Be safe and live long permlink
Category: Environment
Arboreality has allowed for the evolution of increased longevity in mammals: The evolutionary theory of aging predicts that species will experience delayed senescence and increased longevity when rates of extrinsic mortality are reduced. It has long been recognized that birds...
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Posted by Razib Khan at 1:57 AM • 1 Comments •
Owen Lovejoy & Ardipithecus permlink
Category: Environment
Owen Lovejoy has some theories which he is using to process the data from the spate of Ardipithecus ramidus papers. When it comes to the argument about social structure based on the anatomy of the extant remains I'm skeptical. I...
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Posted by Razib Khan at 8:39 PM • 2 Comments •
Ag subsidies + ag science = :-( permlink
Category: Environment
From Science, Plenty of Cows but Little Profit: Three years ago, a technological breakthrough gave dairy farmers the chance to bend a basic rule of nature: no longer would their cows have to give birth to equal numbers of female...
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Posted by Razib Khan at 3:31 AM • 3 Comments •
Crazy genetic mutant, alien.... permlink
Category: Culture
Darren Naish has the full story. In a bygone age without scientists who...know stuff, these sorts of finds would become the germ of myth. As it is we cobble together a bunch of banal facts and likelihoods into something far...
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Posted by Razib Khan at 5:03 PM • 1 Comments •
Nuclear power, who are the haterz? permlink
Category: Culture
Matt Springer of Built on Facts has a post up where he defends the potential of nuclear power. Regular readers of this weblog will know that I am broadly sympathetic. I understand that the "atomic age" is not going to...
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Posted by Razib Khan at 4:50 AM • 6 Comments •
Invasive species & human exceptionalism permlink
Category: Culture
A helpful invasive species?: Introduced species can wreak havoc on the ecosystems they invade. But what happens after they've been established for centuries? A new study in the latest Proceedings of the Royal Society suggests that, in one case, an...
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Posted by Razib Khan at 3:26 PM • 11 Comments •
Hawaii, going long on space tourism permlink
Category: Environment
Hawaii Looks to Space Tourism to Aid Recession Woes: According to the Honolulu Advertiser, the state would start by spending up to a million dollars developing a spaceport. But Hawaii isn't alone: The state is already facing heady competition from...
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Posted by Razib Khan at 2:20 PM • 4 Comments •
Aral Sea no more permlink
Category: Environment
Back in the early 1990s I remember stories about the incredible reduction in size and volume of the Aral Sea. With the collapse of the Soviet Union the environmental disasters caused by state "planning" were exposed for all to see,...
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Posted by Razib Khan at 3:14 AM • 2 Comments •
