Earth Changes
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - After months of delay, NASA on Wednesday launched a weather satellite that will allow forecasters to better pinpoint severe storms and investigate world climate change.
An aging weather satellite crucial to accurate predictions on the intensity and path of hurricanes could fail at any moment and plans to launch a replacement have been pushed back seven years to 2016.
Comment: Coincidence?
A new study in Conservation Biology analyzed the breeding ranges of North American birds over a 26-year period. The results show that the ranges have shifted northward; coinciding with a period of increasing global temperatures. These results were similar to those found in studies conducted in Great Britain, showing the worldwide extent of these distributional changes.
"Our results add to an increasing body of scientific research documenting the effects of global climate change," says study author Alan Hitch, a wildlife ecologist at Auburn University. "It also raises questions about whether moving north could be detrimental to some species."
"Our results add to an increasing body of scientific research documenting the effects of global climate change," says study author Alan Hitch, a wildlife ecologist at Auburn University. "It also raises questions about whether moving north could be detrimental to some species."
Up to eleven inches of rain has lead to flooding in parts of southwest Nebraska. A flash Flood warning is in effect this for the area. Last night, the National Weather Service says storms dropped six inches or more of rain across Perkins and Chase counties. The service says the highest rain amount came just west of Champion, at nine-point-seven-three inches and over eleven inches was reported near Imperial. Extensive flooding has been reported in Imperial, Champion and Lamar. Officials say U-S Highway Six west of Imperial is under two feet of water, and many county roads in western Chase County are washed out. Frenchman Creek is also overflowing the dam at Champion.
Steve Henson knew it was raining hard, but when the water rose to within two feet of his house west of Waco on Monday, he decided that he and his expectant wife would head for higher ground.
"I did not want her to go into labor and we wouldn't be able to get out," he said. "There was so much rain, I could not believe it."
"I did not want her to go into labor and we wouldn't be able to get out," he said. "There was so much rain, I could not believe it."
|
| ©Roger Nomer |
| Water threatens to overtake a stalled car in Joplin, Missouri |
A 3.0 magnitude earthquake hit early Tuesday morning near Mammoth Lakes. It's one in a series of quakes since early in the morning.
People from Madera and Fresno have been calling the Action Newsroom Tuesday morning to report feeling the shaking.
The US Geological Survey says there have been 12 quakes since midnight. The strongest was a 4.9 magnitude quake.
People from Madera and Fresno have been calling the Action Newsroom Tuesday morning to report feeling the shaking.
The US Geological Survey says there have been 12 quakes since midnight. The strongest was a 4.9 magnitude quake.
Torrential rain caused massive flooding across Northern Ireland today as days of Mediterranean style weather ended in thunder storms causing traffic chaos.
The Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS) said it was inundated with more than 200 emergency calls in a 90-minute period as the province was the North was engulfed by the deluge.
The Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS) said it was inundated with more than 200 emergency calls in a 90-minute period as the province was the North was engulfed by the deluge.
Undergraduate education generally involves acquiring "received knowledge" - in other words, absorbing the past discoveries of scholars and scientists. But University of North Carolina at Charlotte senior biology major Andrew Pierce went beyond the textbooks and uncovered something previously unknown.
Pierce's discovery has to do with detecting a significant new detail concerning the behavior of the European honeybee - perhaps the most studied and economically important insect on Earth. Beyond agriculture, the finding may also have key implications for understanding the dynamics of all social animals, including man.
Pierce's recently reported his research in an article appearing in the behavioral biology research journal Ethology, with co-authors Lee Lewis and UNC Charlotte biology professor Stanley Schneider, Pierce's mentor. Pierce was first author on the paper - a rare achievement for an undergraduate.
"It was a very good work and an impressive achievement for a student researcher - he got a publication as an undergraduate," Schneider noted. "I really like working with our undergraduate honors students - they are so bright."
Pierce, age 22, has been working as a researcher in Schneider's lab for the past two years through a UNC Charlotte Honors College program that fosters research experiences for undergraduates.
Pierce's discovery has to do with detecting a significant new detail concerning the behavior of the European honeybee - perhaps the most studied and economically important insect on Earth. Beyond agriculture, the finding may also have key implications for understanding the dynamics of all social animals, including man.
Pierce's recently reported his research in an article appearing in the behavioral biology research journal Ethology, with co-authors Lee Lewis and UNC Charlotte biology professor Stanley Schneider, Pierce's mentor. Pierce was first author on the paper - a rare achievement for an undergraduate.
"It was a very good work and an impressive achievement for a student researcher - he got a publication as an undergraduate," Schneider noted. "I really like working with our undergraduate honors students - they are so bright."
Pierce, age 22, has been working as a researcher in Schneider's lab for the past two years through a UNC Charlotte Honors College program that fosters research experiences for undergraduates.
Mothers know best when it comes to dressing their children, at least among side-blotched lizards, a common species in the western United States. Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have found that female side-blotched lizards are able to induce different color patterns in their offspring in response to social cues, "dressing" their progeny in patterns they will wear for the rest of their lives. The mother's influence gives her progeny the patterns most likely to ensure success under the conditions they will encounter as adults.
In a paper published June 10 in the online early edition of the journal Ecology Letters (and in a later print issue), the researchers reported that female side-blotched lizards give an extra dose of the hormone estradiol to their eggs in certain social circumstances. The extra hormone affects the back patterns of lizards that hatch from those eggs, creating either lengthwise stripes down their backs or bars stretching from side to side. Whether they get stripes or bars depends on the genes for other traits.
"This is the first example in which exposure to the mother's hormones changes such a fundamental aspect of appearance. Even more exciting is that the mother has different patterns at her disposal, so she can ensure a good match between back patterns and other traits that her offspring possess," said Lesley Lancaster, a UCSC graduate student and first author of the paper.
In a paper published June 10 in the online early edition of the journal Ecology Letters (and in a later print issue), the researchers reported that female side-blotched lizards give an extra dose of the hormone estradiol to their eggs in certain social circumstances. The extra hormone affects the back patterns of lizards that hatch from those eggs, creating either lengthwise stripes down their backs or bars stretching from side to side. Whether they get stripes or bars depends on the genes for other traits.
"This is the first example in which exposure to the mother's hormones changes such a fundamental aspect of appearance. Even more exciting is that the mother has different patterns at her disposal, so she can ensure a good match between back patterns and other traits that her offspring possess," said Lesley Lancaster, a UCSC graduate student and first author of the paper.
It's the biggest fish in the ocean, and one of the most magnificent creatures any diver could ever hope to encounter.
So when dive boat captain Jeff Torode heard Sunday afternoon that a 30-foot whale shark was spotted off the coast of Boca Raton, he steered the Aqua View toward the sighting. The placid, filter-feeding sharks are not rare, but it is uncommon for divers to see them because they prefer deep water.
So when dive boat captain Jeff Torode heard Sunday afternoon that a 30-foot whale shark was spotted off the coast of Boca Raton, he steered the Aqua View toward the sighting. The placid, filter-feeding sharks are not rare, but it is uncommon for divers to see them because they prefer deep water.
|
| ©Joe Marino |
| A dead whale shark encountered Sunday off South Florida by divers out of Pompano Beach. |
