As unlikely as it sounds, termites might provide a partial solution to our energy needs. Lisa Margonelli reports in The Atlantic:
But where humans have failed, the termite succeeds—spectacularly. A worker termite tears off a piece of wood with its mandibles and lets its guts work on it like a molecular wrecking yard, stripping away sugars, [...]
Archive for the ‘science news’ Category
Termites Hold Key to Biofuel?
Posted in science news, sustainability on September 1, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Can You Identify This Bug?
Posted in fauna, science news on July 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
If so, get ready for your 15 minutes of fame. ScienceDaily reports that the bug in question has stumped researchers at London’s Natural History Museum.
Experts checked the new bug with those in the Museum’s national insect collection of more than 28 million specimens. Amazingly, there is no exact match.
Science 2.0
Posted in anything 2.0, science news, technology on May 2, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Great article, “Science 2.0—Is Open Access Science the Future?”, from Scientific American about the move toward more open science from several different quarters. One example comes from scientists at MIT, who have created a wiki for sharing lab data and more at OpenWetWare.
Cell Phones Are for the Birds
Posted in fauna, science news, technology on October 7, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
According to an article in the Telegraph, MIT researchers are using cell phones to call owls.
When Eben Goodale wants to count the birds, he places a call that triggers phones in the forest to play, via speakers, pre-recorded owl calls, such as hoots and whistles.
Territorial owls raise their heads and approach what they think may [...]
The Encyclopedia of Life
Posted in science news on June 6, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
We’ve bookmarked the Encyclopedia of Life. It’s an ambitious, important project that probably won’t be completed until 2010. Until then, it’s worth keeping an eye on.
Comprehensive, collaborative, ever-growing, and personalized, the Encyclopedia of Life is an ecosystem of websites that makes all key information about life on Earth accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world. [...]
Chimps are more evolved than humans
Posted in science news on April 17, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
New genetic analysis suggests that chimpanzees have adapted to their environment more rapidly than humans have.
Read the full story in Technology Review.
