Record number of Jamaican Iguanas Released as Part of Ongoing Recovery Program

One of the most endangered lizards in the world at one point has made a big comeback. Thought to be extinct for nearly half a century, the Jamaican Iguana was rediscovered in 1990 when a pig hunter's dog caught an adult male, the first specimen seen alive since the 1940s. Even though they used to be hunted a lot a long time ago, the introduced Indian Mongoose poses the greatest threat to their continued survival by taking a high percentage of eggs and young iguanas, resulting in an aging adult population. However this trend has been reversed through a head-start and release program that has increased the number of nesting females by five fold from eight to 40. What they basically do is take in the eggs and care for the iguanas then them more and more over time. This has more than doubled the population of the iguanas and has been one of the leading conservation success stories today. I think this is really cool that they saved an endangered species that was pretty much extinct. This justs goes to show that if you take initiative a species will not go extinct. http://www.enn.com/press_releases/4157

Keeping Produce Fresh Longer

Billions of dollars of fruits, vegetables, and flowers are thrown away each year as produce ripens too quickly and starts to rot in different markets before public buyers even buy them. You’d expect fruits and vegetables to start going bad after you pick them. However, they are still very much alive and emitting ethylene gas. This gas helps produce continue to ripen and bloom even after you pick them. Scientist are trying to find a way to control this gas and prevent it from over ripening or ripening the produce to fast so they don’t have to go to waste. It’s been concluded that photocatalysis is the best method for helping this. With this method a catalyst and light act together to remove ethylene by transforming it into carbon dioxide and water. This would help us preserve fruits and vegetables longer without them over ripening. I feel like this is a great effort towards conserving the billions of produce wasted everyday which can be easily eaten by people in third world countries who have no food. http://www.enn.com/agriculture/article/45981

Evidence of Human Ancestors Hunting and Scavenging

A recent Baylor University research study has shed new light on the diet and food acquisition strategies of some the earliest human ancestors in Africa. Beginning around two million years ago, early stone tool-making humans, known scientifically as Oldowan hominin, started to exhibit a number of physiological and ecological adaptations that required greater daily energy expenditures, including an increase in brain and body size, heavier investment in their offspring and significant home-range expansion. Demonstrating how these early humans acquired the extra energy they needed to sustain these shifts has been the subject of much debate among researchers.


Article: Earliest Archaeological Evidence of Human Ancestors Hunting and Scavenging

Untangling the Tree of Life

These days, phylogeneticists(experts who painstakingly map the complex branches of the tree of life) suffer from an embarrassment of riches. The genomics revolution has given them mountains of DNA data that they can sift through to reconstruct the evolutionary history that connects all living beings. But the unprecedented quantity has also caused a serious problem: The trees produced by a number of well-supported studies have come to contradictory conclusions. Graduate student Leonidas Salichos analyze the reasons for these differences and propose a suite of novel techniques that can resolve the contradictions and provide greater accuracy in deciphering the deep branches of life's tree. To gain insight into this paradox, Salichos assembled and analyzed more than 1,000 genes.
The researchers also found that the further back in time they went the less reliable the genetic data becomes.



Article:Untangling the Tree of Life

Oklahoma Tornado

Tornado season has been relatively quiet this year. Within in the last week, tornado outbreaks have been erupting from North Texas to Minnesota.An eastward advancing cold front is to blame. This pocket of cold air has run into warm air from the Gulf of Mexico. This rising warm air has created thunderstorms that have in turn spawned tornadoes, which draw their rotation from the system's abundant wind shear, which is a change in wind speed and direction with altitude. In the next few days, this system should soon weaken. Many people have lost their homes to the tornado destroying it into bits and pieces. Oklahoma natives are showing support for those who've lost homes and need help. In any situation such as this, it is good to know that there are supporters out there who will help for any cause.

Video: Powerful, photogenic tornado from extreme close range! Western Kansas, May 18, 2013
Article: What Explains the Recent Outbreak of Tornadoes?

Ancient Dolphin-Like Marine Reptile

Chthyosaurs are marine reptiles known from hundreds of fossils from the time of the dinosaurs.An international team of scientists have revealed a new species of Ichthyosaur (a dolphin-like marine reptile from the age of dinosaurs) from Iraq, which revolutionizes our understanding of the evolution and extinction of these ancient marine reptiles. Malawania represents the last-known member of a kind of Ichthyosaur long believed to have gone extinct during the Early Jurassic, more than 66 million years earlier. This is a find that has revolutionized human findings of previous encountering with fossils of what was living during a period of time.

Article: Fossil Saved from Mule Track Revolutionizes Understanding of Ancient Dolphin-Like Marine Reptile

Strange artic melting

A new study funded by the National Science Foundation finds that the western part of the massive West Antarctic Ice Sheet is experiencing nearly twice as much warming as previously thought. An unmannd station (Byrd Polar Research Center) has recorded the temperatures in the west artic ice sheet and demonstrates a marked increase of 4.3 degrees Fahrenheit in average annual temperature since 1958. That is three times faster than the average temperature rise around the globe. "Our record suggests that continued summer warming in West Antarctica could upset the surface mass balance of the ice sheet, so that the region could make an even bigger contribution to sea-level rise than it already does," said David Bromwich, professor of geography at Ohio State University and senior research scientist at the Byrd Polar Research Center. Many people say that it is global warming, but it does not explain why this area is melting 3 times faster then any other ice sheets in the world. While the researchers work to fully understand the cause of the warming at Byrd Station, the next step is clear, he added.” West Antarctica is one of the most rapidly changing regions on Earth, but it is also one of the least known," he said. "Our study underscores the need for a reliable network of meteorological observations throughout West Antarctica, so that we can know what is happening--and why--with more certainty."        http://www.macroevolution.net/antarctic-ice.html