Published on January 6th, 2009
A new study has researched how city life affects your brain. The results:
Just being in an urban environment, they have found, impairs our basic mental processes. After spending a few minutes on a crowded city street, the brain is less able to hold things in memory, and suffers from reduced self-control…Natural settings, in contrast, don’t require the same amount of cognitive effort.
The study also explains why children with ADD do better in natural settings, as well as why hospital patients recover more quickly when they can see trees from their windows.
Published on January 5th, 2009
Mosquitoes are responsible for millions of deaths around the world. The problem is, science isn’t advanced enough to make them disease-resistant, yet pesticides are leading to even bigger worldwide problems. Researchers in Australia think they may have found a new green solution.
According to the University of Queensland biologist Scott O’Neill, they’ve bred mosquitoes who are living for only 21 days as compared to 50 days.
Once a mosquito encounters dengue or malaria, it takes roughly two weeks of incubation before the insect can spread that pathogen by biting someone, meaning older mosquitoes are the more dangerous ones.
The Australian scientists knew that one type of fruit fly often is infected with a strain of bacterial parasite that cuts its lifespan in half.
Breeding mosquitoes that die younger can cut down on the need for more dangerous pesticides, though messing with mother nature in an way could pose unforeseen problems…
Picture from sxc.hu via bulentince.
Published on January 5th, 2009
When people go hunting, they kill the big trophy animals with the largest antlers, hide, horns, etc. The scawny, weak animals are left behind, reversing the natural selection Darwin espoused in his theory of evolution.
Newsweek explains how hunting cause “evolution reverse”:
Researchers describe what’s happening as none other than the selection process that Darwin made famous: the fittest of a species survive to reproduce and pass along their traits to succeeding generations, while the traits of the unfit gradually disappear. Selective hunting—picking out individuals with the best horns or antlers, or the largest piece of hide—works in reverse: the evolutionary loser is not the small and defenseless, but the biggest and best-equipped to win mates or fend off attackers.
Image: swanksalot on Flickr under a Creative Commons License
Published on January 5th, 2009
Salvaging thousands of used disposable chopsticks from the Koriyama’s city hall cafeteria over two years, Shuhei Ogawara has built a 4-meter (13-ft) long canoe. It took three months for Ogawara to glue 7,382 chopsticks together to form the canoe shell.
Via: Pink Tentacle
Published on January 4th, 2009
Californians throw away millions of dollars of unclaimed bottle refunds each year when they place recycling in the garbage.
These unclaimed funds called California Redemption Value (CRV) are now being used to fund recycling projects at no expense to the state’s general fund. California recycles more than any other state in the union.
Via: Environmental News Service
Published on January 3rd, 2009
ExtremeCraft.com has a contest going but, as they say in the infomercials:Time is limited! Act now!
From the Web site:
We are seeking submissions for 1000 Ideas for Creative Reuse, an upcoming book by Garth Johnson of ExtremeCraft.com, which will feature 21st Century craft and design, all made with recycled, upcycled, repurposed and reused items. We are looking for the best examples of paper and book arts, jewelry, clothing, home and personal accessories, furniture, art, and miscellanea for possible publication. We invite designers, artists, visionaries and crafters of all stripes to submit their work.
To submit ideas, go to ExtremeCraft.com, and don’t forget: the deadline is Jan. 6!!
Source: treehugger.com
Published on January 2nd, 2009
No more squeaky voices from floating balloons. No more Goodyear blimps. We may have reached peak helium levels, as this inert gas is endangered.
According to Scientific Blogging, helium is not readily renewable and is made through from uranium and thorium decaying over billions of years:
Lee Sobotka, professor of chemistry and physics at Washington University in St. Louis, says it is being depleted so rapidly in the world’s largest reserve, outside of Amarillo, Tex., that supplies are expected to be gone there within the next eight years.
Image: Goodyear Blimp
Published on January 2nd, 2009
The search for alternative fuels is nothing new, but one New Zealand airline think they may have found a solution in, of all places, a poisonous plant.
This week, Air New Zealand tested fuel made from the oil of the jatropha plant as part of their search for alternatives to traditional fuel. On December 30, they flew a Boeing 747 for two hours with a combination of 50% jet fuel and 50% jatropha oil fuel.
Jatropha in an inedible shrug that grows mainly in India and Africa and has recently been grown in mass quantities for its biofuel potentials. Although it grows in arid climates and makes use of land not able to be used for food crops, it is also a labor-intensive plant with unreliable yields. So, it isn’t a miracle solution. Yet.
Air New Zealand hopes to use biofuels for about 10% of their total fuel needs by 2013.
Picture via loungefrog at sxc.hu.
Published on December 31st, 2008
The January 2009 issue of Smithsonian Magazine reports that the spotted owl is in danger again. Once the subject of a battle between environmentalists and industry (loggers), this time the owl is facing a natural competitor, a bigger bird: the barred owl.
According to Craig Welch, the writer of Smithsonian article:
As climate chaos disrupts migration patterns, wind, weather, vegetation and river flows, unexpected conflicts will arise between species, confounding efforts to halt or slow extinctions.
Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Published on December 31st, 2008
Nine finalists in the Design LA Motorsports 2025 Design Challenge are set to revolutionize the auto sports world of the future. The Mazda Kaan (above) is kept company by designs from GM, Honda, Audi, BMW, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi and Toyota. The designs are drawn with a future of greener technologies in mind.
For example, Mazda says of the Kaan:
California freeways have been resurfaced with a sub-level electro-conductive polymer that powers the electric cars of the modern world. MAZDA’s patented electronic tire system uses this technology to power the KAAN to reach 250 mph with no harmful emissions!
Source: CrispGreen.com and Mazda
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