Search

The article reports on the Inflation Reduction Act which provides the forests safeguard and promote climate-friendly farming practices. It mentions that United States farmers received payments for conserving soil and reducing soil pollution. It discusses various climate-friendly practices including no-till farming and planting cover crops such as cowpeas and vetch.

Examines the biological basis of autism in the United States. Connection between childhood vaccinations and autism; Commitment of researchers to identify autistic children; Variations of both nature and severity of autism between persons; Common symptoms of autism. INSETS: Scant Evidence for an Epidemic of Autism, by E.S..;Desperate Parents Spark Search for New Treatment, by E.S...

PHOTO (COLOR): Climate change is altering intermittent streams, such as this one in California's Death Valley. The sample covered just a small fraction of intermittent streams, the authors note, and left out some states, such as Nebraska and Maine, that don't have any long-term gauges on these streams. [Extracted from the article]

The article reports on the emergence of a mysterious deadly disease that is killing the birds in several U.S. states, including Washington D.C., as of July 2021. Topics covered include how researchers are beginning to get a clear picture of the outbreak, the reason why cicadas are not be blamed for the outbreak and the dead birds infection with Mycoplasma bacteria. It also cites the species involved in the outbreak, including common grackles, blue jays and American robins.

The article discusses cooperation between the U.S. biotechnology industry and organic farmers. According to the author, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been taking a closer look at the environmental impact of genetically-modified (GM) crops on organic farms. An overview of how research tools are providing a means for the biotechnology industry and organic farmers to thrive side by side and political challenges regarding the use of GM crops is presented. Topics include lawsuits filed against the USDA by environmentalists who claimed the USDA did not conduct adequate environmental impact assessments of GM sugar beets and alfalfa, the coexistence of organic farmers and farmers who use GM seed, and agricultural innovations to prevent gene flow between GM and non-GM crops.

The article reports on the devastating collapse of honey bee colonies in the U.S. The problem of colony collapse disorder (CCD) which were observed by beekeepers in the country were examined. Factors that were assumed responsible for the declining bee colonies are considered, including known bee killers like pesticides, the varroa mite, viruses, bacteria, novel pathogen or the artificial diets fed to the bees. It also assesses the impact of bad weather that leave bees hungry, as well as the effect of industrial-scale beekeeping, wherein sugar syrups were pumped to the bees to boost their numbers. Further details on the factors that affect the decline of bee colonies are included.

PHOTO (COLOR): Many new varieties of genetically modified crops will be exempt from regulation in the United States under a new policy. If researchers use gene editing to design a plant that could have been bred conventionally, the new plant will be exempt from regulation. [Extracted from the article]

The article informs that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has released for public comment a document that aims to clarify the proposed rule, dubbed "Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science." It mentions that EPA uses pollution exposure data that includes people's locations and mentions that the tiered access system, modeled on a program at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), give greater access to researchers.

This article reports that the U.S. Congress is poised to revise a 1973 law which critics say has not worked and that defenders say needs to be strengthened. With more than 80% of its habitat gone by the late 1980s and populations plunging, the diminutive songbird that lives in coastal sage scrub in southern California seemed to birders and environmentalists to be a deserving candidate for listing under the Endangered Species Act. Specifically, federal officials drafted a rule that allowed some birds to be harmed as long as the developers participated in an innovative state planning program. The goal was to coordinate conservation of larger blocks of habitat and encourage conservation not just on federal land but also on private lands, where most of the birds are thought to live. But although the plan has lessened conflict, it didn't end it. Some environmental groups felt that developers were given too much leeway, and they successfully sued FWS again to win further protection for the gnatcatchers' habitat.

Biomonitoring is charting the public's exposure to many chemicals, but often the health effects are unclear. Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) raced to address an additional concern: the exposure of rescuers to potentially toxic smoke from the rubble. They took blood and urine samples from 370 firefighters, including those digging through the rubble at Ground Zero and those putting out nearby blazes. Although the team couldn't rule out all possible health effects, James Pirkle, deputy director for science at CDC's Environmental Health Laboratory, says the fast tests were" a huge help," eliminating the need for a lot of further studies. Over the past decade, analytical techniques have improved so much that researchers can detect ever smaller concentrations of chemicals in a single blood sample. INSET: A Snapshot of the U.S. Chemical Burden.

The perpetually frozen soils of the Arctic and boreal regions are thawing at unprecedented rates. Although researchers are struggling to arrive at a bottom line, they suspect that thawing permafrost will drive global temperatures higher over the next century. Researchers first noticed a trend toward a widespread thaw after the U.S. Geological Survey started measuring rising temperatures in abandoned Arctic boreholes in the 1960s. One team, led by Walter Oechel, an ecologist at San Diego State University in California, started with the assumption that the Arctic was still a carbon sink. In the early 1980s, the researchers conducted experiments at Toolik Lake and Barrow, Alaska, where they measured gases wafting from tussocks and other typical High Arctic vegetation.

Analyzes the problem of critical shortage of space for current geoscience collections and data in the U.S. Availability of storage space for state geological surveys; Strategies to solve the shortage of space; Contributions of private sector in solving the storage space problem.

Focuses on the incorporation of active learning to introductory physics in Maryland. Implementation of reforms in the introductory courses; Variations in the introductory courses; Impact of the active learning on students. INSETS: Information Overload Hampers Biology Reforms, by Erik Stokstad.;Reading, Writing, and Chemistry Are Potent Mix, by Erik....

The article looks at the Nutrient Network (NN), a collaborative ecology research project made up of a network of small experiments across the globe. Topics discussed include the 2005 workshop at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) where the idea for the NN was developed, the single grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation that is funding the project, and other ecology research networks like the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) network.

The article discusses the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the U.S. government's decision to allow BP to inject chemical oil dispersants near the leaking wellhead, and the opinions of various scientists on the effectiveness and possible environmental impacts associated with use of the dispersants. The article attributes the dispersant injection idea to former Exxon-Mobil scientist Gerard Canevari. Conference calls and meetings involving the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and various scientists are noted. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Lisa Jackson is cited regarding EPA's agreement to the decision to use dispersants.

The article discusses the U.S. government's promotion of coastal wetland restoration in the Gulf of Mexico, as announced by U.S. President Barack Obama. Adverse effects on Gulf coast ecology are said to have a long history, having been caused by navigational impacts, invasive rodents, and sediment loss. The occurrence of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill is said to have bolstered interest in remediating the coastal zone. Long-term restoration of the area will be directed by U.S. secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus.

The article discusses construction of a long coastal sand berm to contain the petroleum spill from the BP Deepwater Horizon offshore oil well. Scientific skepticism regarding the possible success of the plan is noted as is concern for wetland restoration in Louisiana. The plan announced by Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal is characterized in terms of cost and dredging needs. Objections to the project raised by U.S. federal agencies are discussed. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is said to have granted an emergency permit to build 2 portions of the berm.

The article discusses efforts that are being made to change the ways in which potentially toxic chemical compounds are evaluated. The current methodology of conducting toxicity tests involves feeding large amounts of poison to laboratory animals. To illustrate this method, the author references an investigation into the toxicological properties of ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate that was conducted by the U.S. National Toxicology Program. This required that large doses of the compound be administered to rats and mice. Brown University toxicologist Kim Boekelheide provides quotes, and a history of toxicity testing in the U.S. is chronicled.

The article discusses U.S. president Barack Obama's moves to revitalize Chesapeake Bay restoration project. The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the U.S. and cleanup efforts have been stalled for years. The revitalization will be directed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and will require efforts from various industries such as agriculture to help reach restoration goals set forth in 1987 as part of a state-federal partnership. Topics include a brief overview of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem, the exercise of EPA authority under the Clean Water Act, and the environmental impact of continuous development along the bay. Also included are several key measures of recovery such as dissolved oxygen content, water clarity, and chlorophyll a concentration.

The article reports on the struggle of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), state regulators and the electric power industry to come to grips with the impact of a surprise court decision of dismantling the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR). The regulation was accordingly designed to fix a problem that many East Coast states are facing such as so much pollution blows in from other states that they can't meet EPA standards for air quality, report said. According to the author, CAIR would have capped the amount of pollution in the entire region and issued allowances to each state which represents units of pollution. It is said that power companies had already started buying and selling these allowances, which are said to provide financial incentive to clean up their power plants.

The article focuses on the development of the Fish and Wildlife Service's (FWS's) recovery plan in the U.S. The primary purpose of the plan is to protect the endangered species, such as the northern spotted owl in the country. It is designed in response to the thorough review conducted by the Sustainable Ecosystems Institute (SEI) in Oregon. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Forest Service extends its support for the success of the recover plan. The draft of the FWS plan including the management strategy called "Option 2," will be released in April 2007 for public consultation and scientific review. The panel of reviewers hope that the proposed plan will help protect not only the habitat but also the endangered species as well.

The article elaborates on the modifications made by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on its database on chemical hazards that influences how chemicals are regulated in the U.S. Such a move would make the process more transparent, more rigorous and speedier. According to critics, the new procedure is more secretive and gives too much clout to federal agencies that pollute or face massive cleanup costs, thus bringing further delays in regulation. The procedure started in 1985 when the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) contains EPA scientists' appraisals of the chronic health effects of more than 540 chemicals. In 2005, Stephen Johnson, EPA administrator, asked his Office of Research and Development (ORD) to make the process more predictable and transparent.

The article reports on a new regulation that recommends the use of a watershed approach and requires enforceable, ecologically-based performance standards in order to improve the track record of mitigation. The new rule set by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences' National Research Council which was prompted by the Congress, are said to replace the past wetland policies including the no net loss of wetlands imposed by 1989 U.S. President George H.W. Bush and by other environmentalist groups which were regarded as inefficient. The new rule extends mitigation policies to streams and standardizes requirements for all types of mitigation and strengthens long-term protection of sites. It is also issued by the agency together with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The article reports on a specific type of virus which was cited by researchers as responsible for the puzzling decline of bees in the United States. According to the author, researchers found out the underlying cause of the colony collapse disorder (CCD) which affected bees in the United States leading to their decline. The virus is identified as the Israel acute paralysis virus (IAPV) which afflicted 23 percent of beekeepers in the United States. The virus caused significant losses among different apiaries.

The article reports that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has planned to declare victory for bald eagle breeding by removing it from the list of threatened species by a court-ordered deadline of June 29, 2007. John Koystack of the National Wildlife Federation in Reston, Virginia said that in 2006, there were almost 10,000 successful breeding pairs of bald eagle and it is the one of the greatest wildlife success stories in the history of the country. This success is a result of a legislation banning the use of insecticide DDT in 1972 and the passage of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1973. Moreover, the delisting of bald eagles was supported by bald eagle experts but there are still many who remained worried of the birds' survival.

The article focuses on the $40 million budget increase for U.S. ocean research proposed by the Bush Administration for 2008. The increase is part of a $143 million spending boost for ocean projects in president George W. Bush's upcoming budget request. The four areas tagged as priorities for the budget include natural hazards in coastal areas, basic research comparing marine ecosystems, new biosensors and the role of the Atlantic Ocean currents in rapid climate change. Most of the overall spending increase, if approved by Congress, would go to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The article profiles Thomas Kaplan, a wealthy philanthropist who have invested in science conservation to preserve big cats in the U.S. Kaplan has always been fascinated with big cats and it has been his lifelong dream to help in their conservation and prevent extinction. The philanthropist is the financier of several graduate students working on cat conservation around the globe and is also contemplating on pursuing a doctoral degree in zoology. Kaplan was first introduced to modern conservation efforts through the book "Jaguar" written by Alan Rabinowitz, a wildlife biologist, whose aspiring to build the first jaguar preserve in Belize. The wealthy philanthropist has already finalized his plans with the Wildlife Conservation Society for Project Leonardo will study the lions of Africa.

The article reports on the decision of the U.S. Senate to require the use of expert panels in evaluating the engineering analyses, economic and environmental aspects of the projects in the $2 billion-a-year construction portfolio of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The corps supervises most major construction projects related to flood control and navigation including the Delaware River project. However, investigations conducted by the University of California and the American Society of Civil Engineers found problems with the design and construction of the levees in New Orleans. Also, the National Academies' National Research Council and Government Accountability Office found technical errors and inflation of benefits on other major projects

The article presents information on the efforts of researchers to prevent the spread of a wily bacterial marauder by invasive insects in the U.S. The $9 billion agriculture industry has spent much of its money to fight against an epidemic of canker that cut production by roughly a third. In a long, drawn-out effort to eradicate the wind-borne bacteria, 12.7 million trees have been cut down at a cost of $600 million, including compensation. In January 2006, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has decided that eradicating canker was a lost cause and so halted its efforts to eradicate it. Whereas canker just makes trees less productive and blemishes fruit, greening renders it totally unusable and eventually kills the frees. Researchers think it will be impossible to stop the disease from conquering the state, because the pathogen, a bacterium called Candidatus liberibacter, is spread by an introduced insect that has run rampant across Florida. A nationwide' survey of citrus states has been launched and researchers are racing to sequence the genome of the bacterium in hope of developing new tests to detect the microbe.

The article informs that the chemicals that make life easier by keeping food from sticking to cookware and blocking stains to carpets and couches also have a darker side as some of their ingredients don't break down in nature. Last month, the firm DuPont, the largest manufacturer of perfluorocarboxylates, agreed to spend $5 million to assess one aspect of the possible risk of exposure. It's part of a record $16.5 million settlement reached last month with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which had accused the company of breaking the law by not releasing health information about perfluorooctanoic acid, a perfluorocarboxylate used to make some Teflon products. DuPont has denied any wrongdoing. While welcoming the research, which will involve nine representative DuPont products, some researchers are frustrated by EPA's ground rules. They are particularly upset that the identity of the products to be tested will be kept secret, a decision they say could reduce confidence in the findings and hinder other research into the chemicals.

This article reports on environmentalism in the U.S. When the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed such a cap-and-trade system last year, it argued that it was the most effective way to cut back the 48 tons of mercury, a known neurotoxin, emitted nationwide each year. Coal-fired power plants are responsible for about 40% of all mercury emissions in the U.S., making them the largest single source. No federal rules on mercury from power plants are in place yet, although EPA determined in 2000 that regulation was appropriate and necessary.

The article focuses on the devastating fungal disease called soybean rust. The arrival of this fungus, although expected, could be very bad news for U.S. soybean growers, who raised more than $18 billion worth in 2003. The spores are thought to have blown in with September 2004 hurricanes from South America, where farmers have incurred huge costs from fighting the disease. To get a better feel for how these traits might fare in the field, the U.S. Department of Agriculture researchers have sent 180 varieties to collaborators in South Africa, Zimbabwe, China, Thailand, Brazil, and Paraguay.

Tyrannosaurus rex was a creature of superlatives. While studying a tyrannosaurid called Daspletosaurus at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois, Gregory Erickson, a paleobiologist noticed growth rings on the end of a broken rib. Switching to modern alligators, crocodiles, and lizards, Erickson found that the growth rings accurately recorded the animals' ages. Counting the growth rings with a microscope, the team found that the tyrannosaurids had died at ages ranging from 2 years to 28.

After 8 years of effort, physicists in California have pulled off a technical tour de force: detecting the spin of a single electron inside a glassy chip of silica. The feat marks a significant step toward seeing individual atoms inside a material — a prerequisite for building a microscope that could map the three-dimensional structure of molecules — and may prove critical for so-called spintronic devices, including some kinds of quantum computers. They can peer inside materials with magnetic resonance imaging — aligning the spin of protons in a sample's hydrogen atoms, zapping them with radio waves, and using an induction coil to track the changing magnetic fields as the energized protons return to their equilibrium spin states.

In a desperate bid to prevent the spread of invasive fish, researchers have erected an unprecedented barrier that's nearing its first real test. The water of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal may look tranquil, but underneath the surface at Romeoville, Illinois, a battle is brewing. Scientists fear that if these voracious fish get there, they could eventually upset ecosystems in all the Great Lakes. Asian carp will be the first challenge to the barrier, but not the last. Fish dislike electric fields, a fact that biologists have exploited for years to guide, stun, and collect them. In the United States, small electric barriers keep grass carp in ponds. They also prevent sea lampreys from invading streams that flow into the Great Lakes. A consortium of federal, state, and university researchers hatched plans for the barrier in the 1990s, as an invasive fish called the round goby was making its way south along the shore of Lake Michigan.

When Christine Todd Whitman resigned as administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on third week of May 2003 she faced a barrage of criticism. Environmental groups said that under her tenure the agency had weakened environmental laws and regulations. Whitman tends to receive higher marks for EPA science under her tenure. A moderate Republican, Whitman came to the agency with a track record of improving New Jersey's environment while governor. During her 2.5 years at EPA Whitman began to strengthen research and boost its role in decision-making.

Reports on the study conducted by hydrologist Charles Harvey of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that concludes that agricultural pumping might influence the release of arsenic into drinking water. Effect of arsenic in drinking water on humans; Theory regarding the release of arsenic into water according to researchers at the University College London; Role played by irrigation in water contamination.

Reports the security measures of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to counter agricultural threats of terrorists in the U.S. Development of a comprehensive plan to detect the outbreak of animal diseases; Case study launched by NAS to respond to any potential agricultural threats; Training programs offered to farmers related to agricultural threats.

Reports the mechanisms of the regular occurrence of slow earthquakes in the U.S. Factors influencing the generation of major earthquakes; Discovery of unusual pattern of surface deformations; Evidence of slow earthquakes on subduction zones.

Reports the efforts of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to strengthen procedures on the commercialization of transgenic plants. Assessment on the environmental impact of conventionally bred crops; Importance of regulating genetically modified products for protection.

Reports the launch of federal survey to investigate the threatening of Canada lynx in national forests in the United States. Determination of lynx habitats; Efforts of Forest Service to protect lynx; Participation of biologists in the survey.

Reports the survey of Bureau of Land Management paleontologists for fossils in Grand Staircase, Escalante National Monument in Utah. Diversity of parts of the monuments ; Collections of fragments of bones and crouches for investigations; Abundance of fossils in the area.

Focuses on the skeletal structure of Tyrannosaurus rex (T. rex) by paleontologists in the United States. Sizes of T. rex; Descendants of the dinosaur; Similarities of Eotyrannus to T. tex.

Reports that a team of geologists in the United States has found a feature of mudstone. Composition of the mudstone; Evidence for the local origin of quartz.