The Ocean Health Index is the new and “first comprehensive global measurement of ocean health that includes people as part of the ocean ecosystem. It scientifically compares and combines all dimensions of ocean health – biological, physical, economic and social – in order to generate an objective and accurate snapshot of the health of the […]
Everyone seems enthralled with the news about NASA’s Curiosity Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Whether or not you’re for space exploration, the feats performed to land Curiosity on Mars are amazing. Check out the space images or ask Dr. C. a question about Mars!
Iodine-131 and cesium-134/137 are radioactive isotopes that have been released from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant as a consequence of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan. Large amounts of this radioactive material have gone into the Pacific Ocean. That’s the bad news. The good news is that scientists at the University of Tsukuba in the Kantō […]
The BBC reported some really great news in May. The headline reads: “Paralysed patients use thoughts to control robotic arm.” The article is by Fergus Walsh. The wonderful news is that two people in the USA paralysed from the neck down due to strokes have been able to command a robotic arm by using their […]
Here’s a mechanism to ensure around 7 billion people have enough to eat: vertical farming! The idea comes from Dr. Dickson Despommier, a retired professor of microbiology and public health in environmental health sciences at Columbia University. What is vertical farming? It’s indoor farming, like the concept of greenhouses, but on a much larger scale. […]
Founded in 1936 by Sir Henry Wellcome, the Wellcome Trust‘s vision is “to achieve extraordinary improvements in human and animal health. In pursuit of this, we support the brightest minds in biomedical research and the medical humanities.” As heard on the BBC just a few days ago, “One of the world’s largest research charities, the Wellcome Trust, […]
Africa is a contender, along with Australia and New Zealand, in a project to build a really huge telescope – the Square Kilometer Array. Although the decision on where to build it won’t be known until late March or early April at the earliest, the project is already in full swing. Made up of 3,000 […]
Check out MassiveGood, and fight HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and improve maternal and child health. How? It’s “the social network generation’s solution to put a stop to the millions of deaths from HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, and to improve maternal and child health in the developing world. If social media has revolutionized the way in which […]
Got an old bicycle in your garage that you don’t know what to do with? Send it to Bern, where it will be restored and shipped to Africa so people living in rural areas can cycle to work. That’s what Paolo Richter does. His company, Gump-& Drahtesel hires unemployed individuals to recycle old bicycles for Africa, […]
Here’s part 4 of the series on water conservation by global expert James Workman, pictured here. James Workman is author of Heart of Dryness: How the Last Bushmen Can Help Us Endure the Coming Age of Permanent Drought. He is a visiting professor at Wesleyan University’s College of the Environment and co-founder of SmartMarkets LLC, […]
