Everyday Thinking

NestWatch project leader to speak at the Roberson Museum in Binghamton

What could be cuter than baby birds all atwitter in the nest? But amid the “oohs” and “aahs” are real data about the rhythms of bird biology and how they may be changing as the result of human activity. Combine the “wow” factor of the former with the scientific value of the latter and you have NestWatch - ­a new, free citizen science project developed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in collaboration with the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center and funded by the National Science Foundation. Participants visit nests during spring and summer to collect simple information about location, habitat, species, number of eggs, and number of young in the nest. Then they submit their observations online.

“NestWatch introduces birding and simple methods of scientific inquiry to families, children, retired adults­people of all ages and skills,” says project leader Tina Phillips. “It’s easy and fun. It helps people reconnect with nature in their own yard, nearby park, or nature preserve.”

Peter Marra from the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center at the National Zoo says, “Each and every observation is important because it helps scientists measure the impact of such things as climate change and habitat destruction. Without citizens across the country collecting this information for us it would be almost impossible to track these large-scale destructive processes.” 

In addition to Nestwatch, the NestCams companion site has been revamped and is now up and running. Live cameras show the nesting activities of Barn Owls, Wood Ducks, and Northern Flickers in Texas and California. More cameras will be going online across the country in the weeks ahead.

All NestWatch materials and instructions are available online including directions on how to find nests and how to monitor them without disturbing the birds.

“One of the most exciting things about NestWatch,” says Phillips, “is that we’ll be able to take in data from as far back as 1900!”

Anyone who’s been keeping nest records on their own will now have a way to put that important information to use. With all this information from NestWatchers, scientists will be able to track changes in reproductive timing and fledging success which may be linked to climate change.

The lecture on Friday evening will cover several topics - the relationship between citizen scientists and birds, practical ways people can bring nesting birds to their backyards, and the diversity of avian breeding biology.

"There's so many fascinating aspects of avian breeding biology," says Phillips, "I want to be able to give people a sense of just how different these breeding systems are, even within our country with the 700 species of birds that breed in North America."

The guest lecture with Tina Phillips takes place on Friday, May 9th at 7 .m. at the Roberson Musuem and Science Center, Binghamton.

Corn plastic to the rescue?

Thirty minutes north of Omaha, outside Blair, Nebraska, the aroma of steaming corn—damp and sweet—falls upon my car like a heavy curtain. The farmland rolls on, and the source of the smell remains a mystery until an enormous, steam-belching, gleaming-white architecture of tanks and pipes rises suddenly from the cornfields between Route 75 and the flood plain of the Missouri River. Behold NatureWorks: the largest lactic-acid plant in the world. Into one end of the complex goes corn; out the other come white pellets, an industrial resin poised to become—if you can believe all the hype—the future of plastic in a post-petroleum world.

The resin, known as polylactic acid (PLA), will be formed into containers and packaging for food and consumer goods. The trendy plastic has several things going for it. It’s made from a renewable resource, which means it has a big leg up—both politically and environmentally—on conventional plastic packaging, which uses an estimated 200,000 barrels of oil a day in the United States. Also, PLA is in principle compostable, meaning that it will break down under certain conditions into harmless natural compounds. That could take pressure off the nation’s mounting landfills, since plastics already take up 25 percent of dumps by volume. And corn-based plastics are starting to look cheap, now that oil prices are so high.

For a few years, natural foods purveyors such as Newman’s Own Organics and Wild Oats have been quietly using some PLA products, but the material got its biggest boost when Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, announced this past October that it would sell some produce in PLA containers. The move is part of the company’s effort to counter criticisms that it has been environmentally irresponsible. “Moving toward zero waste is one of our three big corporate goals for the environment,” says Matt Kistler, vice president of private brands and product development for the retailer. Wal-Mart plans to use 114 million PLA containers a year, which company executives estimate will save 800,000 barrels of oil annually.

To make plastic packaging and containers from a renewable resource that can be returned to the earth as fertilizer sounds like an unmitigated good. Selling fruits and veggies in boxes that don’t leach chemicals into landfills sounds equally wonderful. But PLA has considerable drawbacks that haven’t been publicized, while some claims for its environmental virtues are downright misleading. It turns out there’s no free lunch after all, regardless of what its container is made of, as I learned when I tried to get to the bottom of this marvelous news out of corn country.

Read the full article here.

Binghamton University researchers explore altruism's unexpected ally -- selfishness

Just as religions dwell upon the eternal battle between good and evil, angels and devils, evolutionary theorists dwell upon the eternal battle between altruistic and selfish behaviors in the Darwinian struggle for existence. In a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), evolutionary theorists at Binghamton University suggest that selfishness might not be such a villain after all.

Omar Tonsi Eldakar and David Sloan Wilson propose a novel solution to this problem in their article, which is available in the online Early Edition of PNAS.  They point out that selfish individuals have their own incentive to get rid of other selfish individuals within their own group.

Eldakar and Wilson consider a behavioral strategy called "Selfish Punisher," which exploits altruists and punishes other selfish individuals, including other selfish punishers. This strategy might seem hypocritical in moral terms but it is highly successful in Darwinian terms, according to their theoretical model published in PNAS and a computer simulation model published in the Journal of Theoretical Biology. Selfish punishers can invade the population when rare but then limit each other, preventing the altruists from being completely eliminated.

Read the full article here.

Meteor shower alert!

ETA AQUARID METEOR SHOWER:  If you see a meteor flit across the sky tonight, it could be a piece of Halley's Comet. Earth is crossing a stream of dusty debris from Halley and this is causing the annual eta Aquarid meteor shower. Sky watchers in the tropics and southern hemisphere (where the shower is most intense) could see as many as 70 meteors per hour during the dark hours before dawn on Monday, May 5th, and Tuesday, May 6th.  The show is diminished at northern latitudes where rates may be 15 meteors per hour or less.  Check http://spaceweather.com for sky maps and more information.

Our local forecast calls for mostly clear skies overnight with lows in the 30s. It could be perfect for a little skywatching.

Cornell's study of horses provides insight into human flu pandemic

Stored safely in a freezer at Cornell's James A. Baker Institute for Animal Health are samples of the virus thought to be most like the one public health experts expect someday to afflict record numbers of the world's population. The virus was collected in 1973 during an outbreak of equine influenza at a Florida racetrack. Dorothy Holmes, an infectious disease specialist in Cornell's College of Veterinary Medicine, had obtained samples of the virus with the intention of using it to create nasal spray vaccines for horses.

Now, 35 years later, Cornell scientists have the rare chance to study the behavior of the organism to figure out why this particular virus, an H7 serotype, outperforms all other serotypes in its lethal powers. The study is supported by a seven-year, $3 million award from the National Institutes of Health.

"Influenza H7 is unique in its capability to invade not only the lungs but other parts of the host's body, including the brain, and this is why it's so dangerous," explains Gary Whittaker, an associate professor of virology who leads the project.

Read the full article here.

Nature: Penguins of the Antarctic

Tonight's episode of Nature will air at 8 p.m. on WSKG Public Television.

Add PBS Nature to your page

EarthTalk: What about wind?

Dear EarthTalk: How is wind power faring in the U.S. now? Is more of it coming on line and
becoming a larger percent of the grid? And what about some of the highly publicized efforts to build wind farms, such as in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Has that been approved?
                                                                          -- Paul Howe, San Francisco, CA

Clean and green wind energy is the new darling of alternative energy developers, and the U.S. industry has been surging the past three years, especially as developers take advantage of government incentives—in the form of the so-called Production Tax Credit (PTC)—for erecting turbines and connecting them to the grid.

The non-profit American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) reports that, in 2007 alone, total U.S. wind power capacity grew by a new record of 45 percent, injecting some $9 billion into the economy. These new installations provide enough electricity to power 1.5 million typical American homes while strengthening the nation’s energy supply with clean, homegrown electricity.

According to AWEA, utility-grade wind power installations are now in operation across 34 U.S. states, generating more than 16,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity cumulatively—enough to power upwards of 4.5 million homes and to generate 45,000 new domestic jobs. But even with this growth, wind energy still accounts for just one percent of U.S. electricity supply. Continued growth apace with of recent years, though, should make it a major player in the American energy scene within a decade. President Bush himself recently suggested that wind has the potential to supply up to 20 percent of the nation’s electricity.

Of course, the volatility of oil prices has helped wind energy gain its foothold. Once a wind farm is built, the fuel cost is essentially zero (as long as the wind blows), whereas fluctuating fossil fuel prices have made traditional power sources more costly and risky. Upping our reliance on wind power has also allowed us to lower our overall carbon footprint. If coal or natural gas were to be substituted to generate the electricity we now get from wind, it would put 28 million additional tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year. Wind power also saves water by not requiring the billions of gallons of water used to cool coal-fired power plants, an increasingly contentious issue in arid areas with limited access to fresh water.

As for the contentious Cape Wind project proposed for Nantucket Sound in Massachusetts, the federal agency in charge, the U.S. Minerals Management Service, is sifting through tens of thousands of public comments and expects to make a final decision on the project by next winter. But even if they give it the green light, extensive permitting demands and legal challenges will likely hold up construction for years. 

AWEA thinks that 2008 can be as much of a growth year as 2007 if Congress extends the PTC program. The Senate has already approved extending the PTC for at least one more year, but the House has yet to bring it up for a vote. Meanwhile, wind energy proponents are pacing the halls of Congress trying to persuade their Representatives that what’s good for the wind industry is good for America.

CONTACTS: American Wind Energy Association; Cape Wind; U.S. Minerals Management Service

GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to: EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; or submit it online.  Click here to read past columns of EarthTalk. 

Hartwick College hosts talk on local food campaign

On Wednesday, April 23, 2008, Challey Comer, Farm to Market manager for the "Pure Catskills" buy-local program, will give a talk titled "Buy Local Efforts for Farm, Food, and Forest: The Pure Catskills Branding Campaign." The event will be held at 7 p.m. in the Strawbale House at Hartwick College's Pine Lake Environmental Campus as part of the Conversations at the Lake series.

Pure Catskills is a branding and buy local campaign sponsored by the Watershed Agricultural Council in collaboration with farmers and purveyors of fresh food across Delaware, Greene, Otsego, Schoharie, Sullivan, and Ulster counties in New York State. Comer will cover the basics of the Pure Catskills program, discuss the argument for buying local, and talk about some possible next steps for people interested in doing more.

Comer is the Farm to Market manager at the Watershed Agricultural Council. She worked as an engineering specialist in the Agricultural Program for nearly three years before taking on her current position in the spring of 2007. During her time in the Catskills, Comer has held part-time jobs at an heirloom vegetable nursery, on a farmstead cheese operation, and as an independent producer-grower.

This talk, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Pine Lake Environmental Campus of Hartwick College. Conversations at the Lake, begun in 2006, is a series of informal talks on subjects relating to sustainability and the environment. For more information on upcoming events at Pine Lake, contact Program Coordinator Dan Morse at 607-431-4520 or morsed@hartwick.edu.

WSKG celebrates Earth Day with special programming

During the week of April 21 and through the end of the month, WSKG invites you to tune in and learn about the current status of our environment, scientific innovations and how to become more environmentally conscious.

On Tuesday, April 22 at 1 pm, WSKG radio’s Crystal Sarakas hosts Thinking Green, a special Earth Day call-in program featuring a discussion of how we can make changes in our lives that are Earth-friendly, whether it’s a large project like building a new home or something as ordinary as changing a shower curtain. Thinking Green airs at 1 pm with a rebroadcast at 7 pm on WSKG radio. The program will also be available for on-demand listening at WSKG.ORG.

WSKG Television hosts a line-up of science and environmental programming for Earth Day and beyond, as well as special programming for kids.

On the PBS KIDS preschool block, Miss Lori and Hooper teach children how to recycle their trash at home, and new stories from Dot’s Story Factory show how kids at home can celebrate the planet. Earth Day-themed episodes from CURIOUS GEORGE, CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOG and IT’S A BIG BIG WORLD will air alongside themed music videos from the award-winning kids’ rock band Milkshake.

PBS KIDS GO!, for elementary school kids, celebrates Earth Day with themed programming from ARTHUR, MAYA & MIGUEL and CYBERCHASE. Throughout the late afternoon programming block, PBS KIDS GO! presents creative ideas for kids to take care of the environment by recycling, cleaning up their neighborhoods and more.

Other programming on environmental issues include:

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC’S STRANGE DAYS ON PLANET EARTH
Wednesday, April 23, 2008, 9:00-11:00 p.m. ET

Edward Norton hosts this two-part special. “Most Dangerous Catch”: Over-fishing is affecting life far beyond the shoreline, including Earth’s own life support systems. “Dirty Secrets”: Striped bass are succumbing to flesh-eating bacteria in the Chesapeake Bay. Majestic seabirds are starving in Hawai’i. Coral reefs are weakening under a growing assault of invisible contaminants. How are these mysteries related? In HD where available. http://www.pbs.org/strangedays

NOVA

“Car of the Future”
Tuesday, April 22, 2008, 8:00-9:00 p.m. ET

Tom and Ray Magliozzi of NPR’s “Car Talk” take viewers on a roller-coaster ride into the world of cars as NOVA takes a look at the latest and greatest in the automotive industry. In HD where available.

FRONTLINE “Hot Politics” (Repeat)
Tuesday, April 22, 2008, 9:00-10:00 p.m. ET

FRONTLINE and the Center for Investigative Reporting go behind the scenes to explore how bi-partisan political and economic forces prevented the U.S. government from confronting what may be one of the most serious problems facing humanity today — global warming.

INDEPENDENT LENS “The Creek Runs Red” (Repeat)
Tuesday, April 22, 2008, 10:00-11:00 p.m. ET

This program explores the human response to an environmental disaster and the complex connection between people and place in the mining town that the EPA calls the most toxic place in America — Picher, Oklahoma. In HD where available.

Earth's magnetic field does strange things to the moon

Behold the full Moon. Ancient craters and frozen lava seas lie motionless under an airless sky of profound quiet. It's a slow-motion world where even a human footprint may last millions of years. Nothing ever seems to happen there.

Right?

Wrong. NASA-supported scientists have realized that something does happen every month when the Moon gets a lashing from Earth's magnetic tail.

"Earth's magnetotail extends well beyond the orbit of the Moon and, once a month, the Moon orbits through it," says Tim Stubbs, a University of Maryland scientist working at the Goddard Space Flight Center. "This can have consequences ranging from lunar 'dust storms' to electrostatic discharges."

(Above: The full moon inside Earth's magnetic tail, March 2008.)

Yes, Earth does have a magnetic tail. It is an extension of the same familiar magnetic field we experience when using a Boy Scout compass. Our entire planet is enveloped in a bubble of magnetism, which springs from a molten dynamo in Earth's core. Out in space, the solar wind presses against this bubble and stretches it, creating a long "magnetotail" in the downwind direction: diagram.

Anyone can tell when the Moon is inside the magnetotail. Just look: "If the Moon is full, it is inside the magnetotail," says Stubbs. "The Moon enters the magnetotail three days before it is full and takes about six days to cross and exit on the other side."

It is during those six days that strange things can happen.

During the crossing, the Moon comes in contact with a gigantic "plasma sheet" of hot charged particles trapped in the tail. The lightest and most mobile of these particles, electrons, pepper the Moon's surface and give the Moon a negative charge.

On the Moon's dayside this effect is counteracted to a degree by sunlight: UV photons knock electrons back off the surface, keeping the build-up of charge at relatively low levels. But on the nightside, in the cold lunar dark, electrons accumulate and voltages can climb to hundreds or thousands of volts.

Walking across the dusty charged-up lunar terrain, astronauts may find themselves crackling with electricity like a sock pulled out of a hot dryer. Touching another astronaut, a doorknob, a piece of sensitive electronics—any of these simple actions could produce an unwelcome zap.

"Proper grounding is strongly recommended," advises Stubbs.

The ground, meanwhile, may leap into the sky. There is compelling evidence (see, e.g., the Surveyor 7 image below) that fine particles of moondust, when sufficiently charged-up, actually float above the lunar surface. This could create a temporary nighttime atmosphere of dust ready to blacken spacesuits, clog machinery, scratch faceplates (moondust is very abrasive) and generally make life difficult for astronauts.

(Above: In 1968, on many occasions, NASA's Surveyor 7 moon lander photographed a strange "horizon glow" after dark. Researchers now believe the glow is sunlight scattered from electrically-charged moondust floating just above the lunar surface.)

Stranger still, moondust might gather itself into a sort of diaphanous wind. Drawn by differences in global charge accumulation, floating dust would naturally fly from the strongly-negative nightside to the weakly-negative dayside. This "dust storm" effect would be strongest at the Moon's terminator, the dividing line between day and night.

Much of this is pure speculation, Stubbs cautions. No one can say for sure what happens on the Moon when the magnetotail hits, because no one has been there at the crucial time. "Apollo astronauts never landed on a full Moon and they never experienced the magnetotail."

The best direct evidence comes from NASA's Lunar Prospector spacecraft, which orbited the Moon in 1998-99 and monitored many magnetotail crossings. During some crossings, the spacecraft sensed big changes in the lunar nightside voltage, jumping "typically from -200 V to -1000 V," says Jasper Halekas of UC Berkeley who has been studying the decade-old data.

Above: In 1968, on many occasions, NASA's Surveyor 7 moon lander photographed a strange "horizon glow" after dark. Researchers now believe the glow is sunlight scattered from electrically-charged moondust floating just above the lunar surface.

"It is important to note," says Halekas, "that the plasma sheet (where all the electrons come from) is a very dynamic structure. The plasma sheet is in a constant state of motion, flapping up and down all the time. So as the Moon orbits through the magnetotail, the plasma sheet can sweep across it over and over again. Depending on how dynamic things are, we can encounter the plasma sheet many times during a single pass through the magnetotail with encounters lasting anywhere from minutes to hours or even days."

"As a result, you can imagine how dynamic the charging environment on the Moon is. The Moon can be just sitting there in a quiet region of the magnetotail and then suddenly all this hot plasma goes sweeping by causing the nightside potential to spike to a kilovolt. Then it drops back again just as quickly."

The roller coaster of charge would be at its most dizzying during solar and geomagnetic storms. "That is a very dynamic time for the plasma sheet and we need to study what happens then," he says.

What happens then? Next-generation astronauts are going to find out. NASA is returning to the Moon in the decades ahead and plans to establish an outpost for long-term lunar exploration. It turns out they'll be exploring the magnetotail, too.

(Written by Dr. Tony Phillips, Science@NASA)

Rural town prepares for delivery of 1,400 energy saving lightbulbs

Over 100 volunteers are preparing to deliver one energy-saving compact-fluorescent lightbulb to all 1,400 households in the Town of Caroline on Saturday April 19.  A project of Energy Independent Caroline, "Lighten Up Caroline!" could collectively save residents $70,000 in energy bills and reduce carbon emissions by over 800,000 pounds.

"Energy conservation is the key to energy independence," said Don Barber, Caroline Town Supervisor and first chair of Tompkins County Council of Governments. "This event has the potential to create public awareness in our community about how we can conserve. Cutting carbon emissions by over 800,000 pounds is a huge impact for our rural town," he added.

The distribution is the largest door-to-door distribution of energy saving lightbulbs in Tompkins County history. Volunteers will deliver the lightbulbs entirely by foot, bicycle, and carpool.

Energy Independent Caroline is a town advisory committee working to declare energy independence in their community in Tompkins County.

"Lighten Up Caroline!" is sponsored in part by Cornell University's Community Partnership Board and Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County.  SewGreen of Ithaca is providing over 1,000 hand made reusable bags made entirely from reused materials.

'Nature' founder Dr. Thomas Lovejoy to speak at the Museum of the Earth

As part of its Earth Day celebrations the Museum of the Earth will be hosting a special lecture by world-renowned environmentalist Dr. Thomas Lovejoy at 6:30pm on Friday, April 18.  Lovejoy’s talk will focus on the impact of climate change on plants, animals and ecosystems as well as the complex interactions between nature and climate change.

Lovejoy is the creator of the public television series "Nature" and is recognized as conceiving the term “biological diversity.” Currently he is president of The H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment, located in Washington D.C.  policy through partnerships with industry, government, academia, and ecological organizations. 

Previously, Lovejoy worked as the World Bank's chief biodiversity advisor and lead specialist for Environment for Latin America and the Caribbean, senior advisor to the president of the United Nations Foundation, science advisor to the Secretary of the Interior, and executive vice president of the World Wildlife Fund-U.S.  He also served on science and environmental councils or committees under the Reagan, Bush and Clinton administrations.

“We’re honored to have Dr. Lovejoy speak at Museum of the Earth,” stated Dr. Warren Allmon, director of PRI and its Museum of the Earth.  “In 2007 we decided as in Institution to make climate change and its effects on life on Earth a major focus for our research and education departments; as well as making it an integral part of our Museum experience.  Our Climate and Energy initiative has put our Institution on the front lines in the discussion on Climate Change.   Dr. Lovejoy’s commitment to science, education, and the effects on climate change globally make his presence here at PRI and Museum of the Earth that much more important.”

Museum of the Earth at the Paleontological Research Institution is a natural history museum located in Ithaca, NY.  The Museum offers access to the world-class collections and scientific research of the Paleontological Research Institution, emphasizing New York State and the northeastern United States.  Exhibits at the Museum include a 500-foot mural, Rocks of Ages, Sands of Time depicting 544 million years of Earth’s history, a North Atlantic Right Whale skeleton, an active fossil preparation lab, the Hyde Park Mastodon and much more.

Ouroussoff lecture on environmentally-friendly building

Nicolai Ouroussoff, the chief architecture critic for The New York Times, will discuss green architecture on Thursday, April 17, at SUNY Cortland.

Ouroussoff, who has written a number of articles pertaining to the green architectural movement for The New York Times magazine, will begin at 4:30 p.m. in Sperry Center, Room 105.

The lecture, which continues the College’s year-long “Earthly Matters” lecture series organized by the Cultural and Intellectual Climate Committee, is free and open to the public.

Ouroussoff wrote an article titled “Why Are They Greener Than We Are,” which was published on May 20, 2007, in The New York Times magazine. The piece explains why Europe has been building “green” for decades while the designers in the U.S. are still taking baby steps.

Much of the construction on the European continent was completed under ever tightening European Union environmental guidelines for buildings, he asserted.

By comparison, in the U.S., “despite the media attention showered on ‘green’ issues, the federal government has yet to establish universal efficiency standards for buildings,” Ouroussoff wrote.

His article shows examples of Europe’s early “green” construction undertaken during the 1970s, a self-conscious and basic approach featuring solar panels and recycled materials that was dubbed “Birkenstock architecture.” More recent projects include the headquarters for Germany’s environment agency in Dessau. Described by Ouroussoff as the embodiment of “a new, ecologically sensitive Europe,” the structure is cooled and heated by a system of underground pipes and ceiling vents that automatically release excess heat and circulate breezes from outside.

“Americans did not always lag so far behind,” Ouroussoff wrote. “Much of our most celebrated architecture has had a green strain. Frank Lloyd Wright, Rudolf Schindler and Richard Neutra all sought to create a more fluid relationship between indoor and outdoor spaces.”

Named the architecture critic of The New York Times in 2004, Ouroussoff was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2006. From 1996 to 2004, he was the architecture critic of The Los Angeles Times and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2003 and 2004.

"Earthly Matters” is the third yearlong series of lectures and cultural events organized around a single theme at SUNY Cortland. Sponsored by the College’s Cultural and Intellectual Climate Committee and NeoVox, the series is funded by the Offices of the President and the Provost.

For more information, contact Richard Kendrick, professor and chair of the Sociology and Anthropology Department and director of the College’s Institute for Civic Engagement, at (607) 753-2481.

Caffeine shown to protect mice from MS-like disease

High quantities of caffeine may do more than just keep people
awake. The stimulant may one day offer researchers a way to prevent multiple sclerosis.

Mice given caffeinated water -- in doses equivalent to a person drinking six to eight cups of coffee a day -- were protected from developing an MS-like disease called experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), according to Cornell researchers.

The findings were presented April 7 at the Experimental Biology 2008 meeting, which is part of the American Association of Immunologists 95th Annual Meeting in San Diego.

However, the researchers cautioned against drinking large amounts of coffee to treat MS, as more studies are needed to understand how caffeine blocks receptors that play a role in the autoimmune disease.

MS is a disease in which the immune system attacks and damages nerves in the brain and spinal cord, resulting in paralysis and impairment in speech, vision and mental function.

"We're not advocating large quantities of caffeine to prevent MS,"
said Jeffrey Mills, the study's lead author and a postdoctoral associate with senior author and principal investigator Margaret Bynoe, associate professor of microbiology and immunology at Cornell's College of Veterinary Medicine. "We know that caffeine suppresses MS-like effects in mice with EAE."

Click here to read the full article.

Nature: What Females Want and Males Will Do

Female jumping spiders will attack and eat anything that moves. This often includes males who may be courting them. So, if a male falls short in convincing a female that he will be a good mate, he may become an excellent lunch. This is a compelling reason for males to work hard in perfecting their courtship dances -- the stakes are far higher than a roll in the web.

"What Females Want and Males Will Do" is about the evolution of sexual strategies and what makes certain species winners and losers in the animal mating game. Courtship drives evolution by controlling whose genes are passed on to the next generation, and intense competition gives rise to a wide array of dazzling displays and impressive ornamentation.

From spiders that dance and monkeys that drum in the name of love, to female geladas that seek male partners with hot, red chest patches -- this program about sexual selection explores the unique behaviors and special adaptations that determine how animals pick their mates, and how these selections affect future generations.

In this exclusive behind-the-scenes podcast, meet three researchers featured in "What Females Want and Males Will Do" who are looking for answers to some burning questions about sexual selection. Chadden Hunter spends time with a group of geladas, close relatives of baboons. Gail Patricelli camps out with sage grouses in the midst of courtship. Rebecca Safran hangs out on the farm with barn swallows. Cutting-edge technology and plain old hard work both play a role in the lives of these trailblazing scientists.

Part of the 26th season of the Peabody and Emmy award-winning series produced by Thirteen/WNET New York for PBS, "What Females Want and Males Will Do" premieres over two Sundays, April 6 and 13, at 8 p.m. on WSKG-TV.  For more information, visit Nature's website. 

Maple weekends could shift two months earlier by 2080

This year, Maple Weekend is March 29-30 since weather patterns are providing good sap flow in the maple trees of northern New York. But by 2080, sugarhouses in northern New York may be humming as early as Jan. 29-30, according to climate change models that predict warmer winters and more thaws.

To evaluate the effects of climate change on the industry, which adds about $1.7 million to northern New York's economy each year, Brian F. Chabot, director of Cornell's Maple Program, and Cornell's Uihlein Maple Research Station Director Michael Farrell are launching a new study with six maple producers.

"Long-term sap collection records on the trees at the Uihlein Forest show that both the start and end of the sap season has moved about a week earlier in the past 30 years with an overall loss of three to four days of production," Farrell said.

Chabot, also a Cornell professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, added, "Climate projection models suggest that the sap season with the freeze-thaw conditions needed to make the sap run will continue to advance. Winter as we now know it may be replaced by spring beginning in early January."

Read the full article here.

(Photograph by Jack Schmidling.)

The vanishing rings of Saturn

Saturn: jewel of the solar system, taker of breaths, ringed beauty. Even veteran astronomers can't help but gasp when they see her through a small telescope.

Red Alert: Saturn's rings are vanishing.

Around the world, amateur astronomers have noticed the change; Saturn's wide open rings are rapidly narrowing into a thin line. Efrain Morales Rivera sends these pictures taken through a backyard telescope in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico:

"The rings have narrowed considerably in the last year," he reports. "The Cassini division (a dark gap in the rings) is getting hard to see."

Four hundred years ago, the same phenomenon puzzled Galileo. Peering through a primitive spy glass, he discovered Saturn's rings in 1610 and immediately wrote to his Medici patrons: "I found another very strange wonder, which I should like to make known to their Highnesses…." He was dumbfounded, however, when the rings winked out little more than a year later.

What happened?

The same thing that's happening now: we're experiencing a "ring plane crossing." As Saturn goes around the sun, it periodically turns its rings edge-on to Earth—once every 14-to-15 years. Because the rings are so thin, they can actually disappear when viewed through a small telescope.

Click here to read the full article.

Bats are dying off and no one knows why

Al Hicks was standing outside an old mine in the Adirondacks, the largest bat hibernaculum, or winter resting place, in New York State.

It was broad daylight in the middle of winter, and bats flew out of the mine about one a minute. Some had fallen to the ground where they flailed around on the snow like tiny wind-broken umbrellas, using the thumbs at the top joint of their wings to gain their balance.

All would be dead by nightfall. Mr. Hicks, a mammal specialist with the state’s Environmental Conservation Department, said: “Bats don’t fly in the daytime, and bats don’t fly in the winter. Every bat you see out here is a ‘dead bat flying,’ so to speak.”

They have plenty of company. In what is one of the worst calamities to hit bat populations in the United States, on average 90 percent of the hibernating bats in four caves and mines in New York have died since last winter.

Wildlife biologists fear a significant die-off in about 15 caves and mines in New York, as well as at sites in Massachusetts and Vermont. Whatever is killing the bats leaves them unusually thin and, in some cases, dotted with a white fungus. Bat experts fear that what they call White Nose Syndrome may spell doom for several species that keep insect pests under control.

Read the full article here.

(Photograph: Michael Durham/Getty Images)

Cornell scientists seek adults for food allergy study

Cornell University food scientists are seeking adults in the areas of Rochester, N.Y., Syracuse, N.Y., Binghamton, N.Y., Westchester County, N.Y., Long Island, New York City to participate in a comprehensive food allergy study scheduled for this spring.

The researchers want people, age 18 and older, who have severe and life threatening food allergies, such as those allergies to peanuts, seafood and tree nuts. Eligible participants will receive informational material on food allergies and will also be compensated for their time.

Robert Gravani, Cornell professor of food science, explains that the study is being conducted to understand how adults manage their food allergy and to help scientists develop informational materials on handling food allergies.

Severe food allergies impact the health of nearly 7 million Americans. Gravani says that these people must avoid exposure when selecting food for home and away. While the food industry must provide clear food label information, he says that food service personnel must be aware of ingredients that cause adverse reactions and to follow exposure-prevention practices.

“This project would identify motivators and barriers to safe food selection, emergency action plans in case of accidental ingestion in adults with life-threatening allergies,” says Gravani.

This study is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Cornell is conducting this research in collaboration with the University of California, Davis. For more information and to determine if you qualify, please call the following toll-free number (866) 537-3192.

Author of Zen and the Brain to speak at Ithaca College

Distinguished neuroscientist and Zen practitioner James H. Austin will discuss the intersection of scientific and spiritual approaches to the human brain in a free public talk at Ithaca College on Monday, March 24. Austin’s presentation, “Zen and the Brain” will be held at 8 p.m. in Textor 102.

Austin is currently a clinical professor of neurology at the University of Missouri Health Science Center. His book “Zen and the Brain: Toward an Understanding of Meditation and Consciousness” aims to establish links between the neurological workings of the human brain and meditation. A practitioner himself of Zen Buddhism, Austin examines such topics as similar states in other disciplines and religions, sleep and dreams, mental illness, consciousness-altering drugs and the social consequences of the advanced stage of ongoing enlightenment.

In addition to a follow-up published in 2006—“Zen-Brain Reflections: Reviewing Recent Development in Meditation and States of Consciousness”—Austin is also the author of the books “Chase, Chance, and Creativity: The Lucky Art of Novelty” and the forthcoming “Zen Brain, Selfless Insight: The Meditative Transformations of Consciousness.” Austin earned his medical degree from Harvard and has taught at the University of Oregon Medical School and the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. It was during a sabbatical in 1974 in Kyoto, Japan, that he began Zen meditation training with an English-speaking Zen master, Kobori-Roshi.

Austin’s visit is sponsored by the Office of the Chaplains at Ithaca College. For more information, contact Michael Faber at (607) 274-3323 or faber@ithaca.edu.