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Posted by geri
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Thursday, 28 May 2009 |
How many new species would you guess are discovered by scientists in a given year? Would you believe, a tally of more than 18,000 species in 2007 alone?
From among the more than 10,000 newly spotted species each year, scientists have named the top 10 new species -- the most colorful, weird and surprising of them all.
The Arizona State University 's International Institute for Species Exploration along with a committee of taxonomists – scientists responsible for species exploration and classification – tallied their votes to come up with the list for 2008, which includes a pea-sized seahorse, caffeine-free coffee and bacteria that live in hairspray.
The top 10 new species also include the world's tiniest snake just 4 inches long, an insect as big as a dog, a ghost slug from Wales, a deep blue damselfish, and a palm that flowers itself to death.
According to Quentin Wheeler, an entomologist and director of the International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University, a new generation of tools are coming online that will vastly accelerate the rate at which we are able to discover and describe species.
"Most people do not realize just how incomplete our knowledge of Earth's species is or the steady rate at which taxonomists are exploring that diversity. We are surrounded by such an exuberance of species diversity that we too often take it for granted," says Wheeler, who also is ASU vice president, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and a professor in the School of Life Sciences.
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Read more... [Top 10 New Species for 2008]
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Posted by geri
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Thursday, 28 May 2009 |
Today's wind turbines are like race cars with one gear. Slow off
the line and crippled at high speeds, the turbines are effective at
generating electricity only within a sweet spot of moderate wind speeds.
Scientists from Purdue University want to change this by creating
intelligent wind turbines that shape-shift with the wind. These smart wind turbines would help maximize the amount of electricity generated by wind power while ensuring longer life spans for wind turbines.
(Continue Reading at Discovery.com)
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Posted by Adrian Orozco Blair
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Monday, 18 May 2009 |
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Raising hopes for the development of an AIDS vaccine that might actually work, researchers report they were able to protect monkeys against infection with simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), the primate version of HIV.
(Read more in Yahoo News-Health)
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Posted by Patrick Riley
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Thursday, 14 May 2009 |
There are lots of creative ways to produce biofuel from algae,
but NASA's takes the cake. The space agency is growing biofuel in
plastic bags of sewage floating in the sea. The Offshore Membrane
Enclosures for Growing Algae (OMEGA) bags are based on technology used
to recycle astronauts' wastewater.
The bags are filled with sewage and algae. The algae eat nutrients in the sewage, clean up
the water, and produce lipids for fuel with help from water, solar
energy, and CO2. At the end of the process, oxygen and fresh water are
released from the bags.
(Learn more from Ariel Schwartz at Fast Company)
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