Monday, November 12, 2007

A Howling Mouse?



Onychomys leucogaster : the northern grasshopper mouse. This may look just like any other rodent, but the grasshopper mouse is special. As its name implies, it feasts on grasshoppers, but also eats other invertebrates like scorpions, and even other mice! The grasshopper mouse apparently emits a skunky smell when captured. But maybe the strangest thing of all is that it howls. Just like a wolf. This probably serves the purpose of defending territory. The mouse sits back on its haunches, lifts its head, and belts out an incredibly high-pitched squeak. To hear the howl and learn more about this stinky, carnivorous, howling mouse, click here: http://hearingvoices.com/transcript.php?fID=68.

Friday, November 2, 2007

America Recycles Day


November 15th is America Recycles Day! Visit the official America Recycles Day website to learn more about recycling and learn about any activities taking place where you live.

It's important to note that the "3 R's"--Reduce, Reuse, Recycle-- are purposefully listed in that order. More important that recycling is reducing and reusing. Yes, recycling saves trees and keeps non-biodegradable material out of landfills, but it does require a lot of energy and resources. The first step we take should be to reduce our consumption (i.e. take only one paper towel from the dispenser in public bathrooms; or, don't buy those Lunchable meals that are encased in all that plastic) and save anything that can be used again (i.e. use glass jam or jelly jars to can your own food; or print on the blank side of used office paper).

That said, go out and celebrate America Recycles Day on November 15th, and find out where you can recycle in your own town!

Weird and Wacky



Since it was just Halloween, we'll highlight two dark and mysterious creatures this post: the Dumbo Octopus and the Vampire Squid. These cephalopods live far down in the ocean's depths.
According to the Discovery Channel, "The deep-sea "Dumbo" octopus got its nickname from obvious places, but the benthic cephalopod Grimpoteuthis is equipped with large fins (which may resemble mammalian ears) to help it swim."

The other crazy cephalopod is the vampire squid, whose scientific name (Vampyroteuthis infernalis) means "vampire squid from hell". It has very large eyes: proportionately the largest eye size to body size ratio of any animal in the world (marinebio.org). The vampire squid does not expel ink like other squid, but has organs called photophores all over its body that can produce clouds of luminescent particles which glow anywhere from 2-9 minutes. When alarmed, the vampire squid can fold its tentacles inside out over its body and head, displaying spines on the inside of its tentacles.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Silence of the Bees


This past Sunday, PBS aired a fascinating, but at the same time, alarming episode of Nature called, "Silence of the Bees". For mysterious reasons, honeybees are disappearing around the world (researchers suspect a virus to be a likely culprit). In a part of China, for example, they vanished years ago, due to the overuse of pesticides. Now, pear farmers in China pollinate every pear tree blossom by hand. It is an excruciatingly tedious process, and nowhere near as efficient as the bees' work. The program estimated that if honeybees became extinct in the United States, it would cost 90 million dollars a year for humans to pollinate crops and flowers. And even with technology, nothing can pollinate better than a bee. This is yet another example of the goods and services that Mother Nature provides, scott free, that are actually worth millions and millions of dollars. If honeybees disappear, everything that depends on them will be drastically affected, from the crops we consume to livestock that depend on crops. And don't forget the honey.

Honeybees are fascinating creatures. Here are just a few fun facts about the bees and their honey:

  • Honey is antibacterial and will never spoil...when King Tut's tomb was uncovered, the honey within it was still good!
  • Honey is 25% sweeter than table sugar
  • Honey speeds the healing of open wounds and combats infections
  • Once the bees have regurgiated honey into the honeycomb, they evaporate the water in it by fanning their wings over the cells
  • Honeybees stroke their wings over 11,000 times a minute when they fly
  • To communicate to the hive where a good feeding site is, a bee will do a "dance", showing the bees directions to the site through the "dance moves"
  • 80% of the pollination of fruits, vegetables, and seed crops in the United States is due to honey bees
  • Worker bees (the ones that do all the pollinating) are all female
  • Honeybees have five eyes
  • An average beehive can hold up to 50,000 honeybees

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Water conservation...it's about time

This recent Associated Press article really reiterates the need to conserve as much water as we can. Lakes and reservoirs are shrinking, snow pack is decreasing, and desalination is extremely expensive. If states and even countries start asking for water from each other, who knows what kinds of messes that will land us in. However, there are things we can do to help. Start by checking out 100+ ways to help conserve water in your own home.

Bold steps may be in order to keep U.S. taps flowing

By Brian Skoloff
The Associated Press

10/27/2007

Pumps move salt water into filtration tanks at an Apollo Beach, Fla., desalination plant. Florida leads the nation in water reuse, but the drought still has a devastating effect in the state. An epic drought in Georgia threatens the water supply for millions. Florida doesn't have nearly enough water for its expected population boom. The Great Lakes are shrinking. Upstate New York's reservoirs have dropped to record lows. And in the West, the Sierra Nevada snowpack is melting faster each year.
Across America, the picture is critically clear: The nation's freshwater supplies can no longer quench its thirst.
The government projects that at least 36 states will face water shortages within five years because of a combination of rising temperatures, drought, population growth, urban sprawl, waste and excess.
''Is it a crisis? If we don't do some decent water planning, it could be,'' said Jack Hoffbuhr, executive director of the Denver-based American Water Works Association.
Water managers will need to take bold steps to maintain water supplies, including conservation, recycling, desalination and stricter controls on development.
''The last century was the century of water engineering,'' said Barry Nelson, a senior policy analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council. ''The next century is going to have to be the century of water efficiency.''
The price tag for ensuring a reliable water supply could be staggering. Experts estimate that just upgrading pipes to handle new supplies could cost the nation $300 billion over 30 years.
It's not just America's problem - it's global.
Australia is in the midst of a 30-year dry spell, and population growth in urban centers of sub-Saharan Africa is straining resources. Asia has 60 percent of the world's population, but only about 30 percent of its fresh water.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations network of scientists, said this year that by 2050 up to 2 billion people worldwide could be facing major water shortages.
The U.S. used more than 148 trillion gallons of water in 2000, the latest figures available from the U.S. Geological Survey. That includes residential, commercial, agriculture, manufacturing and every other use - almost 500,000 gallons per person.
Coastal states like Florida and California face a water crisis not only from increased demand, but also from rising temperatures that are causing glaciers to melt and sea levels to rise. Higher temperatures mean more water lost to evaporation. And rising seas could push salt water into underground sources of fresh water.
Florida represents perhaps the nation's greatest water irony. A hundred years ago, the state's biggest problem was it had too much water. But decades of dikes, dams and water diversions have turned swamps into cities.
Florida leads the nation in water reuse by reclaiming about 240 billion gallons annually, but it is not nearly enough.
Floridians use about 2.4 trillion gallons of water a year. The state projects that by 2025, the population will have increased 34 percent from about 18 million to more than 24 million people, pushing annual demand for water to nearly 3.3 trillion gallons.
Californians use nearly 23 trillion gallons of water a year, much of it coming from Sierra Nevada snowmelt. But climate change is producing less snowpack and causing it to melt prematurely.
Experts also say the Colorado River, which provides fresh water to seven Western states, will probably provide less water in coming years as global warming shrinks its flow.
California, like many other states, is pushing conservation as the cheapest alternative, looking to increase its supply of treated wastewater for irrigation and studying desalination, which the state hopes could eventually provide 20 percent of its fresh water.
''The need to reduce water waste and inefficiency is greater now than ever before,'' said Benjamin Grumbles, assistant administrator for water at the Environmental Protection Agency. ''Water efficiency is the wave of the future.''

Friday, October 26, 2007

A Sea Jewel


This photograph is from the November 2007 issue of National Geographic. I have never seen a nudibranch (sea slug) like this one. It just proves that no matter how much we know about this planet, there is always one more strange, bizzare, yet fascinatingly beautiful creature around the corner. This is what NG has to say about this critter:

"No bigger than a quarter, a Glaucus nudibranch preys on toxic Portuguese men-of-war, appropriating their stinging cells for its own defense. Camouflaged in blue and silver, this sea slug was caught off Hawaii but drifts in mild waters worldwide."

Gorgeous.

For more incredible photographs of nudibranchs, visit http://www.sergeyphoto.com/underwater/nudibranchs.html