Monthly Archives: April 2011

With friends like these…

Cambridge researchers have created a website that combines the Facebook profiles of fans of companies and public figures with personality testing to create what they are describing as a “revolutionary” new marketing tool. What do Barack Obama, Adam Sandler, and the animated comedy Family Guy all have in common? How about David Cameron, Eva Mendes, […] … learn more→

Climate change is making our environment \’bluer\’

The \’colour\’ of our environment is becoming \’bluer\’, a change that could have important implications for animals\’ risk of becoming extinct, say ecologists from Imperial College London. In a major study published in the British Ecological Society\’s Journal of Animal Ecology, researchers examined how quickly or slowly animal populations and their environment fluctuate over time, […] … learn more→

Race against time and elements to record language

An Oxford University team has discovered a language spoken by only three people and is now in a race against time to document the language for posterity – after recent tragic flooding on the island where the language is spoken killed many of its inhabitants. Researchers from Oxford University’s Faculty of Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics […] … learn more→

Sugarcane changes the temperature of local climate, Stanford researchers say

Fields of sugarcane lower the air temperature compared with fields of soybeans, maize or pasture, according to a study involving Stanford researchers. They made the discovery working with satellite data of the Brazilian Cerrado, a tropical savanna where sugarcane, increasingly grown for biofuel, is displacing other agriculture. But the benefit to local climate is relative, […] … learn more→

George Washington University unveils goals to reduce water footprint

George Washington University President Steven Knapp today announced goals to reduce the university’s water footprint and a new ambitious water sustainability plan that sets water conservation and quality goals based on a framework for an urban institution. During GW’s Earth Day fair, President Knapp laid out several aggressive goals, including plans to reduce the university’s […] … learn more→

MIT: Development in fog harvesting process

In the arid Namib Desert on the west coast of Africa, one type of beetle has found a distinctive way of surviving. When the morning fog rolls in, the Stenocara gracilipes species, also known as the Namib Beetle, collects water droplets on its bumpy back, then lets the moisture roll down into its mouth, allowing […] … learn more→