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Extent and Speed of Lionfish Spread Unprecedented

Invasive Marine Fish May Stress Reefs

Gainesville, Fla. — The rapid spread of lionfishes along the U.S. eastern seaboard, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean is the first documented case of a non-native marine fish establishing a self-sustaining population in the region, according to recent U.S. Geological Survey studies. (more…)

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New Kindle Exclusive: Seven Books by World-Famous Physicist Albert Einstein

*Just in time for the 132nd anniversary of his birth, seven books by Albert Einstein published by Open Road Integrated Media LLC, only available on Kindle*

NEW YORK & SEATTLE, Mar 14, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Open Road Integrated Media LLC and Amazon.com today announced that Open Road has published seven digital books by iconic physicist Albert Einstein exclusively in the Kindle Store. Open Road has added new photographs and biographical information from experts at the Hebrew University Einstein Archives, introductions written by Neil Berger and new covers to previously published print editions (a portion of which have been available digitally in the public domain) to create new Albert Einstein Archives Authorized Editions of the works. These books are available starting today for download exclusively in the Kindle Store (www.amazon.com/kindlestore). (more…)

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How the Slime Mold Gets Organized

Cells at the tip of the slime mold’s fruiting body organize into an epithelial layer and secrete proteins as do some animals cells

The so-called cellular slime mold, a unicellular organism that may transition into a multicellular organism under stress, has just been found to have a tissue structure that was previously thought to exist only in more sophisticated animals. What’s more, two proteins that are needed by the slime mold to form this structure are similar to those that perform the same function in more sophistical animals. (more…)

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NASA Shows Topography of Tsunami-Damaged Japan City

The topography surrounding Sendai, Japan is clearly visible in this combined radar image and topographic view generated with data from NASA’s Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) acquired in 2000. On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 8.9 earthquake struck offshore about 130 kilometers (80 miles) east of Sendai, the capital city of Japan’s Miyagi Prefecture, generating a tsunami that devastated the low-lying coastal city of about 1 million residents.

The city is centered in the image and lies along the coastal plain between the Ohu Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. The eastern part of the city is a low-lying plains area, while the city center is hilly (the city’s official elevation is about 43 meters, or 141 feet). Sendai’s western areas are mountainous, with its highest point being Mt. Funagata at an elevation of about 1,500 meters (4,921 feet) above sea level. (more…)

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WHOI Experts Stress Lessons From Japan Earthquake

While Japan’s 8.9-magnitude earthquake and accompanying tsunami represent a devastating natural disaster for the country’s residents, scientists should also seize upon the massive temblor as an important learning tool for future quakes around the world, including the Pacific Northwest coast of the United States, according to experts from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). (more…)

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Gulf Oil Spill Study Sheds Light On Urban Air Pollution

When a team of researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of Colorado Boulder’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences raced to the scene of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill to assess the disaster’s impact on air quality last year, they found more than they expected. (more…)

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