As you may or may not know, moose is my favorite animal. A long story short, my first encounter to moose happened in Yellowstone National Park while I was doing my first ever backpacking. I literally gazed into eyes of a bull moose when he was watching me bite lunch in mere 10 yards or so. Since this incredible encounter, I have been captivated with moose.
So I was glad to see this news article about moose's contribution to human arthritis research. It's funny and unexpected that a connection between moose and human arthritis has been found.
A research on moose in Isle Royale found that many moose suffer a kind of arthritis which, the research revealed, is likely caused by poor nutrition in early development of the body. Although causes of human arthritis and how it develops through the life are very complex, this finding suggests the importance of taking appropriate nutrition in early stage of the life or even by pregnant women.
By the way, Isle Royale is famous of its unique and valuable ecosystem encompassing moose-wolf interaction. I did some studies on this perfect showcase of the predator-prey interaction while in grad school.
2010-08-22
2010-08-06
Gulf Oil Spill cmoing to an end?
A so-called "static kill" applied to the Deepwater Horizon well that burst out the huge amount of crude oil seems to be a success and President Obama said the disaster is "finally close to coming to an end."
Prior to this, NOAA announced in a report that almost 75% of the spilled oil is gone thanks to various causes, which is summarised as follows.
But wait. Is it really over? In response to this report, many scientists express concerns. Just because you can't see any remaining oil on the surface of the ocean in your vicinity, that doesn't necessarily mean no more harm. There may be bunch of oil beneath beaches or sunk onto the sea floor. It is also possible that a large amount of oil is just somewhere else, transported by complex currents, at the time of your investigation. More noteworthy is that we don't know yet very well what the long-term effects of the oil taken into the food chain are. A scientist in the above link points out that this disaster should be considered as a "3-D catastrophe", not just a 2-D problem.
Prior to this, NOAA announced in a report that almost 75% of the spilled oil is gone thanks to various causes, which is summarised as follows.
- 33% -- Clean-up efforts by human acctivities
- 25% -- Evaporated or dissolved
- 16% -- Dispersed
But wait. Is it really over? In response to this report, many scientists express concerns. Just because you can't see any remaining oil on the surface of the ocean in your vicinity, that doesn't necessarily mean no more harm. There may be bunch of oil beneath beaches or sunk onto the sea floor. It is also possible that a large amount of oil is just somewhere else, transported by complex currents, at the time of your investigation. More noteworthy is that we don't know yet very well what the long-term effects of the oil taken into the food chain are. A scientist in the above link points out that this disaster should be considered as a "3-D catastrophe", not just a 2-D problem.
2010-08-03
Marine Biodiversity
Census of Marine Life, the global project I'm involved in, released a collection of research papers on marine species and biodiversity on PLoS ONE. It is safe to say that they are the most comprehensive assessments of marine species and biodiversity in the human history. The researches were conducted by region.
A news article published on Nature is a good summary of the collection. It reports that while discoveries of new species will continue, the species and biodiversity in oceans are under threats such as overfishing, habitat loss, endemic species, and pollution along with emerging sea temperature rise and acidification due to the global warming.
Please refer to the Census press release, too.
A news article published on Nature is a good summary of the collection. It reports that while discoveries of new species will continue, the species and biodiversity in oceans are under threats such as overfishing, habitat loss, endemic species, and pollution along with emerging sea temperature rise and acidification due to the global warming.
Please refer to the Census press release, too.
2010-08-01
Global warming is the fact
US NOAA issued a report in July 2010 that stresses that the "global warming is undeniable." This report investigates 10 climate-related indexes such as sea surface temperature, temperature over land and sea ice cover from the real world observations.
This should be regarded complimentary to the approach by IPCC, the world's leading body for the environmental issues, where it develops global climate models and predicts the future climates based on the models. The importance of the NOAA report is that it pronounces that the global warming is the fact derived from the real data.
As opposed to the dull responses to the environmental issues under the Busch administration, US already declared in December 2009 that greenhouse gases threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations. The NOAA report clearly follows this view.
Around the same time, US EPA rejected claims issued by the fossil fuel industry and other opponents of action on climate change. It's a strong message that EPA is determined to regulate greenhouse gases.
It's a sheer surprise to me that there are still a bunch of people who stand against the global warming.
This should be regarded complimentary to the approach by IPCC, the world's leading body for the environmental issues, where it develops global climate models and predicts the future climates based on the models. The importance of the NOAA report is that it pronounces that the global warming is the fact derived from the real data.
As opposed to the dull responses to the environmental issues under the Busch administration, US already declared in December 2009 that greenhouse gases threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations. The NOAA report clearly follows this view.
Around the same time, US EPA rejected claims issued by the fossil fuel industry and other opponents of action on climate change. It's a strong message that EPA is determined to regulate greenhouse gases.
It's a sheer surprise to me that there are still a bunch of people who stand against the global warming.
2010-07-31
Phytoplankton decreasing significantly
Roughly a half of the oxygen on earth is produced by phytoplankton in the ocean while the other half is by plants on land.
A Nature article reveals that phytoplankton are decreasing substantially probably due to the higher ocean temperature caused by the global warming. In addition to the major source for the earth oxygen, phytoplankton are the basis of the food chain in oceans. With such essential roles for the earth environment, this significant decrease of phytoplankton will likely have a serious impacts on the future earth environment.
Dr. Falkowski, who commented on the article, expressed a concern that "We're squeezing big open-ocean fish like tuna and swordfish from both ends." That is to say we are not only overfishing big fish from above (land) but also threatening their existence by destroying the marine food chain from the bottom (ocean).
Nothing human being have been done for good?
By the way, Boris Worm, one of the article authors, is a Census of Marine Life researcher and I have met him before.
Related news article from Scientific American
A Nature article reveals that phytoplankton are decreasing substantially probably due to the higher ocean temperature caused by the global warming. In addition to the major source for the earth oxygen, phytoplankton are the basis of the food chain in oceans. With such essential roles for the earth environment, this significant decrease of phytoplankton will likely have a serious impacts on the future earth environment.
Dr. Falkowski, who commented on the article, expressed a concern that "We're squeezing big open-ocean fish like tuna and swordfish from both ends." That is to say we are not only overfishing big fish from above (land) but also threatening their existence by destroying the marine food chain from the bottom (ocean).
Nothing human being have been done for good?
By the way, Boris Worm, one of the article authors, is a Census of Marine Life researcher and I have met him before.
Related news article from Scientific American
2010-07-26
Brazil, most royal to football
While watching a football (aka soccer) game, you probably don't have a time to net-surf if you are really into it. Google shows this tendency by comparing the volumes of Google queries during World Cup matches against ordinary days.
It is no surprise that the volume of queries by Brazilians significantly drops during Brazil matches. The volume change from Brazil is so intense compared with other countries that it proves their royalty to football. Other European and South American power houses also show huge changes in queries.
Japanese royalty to football (we call it soccer in Japan) is developing, I would say. The fact that soccer is less popular than baseball or American football in US is evident from the dull drop of the queries during the matches.
It is no surprise that the volume of queries by Brazilians significantly drops during Brazil matches. The volume change from Brazil is so intense compared with other countries that it proves their royalty to football. Other European and South American power houses also show huge changes in queries.
Japanese royalty to football (we call it soccer in Japan) is developing, I would say. The fact that soccer is less popular than baseball or American football in US is evident from the dull drop of the queries during the matches.
2010-04-09
Al Gore called environmental issues moral issues
The Former Vice President Al Gore visited Duke University on April 8, 2010 and gave a talk on the environmental issues. He delivered the audience how to tackle environmental issues and why.
Looking back at what we have done to the environment, he called our generation a criminal generation and stressed that we have to take actions and save future environmental refugees who will be suffering from what we have done. You can't argue that it's OK because we have a happy life now. You have to take environmental issues as moral issues. That's why we must deal with them now.
There was a moment when the audience boosted up, cheering and praising. That was when Mr. Gore talked about the technologies to reduce green house gases especially CO2.
That is to say...
There have been huge improvements on the CO2 reduction technologies. However, they are not good enough yet. But don't worry as we have already gotten the most advanced technology called forests!
Looking back at what we have done to the environment, he called our generation a criminal generation and stressed that we have to take actions and save future environmental refugees who will be suffering from what we have done. You can't argue that it's OK because we have a happy life now. You have to take environmental issues as moral issues. That's why we must deal with them now.
There was a moment when the audience boosted up, cheering and praising. That was when Mr. Gore talked about the technologies to reduce green house gases especially CO2.
That is to say...
There have been huge improvements on the CO2 reduction technologies. However, they are not good enough yet. But don't worry as we have already gotten the most advanced technology called forests!
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