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Mysterious Orange Goo on Alaskan Shores Turns Out to Be Possibly Toxic Fish Eggs

2:32 pm in alaska, biology, fish, Science & Technology by TreeHugger

kivalina-orange-goo-eggs.jpg Photo: Quinn Dombrowski under a Creative Commons license. This one sounds like the beginning of a B movie- last week, the residents of Kivalina, Alaska were surprised to find a mysterious orange goo washing up on their shores. It was determined that the goo was neither man-made nor petroleum based, and it soon dried up and blew away in the wind. So what was the goo, and how did it end up on Alaskan shores? Turns out it was a ...Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Fungi Thriving in a Warmer World Suspected in Mass Forest Extinctions

4:25 am in biodiversity, biology, global warming effects, global warming science, science by TreeHugger

dead tree photo Image: Dominic/CC Pandas and tigers make better poster children for human impacts on biodiversity. But in the face of news like the massive recall of turkey meat with antibiotic res...Read the full story on TreeHugger

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TED Talk: Jonathan Drori on Tricks Flowers Play on Pollinators

10:57 am in biology, insects, Travel & Nature by TreeHugger

garish flowers photo Photo by Jaymi Heimbuch There are over 250,000 species of flowering plants. While some can rely on self-pollination, many rely on a wide range of other animals and insects to pollinate them so that they can reproduce. What's amazing is the level of evolutionary prowess that flowering plants have put into attracting exactly the type of pollinators they need. Jonathan Drori gave a fascinating and beautiful TED talk about the crazy, cool, and curious strategies flowers employ. Watch after the jump. ...Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Modern Polar Bears Are Really From Ireland

2:23 pm in animals, biology, conservation, ecology, Travel & Nature by TreeHugger

polar bear photo Photo by Jaymi Heimbuch While polar bears are famous for living in and around the icy Arctic Circle, scientists looking into the bears' family tree found that they originated from a species of Brown Bear native to Ireland around 20,000 years ago....Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Your Belly Button May Be Home to Unknown Species

7:31 pm in biodiversity, biology, Travel & Nature by TreeHugger

biodiverse belly button photo Photo: hweiling / cc If you've ever wanted to go venturing into some uncharted cave in search of exotic species yet unknown to science, then please extend your index finger and place it into your belly button. Done? Okay, now welcome to the habitat of potentially some 1,400 bacterial strains -- hundreds of which may be unidentified. According to biologists from the Belly Button Biodiversity project, human navels are home to an astonishing number of new microbes. and it may be...Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Japanese Astronaut to Harvest Cucumbers On International Space Station

1:43 pm in agriculture, biology, ecology, food production, Science & Technology by TreeHugger

cucumber photo Photo by OakleyOriginals via Flickr CC Considering the recent hubbub over cucumbers infected with E. coli in Europe, it's not surprising some folks might consider more, um, technological ways to grow them. A Japanese astronaut plans to harvest cucumbers aboard the International Space Station. ...Read the full story on TreeHugger

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