Organic agriculture's recently recognized benefits for improving food security don't depend on a boost from genetically modified (GM) technology. While the chemically-based systems that GM requires could be cleaned up with organic techniques, there's no clear reason to degrade organic standards to accept the downsides that come with biotech-produced crops as they are currently managed.
Recently, there have been renewed efforts to pressure organic agriculture to abandon one of its foundational principles and accept genetically modified crops. While there may be nothing inherently wrong with contemplating a theoretical overlap between biotech crop genetics and organic farming systems, there's not a compelling set of reasons to do so, either.
Earth Changes
The volcano of Ischia, a resort island famed for its thermal waters off the coast of Naples, could potentially erupt, Italian disaster experts said.
Guido Bertolaso, the head of Italy's civil protection agency, said that while Vesuvius was more commonly considered the nation's most worrisome volcano, Ischia, which last erupted 700 years ago, was experiencing a build-up of magma.
No eruption is imminent, but "if I had to say which is the volcano with the most loaded gun barrel, I'd say it's not Vesuvius but the island of Ischia", Mr Bertolaso said in Rome.
Ischia, a short hydrofoil trip from the port of Naples and the chic vacation island of Capri, is often overrun with Italian and foreign visitors seeking to ease their aches and pains in pools filled with thermal waters pumped in from the sea.
Ischia's "magma chamber is loading up", said Mr Bertolaso, whose agency's mandate includes both disaster relief and prevention. An eruption on Ischia "could be worse than a hypothetical Vesuvius eruption", he said.
Guido Bertolaso, the head of Italy's civil protection agency, said that while Vesuvius was more commonly considered the nation's most worrisome volcano, Ischia, which last erupted 700 years ago, was experiencing a build-up of magma.
No eruption is imminent, but "if I had to say which is the volcano with the most loaded gun barrel, I'd say it's not Vesuvius but the island of Ischia", Mr Bertolaso said in Rome.
Ischia, a short hydrofoil trip from the port of Naples and the chic vacation island of Capri, is often overrun with Italian and foreign visitors seeking to ease their aches and pains in pools filled with thermal waters pumped in from the sea.
Ischia's "magma chamber is loading up", said Mr Bertolaso, whose agency's mandate includes both disaster relief and prevention. An eruption on Ischia "could be worse than a hypothetical Vesuvius eruption", he said.
© AFP/File/Lawrence Bartlett
A sign outside a hotel warns swimmers of box jellyfish, in Darwin. A 10-year-old Australian girl who survived being stung by the world's most venomous creature, may have rewritten medical history, an expert said Tuesday
A sign outside a hotel warns swimmers of box jellyfish, in Darwin. A 10-year-old Australian girl who survived being stung by the world's most venomous creature, may have rewritten medical history, an expert said Tuesday
Schoolgirl Rachael Shardlow lost consciousness after being badly stung by the jellyfish while swimming in a river in eastern Queensland state with her brother in December, but lived to tell the tale.
"When I first saw the pictures of the injuries I just went, 'you know to be honest, this kid should not be alive'," said Jamie Seymour, professor of zoology and tropical ecology at James Cook University.
"I mean they are horrific. Usually when you see people who have been stung by box jellyfish with that number of the tentacle contacts on their body, it's usually in a morgue," he told public broadcaster, the ABC.
Often deadly, the box jellyfish has long, trailing tentacles and is able to squeeze through even the smallest of nets as it is only the size of a fingernail.
© Kim Keating , U.S. Geological Survey
A female grizzly bear family rambles through Yellowstone National Park. USGS researchers study population dynamics of these bears, as well as hazards they face. This information is used by resource managers and decision makers.
A female grizzly bear family rambles through Yellowstone National Park. USGS researchers study population dynamics of these bears, as well as hazards they face. This information is used by resource managers and decision makers.
The studies highlight dynamic tools to assist in conservation and management of grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone and Northern Continental Divide ecosystems, the two largest strongholds for grizzly populations in the contiguous United States.
While previous studies identified roads and developed areas as primary hazards, the new findings also indicate that rural home development and areas open to fall ungulate hunting can negatively affect bear survival in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Scientists used 21 years of grizzly bear tracking information to develop a model that predicts areas hazardous to grizzlies.
"Our research shows that bears living in areas with human development and activity including roads, campgrounds, lodges, and homes have a greater chance of dying than bears living in more remote and secure areas," said Chuck Schwartz, a USGS wildlife biologist and lead of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team.
Death Valley National Park - The violence of this month's big Baja California earthquake was captured in scientists' video of tiny fish that live in a deep Mojave Desert cavern.
This article has been removed from our database due to receipt of the following notice:
© photovolcanica.com
Overview of Santiaguito lava dome complex from Santa Maria, Dec. 2007
Overview of Santiaguito lava dome complex from Santa Maria, Dec. 2007
The institute said winds were carrying the ash in a northeasterly direction from the 2,500 metre (7,500 foot) high volcano in the province of Quetzaltenango, 206 kilometres west of the capital.
The ash plume spread across six provinces, raising fears of damage to crops, the institute said while classes were suspended at schools in three provinces.
Santiaguito's worst eruption occurred in 1929 when 2500 people were killed.
No ash cloud here: Deep blue skies over London April 16. So, if planes weren't grounded for 6 days because of the "ash cloud"...
Skies fell quiet for six days, leaving as many as 500,000 Britons stranded overseas and costing airlines hundreds of millions of pounds.
Estimates put the number of Britons still stuck abroad at 35,000.
However, new evidence shows there was no all-encompassing cloud and, where dust was present, it was often so thin that it posed no risk.
The satellite images demonstrate that the skies were largely clear, which will not surprise the millions who enjoyed the fine, hot weather during the flight ban.
Jim McKenna, the Civil Aviation Authority's head of airworthiness, strategy and policy, admitted: 'It's obvious that at the start of this crisis there was a lack of definitive data.
'It's also true that for some of the time, the density of ash above the UK was close to undetectable.'
© N. Grobe & N. Weir
Mice can synthesize morphine from various intermediate chemicals.
Mice can synthesize morphine from various intermediate chemicals.
Mammals may possess the biochemical machinery to produce morphine - a painkiller found in the opium poppy, according to a new study.
Meinhart Zenk of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St Louis, Missouri, and colleagues detected traces of morphine in the urine of mice after injecting chemical precursors of the drug. They report their findings today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.[1]
Like other opioids, morphine is a potent, potentially addictive pain reliever. Scientists have speculated for decades that animals naturally synthesize morphine because specialized receptors in the brain respond to the drug. Trace amounts of morphine had been found in human urine and cells.[2] But studies using living animals yielded inconclusive results because of possible contamination from external sources of morphine in their food or in the environment.
© USGS
Monday, April 26, 2010 at 02:59:50 UTC
Monday, April 26, 2010 at 10:59:50 AM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location:
22.247°N, 123.733°E
Depth:
10 km (6.2 miles) set by location program
Region:
SOUTHEAST OF TAIWAN
Distances:
245 km (150 miles) SSW of Ishigaki-jima, Ryukyu Islands, Japan
270 km (170 miles) ESE of T'ai-tung, Taiwan
270 km (170 miles) NE of Basco, Batan Islands, Philippines
2145 km (1340 miles) SW of TOKYO, Japan
Comment: For more information on this volcano see this link.