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Growth of Carbon Capture and Storage Stalled in 2011
Global funding for carbon capture and storage technology, a tool for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, remained unchanged at US$23.5 billion in 2011 in comparison to the previous year, according to a new report from the Worldwatch Institute. Although there are currently 75 large-scale, fully integrated carbon capture and storage projects in 17 countries…
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Stone-Throwing Chimp Is Back — And This Time It’s Personal
Three years ago, a stone-throwing chimpanzee named Santino jolted the research community by providing some of the strongest evidence yet that nonhumans could plan ahead. Santino, a resident of the Furuvik Zoo in Gävle, Sweden, calmly gathered stones in the mornings and put them into neat piles, apparently saving them to hurl at visitors when…
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‘The real Hunger Games’: a million children at risk as Sahel region suffers punishing drought
The UN warns that a million children in Africa’s Sahel region face malnutrition due to drought in region. In all 15 million people face food insecurity in eight nations across the Sahel, a region that is still recovering from drought and a food crisis of 2010. In some countries the situation is worsened by conflict.
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The Joy of Jogging
Running is a means of terrestrial locomotion allowing humans and other animals to move rapidly on foot. It is simply defined in athletics terms as a gait in which at regular points during the running cycle both feet are off the ground. This is in contrast to walking, where one foot is always in contact…
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Not ALL Spiders use a web to catch prey
The Trapdoor Spider builds a tunnel with a trapdoor on one end. It hides in this lair until hungry and then emerges to capture an unsuspecting meal. Trapdoor Spiders are found in many warm locations around the globe. Researchers at Auburn University reported the discovery a new trapdoor spider species from a well-developed housing subdivision…
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The Development of the Human Brain
A brain-development gene found exclusively in humans has an unusual evolutionary history and could contribute to what makes us distinctly human. Equally surprising, this is a partial gene created from an incomplete duplication of its parent gene in the prehistoric human genome. The incomplete duplication of the gene may account for its behavior. This may…
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Load Bearing Exercise for Young Men Prevents Bone Loss in Later Years
A new study from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden suggests a new reason for young men to ditch their “couch potato” lifestyle. They say that men in their early 20s who engage in load-bearing exercise including sports such as basketball and volleyball for four hours per week are less likely to suffer from osteoporosis…
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Hybrid Vehicles Create Cost Advantages for Businesses
High fuel prices are back and are slowing our economy’s growth, eating into businesses’ profit margins and sapping household discretionary budgets. Today, consumers have a range of options for buying hybrid or even electric vehicles to help reduce their fuel costs. But businesses are far behind consumers in their adoption rate of hybrid vehicles. However,…
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Streetkleen Taps Man’s Best Friend for Renewable Biogas
The idea of converting dog waste to renewable biogas started off as a modest art project in Cambridge, Massachusetts, two years ago, and it has struck a spark across the pond. A new company in Wales called Streetkleen has constructed a dog waste-to-biogas conversion station in the county of Flintshire and plans are already in…
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Israel To Help India Clean Up The Ganges River
Young Israeli tourists are so common in India that in certain regions, restaurants hang signs and write menus in Hebrew. But Israel is now in the process of sending more than just tourists to the region. At the end of April, Israeli news site Ynet reported that Israel would be sending engineers, researchers and representatives…