Opportunity Heads to 'Marathon Valley'
Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 11, 2014 -
Opportunity is moving south along the west rim of Endeavour Crater heading towards 'Marathon Valley,' a notch observed from orbit to have an abundant clay mineral signature.
On Sol 3739 (July 31, 2014), the rover made an approach to a surface target of interest with a 26-feet (8-meter) drive. At the end of the sol, Opportunity collected some Panoramic Camera (Pancam) imagery and performed ...
more
McDonald's holds the beef in China meat scandal
Shanghai (AFP) July 28, 2014 -
McDonald's outlets across China have yanked their flagship burgers from the menu, the company said Monday, as the American owner of a key supplier embroiled in an expired meat scandal offered consumers a personal apology.
Authorities in Shanghai last week shut a plant owned by privately-held OSI Group after a television report alleging it mixed out-of-date meat with fresh product. Police lat ...
more
Why did the Peking Duck cross the country?
Beijing (AFP) July 29, 2014 -
Where does Peking Duck come from? It is a trick question: the dish named for China's capital has its origins in Nanjing, hundreds of kilometres to the south.
The tidbit is one of the revelations in a museum opened earlier this month to mark the 150th anniversary of the Quanjude restaurant, now the seven-storey flagship of a chain with franchises as far away as Australia.
Statues of roast ...
more
New hope for powdery mildew resistant barley
Adelaide, Australia (SPX) Jul 30, 2014 -
New research at the University of Adelaide has opened the way for the development of new lines of barley with resistance to powdery mildew. In Australia, annual barley production is second only to wheat with 7-8 million tonnes a year. Powdery mildew is one of the most important diseases of barley.
Senior Research Scientist Dr Alan Little and team have discovered the composition of special ...
more
Generating a Genome to Feed the World
Tucson AZ (SPX) Jul 29, 2014 -
An international team of researchers led by the University of Arizona has sequenced the complete genome of African rice. The genetic information will enhance scientists' and agriculturalists' understanding of the growing patterns of African rice, as well as enable the development of new rice varieties that are better able to cope with increasing environmental stressors to help solve global hunge ...
more
Climate experts estimate risk of rapid crop slowdown
Boulder CO (SPX) Jul 29, 2014 -
The world faces a small but substantially increased risk over the next two decades of a major slowdown in the growth of global crop yields because of climate change, new research finds.
The authors, from Stanford University and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, say the odds of a major production slowdown of wheat and corn, even with a warming climate, are not very high. But the ...
more
Climate change and air pollution will combine to curb food supplies
Boston MA (SPX) Jul 29, 2014 -
Many studies have shown the potential for global climate change to cut food supplies. But these studies have, for the most part, ignored the interactions between increasing temperature and air pollution - specifically ozone pollution, which is known to damage crops.
A new study involving researchers at MIT shows that these interactions can be quite significant, suggesting that policymakers ...
more
McDonald's Japan unveils 'tofu nuggets' after China meat scandal
Tokyo (AFP) July 30, 2014 -
McDonald's restaurants in Japan are turning to time-honoured Asian soul food - tofu - as the chain scrambles to minimise the damage from an embarrassing tainted meat scandal in China.
The fast-food giant's more than 3,000 restaurants in Japan on Wednesday started selling "Tofu Shinjo" nuggets modelled on a traditional side dish that meshes tofu, vegetables and fish.
For 249 yen ($2.40) ...
more
Worldwide water shortage by 2040
Aarhus, Denmark (SPX) Jul 31, 2014 -
Two new reports that focus on the global electricity water nexus have just been published. Three years of research show that by the year 2040 there will not be enough water in the world to quench the thirst of the world population and keep the current energy and power solutions going if we continue doing what we are doing today.
It is a clash of competing necessities, between drinking wate ...
more
Asia agribusiness giants tie up to boost China-Australia trade
Sydney (AFP) July 31, 2014 -
Three of Asia's leading agribusinesses have joined iron ore magnate Andrew Forrest in what he described Thursday as an "unprecedented" 100-year partnership to position Australia as China's food bowl.
Forrest said China's New Hope Group and COFCO Corp., and Singapore-listed Wilmar International, had joined the Australia-Sino 100-Year Agricultural and Food Safety Partnership, known as ASA 100. ...
more
Once Mexico's booze of 'drunks,' mezcal earns respect
Santiago Matatlan, Mexico (AFP) Aug 02, 2014 -
Once derided as a drink for destitute drunkards, Mexico's smoky-flavored mezcal liquor has come out of the shadows to become a trendy booze in fashionable bars from Mexico City to Sydney.
The booming demand for tequila's less known ancestor may even be too good for the cactus-like plant that's used to make mezcal, maguey, which is now in high demand for a variety of products.
In the sout ...
more
Amid drought, California declares war on lush lawns
Los Angeles (AFP) Aug 03, 2014 -
Lush green lawns, a symbol of the American way of life, are under attack in California, where "cash for grass" programs have sprouted like weeds amid a severe drought.
With the western US state struggling to conserve water, locals are re-landscaping their outdoor spaces as attitudes shift about what constitutes an attractive yard.
And municipal monetary incentives - reflecting the dire ...
more
Prehistoric dairy farming at the extremes
Bristol, UK (SPX) Aug 01, 2014 -
Finland's love of milk has been traced back to 2500 BC thanks to high-tech techniques to analyse residues preserved in fragments of ancient pots.
The Finns are the world's biggest milk drinkers today but experts had previously been unable to establish whether prehistoric dairy farming was possible in the harsh environment that far north, where there is snow for up to four months a year. ...
more
China holds six from OSI unit in food scandal: company
Shanghai (AFP) Aug 05, 2014 -
Chinese police investigating an expired meat scandal have detained another official from a local unit of US food supplier OSI Group, bringing the total to six, the company said.
Police previously said they were holding five officials of Shanghai Husi Food Co., a subsidiary of OSI which operated a factory shut down by authorities for mixing out-of-date meat with fresh product and selling it t ...
more
Third day of tap water drinking ban in US city
Washington (AFP) Aug 04, 2014 -
Hundreds of thousands of Toledo, Ohio residents entered a third day Monday unable to drink their tap water after officials warned that the supply was polluted.
In a rare 3 am (0700 GMT) Monday press conference, Mayor Michael Collins said the ban, in place since Saturday, remains in effect, even though tests show the quality of the water is improving.
"It's my decision to keep the status ...
more
Study of Aerosols Stands to Improve Climate Models
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Aug 07, 2014 -
Aerosols, tiny particles in the atmosphere, play a significant role in Earth's climate, scattering and absorbing incoming sunlight and affecting the formation and properties of clouds.
Currently, the effect that these aerosols have on clouds represents the largest uncertainty among all influences on climate change.
But now researchers from Caltech and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory ha ...
more
Ohio lawmakers hope fertilizer licensing helps curb algae growth
Columbus, Ohio (UPI) Aug 5, 2013 -
Only days after a toxic algae bloom in Lake Erie left some 400,000 residents of Northwest Ohio without safe tap water, policy makers and regulators are looking for ways to prevent a similar crisis in the future.
Because the growing algae that blooms in the Great Lakes and elsewhere have been blamed on spikes of phosphorous - carried along with the runoff from industrial farms - fertil ...
more
Melt Ponds Shine in NASA Laser Altimeter Flight Images
Washington DC (SPX) Aug 07, 2014 -
Even from 65,000 feet above Earth, aquamarine melt ponds in the Arctic stand out against the white sea ice and ice sheets. These ponds form every summer, as snow that built up on the ice melts, creating crystal clear pools.
On July 16 and July 17, NASA's ER-2 aircraft flew above Alaskan glaciers and to the North Pole, carrying an instrument called the Multiple Altimeter Beam Experimental L ...
more
Dhaka's residents fight back over vanishing green spaces
Dhaka (AFP) Aug 04, 2014 -
When a private sports club in an upmarket Dhaka neighbourhood "grabbed" a children's park for development this year, it sparked a wave of enraged protests rarely seen in impoverished Bangladesh.
Hundreds of parents, former national sports stars and environmental activists staged sit-ins for days, demanding the club hand back the park - a green oasis for residents in one of the world's most ...
more
Photon hunting in the twilight zone
Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (SPX) Aug 07, 2014 -
The eyes of deep-sea bioluminescent sharks have a higher rod density when compared to non-bioluminescent sharks, according to a study published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Julien M. Claes, postdoctoral researcher from the FNRS at Universite catholique de Louvain (Belgium), and colleagues.
This adaptation is one of many these sharks use to produce and perceive bioluminescent ligh ...
more
Drought hits Central America's crops, cattle
Boaco, Nicaragua (AFP) Aug 07, 2014 -
The last raindrop fell three months ago, forcing Carlos Roman to take his cattle further and further away to find water and keep them alive in Nicaragua's northeastern farmlands.
Nicaragua and the rest of Central America has been hit by a major drought that has killed thousands of cattle, dried up crops and forced cities to ration electricity.
Costa Rica, Honduras and Guatemala have decl ...
more
Water 'microhabitats' in oil show potential for extraterrestrial life, oil cleanup
Pullman WA (SPX) Aug 08, 2014 -
An international team of researchers has found extremely small habitats that increase the potential for life on other planets while offering a way to clean up oil spills on our own.
Looking at samples from the world's largest natural asphalt lake, they found active microbes in droplets as small as a microliter, which is about 1/50th of a drop of water.
"We saw a huge diversity of bac ...
more
Drought and war in E.Africa put 14 million people at risk: UN
Nairobi (AFP) Aug 08, 2014 -
Poor rains and multiple conflicts across eastern Africa have put over 14 million people in need of food aid, three years since extreme drought devastated the region, the United Nations said Friday.
"The situation is very worrisome," said Matthew Conway, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) for Eastern Africa.
"There are similarities to the situa ...
more
Megascale icebergs run aground
Bremerhaven, Germany (SPX) Aug 12, 2014 -
Scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), have found between Greenland and Spitsbergen the scours left behind on the sea bed by gigantic icebergs. The five lineaments, at a depth of 1,200 metres, are the lowest-lying iceberg scours yet to be found on the Arctic sea floor.
This finding provides new understanding of the dynamics of th ...
more
History of fire and drought shapes the ecology of California
Washington DC (SPX) Aug 11, 2014 -
Fire season has arrived in California with vengeance in this third year of extended drought for the state. A series of large fires east of Redding and Fresno, in Yosemite, and on the Oregon border prompted Gov. Jerry Brown to declare a state of emergency on Sunday, August 3rd.
As force of destruction and renewal, fire has a long and intimate history with the ecology of California. Ecologic ...
more
