Deep below, a vibrant world is documented by the first comprehensive marine census

Marine Census Yields Plenitude of Wonders
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/04/in-first-marine-census-a-plenitude-of-wonders/?hpw

Marine Census Shows Vast Diversity of Sea Life
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704847104575532031662747228.html

Biggest Marine Census Complete
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/10/101004-coml-complete-census-vin-video/

New Map Charts Troubled Status of Ocean Life
http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/2010/10/ocean_map.html

Census of Marine Life
http://www.coml.org/

NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries
http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/

What is out there, under the sea? After 10 years, it would appear that the Census of Marine Life has an excellent idea of the species residing throughout the world's oceans and seas. The project was sponsored by a host of institutions, including the Rockefeller University in New York, and the initial findings of this magnificent undertaking were announced this Monday. Commenting on the report, the co-founder of the project Jesse H. Ausubel remarked, "We're like the people in London and Paris 200 years ago, putting together the first dictionaries and encyclopedias." Equally amazing was the discovery that there are few "ocean deserts", and the census discovered a host of new species. The project reveals that there are almost 250,000 marine species in existence, and if microscopic life were included, that number could potentially land in the hundreds of millions. One particularly interesting new species found in the census was the so-called "yeti-crab". This denizen of the deep lives far off the coast of Easter Island, and it has rather elaborate furry claws. More discoveries and information from this project will be released in the coming weeks and months, and it's a project well worth keeping tabs on. [KMG]

The first link will take users to users to a post from the New York Times' "Green" blog from this Monday. Here visitors can learn a bit more about the census, and also view a photo of the "yeti-crab". The second link will take visitors to an article from this Tuesday's Wall Street Journal which includes a video clip about the census, along with an interactive graphic feature. Moving on, the third link whisks users away to another news feature from the National Geographic website about the completion of the census. The fourth link leads to a press release from Duke University, which features a link to a highly detailed and interactive map based on this census information. The fifth link leads to the census website where visitors can learn more about the findings, check out their video gallery, image gallery, and music video. Finally, the last link leads to a site developed by NOAA that features information about the National Marine Sanctuaries, including materials on how to visit these locations and some information on their management.

(via: The Internet Scout report)

Mushroom Gas ?

Fill her up please, and make it myco-diesel

AFP, 4 November 2008 - Will the Ferrari of tomorrow be fungus-powered? A reddish microbe found on the inside of a tree at a secret location in the rainforests of northern Patagonia could unlock the biofuel of the future, say scientists.

Its potential is so startling that the discoverers have coined the term "myco-diesel" -- a derivation of the word for fungus -- to describe the bouquet of hydrocarbons that it breathes.

"This is the only organism that has ever been shown to produce such an important combination of fuel substances," said Gary Strobel, a professor of biology at Montana State University.

"The fungus can even make these diesel compounds from cellulose, which would make it a better source of biofuel that anything we use at the moment."

The study is published in the peer-reviewed British journal, Microbiology.

Read the whole article

Lightbulbs Could Replace Wi-Fi Hotspots

Lightbulbs Could Replace Wi-Fi Hotspots

Boston University’s College of Engineering is launching a program, under a National Science Foundation grant, to develop the next generation of wireless communications technology based on visible light instead of radio waves. Researchers expect to piggyback data communications capabilities on low-power light emitting diodes, or LEDs, to create “Smart Lighting” that would be faster and more secure than current network technology.

This initiative aims to develop an optical communication technology that would make an LED light the equivalent of a Wi-Fi access point.“Imagine if your computer, iPhone, TV, radio and thermostat could all communicate with you when you walked in a room just by flipping the wall light switch and without the usual cluster of wires,” said BU Engineering Professor Thomas Little. “This could be done with an LED-based communications network that also provides light - all over existing power lines with low power consumption, high reliability and no electromagnetic interference. Ultimately, the system is expected to be applicable from existing illumination devices, like swapping light bulbs for LEDs.”

Source: cellular-news

Is this not the weirdest thing? Who needs fiction when there is science?

From: Next Big Future

Meat factories, food substitution and veganism

The Speculist talks about meat factories (making meat from stem cells) and a personal conversion to veganism or vegetarianism.

People are growing meat now

In five to 10 years, supermarkets might have some new products in the meat counter: packs of vat-grown meat that are cheaper to produce than livestock and have less impact on the environment.

According to a new economic analysis presented at the In Vitro Meat Symposium in Ås, Norway, meat grown in giant tanks known as bioreactors would cost between $5,200-$5,500 a ton (3,300 to 3,500 euros), which the analysis claims is cost competitive with European beef prices.

To produce the meat we eat now, 75 to 95 percent of what we feed an animal is lost because of metabolism and inedible structures like skeleton or neurological tissue. So invitro meat could be 4 to 20 times more efficient.

There has been other food substitutions:
Egg substitute - from egg whites

Margerine, a blend of vegetable oils or meat fats (or a combination of both) mixed with milk and salt, in place of butter.

Soy meat and soy protein products.

A lot of processed food:
Yoghurt, twinkies (and other chemical and corn syrup concoctions), whey protein products and bars, spam, meat slurry

Invitro meat technology:

An environmentally friendly cultured meat technology rests on four basic premises: (1) the culturing of muscle progenitor cells from farm animals of choice that are able to proliferate at a high rate, (2) the application of a growth medium that does not contain animal products, (3) the efficient differentiation of the progenitor cells into muscle cells that contain all nutrients present in conventional meat, and (4) the organisation of the muscle cells into 3-dimensional muscle structures.

Mickie's note : Just when you think you've seen it all ...