Method could assist city and urban planners, architects, and landscape designers; affirms importance of restorative elements such as water and flowers

At $350 million, New York City’s Sept. 11 memorial for Ground Zero features pools of water, oak trees and vast open space for the sun to shine through. But given the huge investment, are these carefully chosen aesthetic touches truly the right ones? Will they resonate for visitors to the memorial? And what will they mean to those l

In research published today, scientists from Broom’s Barn Research Station conclusively show how to use GM herbicide tolerant (GMHT) crop technology for environmental benefit. The authors suggest that the new crop management approaches they have demonstrated could resolve legitimate concerns about indirect environmental effects of GM sugar beet on weeds, insects and birds. John Pidgeon, director of Broom’s Barn comments that ‘This work adds a new perspective to future discussions about the benefit

Recent studies have found that large, old and oily groundfish are significantly more important than their younger counterparts in maintaining healthy marine fish stocks – the larvae from their eggs better resist starvation and have a much greater chance of survival.

These same big, old fish are also routinely sought by fisherman, scientists say, and the age decline in fish populations helps to explain the collapsing fisheries off the Pacific Northwest coast. Other research also

An unprecedented flash observed by the space shuttle Columbia crew in 2003 over the Indian Ocean may be a new type of transient luminous event, like lightning sprites, but one that is not necessarily caused by a thunderstorm. The discharge was observed less than two weeks before the shuttle was lost during its Earth reentry.

The authors describe the discharge as a Transient Ionospheric Glow Emission in Red, or TIGER, event. It was recorded by a video camera in the near-infrare

Some Compounds Show Dramatic Differences in Toxicity And Rate of Break Down Between Isomers

Researchers at the University of California, Riverside have demonstrated that isomers – or the mirror-image structures – of some pesticides, although chemically identical, have very different biological and environmental impacts between the two sides. This may have significant implications for risk assessment and research and development directions of new products.

The environmen

In the course of 2003-2004, the Research Council of Norway organised a foresight analysis for Norwegian aquaculture. All in all, more than 70 people took part in a systematic dialogue about the future. The information presented here represents a very brief summary of an exhaustive report containing detailed analyses from the Foresight project: Aquaculture 2020: Transcending the Barriers – As long as…

In the course of 2003-2004, the Research Council of Norway organised a foresight a

The secret life of one of northern Australia’s most popular sportfish, the spectacular queenfish, is being studied by CSIRO scientists for clues to its role and abundance in the marine ecosystem.

The year-long study, co-funded by the National Oceans Office, is collecting more than 30 specimens a month from the Gulf of Carpentaria near Weipa where queenfish are caught by recreational anglers and inshore net fisheries. Results of the study will improve the ability of fisheries

Risks of underground expansion often poorly studied; modeling floods, tsunamis essential to planning

The rapid and extensive underground expansion of mega-cities – for subways, malls, parking and public utilities – takes place often with too little knowledge of associated risks and too few plans to minimize the effects of a natural disaster, United Nations University experts warn.

With growing land pressures in cities (which contain about 50% of all people today, see

Along with Ireland and Portugal, Norway is now working to make marine research a priority focus of the 7th EU Framework Programme for Research and Technology Development (2007–2010). The goal is to develop a vital, beneficial marine and maritime economy in Europe with the help of interdisciplinary research.

Seafood, transport, security, recreation and ecology are important key words for the ocean theme in Europe. Oceans encircle a great deal of the continent. This has played a cru

Cornell University researchers have created a video simulation of the deadly Dec. 26 Indian Ocean tsunami that shows in graphic detail how the massive wave system spread outward from the epicenter of an undersea earthquake northwest of Sumatra, Indonesia.

The simulation makes it clear how the tsunami struck the coastlines of Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India with such devastating force, then continued as far as East Africa.

The video, about 7 MB, can be seen o

The second Duke University-led expedition since 1999 to a deep underwater canyon will take geologists to another place in the eastern Pacific Ocean where new sea floor was forged out of volcanic lava within the past several million years.

The Pito Deep trough, positioned as deep as 19,600 feet below the ocean’s surface just west of Easter Island, will offer scientists a rare chance to study the internal geology of such ocean floor crust making processes.

The internal g

More than 250 new examples of England’s finest array of prehistoric rock art carvings, sited close to the Scottish border, have been discovered by archaeologists compiling a unique database.

Now over one thousand of the ’cup and ring’ carvings can be admired on a new website, which carries 6,000 images and is said to be the most comprehensive of its kind in the world. The site, which goes live today, includes the 250 panels unearthed during a two-and-a-half year t

Albatrosses are the world’s most threatened family of birds. New research offers the first hope of identifying migration and feeding patterns to reduce their unnecessary slaughter by long-line fisheries. The study is reported in the journal Science, and outlines, for the first time, the year-round habitat of the grey-headed albatross.

Leading author Professor John Croxall from British Antarctic Survey (BAS) said, “By understanding where these birds go when they’re not breeding,

Water quality in the Rio Chone estuary in Ecuador has degraded over the last three decades by a combination of man-made impacts, including the input of organic wastes from shrimp farming activities located in what were once tropical mangrove forests.

An article in the current issue of the Journal of Coastal Research describes water quality experiments by University of Rhode Island oceanographers Diana Stram and Chris Kincaid and US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) oceanograp

A new study says some iron nanoparticles may be effective in cleaning up carbon tetrachloride in contaminated groundwater

Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University’s OGI School of Science & Engineering, in collaboration with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNL) and the University of Minnesota, have discovered that at least one type of nano-sized iron may be useful in cleaning up carbon tetrachloride contamination in groundwater. The new discovery was published

The African continent is slowly being pulled apart and new data collected by University of Leeds and Royal Holloway, University of London researchers suggests that molten rock from deep within the Earth is helping the rifting. Their findings, which help explain how continents split apart, are published in Nature this week.

Ethiopia sits on a boundary where a tectonic plate is being split into two and over several million years a new ocean basin is forming. The movement of plates o