All Your Lunar Base Are Belong to Us
NASA announced plans to build a lunar base to act as a staging outpost for manned missions to Mars. Constructing the base will be a long-term project consisting of multiple phases. Initially, a team of robots will survey the moon for natural resources and optimal landing spots, with human crews expected to launch in 2012. Once crews have established permanent housing, the program envisions lunar missions lasting up to 180 days. "With such an outpost, NASA can learn to use the moon's natural resources to live off the land, make preparations for a journey to Mars, conduct a wide range of scientific investigations and encourage international participation," NASA said. The project, a joint effort between 14 of the world's space agencies, will put humans on the moon for the first time since 1972.
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Water has flowed on Mars within the past seven years, and may be doing so now, according to photographs of Martian craters that NASA revealed last Thursday. Scientists have long known water ice and water vapor to exist on the Red Planet, but liquid water is more exciting because it's assumed to be needed for life. The photographs show finger-like branches of sediment in two craters, the shape of which suggests flowing water carried the dirt downhill.
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A new study demonstrates that different species of fish can actively cooperate in the pursuit of prey. In an article published in PLoS Biology, scientists describe an example of coordinated hunting between groupers and giant moray eels. Moray eels can fit into crevices in coral reefs, whereas groupers hunt in open water around reefs. Prey pursued by groupers alone can escape by swimming into the crevices in coral reefs, but when groupers and eels hunt in tandem, there's nowhere for their prey to hide. Investigators showed that groupers and eels actually seek out each other's assistance and recruit each other for coordinated hunting through particular body movements. Recruitment is actually fairly common in the animal kingdom, but is rarely associated with animals, like fish, that rank low on the evolutionary ladder.
The Cocopah Indian Tribe and the National Wildlife Federation have partnered to co-host the first-ever Tribal Lands Climate Conference, a gathering of political leaders, climate scientists, NGOs, and more than 50 Native American tribes seeking to mitigate global warming. With generations of knowledge about natural cycles and the natural world, Native Americans have unique insight into the effects of global warming. "Native Americans can provide key inspiration regarding global warming and its impact on our world, unite broad stakeholder support, and demonstrate actions that alleviate global warming impacts," Garrit Voggesser, manager of the National Wildlife Federation's Tribal Lands Conservation Program, said in a press release.
Rice, Rice, Baby
China, the world's top rice producer and consumer, has delayed commercial cultivation of genetically modified rice as it waits for more conclusive food safety tests. Bt rice, the best candidate for commercial production, contains a bacterial gene toxic to pests. While Bt corn and cotton have been planted for years in many countries, rice requires special caution because it is consumed directly by humans (whereas corn is often used for animal feed or in other processed products). Food testing specialists predict it will take another one to two years before genetically modified strains reach the market in China.