Author: Organikos

Endangered Natural History

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The Spectrum of Life, at the American Museum of Natural History, an evolutionary trip through the amazing diversity of life on Earth. Credit Matthew Pillbury/Benrubi Gallery

We’ve said often that we’re die-hard supporters of natural history museums before, and even quite recently. So it’s nice to see yet another article championing the role these institutions can have in scientific discoveries, education, and more. Here’s an op-ed in last Sunday’s New York Times by Richard Conniff, highlighting some threats to some US museums:

When people talk about natural history museums, they almost always roll out the well-worn descriptive “dusty,” to the great exasperation of a curator I know. Maybe he’s annoyed because he’s spent large sums of his museum’s money building decidedly un-dusty climate-controlled storage sites, and the word implies neglect. (“Let me know,” the curator advises by email, “if you want to hear me rant for an hour or so on this topic.”)

Worse, this rumored dustiness reinforces the widespread notion that natural history museums are about the past — just a place to display bugs and brontosaurs. Visitors may go there to be entertained, or even awe-struck, but they are often completely unaware that curators behind the scenes are conducting research into climate change, species extinction and other pressing concerns of our day. That lack of awareness is one reason these museums are now routinely being pushed to the brink. Even the National Science Foundation, long a stalwart of federal support for these museums, announced this month that it was suspending funding for natural history collections as it conducts a yearlong budget review.

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Interview with a Jurassic Park Paleobiologist

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An elephant mosquito from Poinar’s collection. Photo by George Poinar, Jr. via Science Friday.

Many of our readers have likely read or watched Jurassic Park, or one of the sequels of the film, and know that the DNA for the fictionally first-recreated dinosaur came from the blood sample within a giant mosquito trapped inside prehistoric amber. Well, Michael Crichton actually got this idea from a true scientific discovery, although it didn’t revolve around dinosaurs. We’ve discussed de-extinction on the blog before, and actually featured the paleobiologist referred to in this post’s title a couple months ago. Now, Chau Tu at Science Friday has interviewed the scientist, George Poinar, Jr., regarding his experience working with amber-clad specimens from millions of years ago, his thoughts on de-extinction, and more:

Poinar would find, among other specimens, the oldest known bee, the first known bat fly fossil, and the most complete flower from the Cretaceous Period. And just this past February, he co-authored a paper in Nature Plants describing a new species of neotropical flower found in amber from the mid-Tertiary Period.

Science Friday recently spoke with Poinar, 79, now a courtesy professor in the Department of Integrative Biology at Oregon State University, about what led him to investigate specimens trapped in amber, his thoughts on de-extinction, and his inspirations.

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Threats to Monarch Butterflies and How We Can Help

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A Monarch butterfly caterpillar feeding on the leaves of a milkweed plant. Photographed at the Grapevine Botanical Gardens. Photo © TexasEagle/Flickr through a Creative Commons license, via TNC

We’ve covered monarch butterflies plenty of times in the past, whether it was reporting survey results showing that many households in the US would pay to help create habitat for the species, showcasing a citizen science project by the Xerces Society to count the winged invertebrates during their migration, or simply highlighting the needs of the orange butterfly in general and how to become involved. Now, given increased media coverage of the Monarch, the Cool Green Science blog for The Nature Conservancy is summarizing hazards and helpers of the species:

Twenty years ago, monarch butterflies occupied so much area in Mexico during the winter you could see it from space. It totaled about 20 hectares, or almost 50 acres, with millions if not billions of butterflies clinging to trunks and branches of trees.

Today, that area is around 4 hectares. The previous year had 1.1 hectares, says Brice Semmens, Assistant Professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego.

Semmens was the lead author on “Quasi-extinction risk and population targets for the Eastern, migratory population of monarch butterflies” published recently in the journal Scientific Reports. It is one paper in a long line of sobering butterfly news.

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Biodiversity May Protect Against Wildfires

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Photo of a Southern brown bandicoot by John O’Neill via Wikimedia Commons.

New research in Australia’s forests and bushlands indicates that terrestrial biodiversity–or more precisely, a higher number of different mammal species–can help prevent wildfires given the way the critters alter their ecosystem. We’ve heard about different creative management options for fires before, and we care deeply for biodiversity preservation efforts, so this seems like one of those win-win scenarios if it can be implemented. Jason Goldman reports for UW’s Conservation Magazine on research published in Animal Conservation:

One factor leading to increased wildfire susceptibility might be surprising: biodiversity loss. In particular, the extinction of small, ground-dwelling mammals may prime Australia’s bush to burn.

Wildfires certainly threaten biodiversity in some cases. According to the IUCN, 179 mammal, 262 bird, 146 reptile, 300 amphibian, and 974 plant species can count wildfire (and fire suppression) among their existential threats. More wildfires means less wildlife, even accounting for the many ecosystems that are already fire-adapted. But according to a new study published in the journal Animal Conservation, it works the other way around too.

Matt Hayward, a conservation ecologist at Australia’s Bangor University and the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, argues that restoring biodiversity could reduce the likelihood of a wildfire starting—or of spreading rapidly once it’s begun.

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Ornithological Climate Change Indicators

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Map showing peafowl-sightings between 1990-2010 (Source: Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society)

Map showing peafowl-sightings between 1990-2010 (Source: Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society)

Map showing peafowl-sightings in Kerala between 2010-2015 (Source: Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society)

Map showing peafowl-sightings in Kerala between 2010-2015 (Source: Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society)

Few of our readers will fail to notice that eBird and Citizen Science are important elements of the RAXA Collective DNA. Stories related to Kerala and the state’s healthy birding population are equally on our radar.

The folks at India Climate Dialogue recently turned to eBird observations to document changes in climate patterns in Kerala, an important watershed state for the Indian subcontinent using peafowl population as one of the indicators. Especially during mating season, the birds find it difficult to move their trailing feathers in areas of dense foliage, so they’re attracted to drier climactic areas. The eBird data above illustrates their movement into Kerala, meaning more areas are opening up.

High heat in February-March is not unusual in Kerala, and in reality it is this heat trough that pulls the monsoon from Indian Ocean into the Indian subcontinent. The heat epicentre heralds the monsoon and runs like a pilot car through the peninsula, taking the same path that the southwest monsoon will follow a few months later. Since the southwest monsoon starts from the coast of Kerala, it is the state that has to feel the heat first, so that pre-monsoon showers start in May and the monsoon arrives in June. Continue reading →

Medicine Crow, Last War Chief of his Tribe, Dies at 102

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Barack Obama reaches around the headdress of chief Joseph Medicine Crow to place a 2009 presidential medal of freedom around his neck. Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP/The Guardian

The history and rights of Native Americans in the United States have held interest for us over the years, with our last story mentioning a tribe being early last month, in reference to buffalo hunting near Yosemite. Yesterday, the great Crow tribe historian, war chief, and historian Joseph Medicine Crow, who was also a second world war veteran, a holder of the presidential medal of freedom, and a nominee for the congressional gold medal, passed away at 102 years old. Aisha Gani reports for the Guardian:

Medicine Crow, who was raised by his grandparents in a log house in a rural area of the Crow Reservation near Lodge Grass, Montana, wore his war paint beneath his second world war uniform.

As a child, Medicine Crow listened to stories about the Battle of Little Bighorn – the conflict that pitted federal troops led by Lt Col George Armstrong Custer against native Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne warriors. He translated for his great uncle, White Man Runs Him, when white reporters came to interview him about the battle, and would go on to become a lifelong emissary between the Crow community and white Americans.

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Fighting Food Fraud

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Food fraud is a common issue all over the world. Inspectors of veterinary services and fraud inspect seafood products at the Rungis international market, located near Paris. Martin Bureau/AFP/Getty Images

In just under four minutes, this story (National Public Radio, USA) gives a cogent briefing on one dimension of food transparency, a topic commonly addressed in these pages:

If you’ve been following any of the big news stories on food fraud lately — you’ll know that it’s tough to know what exactly is in our food — and where it’s been before it makes onto our dinner plates.

Earlier this year, Wal-Mart was sued for stocking tubs of Parmesan cheese that contained wood pulp filler. Olive oil is often mixed with sunflower oil and sold as “extra virgin.” And you might recall the great European horse meat scandal of 2014: Traces of horse meat were found in Ikea meatballs and Burger King beef patties, in cottage pies sold at schools in Lancashire, England, and in frozen lasagna sold all over Europe.

And that’s “just the tip of the iceberg,” says Chris Elliott, the founder of the Institute for Global Food Security, a laboratory in Northern Ireland that tests food from all over the world in order to uncover fraud. Continue reading →

Sumatran Rhino Siting In Borneo

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A rhino in the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary in Way Kambas National Park, Indonesia (2008). Photo credit: Willem v Strien / Greenpeace

Thanks to EcoWatch for this remarkable news:

An excited World Wildlife Fund (WWF) team released details of how the female rhino was safely captured in East Kalimantan (part of Indonesian Borneo) last month and has now been transported to a more protected region. Over the last few years, evidence from camera traps and footprints has indicated that these rhinos still survived in Borneo’s forests, but this is the first known encounter with a live animal since the early 1970s. Continue reading →

Strange Brew

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“Mezcal makes you cry, sing, dance, hug the neighbor you just met an hour ago.” ILLUSTRATION BY BJORN LIE

One more gem from the magazine issue that most recently also brought you this, and this:

Mezcal Sunrise

Searching for the ultimate artisanal distillate.

BY DANA GOODYEAR

Bricia Lopez is the mezcal queen of Los Angeles. Five years ago, Lopez, who is thirty-one and imposingly savvy, persuaded her father to let her build a mezcal bar at Guelaguetza, the restaurant that he opened when the family moved north from Oaxaca, a center of mezcal culture, in the mid-nineties. He didn’t know if Americans would like mezcal, or if Mexicans would admit that they did. But he decided to trust Bricia, and she focussed her offerings on premium mezcals—high proof, small lots, no worm. At that point, there were only a handful of brands on the market. Since then, mezcal imports have spiked, and labels have proliferated. Lopez now carries thirty. When I visited her at the bar the other day, she was in the midst of a renovation, doubling its size. Continue reading →

Architectural History, Revised

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Thanks to the Guardian for this unexpected revision to our architectural history–click above to go to a four and a half minute video explaining:

Fifty-seven years after Jørn Utzon commissioned the work, a 6.5-square-metre wool tapestry by the Swiss-French architect, designer and painter Le Corbusier has been finally unveiled in its intended home. Jan Utzon (the son of Sydney Opera House architect Jørn Utzon), Lasse Andersson (Head of Exhibitions, Utzon Center) and others reveal the untold story of a collaboration between two of the 20th century’s greatest architects, for one of the 20th century’s greatest buildings

Not A Cute Cat Video

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It is science, folks. Thanks to BBC Earth, here we ask for a minute and a half of your time in the interest of understanding exactly how cats do what they do. As we see it, this may translate into your future action in the interest of conservation of their natural habitat (the wild cats, of course, not the backyard bird-eating domestic variety):

How do cats always land on their feet?

This cat not only defies gravity but lands again safely and it all happens in less than a second

Caracals are expert bird hunters, capable of catching them in mid-flight with incredible leaps. Continue reading →

Waste Not, Want Not Tiger Habitat

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A tiger wades into the waters of Raj Bagh lake in Ranthambhore tiger in Rajasthan, India. Conservationists warn ‘tiger corridors’ connecting habitats across Asia are crucial for the survival of the species. Photograph: Aditya Singh/Alamy

From today’s Guardian in the Environment section, some welcome news on one of our most posted-on topics:

Forests still large enough to double the world’s tiger population, study finds

Satellite maps show tiger habitat is being lost but still adequate for meeting international goal of doubling tiger numbers by 2022

Forests that harbour tigers are being lost but are still large enough to take double the world’s tiger population in the next six years, according to a study using new satellite mapping technology. Continue reading →

Climate Handshake

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Chinese President Xi Jinping shakes hands with U.S. President Barack Obama at a press conference following their talks at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 12, 2014. Photo credit: Xinhua / Liu Weibing

Thanks to EcoWatch, as usual, for keeping us up to date on all things climate change-related:

The two nations will also “take their respective domestic steps in order to join the agreement as early as possible this year” and urge other countries to do the same, “with a view to bringing the Paris agreement into force as early as possible.”

The presidents also indicated that they are planning agreements to limit aviation emissions and the powerful greenhouses gases known as HFCs. Experts and environmental groups are heralding the announcement as a “significant” step, saying that the U.S.-China commitment sends a “strong signal” to other countries. 

Here’s the U.S.-China joint presidential statement on climate change:

1. Over the past three years, climate change has become a pillar of the U.S.-China bilateral relationship. Both countries have taken strong measures at home to build green, low-carbon and climate-resilient economies, helping galvanize global action to combat climate change and culminating in the Paris Agreement reached last December. Continue reading →

With Quinoa, All’s Well Only If It Ends Well

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A man holds Peruvian quinoa. New studies of detailed data gathered by Peru’s government find that the global quinoa boom really was good both for Peruvians — both those who grow it and those who eat it. Juan Karita/AP

Thanks to National Public Radion (USA)’s Salt program for this important update:

Your Quinoa Habit Really Did Help Peru’s Poor. But There’s Trouble Ahead

The price of quinoa tripled from 2006 to 2013 as America and Europe discovered this new superfood. That led to scary media reports that the people who grew it in the high Andes mountains of Bolivia and Peru could no longer afford to eat it. And while, as we reported, groups working on the ground tried to spread the word that your love of quinoa was actually helping Andean farmers, that was still anecdote, rather than evidence.
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Non-metaphorically Strange Fruit

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A mix of tropical and hybrid fruits recently available in the United States. Photograph by Anthony Cotsifas. Styled by Michael Reynolds. Retouching: Anonymous Retouch. Prop assistant: Caleb Andriella. Photo assistants: Karl Leitz and Jess Kirkham. Fruit courtesy of Melissa’s Produce and Frieda’s Specialty Produce.

From the New York Times, the most unusual short news feature we have seen in some time just came to our attention. An April Fool’s item, perhaps? Click to the end of the story to see these “fruits” identified:

In a world of very few absolutes, here is one: Nature has no more perfect offering than fruit, nothing that seems better engineered to delight and entice humankind’s every sense. But of course, the real purpose of fruit is not to make humans happy, but to make more fruit: While it is the result of a relentless biological process that we happen to enjoy, the creation of fruit itself — from its larval stage as a flower to its dropping from the tree or bush onto the ground and growing into a new tree or bush — would go on whether we were there to appreciate it or not. Continue reading →

UberPool’s Social and Environmental Impacts

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http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/31/technology/car-pooling-helps-uber-go-the-extra-mile.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=Moth-Visible&moduleDetail=inside-nyt-region-0&module=inside-nyt-region&region=inside-nyt-regio

For “baby boomers” the concept of car pooling is a standard one – and not just for over-scheduled kids being taken to after school soccer, dance and music classes. In the mid-20th century fewer people owned a car, and if they did it was one per family, so it was a common occurrence for friends or neighbors to coordinate their morning commutes. Augmented by public transportation, those trips were part of the community fabric.

As the now global Uber app continues to both expand and adapt to the market’s changing demands and needs, it’s possible that UberPool may have both social and environmental impacts.

Unlike a standard Uber ride, in which a single rider starts a one-time trip, UberPool works like a party line for cars. Travis Kalanick, Uber’s co-founder and chief executive, describes it as the future of his company — and thus the future of transportation in America.

Call up the app, specify your destination, and in exchange for a significant discount, UberPool matches you with other riders going the same way. The service might create a ride just for you, but just as often, it puts you in a ride that began long ago — one that has spanned several drop-offs and pickups, a kind of instant bus line created from collective urban demand…

…Mr. Kalanick said it was likely that soon, in big cities and even in many suburbs, most Uber rides will be pooled, meaning each Uber car will be serving more than one rider most of the time.

If that occurs, and if Uber continues growing at its breakneck pace, it would represent a momentous transformation in how Americans get around. Continue reading →

Not So Surprisingly, An Awesome Podcast

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After a few of us listened to the first few podcasts recommended in this earlier post, we started poking around the Gimlet website. We found this. Wow. Did you see the movie called The Big Short?  If so, and if you found it awesome, there is a high probability that this podcast will work for you. Both Adams worked together on that film, one as the improbable director (whose other movies, all lowbrow forms of “humor” you would not have seen promoted on this site) who showed a level of genius transforming dry into crisp; the other was an advisor on the film because of his proven ability to make dry money-related things seem crisp. So, no huge surprise that they can make unlikely topics pop. Continue reading →

Sustainable Socks

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Raymond McCrea Jones for The New York Times

News about socks? News about the deep south of the USA? Both seemed unlikely to show up on these pages until just a few minutes ago. And then we read this, and it fits the news we can use test:

The Sock Queen of Alabama

By STEVEN KURUTZ

FORT PAYNE, Ala. — Nine years ago, when she was 27 and unhappily selling real estate, Gina Locklear went to her parents with a proposition. She wanted to make socks. Not the basic white socks the family had specialized in, but fashionable socks, with organic cotton and dyes.

“I want to get into the sock business,” she told them. “I want to make a sustainable sock.” Continue reading →

Camera Trapping Bounty

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A female mountain lion called P-35 was photographed by a camera trap in the Santa Susana Mountains northwest of Los Angeles. National Park Service

 From today’s Science section of the New York Times:

Photographing Wildlife Without a Photographer

By NICHOLAS ST. FLEUR

Camera traps can help illuminate the world’s most elusive animals. When a cougar, elephant or other creature triggers the device’s motion sensor, it snaps a picture.

“Most animals are hiding, you actually never get to see them and you might be led to believe there’s nothing out there,” said Roland Kays, a zoologist at North Carolina State University and author of the forthcoming book “Candid Creatures: How Camera Traps Reveal the Mysteries of Nature.” Continue reading →

A 3-minute Visit To Iceland

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Iceland

It is about two years since several of us took turns reading drafts of Seth’s honors thesis. We had been reading the summaries of his archival research since the summer of 2013, and by March 2014 he was describing Iceland in centuries past in a manner that made us hope such a place still existed. This small video makes us think it may still exist. It reminds us: we must go soon (as 19th century adventurers also said). It is too beautiful to describe in words, so instead may we recommend clicking on the image above and just going for a few minutes?