Health/Food Posts Tagged as 'Ecology'
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Earliest Evidence of Our Human Ancestors Outside of Africa Found
Our ancient human relatives got around more than scientists previously thought. Researchers in China excavated stone tools that were likely made by our human ancestors some 2.12 million years ago — the earliest evidence ever discovered of the human lineage outside of Africa.
"It suggests a way earlier migration out of Africa than we ever would have imagined," said Michael Petraglia, a paleoanthropologist at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, who was not involved with the study. "It's very exciting."
Live Science
Scientist challenges 'out of Africa' theory with new origin for modern humans
Lawmakers approve use of deadly force against bears
The hotly debated legislation stopped short of calling for a culling of the bear population through hunting.
Lawmakers
...video of children chanting with dead animals emerges
Alligator kills 69-year-old woman
Boy, 6, fatally mauled by dog on Fourth of July
Tootie Pootie is mauled to death by pit bull
Man kicked cat like ‘a football then doused it with gas and lit on fire
Hiker, 47, killed by grizzly bear while out jogging
At least 30 dead dogs found at animal rescue
Animal shelters quickly filling up amid rise in pet abandonments
XL bully dogs to be banned from end of this year
Streetlights are making caterpillars grow up faster—and that’s a bad thing
To gather caterpillars from hedges, “you basically stick drain piping or any kind of open surface under the hedge, and then you basically whack the hedge with a stick five times. Which causes all of the caterpillars to fall out of the hedge and into your receptacles. So that was quite fun.”
In the grass, it’s a bit easier. “The caterpillars spend the day at the base of these grasses, and climb up the stems at night. So you just go along with a sweep net and just sweep through the vegetation.”
The differences were stark: lighted hedges contained just half the caterpillars of their dark counterparts. Grass had one third fewer.
Streetlights are making caterpillars grow
Sick of Mosquitoes?
Should we penalize parents for having ‘extra kids’?
Bill Nye “the Science Guy” did exactly what scientists are supposed to do this week — ask questions — and people are blasting him for it.
The engineer-turned-comedian-turned-TV host has sparked widespread outrage on social media thanks to an idea he proposed Tuesday on his new Netflix series, “Bill Nye Saves the World.”
During a panel discussion, the 61-year-old Cornell grad asked: “Should we have policies that penalize people for having extra kids in the developed world?”
Travis Rieder, a bioethicist at Johns Hopkins University, said he believed it was a good idea.
“I do think that we should at least consider it,” he told Nye.
Should we penalize parents for having ‘extra kids’?
Scathing Report Accuses the Pentagon of Developing an Agricultural Bioweapon
A new technology in which insects are used to genetically modify crops could be converted into a dangerous, and possibly illegal, bioweapon, alleges a Science Policy Forum report released today. Naturally, the organization leading the research says it’s doing nothing of the sort.
The report is a response to a ongoing research program funded by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Dubbed “Insect Allies,” the idea is to create more resilient crops to help farmers deal with climate change, drought, frost, floods, salinity, and disease. But instead of modifying seeds in a lab, farmers would send fleets of insects into their crops, where the genetically modified bugs would do their work, “infecting” the plants with a special virus that passes along the new resilience genes.
Gizmodo
This town in Greece is draped in thousands of spider webs
It sounds like a something out of a horror movie: A town covered in thousands of webs, each crawling with hordes of spiders.
But for residents of a town in Greece, it's a spooky reality.
In recent days, the webs have draped plants, trees and boats along the lagoon in Aitoliko, a town of canals that's otherwise known as Greece's "Little Venice."
Giannis Giannakopoulos noticed the "veil of webs" earlier this week and captured the spider creations with his camera.
CNN
Inside the vigilante group of New Yorkers who hunt rats at night
Rats aren't only a part of New York City’s underground — they're an inseparable part of its pop culture. There’s Master Splinter from the Ninja Turtles, Pizza Rat, and even Cannibal Rat. But for every celebrity rat, there’s another 250,000 to 2 million anonymous rodents living in the city — and the city health department is fighting to bring down.
Last year, three people in a Bronx city block made the news for contracting leptospirosis through rat urine. Only two survived.
Vice
The Y chromosome is disappearing – so what will happen to men?
The Y chromosome may be a symbol of masculinity, but it is becoming increasingly clear that it is anything but strong and enduring. Although it carries the “master switch” gene, SRY, that determines whether an embryo will develop as male (XY) or female (XX), it contains very few other genes and is the only chromosome not necessary for life. Women, after all, manage just fine without one.
What’s more, the Y chromosome has degenerated rapidly, leaving females with two perfectly normal X chromosomes, but males with an X and a shrivelled Y. If the same rate of degeneration continues, the Y chromosome has just 4.6m years left before it disappears completely. This may sound like a long time, but it isn’t when you consider that life has existed on Earth for 3.5 billion years.
The Conversation
It Turns Out Your Love of Glitter Is Actually Bad for the Environment
From glitter bombs, beards, makeup and sparkly protest signs, glitter is a mainstay of modern LGBTQ culture. But U.K. scientists are urging the government to ban it because it’s apparently very bad for the environment.
If you’ve ever spilled glitter or used any on your body, than you understand that it never really completely goes away. (That’s part of the reason that glitter is sometimes called “raver scabies.”) It’s non-biodegradable and even when it’s thrown away or washed down the drain, it still ends up in our soil and water supply where it creates even more problems.
The issue, according to Josh Gabbatiss of The Independent, is that most glitter contains a plastic called polyethylene terephthalate (or PET). The PET contained in glitter is microplastic, a word that refers to any small bits of plastic that are smaller than a fifth of an inch.
Hornet
Autumn isn’t cold enough to kill bugs anymore—find out what pests will persist in your region
The cooler temperatures of autumn may not be a cause for celebration if you prefer lounging on the beach to cuddling by the fire, but at least they provide a reprieve from summer’s most pernicious irritant—bugs.
Thanks to climate change, the country is experiencing wave after wave of abnormally hot, distinctly un-fall like temperatures. And according to the latest Bug Barometer by the National Pest Management Association, that means the buggers aren’t budging this year. We’re stuck with them.
Popular Science
Climate change's impact on human health is already here — and is 'potentially irreversible,' report says
Climate change is already having an extraordinary impact on human health worldwide — affecting the spread of infectious diseases, exposing millions to air pollution and heat waves and dramatically reducing labor productivity, according to a report released Monday.
"The human symptoms of climate change are unequivocal and potentially irreversible," the report by the British medical journal The Lancet says, and the situation is so serious that significant gains by modern medicine and technology are being undercut.
"The delayed response to climate change over the past 25 years has jeopardized human life and livelihoods," the report says.
USA Today
Why the North American west is on fire
THE fires are blazing. The west of the United States has endured some 50,000 wildfires this year, and over 8.5m acres (3.4m hectares) have burned. Northern California has suffered in particular recently as flames have swept through parts of the landscape, killing at least 23 people and devastating wineries. In Canada, as of August 30th (the latest available figure), 7.4m acres had burned. The Canadian fires extended eastwards, but the main concentration was in the west, with British Columbia enduring its worst year, in terms of land burned, since 1958. Why have so many fires burned in North America this year?
Economist
Death toll climbs to 15, missing person reports soar as Northern California fires continue to rage
As the number of people confirmed dead in Northern California fires rose to 15, officials warned Tuesday that the toll could rise as multiple fires scorched upward of 100,000 acres.
Sonoma County alone has received about 200 reports of missing people since Sunday night, and sherriff’s officials have located 45 of those people, said Sonoma County spokeswoman Maggie Fleming.
LA Times
When a hurricane finally passes, it spreads deadly disease in its wake
Most of the damage caused by a hurricane is obvious—roofs ripped off buildings, homes flooded, downed electrical lines. But long after the eye of the storm has passed, big storms can continue to spread disaster.
It’s not often that aid workers accidentally start an epidemic, but it's pretty common for storms to spread disease. Dysentery, an intestinal illness cause by Shigella bacteria, is also known to worsen after hurricanes. It doesn't help that fresh or bottled water can become scarce after a hurricane, forcing people to drink from questionable water sources—rain water, for example, or local rivers and streams—that they never would have considered in the past.
Popular Science
94% of U.S. tap water contaminated by plastic fibers — including from the faucets at Trump Tower
Trump Tower, we have a plastics problem.
Researchers who tested tap water from around the world found that more than 80% of the samples contained microscopic-sized plastic fibers — including from President Trump’s New York City home, they said.
The contamination is particularly high in the United States, where 94% of faucet water is affected, including in samples from the U.S. Capitol and the headquarters of the Environmental Protection Agency.
USA Today
Designers Develop Edible Water Bubble to Replace Hazardous Plastic Bottles