News
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Termite mounds could help prevent spread of deserts
Posted: February 5, 2015Termites might not top the list of humanity's favorite insects, but new research suggests that their large dirt mounds are crucial to stopping deserts from spreading into semi-arid ecosystems. The results indicate…
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Airline industry makes strides in adopting sustainable biofuels
Posted: February 5, 2015Air travel emits more than 650 million metric tons of carbon pollution annually – equivalent to the pollution from 136 million cars – making the increased use of sustainable biofuels…
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US considering standards for organic fish farming
Posted: February 5, 2015When it comes to organic certification, food producers must follow strict guidelines.For an organic steak, for instance, the cow it came from has to be raised on organic feed, and…
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Pigeons are smarter than you think!
Posted: February 4, 2015The more scientists study pigeons, the more they learn how their brains–no bigger than the tip of an index finger–operate in ways not so different from our own.In a new…
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Plants Can be 'Reprogrammed' for Drought Tolerance
Posted: February 4, 2015Crops and other plants are constantly faced with adverse environmental conditions, such as rising temperatures (2014 was the warmest year on record) and lessening fresh water supplies, which lower yield…
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Seabirds suffer from pollutant exposure
Posted: February 4, 2015Seabirds, aerial ocean predators, are known to amass harmful contaminants over their lifespan. Scientists believe this exposure to pollutants, such as blood mercury (Hg), cadmium (Cd), and persistent organic pollutants…
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Can smoke from fires intensify tornados?
Posted: February 3, 2015Can smoke from fires intensify tornadoes? “Yes,” say University of Iowa researchers, who examined the effects of smoke—resulting from spring agricultural land-clearing fires in Central America—transported across the Gulf of Mexico…
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Scientists discover organism that hasn't evolved in more than 2 billion years
Posted: February 3, 2015An international team of scientists has discovered the greatest absence of evolution ever reported — a type of deep-sea microorganism that appears not to have evolved over more than 2…
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Soil moisture satellite launched
Posted: February 3, 2015NASA successfully launched its first Earth satellite designed to collect global observations of the vital soil moisture hidden just beneath our feet.The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) observatory, a mission…
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Why Dedicating Land to Bioenergy Won't Curb Climate Change
Posted: February 3, 2015This post originally was published on WRI.org.How does bioenergy contribute to a sustainable food and climate future?A new WRI paper finds bioenergy can play a modest role using wastes and other niche…
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