Category Archives: Science

It Takes just one Village to Save China’s Langurs

From IHT.
In 1996, when the langurs were highly endangered, Dr. Pan Wenshi, China’s premier panda biologist, came to study them in Chongzuo at what was then an abandoned military base. This was at a time when hunters were taking the canary-yellow young langurs from their cliff-face strongholds, and villagers were leveling the forest for firewood.
Pan [...]

Wenchuan Earthquake In China Could Be Followed By Another Significant Rupture

From ScienceDaily.
Researchers analyzing the May 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in China’s Sichuan province have found that geological stress has significantly increased on three major fault systems in the region. The magnitude 7.9 quake on May 12 has brought several nearby faults closer to failure and could trigger another major earthquake in the region.
“One great earthquake seems [...]

Africa’s Biggest Mammals Key to Ant-plant Teamwork

From ScienceDaily.
Throughout the tropics, ants and Acacia trees live together in intricate interdependent relationships that have long fascinated scientists.
Now researchers are reporting that in Africa, this plant-insect teamwork depends on the very antagonist it is intended to ward off: Africa’s big browsing mammals.
Researchers report that elephants, giraffes and other large plant-eaters spur Acacias to “hire” [...]

Orca Attack Seal with Waves

From Nature News.

A pack of killer whales uses waves to knock seals off the ice.
They made large waves to wash the seal off the relative safety of the ice. Later the orca put the seal back on the ice and dislodged the seal a second time which suggested strongly they were training their young.
It is [...]

Huge Water Reservoir Discovered Inside Earth

From Live Science.
Scientists scanning the deep interior of Earth have found evidence of a vast water reservoir beneath eastern Asia that is at least the volume of the Arctic Ocean. (view image)
The discovery marks the first time such a large body of water has found in the planet’s deep mantle.
The finding, made by Michael [...]

Six Ideas That Will Change the World

From Esquire.
They are six researchers with six ideas that will one day change the world.

Breaking Down the Firewall
Internet censorship is the book burning of the modern age. A new brand of activists — or “hacktivists” — are using their computer expertise to help people stranded in Web-censored countries abroad (and corporate offices and military bases [...]

A Discovery that may Explain Why People Experience Ears Ringing

From EurekAlert.
Brain scientists at Johns Hopkins have discovered how cells in the developing ear make their own noise, long before the ear is able to detect sound around them. The finding, reported in this week’s Nature, helps to explain how the developing auditory system generates brain activity in the absence of sound. It also may [...]