Tag Archives: ecology

Bird malaria moves north

By Stephen Ornes / October 10, 2012

Black-capped chickadees, like the one shown here, stay in Fairbanks, Alaska, year-round. Scientists report that some of the birds have been found with avian malaria, suggesting that the germ that causes the disease has established itself in the far North. Credit: Mdf/wikipedia

Germs that cause a so-called tropical disease make themselves at home in frosty Alaska

Posted in Animals | Tagged Adaptation, avian malaria, birds, blood, climate change, disease, disease ecology, ecology, epidemiology, evolution, getinvolved, global warming, malaria, microbes, microbiology, mosquito, parasite, protozoa, Ravinder Sehgal, Robert Fleischer, San Francisco State University, Smithsonian Institution, tropical disease

The origins of mummies

By Stephen Ornes / August 27, 2012

South America’s Chinchorro people mummified their dead long before the ancient Egyptians. One of the Chinchorro methods used human-hair wigs and red dye made from ochre. Credit: Bernardo Arriaza

Scientists speculate on why ancient South Americans started preserving their dead

Posted in Ancient Times | Tagged ancient people, anthropology, Chile, culture, Daniel Sandweiss, desert, ecology, environment, getinvolved, mummification, mummy, Pablo Marquet, Peru, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, preservation, religion, South America, topstories, University of Maine in Orono

Python-palooza!

By Janet Raloff / August 22, 2012

Monster-sized Burmese python bearing record-number of eggs retrieved in the Florida Everglades

Posted in Animals | Tagged accelerometer, adaptations, Burmese python, Davidson College, DNA, ecology, environmental science, Everglades, feature, Florida Keys, Florida Museum of Natural History, giant snakes, GPS, Kenneth Krysko, Kristen Hart, mercury, Michael Dorcas, national park, P-52, P51, radio tracking, salt water, Skip Snow, topstories, U.S. Geological Survey, USGS

Climate coolers

By Stephen Ornes / January 25, 2012

Reducing methane, soot in the atmosphere could curb climate change

Posted in Environment & Pollution | Tagged climate change, ecology, fossil fuel, getinvolved, global warming, methane, natural gas

Worms, your unlikely allies

By Nathan Seppa / September 7, 2011

Parasites show promise in treating immune disorders

Posted in Body & Health | Tagged Autoimmune disease, ecology, feature, immunology, Parasitism, symbiosis

Sea changes

By Stephen Ornes / April 7, 2011

Blue patches indicate parts of the ocean that are more acidic than the yellow and red areas. Stars show coral reefs, which can lose their skeletons in more acidic water.

Carbon dioxide is making the oceans more acidic

Posted in Earth | Tagged acid, acids and bases, calcium carbonate, carbon dioxide, chem of life, climate change, coral reefs, ecology, Fossil fuels, invertebrates, Marine snail, Ocean, Ocean acidification, pH, sea changes, solutions, water

Indoor ozone stopper

By Stephen Ornes / April 14, 2010

Oils from human skin fight off this harmful chemical, but at a cost.

Posted in Environment & Pollution | Tagged chemical reaction, ecology, Integumentary, oil, ozone, pollutants, Reactions, skin

When frog gender flips

By Stephen Ornes / March 23, 2010

With weed killer in the water, some males acquire female traits.

Posted in Environment & Pollution | Tagged atrazine, ecology, male/female, Pollution, testosterone

Watching out for vultures

By Stephen Ornes / January 5, 2010

Farmers giving medicine to cows are accidentally poisoning vultures, again

Posted in Environment & Pollution | Tagged Drugs, ecology, Ketoprofen, Pharmaceuticals, Toxicity, Vultures

Flu river

By Stephen Ornes / October 14, 2009

Rivers polluted with Tamiflu could help a resistant flu strain develop in birds

Posted in Environment & Pollution | Tagged Antibiotic resistance, Antivirus, ecology, evolution, immunology, water pollution

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