The ‘Golden Death’ Bacterium Found in a Rotten Apple

This “spectacular” pathogen dissolves its host from inside out. For several years in the fall, Marie-Anne Félix would walk through an apple orchard near Paris in search of rotten fruit. Félix, an evolutionary biologist at École normale supérieure, studies tiny, translucent worms called nematodes. These worms feed on bacteria, so they tend to congregate, as their prey do, on the flesh of decaying fruit. In 2009, Félix picked up one such apple rich in nematodes. She took samples back to her lab, where she tried to grow worms and bacteria from the apple in petri dishes.

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A major chemical company is building roads made of recycled plastic. They've already stopped 220,000 pounds of waste from ending up in landfills.

Plastic gets a bad rap for clogging up landfills, polluting our oceans, and leaking toxic chemicals, but there may be ways to mitigate its damage. Beginning in 2017, one of the world's largest plastic producers, Dow Chemical, began building roads with recycled plastic as a way to reduce waste. Their combined efforts have saved 220,000 pounds of waste from ending up in landfills.

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Critically-endangered Madagascan tortoises hatch at Chester Zoo

Two critically-endangered tortoises the size of golf balls have hatched at Chester Zoo. The infants, born to mum Smoothsides, 50, and dad Burt, who is 75, are the first of their kind to be bred at the zoo for seven years. The radiated tortoises are being cared for in a climate-controlled breeding facility. They will eventually grow up to half a metre long and could live to be 100.

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Tobacco plants transformed into ‘green bioreactors’ to benefit human health

Researchers at Western University and Lawson Health Research Institute are using tobacco plants as ‘green bioreactors’ to produce an anti-inflammatory protein with powerful therapeutic potential. The plants are being used to produce large quantities of a human protein called Interleukin 37, or IL-37. The protein is naturally produced in the human kidney in very small quantities and has powerful anti-inflammatory and immune-suppressing properties, providing potential for treating a number of inflammatory and autoimmune disorders like type 2 diabetes, stroke, dementia and arthritis.

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99.9999 percent chance we're the cause of global warming, study says

There's a 99.9999 percent chance that humans are the cause of global warming, a new study reported Monday. This means we've reached the "gold standard" for certainty, a statistical measure typically used in particle physics. Humanity burns fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas, which release carbon dioxide (CO2) into the Earth's atmosphere and oceans. CO2 is the greenhouse gas that's most responsible for warming.

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CRISPR reveals the secret life of antimicrobial peptides

When it comes to the immune system, we usually think about lymphocytes like B and T cells or macrophages going on constant seek-and-destroy missions against invading pathogens like bacteria and viruses. But our immune system actually includes a lesser-known and less-studied first line of defense referred to as “innate immunity”.

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Lake Erie just won the same legal rights as people

Ohio voters passed groundbreaking legislation that allows citizens to sue on behalf of the lake when it’s being polluted.

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Renewable energy policies actually work

For most of the industrial era, a nation's carbon emissions moved in lock step with its economy. Growth meant higher emissions. But over the past decade or so, that has changed. Even as the global economy continued to grow, carbon emissions remained flat or dropped a bit.

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Fat rat stuck in manhole rescued by firefighters in Germany

A multi-agency rescue operation has taken place in the town of Bensheim in Germany after a tubby rat became stuck in a manhole cover. The rat, still plump with winterspeck – which translates literally as winter bacon and refers to extra pounds piled on in the colder months – became stuck after it tried to squeeze through a small gap in the sewer cover.

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The school climate change strikes are inspiring – but they should shame us

Such is the upside-down, topsy-turvy state of our world, that the children are now the adults and the adults are the children. In Westminster, our supposed leaders – men and women of mature vintage – keep stamping their feet and demanding what no one can give them.

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Mankind is like the fabled frog—we're being boiled alive by climate change

People are so quick to normalize extreme weather in the face of climate change we have become like the proverbial frog slowly boiling alive in a pot of water, scientists warned. In the famous fable, a frog that jumps into a pot of boiling water suddenly realizes the danger it is in and jumps straight out. But if the frog jumps in when the water is cold, and is slowly brought to the boil, the frog will not realize the peril it is in.

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The Tiny Swiss Company That Thinks It Can Help Stop Climate Change

Just over a century ago in Ludwigshafen, Germany, a scientist named Carl Bosch assembled a team of engineers to exploit a new technique in chemistry. A year earlier, another German chemist, Fritz Haber, hit upon a process to pull nitrogen (N) from the air and combine it with hydrogen (H) to produce tiny amounts of ammonia (NH₃). But Haber’s process was delicate, requiring the maintenance of high temperatures and high pressure.

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Iceberg twice the size of NYC about to break off of Antarctica

An iceberg twice the size of New York City is about to break off of Antarctica's Brunt Ice Shelf, according to NASA. "Cracking across Antarctica’s Brunt Ice Shelf is set to release an iceberg w/ an area about 2x the size of NYC. The splitting could result in an uncertain future for the shelf’s scientific research & human presence," NASA said in a tweet.

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It’s OK to believe in climate change and be a Republican

It’s OK to believe in climate change and be Republican. Actually, it's OK to believe in climate change and be a good Republican. A few months ago, I had lunch with a senior Republican official in Arizona. The conversation shifted to the environment and renewable energy.

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Evidence for man-made global warming hits 'gold standard': scientists

OSLO (Reuters) - Evidence for man-made global warming has reached a “gold standard” level of certainty, adding pressure for cuts in greenhouse gases to limit rising temperatures, scientists said on Monday.

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The Chicken Is Local, But Was It Happy? GPS Now Tells The Life Story Of Your Poultry

Shoppers are willing to pay a premium for ingredients that are cage-free, organic or wild caught. But how do you really know if the chicken you are eating spent its life happily pecking for corn or if your blackberries were grown locally and are pesticide free? Simple. Put a tracking device on it.

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Eating ‘zombie’ deer meat is safe, researchers say

Eating meat from “zombie” deer appears to be perfectly safe — for now. Researchers examined about 80 people who’ve feasted on the meat of deer that tested positive for chronic wasting disease — a fatal illness that causes zombie-like behavior in the animals and could spread to humans — and found over the course of the six-year study “no significant changes in health conditions,” USA Today reported on Thursday. The tainted deer meat was unwittingly served to 200 to 250 at a fire company in Oneida County, New York, on March 13, 2005.

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An Archaeologist Says He's Figured Out The Secret of The Pyramids' Peculiar Alignment

For centuries, the pyramids of Giza have puzzled researchers - not just their mysterious voids and hidden chambers, but exactly how ancient Egyptians built such impressive structures without modern technology.

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Badgers, stoats and otters stage ‘incredible’ revival

They must survive government culls, gamekeepers, poisoning, persecution and increasingly busy roads but, in modern times at least, Britain’s carnivores have never had it so good: badger, otter, pine marten, polecat, stoat and weasel populations have “markedly improved” since the 1960s, according to a new study.

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Firefighters Rescue German Shepherd, Tortoise From Hole in Fontana

Firefighters had an unusual rescue on their hands this week when a 70-pound tortoise and a German shepherd dog got themselves wedged in a tunnel the tortoise had dug under a backyard wall. The incident unfolded about noon Wednesday in the 8000 block of Regal Court, Capt. Jeremy Kern of the San Bernardino County Fire Department said in a written statement.

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Video Games Can Make Us Think Seriously About Climate Change

A new expansion has added environmental challenges to Sid Meier’s Civilization VI, the latest in a popular series of strategy video games that has been running since the 1990s. The expansion – called Gathering Storm – adds new features to the game, most notably anthropogenic climate change and natural disasters. The game involves developing a civilisation from its humble beginnings in the Stone Age to nowadays and beyond, while choosing from a vast array of technologies and cultural policies. As the game and the ages progress, your energy choices become increasingly important.

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The Hard Lessons of Dianne Feinstein’s Encounter with the Young Green New Deal Activists

One imagines that Senator Dianne Feinstein would like a do-over of her colloquy with some young people on Friday afternoon. A group of school students, at least one as young as seven, went to the senator’s San Francisco office to ask her to support the Green New Deal climate legislation. In a video posted online by the Sunrise Movement, she tells them that the resolution isn’t a good one, because it can’t be paid for, and the Republicans in the Senate won’t support it. She adds that she is at work on her own resolution, which she thinks could pass.

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Green New Deal is feasible and affordable

Don't listen to the right wing and corporate lobbyist naysayers: Jeffrey Sachs writes that Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Markey's Green New Deal Resolution would provide economic, social and environmental benefits--and it can be done.

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The Surprising Reason Zebras Have Stripes

By putting black-and-white coats on horses, a new study shows that the pattern discourages biting flies from landing.

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Australia Passes Bill To Ban Animal Testing For Cosmetics

The Australian Senate has passed a bill effectively animal testing for chemicals used as ingredients in cosmetics. Under the measures, which are part of the Industrial Chemicals Bills 2017, companies cannot use data gleaned from animal testing when introducing a new chemical or ingredient to the beauty sector. According to campaigners, the measures will also help reduce reliance on animal testing and encourage the development of non-animal methods, which is in line with the wishes of the 85 percent of Australians...

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Why Global Warming Can Mean Harsher Winter Weather

On the surface it certainly can appear that way. But just because some of us are suffering through a particularly cold and snowy winter doesn’t refute the fact that the globe is warming as we continue to pump carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 1997. And the National Atmospheric and Oceanographic Administration (NOAA) reports that recent decades...

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CO2 is main driver of climate change

While there are many drivers of climate, CO2 is the most dominant radiative forcing and is increasing faster than any other forcing.

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Found: The Biggest Bee in the World

The humid air in the northern Maluku Islands of Indonesia, also known as the Spice Islands, is heavy with nutmeg and clove. These lowland rainforests were the backdrop for the recent rediscovery of a remarkable animal—Wallace’s giant bee, known locally as raja ofu, meaning “king bee,” and with good reason. Wings spread, the largest specimens (who are actually queens) can be the size of an extra large chicken egg, and they sport jaws like pliers.

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Boy, 12, said to have created nuclear reaction in playroom lab

Hobbyists say Jackson Oswalt of Tennessee is youngest person to achieve fusion

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Time running out for orcas, belugas trapped in icy 'whale jail'

Russian video footage shows that the animals, likely bound for aquariums, are languishing in freezing waters and legal limbo.

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Fearing Their Dogs Will Develop Autism, Some Owners Are Declining Vaccinations

The concern over pets developing autism from vaccines appears to be the latest issue within the anti-vaxxer movement.

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Climate change officially claims its first mammal: The Bramble Cay melomys is declared extinct

In 1978, researchers estimated several hundred rodents lived on the island, but the numbers dropped to the double digits by 1998. Just 12 were caught in November 2004.

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'Yanked from the ground': cactus theft is ravaging the American desert

Hipster tastes have fueled a spike in succulent poaching. Now conservationists are finding creative ways to rescue them

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The world's largest bee 'rediscovered' after 39 years

Found in Indonesia, the bee lives inside termite mounds.

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Earth's Atmosphere Is Bigger Than We Thought - It Actually Goes Past The Moon

We humans like to put labels and boundaries on things. For example, the boundary between Earth's atmosphere and space is the Kármán line, the point at 100 kilometres (62 miles) altitude where aeronautics end, and astronautics take over.

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Is the Insect Apocalypse Really Upon Us?

Claims that insects will disappear within a century are absurd, but the reality isn’t reassuring either.

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NASA Happily Reports the Earth is Greener, With More Trees Than 20 Years Ago–and It's Thanks to China, India

The world is literally a greener place than it was 20 years ago, and the data from NASA satellites has revealed a counterintuitive source for much of this new foliage: China and India. This surprising new study shows that the two emerging countries with the world’s biggest populations are leading the improvement in greening on land. The effect stems mainly from ambitious tree planting programs in China and intensive agriculture in both countries. In 2017 alone, India broke its own world record for the most trees planted after volunteers gathered to plant 66 million saplings in just 12 hours.

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This Canadian dog came back home thanks to the United States Coast Guard

After an 11-day hiatus, an Ontario dog is back on Canadian soil, all thanks to the crew aboard the United State Coast Guard Mackinaw. On Christmas Eve, Kailaan Walker and his partner, Lydia Selin, were visiting family on St. Joseph Island. They decided to take their two dogs for a walk, when Logan ran away. The couple searched for Logan but couldn't find him. They put up posters, posted the information on social media and even put out a trail camera to see if they could locate him.

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The Metropolitan Museum Will Return Prized Gilded Coffin After Learning It Was Stolen

How did the Met not realize its prized 2017 acquisition was a looted object? "It was the perfect storm," explains one cultural heritage law expert who consulted on the case.

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Why US cities are becoming more dangerous for cyclists and pedestrians

US cities were designed and engineered around cars. Now some are working to increase walking and biking, but the shift isn't easy.

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Climate change is now sending animals extinct

Climate change is now officially sending animals extinct. The Bramble Cay melomys, a rodent found on a tiny island off Australia's far north coast and the only mammal native to the Great Barrier Reef, was this week added to a list of animals declared extinct by the Australian government. According to scientists, the mammal extinction is the first of its kind to be caused by human-induced climate change.

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Crisis on the Colorado: Part III Running Dry: New Strategies for Conserving Water on the Colorado

Communities along the Colorado River are facing a new era of drought and water shortages that is threatening their future. With an official water emergency declaration now possible, farmers, ranchers, and towns are searching for ways to use less water and survive. Third in a series.

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Life quickly finds a way: the surprisingly swift end to evolution's big bang

Modern animals took over our planet much more quickly than previously thought. This has both welcome and disturbing implications for the future of life on our rapidly changing planet

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Tidal floods driven by climate change may hurt small businesses

Sea level rise, driven by climate change, is causing increased flooding during high tides along much of the U.S. coastline. Though such floods are usually minor, a new study suggests that car traffic patterns could help reveal how floods harm an area’s business revenues. Tidal flooding events “are not one in a hundred years or one in a thousand years. They’re once a week,” says Miyuki Hino, an environmental social scientist at Stanford University.

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Crisis on the Colorado: Part II On the Water-Starved Colorado River, Drought Is the New Normal

With the Southwest locked in a 19-year drought and climate change making the region increasingly drier, water managers and users along the Colorado River are facing a troubling question: Are we in a new, more arid era when there will never be enough water? Second in a series.

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China just built a 250-acre solar farm shaped like a giant panda

Most solar farms align their solar arrays in rows and columns to form a grid. A new solar power plant in Datong, China, however, decided to have a little fun with its design. China Merchants New Energy Group, one of the country's largest clean energy operators, built a 248-acre solar farm in the shape of a giant panda.

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Crisis on the Colorado: Part I The West’s Great River Hits Its Limits: Will the Colorado Run Dry?

As the Southwest faces rapid growth and unrelenting drought, the Colorado River is in crisis, with too many demands on its diminishing flow. Now those who depend on the river must confront the hard reality that their supply of Colorado water may be cut off. First in a series.

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Researchers have answered a 200-year-old mystery surrounding Australia's iconic cassowary

After years of speculation, researchers from La Trobe University believe they know what the hard growth on the cassowary's head is used for.

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Crisis on the Colorado: Part IV In Era of Drought, Phoenix Prepares for a Future Without Colorado River Water

Once criticized for being a profligate user of water, fast-growing Phoenix has taken some major steps — including banking water in underground reservoirs, slashing per-capita use, and recycling wastewater — in anticipation of the day when the flow from the Colorado River ends. Fourth in a series.

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The World Might Actually Run Out of People

You know the story. Despite technologies, regulations, and policies to make humanity less of a strain on the earth, people just won’t stop reproducing. By 2050 there will be 9 billion carbon-burning, plastic-polluting, calorie-consuming people on the planet. By 2100, that number will balloon to 11 billion, pushing society into a Soylent Green scenario. Such dire population predictions aren’t the stuff of sci-fi; those numbers come from one of the most trusted world authorities, the United Nations.

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