ENSCONET, the European Native Seed Conservation Network, opens today its web site to the public (www.ensconet.com). ENSCONET wants this web site to be a window to the world of plant seed conservation in Europe.

The aims of ENSCONET are to improve the quality, co-ordination and integration of European seed conservation practice, policy and research, and to assist the European Union’s conservation policy and its obligations to the Convention on Biological Diversity.

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Radar satellites such as ESA’s Envisat and ERS-2 maintain constant watch on the Earth’s surface, their signals able to cut through clouds, rain or darkness. This surveillance extends beyond the land to the 71% of the planet covered by ocean – acquiring unique imagery of the ever-shifting face of the sea that is proving a boon to oceanographers.

Last week around 100 researchers from 20 countries met at ESRIN, ESA’s European Centre for Earth Observation in Frascati, I

From lions to honey badgers are ranked by conservationists

It may still be “king of the beasts,” but the African lion’s kingdom is dwindling, according to a new report released by the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) that says these emblematic big cats have disappeared from 82 percent of their historic distribution over the past several decades. The 200-page report looked at the conservation status of the 20 largest species of African carnivores and exam

Researchers at Yale and the University of Washington report that great earthquakes, like the 2004 Sumatra earthquake, may be caused by the build up of sediment on top of subduction zones, suggesting a new way to forecast these most severe earthquakes.

Subduction zones are the boundaries where two tectonic plates collide — one plate pushes over and one pushes under the other. The most severe earthquakes in recent history — in Indonesia in 2004, Alaska in 1964, Chile in 1960 an

UCLA paleobiologist J. William Schopf and colleagues have produced 3-D images of ancient fossils — 650 million to 850 million years old — preserved in rocks, an achievement that has never been done before.

If a future space mission to Mars brings rocks back to Earth, Schopf said the techniques he has used, called confocal laser scanning microscopy and Raman spectroscopy, could enable scientists to look at microscopic fossils inside the rocks to search for signs of life, such as

British researchers have developed a “biobullet” that could help control an invasive mollusk that has ravaged U.S. waterways for nearly two decades clogging water pipes, virtually wiping out some native mussels species and causing billions of dollars in industrial damage. The new microcapsules, which contain toxins that dissolve within a zebra mussel’s digestive tract, offer a safe and cost-effective way of eliminating one of the world’s “most important economic pests” without harmin

The old adage tells that oil doesn’t mix with water. It doesn’t do much for creatures in the water either, as demonstrated by new research on the effects of water-borne oil on seabirds along the Atlantic Coast in Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina.

Chronic oil pollution has been a long-standing problem along a 4,200-mile stretch of coast from southern Brazil to northern Argentina. Existing laws are not solving the problem, said University of Washington biologist Dee Boersma, co-aut

The next generation of artificial bone may rely on a few secrets from the sea. Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have harnessed the way seawater freezes to develop a porous, scaffolding-like material that is four times stronger than material currently used in synthetic bone.

Although still in the investigational stages, variations of this substance could also be used in a myriad of applications in which strengt

Conceptual model of krill’s life history sheds light on forces that drove its evolution

Although Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) are one of the best-studied organisms of the open sea, key aspects of their life cycle have remained murky. Understanding krill is important because they are vital prey for fish, birds, and marine mammals, yet they are vulnerable to fishing pressure and environmental change. In the February 2006 issue of BioScience, the monthly journal of t

Using a fleet of NASA and other satellites as well as aircraft and other observations, scientists were able to unlock the secret of Hurricane Lili’s unexpected, rapid weakening as she churned toward a Louisiana landfall in 2002. The data from multiple satellites enabled researchers to see dry air move into the storm’s low levels, partially explaining why Lili weakened rapidly.

This study focuses on the rapid weakening of Hurricane Lili over the Gulf of Mexico beginning early on

The most powerful earthquakes – such as those that shook Indonesia in 2004, Alaska in 1964, Chile in 1960 and the Pacific Northwest in 1700 – occur in subduction zones, areas of the sea floor just offshore where two tectonic plates meet and one dives beneath the other.

But not all subduction zones are created equal, and University of Washington researchers believe they have found a key to determine which subduction zones – or which specific areas within a subduction zone – migh

University of Minnesota associate professor of chemical engineering Renata Wentzcovitch and her team of researchers have confirmed the properties of a mineral (post-perovskite) that may form near the Earth’s core in a layer called the D’’ region. The work offers new insight for interpreting properties of this region. The D’’ (Dee double prime) layer surrounds Earth’s core and is between 0 and 186 miles thick. It is at the interface between two chemically distinct regions, the rocky mantle and t

Today saw a glimmer of hope for the three species of Asian vulture threatened with extinction.

Oriental white-backed, long-billed, and slender-billed vultures in South Asia have suffered one of the most rapid and widespread population declines of any bird species, declining by more than 97% over the last 10-15 years.

These declines were caused by the widespread veterinary use of the drug diclofenac for the treatment of sick domestic livestock throughout the Indian subcont

The “heat is on” in New York City, whether it’s summer or winter. This is due to a phenomenon called the urban heat island effect that causes air temperatures in New York City and other major cities to be warmer than in neighboring suburbs and rural areas. And, in a big city, warmer air temperatures can impact air quality, public health and the demand for energy.

Recently, several innovative approaches developed by scientists, public officials, environmental activists, community

Results from a small-scale experiment in western North Carolina illustrate the importance of National Forest lands in ensuring high water quality in the Southern Appalachian region. Conducted by scientists from the USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS), the study, published in the January 2006 issue of the journal Water, Air, and Soil Pollution, showed that the quality of water in streams from an area heavily affected by urbanization was significantly improved by its passage through

Researchers at Penn State have devised a novel way to clean and disinfect milking equipment, using little more than salt water. The new method could be a safer and cheaper alternative to conventional cleaning systems.

“Concentrated chemicals used in the conventional cleaning are stored on the farm and on contact, they can cause serious burns in the eyes and on skin,” says Dr. Ali Demirci, associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering. And, he says the chemicals