| December 20, 2007 |  |
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Australia warns deaths possible if Japan whalers, protesters clash
Sydney (AFP) Dec 19, 2007Australia on Wednesday urged Japanese whalers and environmental activists heading for a showdown in the Southern Ocean to show restraint, warning deaths could occur if anything went wrong. Announcing that Australia would deploy an unarmed customs ship and a surveillance aircraft to monitor the Japanese hunt, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said both whaling and protest ships needed to behave ... more Squirrels Use Snake Scent 
Davis CA (SPX) Dec 20, 2007California ground squirrels and rock squirrels chew up rattlesnake skin and smear it on their fur to mask their scent from predators, according to a new study by researchers at UC Davis. Barbara Clucas, a graduate student in animal behavior at UC Davis, observed ground squirrels (Spermophilus beecheyi) and rock squirrels (Spermophilus variegates) applying snake scent to themselves by picking up ... more Fit for porpoise: tiny mammal was ancestor of cetaceans 
Paris (AFP) Dec 19, 2007A tiny deer-like mammal was the forerunner of whales, dolphins and porpoises, according to a study released on Wednesday by Nature, the weekly British science journal. Whales are long suspected to have originated from four-footed mammals called artiodactyls that walked on land in South Asia and gradually adapted to live in the sea. Evidence to back this comes from fossils of even-toed un ... more Jekyll And Hyde Bacteria Offer Pest Control Hope 
York, UK (SPX) Dec 20, 2007New research at York has revealed so-called 'Jekyll and Hyde' bacteria, suggesting a novel way to control insect pests without using insecticides. Researchers at the University of York studied the relationship between plant-dwelling insects and the bacteria that live in them - and discovered an unexpected interaction. Plants are not 'easy meat' for insects. In fact, many insects thrive on ... more Elevated Carbon Dioxide Changes Soil Microbe Mix Below Plants 
Upton NY (SPX) Dec 20, 2007A detailed analysis of soil samples taken from a forest ecosystem with artificially elevated levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) reveals distinct changes in the mix of microorganisms living in the soil below trembling aspen. These changes could increase the availability of essential soil nutrients, thereby supporting increased plant growth and the plants' ability to "lock up," or sequeste ... more |
pollution:
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Tokyo (AFP) Dec 19, 2007Japan on Wednesday called for calm and voiced hope Australia would come to understand its whaling after the new government in Canberra said it would send a ship and aircraft to monitor the hunt. Japan, which says whaling is part of its culture, is carrying out the hunt in the Antarctic Ocean using a loophole in a 1986 global moratorium on commercial whaling that allows "lethal research" on t ... more Analysis: Venezuela helps Cuban refinery 
Miami (UPI) Dec 19, 2007 A Soviet-era oil refinery in Cuba is getting back online with the help of the communist island's close regional ally and petroleum benefactor, Venezuela. Later this week Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is scheduled to arrive in Cuba for the grand reopening of the Camilo Cienfuegos refinery, a relic of the former Soviet Union's sway over Cuba until its demise in the late 1980s. ... more Wind Energy Companies Flock To North America 
Dublin, Ireland (SPX) Dec 20, 2007European wind energy companies have been making a beeline for the United States, which is fast emerging as an investment hub for wind energy generators. The United States is drawing in investors from Denmark, Germany, and Spain with its increased focus on alternate energy sources, technology advances, and tax break extensions. This has compelled the domestic companies to be on their toes. ... more Chevron to jointly develop Chinese gas field 
Shanghai (AFP) Dec 19, 2007US energy giant Chevron Corp has signed a 30-year product-sharing contract with China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) to jointly develop a large gas field in southwestern China. The gas block, occupying 1,969 square kilometres (757.3 square miles), marked China's largest onshore exploration involving a foreign group, said a CNPC statement released Tuesday. Under the terms, CNPC, the paren ... more Xethanol Announces Grant Application For Citrus Waste To Ethanol Production 
New York NY (SPX) Dec 20, 2007Xethanol announced that its subsidiary Southeast Biofuels LLC has filed a grant application with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to expand the company's work on converting waste to energy, using citrus waste as the raw material and converting it into ethanol. Only about 50 percent of a citrus fruit is used to produce juice and related products. Currently, most citrus ... more |
nuclear-civil:
 economy:  nuclear-civil:  energy-tech:  |
Moscow (AFP) Dec 19, 2007Russia offered Wednesday to help Libya in its pursuit of nuclear energy and announced a visit to the former pariah state this weekend by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, a report said. "We are ready to help Libya realise its enduring right to attain civilian nuclear (energy)," foreign ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said, according to the Ria Novosti news agency. Kamynin said Lavrov wo ... more Outside View: The future of INF 
Moscow (UPI) Dec 18, 2007 Twenty years ago, on Dec. 8, 1987, Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in Washington. It was the first-ever treaty on reducing available arsenals. It brought the elimination of an entire type of nuclear missiles and set a practical example of openness by introducing mutual in situ checks for 13 years. Today, the United States ... more Russia ready to renegotiate Cold War-era treaty: Lavrov 
Berlin (AFP) Dec 18, 2007Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov wrote in an article Tuesday that Russia was prepared to renegotiate with the West on a Cold War-era treaty setting limits on troops and weapons that it froze this month. Lavrov said the suspension of compliance with the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) was an attempt to "revive" the treaty, taking into account new factors that could affect Russia's security. ... more Dolphin Therapy A Dangerous Fad 
Atlanta GA (SPX) Dec 19, 2007People suffering from chronic mental or physical disabilities should not resort to a dolphin "healing" experience, warn two researchers from Emory University. Lori Marino, senior lecturer in the Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology Program, has teamed with Scott Lilienfeld, professor in the Department of Psychology, to launch an educational campaign countering claims made by purveyors of what is ... more Monkeys Can Perform Mental Addition 
Durham NC (SPX) Dec 19, 2007Researchers at Duke University have demonstrated that monkeys have the ability to perform mental addition. In fact, monkeys performed about as well as college students given the same test. The findings shed light on the shared evolutionary origins of arithmetic ability in humans and non-human animals, according to Assistant Professor Elizabeth Brannon, Ph.D. and Jessica Cantlon, Ph.D., of the Du ... more
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