Topic: Science & Technology

New research provides a better understanding of a deadly fungus that is killing off frogs throughout Central and South America, and that could threaten amphibian populations in North America as well.

Research, led by SIUC zoologist Karen R. Lips, and SIUC zoologist Michael W. Sears, underscores the dire circumstances facing up to 43 percent of known amphibian species in the world and points up the need for more regulations, conservation efforts and quarantines to prevent the fungus’ spread.

Scientists investigated yield differences between organic and conventional cash grain and forage crops in the Upper Midwest to compare the productivity of the two cropping systems. The researchers found that organic rotations had similar yields as their conventional counterparts.

Can organic cropping systems be as productive as conventional systems? The answer is an unqualified, “Yes” for alfalfa or wheat and a qualified “Yes most of the time” for corn and soybeans according to research reported by scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and agricultural consulting firm AGSTAT in the March-April 2008 issue of Agronomy Journal.

Although we know that air pollution in the 19th century was a major problem, as the Industrial Revolution brought about the massive buring of coal, we now find that this pollution reached as far north as the artic.

Scientists know that air pollution particles from mid-latitude cities migrate to the Arctic and form an ugly haze, but a new University of Utah study finds surprising evidence that polar explorers saw the same phenomenon as early as 1870.

The term Colony Collapse Disorder, which was coined by scientists in 2007, is being used to describe the sudden disappearance of adult bee populations, an unexplained phenomenon that has plagued honeybee colonies around the world.

More than 2,000 beekeepers in Virginia face the possibility of losing entire bee colonies to the Colony Collapse Disorder, but through Virginia Cooperative Extension, they have access to the latest research-based information about the problem.

A harbor town, nearly 3,500 years old, has been found in amazingly intact condition on the Greek shorline. Researchers with Florida State University and the University of Pennsylvania are conducting a study of the site.

Along an isolated, rocky stretch of Greek shoreline, a Florida State University researcher and his students are unlocking the secrets of a partially submerged, “lost” harbor town believed to have been built by the ancient Mycenaeans nearly 3,500 years ago.

“This is really a remarkable find,” said Professor Daniel J. Pullen, chairman of FSU’s Department of Classics. “It is rare indeed to locate an entire town built during the Late Bronze Age that shows this level of preservation.”

World Water Day is celebrated globally on March 22 in an effort to raise awareness about the availability of clean, fresh water, a natural resource that many take for granted.

One-in-five people in the world do not have access to safe drinking water, and two-in-five lack access to improved sanitation services. By 2025, close to two billion people will be living in regions with severe water scarcity, according to a United Nations report.

A new processes promises to produce billions of gallons of ethanol from plant based garbage, from brewer's mash to paper trash.

University of Maryland research that started with bacteria from the Chesapeake Bay has led to a process that may be able to convert large volumes of all kinds of plant products, from leftover brewer’s mash to paper trash, into ethanol and other biofuel alternatives to gasoline.

Researchers have developed a low-cost material for capturing carbon dioxide . Produced with a simple one-step chemical process, the material has a high capacity for absorbing carbon dioxide – and can be reused many times.

Researchers have developed a new, low-cost material for capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the smokestacks of coal-fired power plants and other generators of the greenhouse gas. Produced with a simple one-step chemical process, the new material has a high capacity for absorbing carbon dioxide – and can be reused many times.

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Georgia Tech graduate student Jeffrey Drese assembles a fixed-bed flow system by loading a tubular reactor into a heating chamber. The equipment is used to test the new adsorbent material.

Biologists at the University of California, San Diego have developed a series of global maps that show where projected habitat loss and climate change are expected to drive the need for future reserves to prevent biodiversity loss..

Biologists at the University of California, San Diego have developed a series of global maps that show where projected habitat loss and climate change are expected to drive the need for future reserves to prevent biodiversity loss.

Back in the old days at Rochdale College, we knew how to weigh our kilos. However, we're sure that's not what the good folks at Sandia have in mind as they seek to redifine the kilogram.

The kilogram is losing weight and many international scientists, including some at Sandia National Laboratories, agree that it’s time to redefine it.