walks around with a visible head but an invisible body, the performance seems strongly rooted in fantasy. But in a new study, scientists have designed and fabricated an invisibility cloak that may make such a feat possible. The new cloak can conceal some arbitrarily chosen parts of objects while leaving other parts visible, making it a localized invisibility cloak .. ...
http://phys.org/news/2013-12-invisibility-cloak-visible.htm
SCIENCE - New method for creating mesoporous materials from industrial polymers
A team of researchers in the Separation Functional Materials Group of the Polymer Materials Unit, Advanced Key Technologies Division, National Institute for Materials Science, succeeded in developing a high-performance oil absorbent by creating a mesoporous material with pores of approximately 10 nm in diameter, using engineering plastics that are widely used as industrial materials .. ...
http://phys.org/news/2013-12-method-mesoporous-materials-ind
SCIENCE - When aluminum outshines gold: Aluminum's valuable plasmonic properties detailed
Aluminum's plasmonic properties may make it far more valuable than gold and silver for certain applications. Researchers provide experimental and theoretical proof of the metal's potential .. ...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/12/131202134814.ht
SPACE - Comet ISON Is No More, NASA Says
There were hopes over the weekend that ISON might have survived its close encounter with the sun. But "with more than a little sadness," the space agency says, "we have to declare the comet lost."http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/12/02/248202813/com
SPACE - For The First Time, China Launches A Moon Rover Mission
The mission has become a reason for national pride in the country. If successful, China would join the U.S. and the former Soviet Union as the only countries to achieve a soft landing on the moon.http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/12/02/248174269/for
SPACE - NASA design challenge to simulate human exploration of Mars
NASA is debuting a new engineering design challenge to engage students worldwide in the next phase of human space exploration. The NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge is a more complex follow-on to the successful NASA Great Moonbuggy Race .. ...
http://phys.org/news/2013-12-nasa-simulate-human-exploration
TREES - Invasion of the pine beetles: The ecological disaster that New Jersey’s allowing to happen
The New York Times is sounding the alarm about New Jersey's pine beetle infestation, a little-noted but potentially disastrous threat to its forests that's almost certainly been caused by global warming. The insects have already destroyed tens of thousands of acres of pine forest in the state, and are expected to soon make their way north to Long Island and Cape Cod.The best solution, according to a number of experts, would be to cut down somehttp://www.salon.com/2013/12/02/invasion_of_the_pine_beetles
TREES - Rotting trees threaten U.S. farmers, Christmas
There are between 25 and 30 million "Real Christmas Trees" sold each year in the U.S., according to the National Christmas Tree Association, and 350 million growing on Christmas Tree Farms. And phytophthora root rot, an insidious water mold, is threatening them all. From the Associated Press:"Phytophthora is a problem in most areas where true firs ... are grown," said Gary A. Chastagner, a plant pathologist and extension specialist at Washington ...
http://www.salon.com/2013/12/02/rotting_trees_threaten_u_s_f
TREES - Trees are awesome: Study shows tree leaves can capture 50%+ of particulate matter pollution
Breathing is no optional, so air pollution matters. Recent studies by the World Health Organization (WHO) have shown that air pollution kills more people than AIDS and malaria combined and causes cancer .. ...
WATER - Corals surviving ocean's pollution
Unlike other marine species, the corals are still capable of adapting under current circumstances of sea acidification. “The first models indicated that the coral reefs would disappear midcentury, but our study reveals that corals are adapting to the ocean’s acidification that has increased since the industrial revolution”, the head researcher notes .. ...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/12/131202082404.ht
WIND - NASA has an incredible wind map
Aeolus, is that you? This is a map of winds on Earth, created from a mathematical model made by NASA. Scientists ran a complete simulation using the model, representing the movement of winds and other atmospheric phenomena on Earth from May 2005 to May 2007. This image shows one snapshot from that two-year "Nature Run.""The idea is to provide a high-resolution version of what the atmosphere looks like at any given time," Bill Putnam,http://www.salon.com/2013/12/02/nasas_incredible_wind_map_ne
WORK - Cognizant Planning to Add 10,000 Jobs Over 3 Years
IT firm Cognizant moving US operations hub to Texas; plans to add 10,000 US jobs over 3 yearhttp://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/cognizant-planning-
WRITE - The New Old Age Blog: Words That Wound
More than one-third of older adults reported some form of verbal abuse from family members in a recent study .. ...
http://newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/02/words-that-wou
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