American Scientist Online

Deadly Pathogen Harms Florida Citrus Groves

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 09:39:00 EST

FORT PIERCE, Fla.—On a recent sultry morning, Peter McClure, who manages 8,000 acres of citrus in the prime Indian River region here, surveyed an orange grove riddled with gaps. He pointed to a tangled brown pile of dead trees and said, “Scientists have 10 years at the most to find a solution, or there’s not going to be a citrus industry in Florida.” ...

from the New York Times (Registration Required)

Our Imperiled Oceans: Victory at Sea

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 09:34:00 EST

At first sight, the people of Kiribati, a nation of tiny islands in the central Pacific, would not appear to be model conservationists. ...

from Smithsonian Magazine

Milestone Reached in Search for Deafness Cure

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 09:28:00 EST

A neurobiologist who is profoundly hard of hearing has developed an experimental gene therapy that generates the type of cells that are damaged or missing in deaf animals. Mice embryos were injected with a key developmental gene that led to the production of ear cells that convey sounds to the brain–a scientific first. ...

from New Scientist

Are Birds Best Hope for Pest-Ridden Coffee Crops?

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 09:23:00 EST

Chances are you've never heard of Hypothenemus hampei. But this tiny insect is the world's biggest threat to something many of us swear we can't live without: our morning cup of coffee. ...

from National Geographic News

'Complexity' of Neanderthal Tools

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 09:18:00 EST

Early stone tools developed by our species Homo sapiens were no more sophisticated than those used by our extinct relatives the Neanderthals. ...

from the BBC News Online

Ayurvedic Medicines Often Contaminated by Toxic Metals, Study Says

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 09:12:00 EST

Ayurvedic medicines—herbal mixtures dating back thousands of years in India and increasingly popular in the West—are frequently contaminated with lead, mercury or arsenic, according to a study published [yesterday]. ...

from the Los Angeles Times (Registration Required)

Arctic Sea Ice Drops to 2nd Lowest Level on Record

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 09:06:00 EST

WASHINGTON—More ominous signs Wednesday have scientists saying that a global warming "tipping point" in the Arctic seems to be happening before their eyes: Sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is at its second lowest level in about 30 years. ...

from the Boston Globe (Registration Required)

Will Lasers Brighten Nuclear’s Future?

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 09:01:00 EST

Inside a bland industrial building in Wilmington, N.C., an experiment is in the works that could vastly reduce the cost, time, and space needed to make fuel for nuclear power plants and, some nonproliferation experts say, for nuclear bombs as well. ...

from the Christian Science Monitor

NASA Images Show Gamma Ray Bursts Across Milky Way

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 09:52:00 EST

NASA researchers yesterday released images collected by a new telescope studying high-energy gamma rays. A combined image from 95 hours of the telescope's initial observations showed bursts of gamma rays glowing across the plane of the Milky Way. ...

from the Washington Post (Registration Required)

Just How Harmful Are Bisphenol-A Plastics?

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 09:47:00 EST

On the day Patricia Hunt’s career veered into an entirely different field, her graduate students at Case Western Reserve University were grumbling, itching to use some exciting new data in their own experiments, but were told to wait while Hunt (just one last time) checked on her subjects. ...

from the Scientific American

Kids' Vaccinations Face Risky Resistance

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 09:42:00 EST

Angela O'Connell will not allow her 15-month-old son to be vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella because she is certain the vaccination caused autism in her older boy, Aidan. ...

from the Chicago Tribune (Registration Required)

Wind Turbines Give Bats the "Bends," Study Finds

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 09:36:00 EST

Wind turbines can kill bats without touching them by causing a bends-like condition due to rapidly dropping air pressure, new research suggests. ...

from National Geographic News

New Sphere in Exploring the Abyss

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 09:32:00 EST

CUDAHY, Wis.—The deep is legendary for inky darkness. William Beebe, the first person to eye the abyss, called it perpetual night. ...

from the New York Times (Registration Required)

U.S. Air Travel Back to Normal After Software Glitch

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 09:27:00 EST

Operations at an air traffic control center in Hampton [Georgia] were back to normal Wednesday morning, federal officials said, a day after a software glitch snarled flight plan processing and delayed hundreds of airline flights nationwide. ...

from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Registration Required)

Cancer Test for Women Raises Hope, and Concern

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 09:24:00 EST

A new blood test aimed at detecting ovarian cancer at an early, still treatable stage is stirring hopes among women and their physicians. But the Food and Drug Administration and some experts say the test has not been proved to work. ...

from the New York Times (Registration Required)

Bush Proposes Protections for Pacific islands, Atolls and Reefs

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 09:19:00 EST

President Bush on Monday signaled his intention to protect some of the Pacific Ocean's most remote and unspoiled islands, atolls and coral reefs from fishing and deep-sea mining. ...

from the Los Angeles Times (Registration Required)

Little Big People

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 09:15:00 EST

People who inhabited Palau in western Micronesia nearly 3,000 years ago have achieved new and disputed heights. Contrary to an earlier report that these ancient islanders had unusually small bodies, human remains recently excavated in a Palau cave come from individuals who physically measured up to people today, according to a new report published online August 27 in PLoS ONE. ...

from Science News

Abandoned Nuclear Reactors Generate New Surge of Tourism

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 09:54:00 EST

HANFORD, Wash.—A platoon of double-crested cormorants took flight from the eastern shore of the Columbia River, skimming the sun-sparkled surface as two slender white egrets stood in the nearby shallows, hunting small fish hiding in the reeds. ...

from the Chicago Tribune (Registration Required)

Drilling Boom Revives Hopes for Natural Gas

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 09:50:00 EST

HOUSTON—American natural gas production is rising at a clip not seen in half a century, pushing down prices of the fuel and reversing conventional wisdom that domestic gas fields were in irreversible decline. ...

from the New York Times (Registration Required)

Solar Plane Makes Record Flight

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 09:45:00 EST

A UK-built solar-powered plane has set an unofficial world endurance record for a flight by an unmanned aircraft. ...

from the BBC News Online