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Like humans, lowly cockroach uses a GPS to get around, scientists find  
Rats, men and cockroaches appear to have a similar GPS in their heads that allows them to navigate new surroundings, researchers have discovered.  
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Why We Need Real Environmental Reform, Not "Greenwashing"  
Does the "BPA-free" sticker on your water bottle mean it's safe, or just well-marketed? Is building an athletic field out of recycled tires a green choice, or one that introduces more toxic material into our environment?

These are the dilemmas we face as consumers. We make thousands of choices every day about what to put in, on and near our bodies. Even if we have the critical thinking skills to evaluate the merits of every product we simply don't have the time. We often must rely on others to make decisions that we implicitly trust are in our best interest. But often the toxic materials that make headlines are replaced by well-intentioned but unproven alternatives -- like replacing BPA with the chemically-similar and totally untested substance BPS.

The FDA currently does not have the budget to conduct extensive long-term research on many potentially harmful products. Industry is required to effectively self-regulate. Most consumers are completely unaware of this fact. This Spring my students raised a "Stink!" upon previewing the documentary by Jon Whelan and took incremental steps in a less toxic direction with the Silent Spring Institute's Detox Me App. The rest of us would be wise do the same.

Educators must ensure the STEM workforce be research-empowered to solve today's problems without creating issues for tomorrow. In the interim, consumers can turn to the Skin Deep Database and Think Dirty App, while decision makers must use the best information available.

Recently, Simmons College partnered with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to develop Daly Field, a Boston athletic complex with dirt fields that had fallen into disrepair. Hopefully, our stewardship and development choices will protect both our athletes and our community.

Simmons is installing new synthetic fields that save up to a million gallons of water needed to maintain comparable natural grass fields -- and help to eliminate existing erosion and reduce contaminants from fertilizers and pesticides.

Synthetic turf is an easy choice, but Simmons recently made a tougher call. As a result of an ongoing federal investigation into the safety of crumb rubber (made largely from recycled tires) as infill in synthetic fields, Simmons opted for a more expensive all-natural alternative at Daly Field. Geofill consists of 90% crushed coconut husks and 10% cork. It has been in use for more than 10 years. By choosing to install Geofill rather than crumb rubber, Simmons has assured that Daly Field will be the greenest and cleanest public playing field in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Long overdue reform of the Toxic Substances Control Act is headed for President Obama's pen with bipartisan support. Whether the legislation will lead to much-needed consumer protections or future problems remains to be seen. With any luck, the reform will not follow the current trend of replacing a hazard with an alternative that later proves to be worse.

Let's hope that the government looks to the future and funds the study and development of greener alternatives that are better for both our health and the environment. Our STEM students are up to the challenge.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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The Climate Post: Natural Fluctuations Responsible, in Part, for Antarctica Ice Growth  
Natural fluctuations specifically related to the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO) are responsible for the increased growth of Antarctic sea ice, according to a new study in the journal Nature Geoscience. A negative shift in the IPO has caused cooler-than-average sea surface temperatures in the Eastern Pacific, allowing Antarctic sea ice to expand since 2000.

"The climate we experience during any given decade is some combination of naturally occurring variability and the planet's response to increasing greenhouse gases," said National Center for Atmospheric Research scientist Gerald Meehl, lead author of the study. "It's never all one or the other, but the combination, that is important to understand."

But what's new in the latest study, writes Chris Mooney in The Washington Post, "is the suggestion that this negative IPO phase had consequences that stretched all the way to the Southern Ocean waters surrounding Antarctica--and that this, in turn, explains why most climate models didn't predict the observed growth of Antarctic sea ice."

Study researchers suspect that the IPO began switching to a positive phase in 2014 and that ice in the region may shrink in the next decade.

Study Points to Human Influence on Changes in Earth's Biggest Body of Warm Water

A study in Science Advances has provided the first quantitative attribution of human influences on and natural contributions to warming of the Indo-Pacific warm pool (IPWP), Earth's largest region of warm sea surface temperatures and one "fundamental to global atmospheric circulation and the hydrological cycle."

To "fingerprint" anthropogenic forcings and natural causes of substantial IPWP warming and expansion, researchers at Pohang University of Science and Technology and their international colleagues paired observations with multiple climate model simulations integrated with and without human influences. They found that the IPWP had warmed by 0.3 Celsius and increased in size by about a third over the last 60 years primarily due to an increase in human-made greenhouse gases.

About 12 to 18 percent of the warming has been due to natural variability in the ocean, but the remaining portion is due to the greenhouse gas increase, according to study co-author Seung-Ki Min of Pohang University in South Korea.

"We have more energy available from the hotter ocean," said Min. "That means the atmosphere will be enhanced to transport more energy from the tropical ocean to the high latitude zone."

The findings indicate that future ocean warming could increase storm activity over East Asia and strengthen monsoons over South Asia.

"This wasn't entirely surprising. We've long suspected climate change to be behind the changes, but no one had yet proven it," said Evan Weller, lead author, noting that what was surprising is that the western portion of the pool, near India, is expanding more than the eastern part in the Pacific. "We don't really know why. We'll try to figure that out next."

Report: United States Is Oil Reserves Leader

The United States holds the largest share of the world's oil reserves--264 billion barrels to Russia's 256 billion and Saudi Arabia's 212 billion, according to Rystad Energy, a Norwegian industry research group that tracks proved and probable reserves, discoveries and undiscovered fields. More than 50 percent of remaining oil reserves, it claims, are unconventional shale oil. Texas alone holds more than 60 billion barrels of shale oil.

On the basis of a three-year analysis of 60,000 fields worldwide, the group estimates global reserves to be 2,092 billion barrels--roughly 70 times the current production rate of some 30 billion barrels of crude oil per year.

"This data confirms that there is a relatively limited amount of recoverable oil left on the planet," the report says. "With the global car-park possibly doubling from 1 billion to 2 billion cars over the next 30 years, it becomes very clear that oil alone cannot satisfy the growing need for individual transport."

The Climate Post offers a rundown of the week in climate and energy news. It is produced each Thursday by Duke University's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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Rhesus macaques may be preying on bird eggs in Silver Springs  
A new study in Florida is suggesting that that more needs to be learned about animals' habits and impacts so that park staff can make science-based decisions on how to manage non-native monkeys.  
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Tim Profeta: The Climate Post: Natural Fluctuations Responsible, in Part, for Antarctica Ice Growth  
Natural fluctuations specifically related to the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO) are responsible for the increased growth of Antarctic sea ice,...

Read more: Environment, Global Warming, Antarctica, Oil, Texas, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Pollution, Energy, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Oceans, Green News

 
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Theodore J. Boutrous, Jr.: The Ends Do Not Justify The Means  
In 2014, a federal court found that an American lawyer fabricated evidence, bribed court officials and intimidated judges as part of a lawsuit in Ecua...

Read more: Chevron Ecuador, Chevron, Amazon Watch, Steven Donziger, Environment, Human Rights, Fraud, Business News

 
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Jack Choros: 5 Things You Can Do To Keep The Air Around You Fresh  
It's within that spirit of constantly evolving as both global citizens and healthy human beings that I leave you with five things you can do to keep the air around you fresh.

Read more: Environment, Air Pollution, Fresh Air, Green News

 
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Dying satellite sends scientists one last surprise before vanishing  

To wit: Pics of a burping supermassive black hole

Hitomi, the failed X-ray observatory sent up to space by Japan's Aerospace Exploration Agency, peered deep into the heart of a galaxy to reveal hot bubbling plasma before it died.…

 
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The No Man's Land Beneath the Border Wall  

There's a small stretch of soil north of the Rio Grande river that's still part of the United States, but exists below the Mexican border wall. The Atlantic went inside this no-man's land to uncover what life is like in a place that feels not-quite America, but not-quite Mexico.

 
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Have to love an evening sky  

elainedavis189 posted a photo:

 
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The Lebrija 1 Solar Power Plant in Lebrija, Spain is comprised...  

The Lebrija 1 Solar Power Plant in Lebrija, Spain is comprised of approximately 170,000 individual mirrors installed on 6,048 parabolic troughs. If placed next to one another, the troughs would extend for 60 kilometers.

 
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Wolf by Jan Machata  

Wolf by Jan Machata

Jan Machata: Photos

 
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midday by Dasha Pears  

midday by Dasha Pears

Dasha Pears: Photos

 
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Photos of the Day: July 7, 2016  

Explore the news of the day with these images from around the world.  
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Scarface by Lídia Vives  

Scarface by Lídia Vives

if you like my work you can follow me on: FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/lidiavivesphotography/ INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/lidiavivesphoto/

Lídia Vives: Photos

 
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... by Barbara Florczyk  

... by Barbara Florczyk

photomanipulation 2016 Facebook page model http://fuchsfee-stock.deviantart.com/

Barbara Florczyk: Photos

 
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The Spiral Manoeuvre by Lezanne Gibbs  

The Spiral Manoeuvre by Lezanne Gibbs

Lezanne Gibbs: Photos

 
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Composition by Thomas Thomopoulos  

Composition by Thomas Thomopoulos

Thomas Thomopoulos: Photos

 
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Snowy Toronto nights by Mindz.eye  

Snowy Toronto nights by Mindz.eye

Mindz.eye: Photos

 
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r0B0t: The US Navy Wants Locusts to Sniff Out Bombs - The Fiscal Times  

The Fiscal Times

The US Navy Wants Locusts to Sniff Out Bombs The Fiscal Times Insects engineered to detect explosives sound like something out of a sci-fi movie, but they may become a reality for the US military. Last week, the US Office of Naval Research awarded researchers at the University of Washington in St. Louis, Missouri ... Can locusts sniff out bombs? The US Navy is trying to find outChristian Science Monitor Engineers to use cyborg insects as biorobotic sensing machinesScienceBlog.com (blog) US Navy Funds Scientists to Develop Locusts as Cyborg Bomb Sniffers of the FutureNature World News National Post -Business Insider -Techworm -ChristianNewsToday.com all 60 news articles »

 
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Synthetic Stingray May Lead To A Better Artificial Heart  

Using gold, silicone, and heart cells from a rat, scientists have made a tiny artificial stingray. The engineering involved in propelling it could help make a heart that's more than a mechanical pump.

 
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Giant planet orbits three stars and enjoys multiple sunsets  
Young gas giant is the smallest planet to be imaged directly  
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These Photos of Reptiles and Amphibians Will Transport You to Another World  






YASUNI NATIONAL PARK, Ecuador -- Ecuador is a beautiful country on South America's west coast, and despite its small size, it has an extremely diverse landscape -- including the Amazon rainforest, the Andean highlands and the Galápagos Islands. I recently conducted a research expedition to Ecuador, and it was an unforgettable experience to say the least.

During our travels through the mainland and the Galápagos, we encountered an incredible diversity of frogs, snakes, lizards and salamanders. Without further ado, here are my top 10 favorite amphibian and reptile encounters:

1. Rain Frogs

2. Fringed Leaf Tree Frog

3. Banded Tree Anole

4. Amazon Tree Boa

5. Glass Frogs

6. Tropical Salamander

7. Geckos

8. Galápagos Iguanas

9. Giant Galápagos Tortoise

10. The Rare Pinocchio Lizard

I hope you enjoyed these incredible reptiles and amphibians as much as we did. Special thanks to Lucas Bustamante from Tropical Herping and thanks to TROPIC for hosting us during our visit to the Galápagos. If you want to plan your own trip, visit Destination Ecuador.

For more you can follow me on Twitter and Instagram!

An Ecuadorian, a Californian and a Venezuelan walk into a jungle...My first time in the field with Lucas Bustamante and Alejandro Arteaga, two amazing researchers and photographers who have traveled through the most remote parts of Ecuador's rainforests in search of new frog and reptile species. #Ecuador #TropicalHerping #snake #reptile #amphibian #research #Herpetologist #expedition #explore #discover #herpetology #journey #rainforest #science

A photo posted by Aaron Pomerantz (@nextgenscientist) on Jun 14, 2016 at 5:14pm PDT

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Pathway to Planet Nine  
Konstantin Batygin explains what led him and astronomer Mike Brown to propose the existence of a ninth planet in our solar system  
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Pathway to Planet Nine  
Konstantin Batygin explains what led him and astronomer Mike Brown to propose the existence of a ninth planet in our solar system  
science