Guest Post – Page 924 – Shamskm: A site to exchange knowledge and solutions

Primitive Birds Shared Dinosaurs’ Fate

By Guest PostSeptember 25, 2011Sciencearchaic birds, bird fossils, chicxulub meteorite, cretaceous bird, cretaceous period, dinosaurs 65 million years ago, fossil birds, nicholas longrich, team of paleontologists, yale university

A new study puts an end to the longstanding debate about how archaic birds went extinct, suggesting they were virtually wiped out by the same meteorite impact that put an end to dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

For decades, scientists have debated whether birds from the Cretaceous period — which are very different from today’s modern bird species — died out slowly or were killed suddenly by the Chicxulub meteorite. The uncertainty was due in part to the fact that very few fossil birds from the end of this era have been discovered. (more…)

Aquarius Yields NASA’s First Global Map of Ocean Salinity

By Guest PostSeptember 25, 2011Sciencehigh salinity sea, ocean salinity, ocean surface salinity, salinity data, salinity patterns

PASADENA, Calif. – NASA’s new Aquarius instrument has produced its first global map of the salinity of the ocean surface, providing an early glimpse of the mission’s anticipated discoveries. (more…)

New Understanding of How Humans and the Environment Interact

By Guest PostSeptember 25, 2011Environmentadaptation to climate change, ancient maya, animal populations in the chobe river region of botswana, cnh, dynamics of coupled natural and human systems program, e coli, earth natural systems, eastern africa, ecosystem services, environmental change today, ignacio peralta, justin brashares, microbe, national science foundation, sarah ruth, sierra foothills of california, steven beissinger, tom baerwald, water quality and environmental health in botswana, wetlands

*National Science Foundation Grants Awarded for Research on Coupled Natural and Human Systems*

Water quality and environmental health in Botswana; wetlands in a working landscape; the collapse of the ancient Maya and what that has to tell us about society and environmental change today.

These and other projects that address how humans and the environment interact are the focus of $21 million in National Science Foundation (NSF) grants to scientists, engineers and educators across the country to study coupled natural and human systems. (more…)

Anderson Forecast: U.S. Economy stalled, Employment ‘Horrible,’ but No New Recession

By Guest PostSeptember 25, 2011Economycoastal california, david shulman, domestic product growth, edward leamer, far worse, forecast economists remain, intellectual capital, no recession alarm, stall speed, the california forecast, the national forecast, ucla anderson forecast, university of california

In its third quarterly report of 2011, the UCLA Anderson Forecast says the outlook for the nation’s economy is “far worse” than it was just three months ago.

Considering the weak, revised data for the first half of the year, the forecast calls for average gross domestic product growth of just 0.9 percent on average for the five quarters — this year’s four and the first quarter of 2012.

However, Forecast economists remain steadfast in their assertion that the U.S. is not currently in a recession, nor is there a recession in the forecast through 2013. (more…)

Smells May Help Birds Identify Their Relatives

By Guest PostSeptember 25, 2011Naturebirds, captive penguins, kin discrimination, olfactory sense, sense of smell

Birds may have a more highly developed sense of smell than researchers previously thought, contend scholars who have found that penguins may use smell to determine if they are related to a potential mate. (more…)

Exeter Physicist Advances Early Universe Theory

By Guest PostSeptember 25, 2011Scienceearly universe theory, extrasolar planets, intergalactic media, magnetic fields, star formation

Research by a University of Exeter astrophysicist has helped to explain how the first stars and galaxies formed

Research led by Professor Gilles Chabrier of the University of Exeter suggests that large magnetic fields were generated shortly after the Big Bang and played a key role in the formation of the first stars and galaxies

The international team of researchers, headed by Professor Chabrier and Dr Christoph Federrath of the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon (France), used three-dimensional computer simulations to make their discovery. Their simulations show that even under extreme physical conditions, magnetic fields are efficiently amplified by turbulent flows. The findings are now published in the journal Physical Review Letters. (more…)

UCLA Scientists Find H1N1 Flu Virus Prevalent in Animals in Africa

By Guest PostSeptember 24, 2011Scienceanimals in africa, avian and human influenza viruses, Bangladesh, center for tropical research, China, diagnostic test called elisa, egypt, enzyme linked immunosorbent assay, genetic elements of swine, ground zero, H1N1, h1n1 virus, hilary godwin, human pandemic, human strain of h1n1, human to human infection, influenza a, kevin njabo, livestock in cameroon, microbial animal diseases, pandemic, pigs, pigs in cameroon, san diego, swine flu, thomas b smith, village in northern cameroon, virus

UCLA life scientists and their colleagues have discovered the first evidence of the H1N1 virus in animals in Africa. In one village in northern Cameroon, a staggering 89 percent of the pigs studied had been exposed to the H1N1 virus, commonly known as the swine flu.

“I was amazed that virtually every pig in this village was exposed,” said Thomas B. Smith, director of UCLA’s Center for Tropical Research and the senior author of the research. “Africa is ground zero for a new pandemic. Many people are in poor health there, and disease can spread very rapidly without authorities knowing about it.” (more…)

UF-led study: Invasive Amphibians, Reptiles in Florida Outnumber World

By Guest PostSeptember 24, 2011Environment, Scienceamerican alligator, bishop museum in honolulu, brown anole, burmese pythons, cargo ships, cement walls, Cuba, everglades, florida, florida museum of natural history, fred kraus, greenhouse frog, iguanas, invasion of lizards, invasive amphibian and reptile, kenneth krysko, lizards, python, turtles, university of florida, west indies, zootaxa

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida has the world’s worst invasive amphibian and reptile problem, and a new 20-year study led by a University of Florida researcher verifies the pet trade as the No. 1 cause of the species’ introductions.

From 1863 through 2010, 137 non-native amphibian and reptile species were introduced to Florida, with about 25 percent of those traced to one animal importer. The findings appear online today in Zootaxa. (more…)

Author Archives: Guest Post