Sharon Writes

CBC.CA

May 20, 2010

A computer-generated representation of a strand of DNA.

Scientists have created the first cell controlled by a human-made genome — a step closer to artificial life that is drawing both praise and warnings of potential dire consequences.

A team from the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Md., announced on Thursday it had created a synthetic bacterial genome that is a copy of an existing genome. The scientists then transplanted the synthetic genome into a different bacterium cell to create what they call a synthetic cell, although technically only its genome is synthetic.

The new genome then “booted up” the recipient bacterium’s cell in much the same way that a computer’s operating system makes the computer work.

The scientists say the eventual goal is to build new organisms that act in ways that differ from what nature intended, such as custom-made bacteria designed for biofuel production or environmental cleanup.

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CBC.CA

May 3, 2010

Restoring a species to its native habitat is usually considered a good thing, but an unusual study reconstructing historic bald eagle diets is raising flags over their reintroduction off the California coast.

Attempts to bring back the United States’ iconic bird to the Channel Islands could put at risk populations of recovering seabirds and the threatened island fox, according to research published in Monday’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A bald eagle nesting on California's Channel Islands in 2008. (Peter Sharpe/Institute for Wildlife Studies)

CBC.CA

January 13, 2010

by Sharon Oosthoek

The green line south of Port-au-Prince shows the fault line where the 7.0-magnitude quake was centred. The epicentre was 10 kilometres beneath the surface. (U.S. Geological Survey)

Tuesday’s earthquake in Haiti was especially destructive because its epicentre was close to a major city and its hypocentre, or focal point, was close to the Earth’s surface, says a Canadian seismologist familiar with the area.

Natural Resources Canada seismologist John Cassidy says the 7.0 quake — centred just 15 kilometres southwest of the capital of Port-au-Prince — happened roughly 10 kilometres below ground.

“If the earthquake had happened further below, it would have lost its energy as it moved up,” he says.

When Seattle was hit with an earthquake measuring 6.8 in 2001, the damage was much less severe because it happened 60 kilometres below ground.

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CBC.CA

January 8, 2010

by Sharon Oosthoek

Patrick Richard, project manager for helmet testing and certification at CSA International, conducts an impact test on an alpine ski and snowboard helmet. (Courtesy: CSA)

As the ski season hits its stride across Canada, the issue of mandatory helmets on the slopes is once again gaining traction.

“The market demand is out there,” says Anthony Toderian, spokesman for the Canadian Standards Association (CSA). “It’s really up to the manufacturers now.”

The CSA, which recommends alpine skiers and snowboarders wear helmets, says they can reduce the risk of head injury by 60 per cent.

Last March, it approved standards for ski and snowboarding helmets for the first time, but manufacturers have yet to make a helmet to those standards.

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Scientists predict the next 40 years will bring a 3C to 5C rise in mean annual temperature for British Columbia's Taku River region, and up to 30 per cent more precipitation. (David Nunuk)

CBC.CA

December 1, 2009

by Sharon Oosthoek

Deep in the wilds of northern British Columbia, people are trying to imagine what the region’s forests, salmon streams and alpine meadows will look like by 2050, when climate change is expected to have drastically altered the ecosystem.

The Taku River Tlingit First Nation and the province are in the midst of deciding how to manage three million hectares bordering Alaska and the Yukon. When it is completed in the spring of 2010, their agreement will be one of the last large land-use plans in B.C.

It may also be the first to explicitly address climate change by relying on research released earlier this year that helps predict which zones are best conserved as wilderness and which could be developed.

But it is a devilishly difficult task, scientists familiar with the area say.

How do you make conservation decisions when the land to be conserved is in the midst of dramatic change? In addition to warmer temperatures and increased precipitation, rapid changes in snow pack, water flow, permafrost, wildfire and insect infestations are all anticipated for the region.

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Carbon-rich wetlands in the Northwest Territories. (Chad Delany, Ducks Unlimited)

CBC.CA

November 11, 2009

by Sharon Oosthoek

Boreal forests store more than double the carbon originally thought, yet policy-makers overlook their role in fighting climate change, says a report released Thursday by an international conservation group.

“For reasons that are unclear, boreal forests seem to be the carbon the world forgot,” write the authors of a report published by the Seattle-based International Boreal Conservation Campaign (IBCC).

When climate change negotiators consider forests’ carbon storage potential, they usually look at tropical forests because they are being logged at a faster rate than the northern boreal, said ecologist and report co-author Jeff Wells.

But soil in boreal forests — like those found in Canada’s north — is much deeper than in tropical forests and hence stores much more carbon, said Wells, a visiting fellow at Cornell University.

Yet scientists have only recently taken into account the boreal’s deeper soils and slower rate of decay of leaf litter, which also stores carbon.

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Canada geese fly in a V-formation to save energy.

CBC.CA

September 21, 2009

by Sharon Oosthoek

Bird migration looks like a bad idea at first glance — all that energy needed to fly thousands of kilometres, all those predators along the way and the promise of doing it all over again just a few months later.

But of course Mother Nature knows exactly what she is doing. If you’ve ever wondered, as we did, what all that back and forth across the sky is about, read on.

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CBC.CA

September 19, 2009

By Sharon Oosthoek

A centimetre-long wasp is poised to become a lead investigator of potential infestations by emerald ash borers, a beetle that is destroying swaths of trees across eastern North America.

Researchers at Ontario’s University of Guelph say Cerceris fumipennis — a wasp native to the region — can determine in as little as half an hour after leaving its nest in search of prey whether the invasive beetles are in the area.

Cerceris fumipennis wasp with its beetle prey. This native wasp can determine in as little as 30 minutes if emerald ash borers are in the area. (Mike Bohne/U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service)

Traditional sleuthing involves peering into treetops where beetles congregate, or hanging sticky traps. But both are costly and finding the beetles can take days, weeks, or even years if the infestation is in the very early stages.

Yet the earlier an infestation is discovered, the fewer trees have to be cut down or injected with expensive pesticides to stop the beetles’ spread.

Now some U.S. forest managers in New England and New York state are pressing this black-winged wasp into service, and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is seriously considering following suit.

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