Secrets of the Sandcastle worm could yield a powerful medical adhesive!

“We recognized that the mechanism used by the sandcastle worm is really a perfect vehicle for producing an underwater adhesive,” Stewart said. “This glue, just like the worm’s glue, is a fluid material that, although it doesn’t mix with water, is water soluble.”

Stewart has begun pilot studies focused on delivering bioactive molecules in the adhesive that could allow it to fix bone fragments and deliver medicines to the fracture site, such as antibiotics, pain relievers or compounds that might accelerate healing.

“We are very optimistic about this synthetic glue,” he said. “Biocompatibility is one of the major challenges of creating an adhesive like this. Anytime you put something synthetic into the body, there’s a chance the body will respond to it and damage the surrounding tissue. That’s something we will monitor, but we’ve seen no indication right now that it will be a problem.”

The traditional method of repairing shattered bones is to use mechanical connectors like nails, pins and metal screws for support until they can bear weight. But achieving and maintaining alignment of small bone fragments using screws and wires is challenging, Stewart said. For precise reconstruction of small bones, health officials have acknowledged that a biocompatible, biodegradable adhesive could be valuable because it would reduce metal hardware in the body while maintaining proper alignment of fractures.

Stewart’s challenge was to devise a water-based adhesive that remained insoluble in wet environments and was able to bond to wet objects. The team also concentrated on key details of the natural adhesive solidification process — a poorly timed hardening of the glue would make it useless, Stewart said. They learned the natural glue sets in response to changes in pH, a mechanism that was copied into the synthetic glue.

Humongous Fungus: A New Kind Of Individual..

The monkey is related to saddleback tamarins, which include several species of monkeys known for their distinctively marked backs. The newly described distinct subspecies was first seen by scientists on a 2007 expedition into the state of Amazonas in northwestern Brazil.


The discovery was published in the June online edition of the International Journal of Primatology. Authors of the study include Fabio Röhe of the Wildlife Conservation Society, José de Sousa e Silva Jr. of Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Ricardo Sampaio of the Instituto Nacional de Parquisas de Amaozônia, and Anthony B. Rylands of Conservation International.

Researchers have dubbed the monkey Mura's saddleback tamarin (Saguinus fuscicollis mura) named after the Mura Indians, the ethnic group of Amerindians of the Purus and Madeira river basins where the monkey occurs. Historically this tribe was spread through the largest territory of any of the Amazonian Indigenous peoples, extending from the Peruvian frontier today (Rio Yavari) east to the Rio Trombetas.
The monkey is mostly gray and dark brown in color, with a distinctly mottled "saddle." It weighs 213 grams (less than ¾ of a pound) and is 240 millimeters (9 inches tall) with a 320 millimeter (12.6 inch) tail.
"The Wildlife Conservation Society is extremely proud to be part of this exciting discovery in the Amazon," said Dr. Avecita Chicchon, Director of WCS's Latin America Programs. "We hope that the discovery will draw attention to conservation in this very fragile but biodiverse region."

According to the study's authors, the monkey is threatened by several planned development projects in the region, particularly a major highway cutting through the Amazon that is currently being paved. Conservationists fear the highway could fuel wider deforestation in the Amazon over the next two decades. Other threats to the region include a proposed gas pipeline and two hydroelectric dams currently in the beginning stages of construction.
"This newly described monkey shows that even today there are still major wildlife discoveries to be made," said the study's lead author, Fabio Röhe of the Wildlife Conservation Society. "This discovery should serve as a wake-up call that there is still so much to learn from the world's wild places, yet humans continue to threaten these areas with destruction."

Extinction threat growing for mankind’s closest relatives!

Mankind’s closest relatives – the world’s monkeys, apes and other primates – are disappearing from the face of the Earth, with some being literally eaten to extinction.

“Among the African species, the great apes such as gorillas and bonobos have always tended to grab the limelight, and even though they are deeply threatened, it is smaller primates such as the red colobus that could die out first," said IPS President Richard Wrangham.


The first comprehensive review in five years of the world’s 634 kinds of primates found that almost 50 percent are in danger of going extinct, according to the criteria of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Issued at the 22nd International Primatological Society Congress in Edinburgh, Scotland, the report
by the world’s foremost primate authorities presented a chilling indictment on the state of primates
everywhere. In Asia, more than 70 percent of primates are classified on the IUCN Red List as Vulnerable, Endangered or Critically Endangered – meaning they could disappear forever in the near future.

                     Javan Gibbon, Hylobates moloch, Endangered, Indonesia

Habitat destruction, through the burning and clearing of tropical forests, which also emits at least 20 percent of the global greenhouse gases, is a major threat to primates. Other threats include the hunting of primates for food and an illegal wildlife trade.

With the input of hundreds of experts worldwide, the primate review provides scientific data to show the severe threats facing animals that share virtually all DNA with humans. In both Vietnam and Cambodia, approximately 90 percent of primate species are considered at risk of extinction. Populations of gibbons, leaf monkeys, langurs and other species have dwindled due to rampant habitat loss exacerbated by hunting for food and to supply the wildlife trade in traditional Chinese medicine and pets.

Meanwhile, scientists continue to learn more about primates and their role in the world. Since 2000, 53 species of primates previously unknown to science have been described – 40 from Madagascar, two from Africa, three from Asia and eight from Central and South America. In 2007, researchers found a long-rumored population of Critically Endangered greater bamboo lemurs (Prolemur simus) in Madagascar in a wetland 400 kilometers (240 miles) from the only other known home of the species. In total, the species numbers about 140 individuals in the wild.

Despite the gloomy assessment, conservationists point to a notable success in helping targeted species recover. In Brazil, the black lion tamarin (Leontopithecus chrysopygus) was down listed to Endangered from Critically Endangered, as was the golden lion tamarin (Leontopithecus rosalia) in 2003, as a result of three decades of conservation efforts involving numerous institutions. Populations of both animals are now well-protected but remain very small, causing an urgent need for reforestation to provide new habitat for their long-term survival.

As our closest relatives, non-human primates are important to the health of their surrounding ecosystems. Through the dispersal of seeds and other interactions with their environments, primates help support a wide range of plant and animal life in the world’s tropical forests. Healthy forests provide vital resources for local human populations, and also absorb and store carbon dioxide that causes climate change.

Conservation of Biodiversity (Species and Genetic)

Let’s think about the meaning of biodiversity. Most people understand that biodiversity includes the great heterogeneous assemblage of living organisms. This aspect of biodiversity is also known as "species diversity." Biodiversity includes two other components as well- genetic diversity and ecosystem diversity.

Currently the planet is inhabited by several million species in about 100 different phyla (Dirzo & Raven 2003). About 1.8 million have been described by scientists (Hilton-Taylor et al. 2008), but conservative estimates suggest that there are 5–15 million species alive today (May, 2000), since many groups of organisms remain poorly studied. Over 15,000 new species are described each year (Dirzo & Raven 2003), and new species are evolving during our lifetimes. However, modern extinction rates are high, at 100 to 1000 times greater than background extinction rates calculated over the eras (Hambler 2004). Although new species appear, existing species go extinct at a rate 1000 times that of species formation (Wilson 2003). Many biologists agree that we are in the midst of a mass extinction, a time when 75% or more of species are lost over a short geological time scale (Raup 1994). The last great mass extinction was 65 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous, when the dinosaurs went extinct. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature estimates that 22% of known mammals, 32% of amphibians, 14% of birds, and 32% of gymnosperms (all well-studied groups) are threatened with extinction (Hilton-Taylor et al. 2008). Species that were abundant within the last 200 years have gone extinct. For example, passenger pigeons, which numbered three to five billion in the mid 1800s (Ellsworth & McComb 2003), are now extinct.

Species diversity

The 1.8 million species described by science are incredibly diverse. They range from tiny, single-Nanoarchaeum equitans, 400 nm in diameter living as parasites on other microbes in thermal vents at temperatures of 70–98°C (Huber et al. 2002), to giant organisms like Sequoias, blue whales, the "humungous fungus," and "Pando" (Figure 1). "Pando" is the name given to a clonal stand of aspen trees, all genetically identical and attached to each other by the roots (Grant et al. 1992). The stand covers 106 acres and weighs 13 million pounds. The "humungous fungus," a giant individual of the species Armillaria oysterae is found in the state of Oregon, and covers 1,500 acres (USDA Forest Service 2003).
celled microbes like

While people are generally most familiar with multicellular organisms such as plants and animals, these organisms form only small branches on the tree of life. The greatest metabolic diversity is found among the prokaryotic organisms of the Eubacteria and Archaea. Although some of these microbes use oxygen for respiration, or photosynthesize like plants, others have the extraordinary ability to derive energy from inorganic chemicals such as hydrogen sulfide or ammonia, and they use carbon dioxide as their only source of carbon for producing organic molecules. Organisms that we consider extremophiles can survive in saturated salt concentrations (36% compared to approximately 3% for seawater), or in superheated water in deep-sea vents and geysers.

Genetic Diversity

Genes are responsible for the traits exhibited by organisms and, as populations of species decrease in size or go extinct, unique genetic variants are lost. Since genes reside within species, why should we consider genetic diversity as a separate category? Because they hold "genetic potential." For example, many of the crops that we grow for food are grown in monocultures of genetically homogeneous individuals. Because all individuals are the same, a disease, insect pest, or environmental change that can kill one individual can extirpate an entire crop. Most of our high-yield varieties show significant reductions in yield within about 5 years, as pests overcome the crops’ natural defenses. Plant breeders look to wild plant relatives and to locally grown landraces to find new genetic varieties. They can then introduce these genes into crops to renew their vigor. However, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, 96% of the 7,098 US apple varieties cultivated prior to 1904, 95% of the US cabbage varieties, and 81% of tomato varieties, are extinct, and the genes that made these varieties unique are gone.

Genetic variation allows species to evolve in response to diseases, predators, parasites, pollution, and climate change. The Red Queen Hypothesis, named for Lewis Carroll’s character who runs continually in order to stay in the same place, states that organisms must continually evolve, or succumb to their predators and parasites that will continue to evolve.

In addition to traditional breeding, advances in genetic engineering have allowed scientists to introduce beneficial genes from one species to another. For example, diabetics used to depend on insulin from human cadavers, or from cows or pigs. Human insulin was expensive, and non-human insulin could cause allergic reactions. Now we can isolate the gene that codes for human insulin, insert it into bacterial cells, and let the bacteria produce large quantities of human insulin. Other notable feats in genetic engineering include the introduction of genes that enhance the nutritive value of food, create crop resistance to insect pests, induce sheep to produce a protein for treating cystic fibrosis disease, and alter bacteria so that they can clean up toxic mine wastes through their metabolic activities. Many other genetic manipulations are currently in development.

NRCS Agency : Natural Resources Conservation Service

The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), formerly known as the Soil Conservation Service (SCS), is an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) that provides technical assistance to farmers and other private landowners and managers.
Its name was changed in 1994 during the Presidency of Bill Clinton to reflect its broader mission. It is a relatively small agency, currently comprising about 12,000 employees. Its mission is to improve, protect, and conserve natural resources on private lands through a cooperative partnership with local and state agencies. While its primary focus has been agricultural lands, it has made many technical contributions to soil surveying, classification and water quality improvement. One example is the Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP), set up to quantify the benefits of agricultural conservation efforts promoted and supported by programs in the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (2002 Farm Bill). NRCS is the leading agency in this project.


 Programs and Services:

Farm bill

The conservation provisions in the Food, Conservation, and Energy act of 2008. This bill provides conservation opportunities for farmers. Services also include financial assistance which makes sure money is allocated and used properly in providing conservation for various natural resources, technical assistance which is given through the Conservation Technical Assistance program (CTA). This service is available to anyone interested in conservation of natural resources and easements. This includes:

Farm and Ranch Land Protection Program

(FRPP) The purpose of this program is to work with land owners to purchase development rights to current farm and ranch land, in order to keep said land from being developed for other uses. The program matches funds from property owners, and can be applied whether potential buyers are private or from state or local government, as well as Native American tribes. In order to receive funds from the program, the land must be privately owned, and have an offer for sale pending. The land must be large enough to support substantial agricultural yield, and be surrounded by land with a similar nature. If there is a danger for soil erosion, a conservation plan must be included.

Grasslands Reserve Program

(GRP) Volunteer program to increase animal and plant biodiversity, and to protect grasslands. Participants limit use of grassland for commercial and agricultural development. The land may still be grazed or seeded, with the exception of the nesting seasons of bird species that are protected under law. A grazing management plan must be submitted for participation.

Healthy Forests Reserve Program

(HFRP) Landowners volunteer to restore and protect forests in 30 or 10 year contracts. This program hands assisting funds to participants. The objectives of HFRP are to:

1. Promote the recovery of endangered and threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA)
2. Improve plant and animal biodiversity
3. Enhance carbon sequestration

Wetlands Reserve Program

(WRP) Volunteer program for landowners to protect or restore wetlands on properties they own. The program offers both financial and technological support to these landowners in order to help cultivate long term wetland health with optimal biodiversity per acre.

Wildlife in Ranthambore

Ranthambore National Park is located in Sawai Madhopur district in Rajasthan. Ranthambore National Park has the world famous tiger reserve & spread over 1334 sq kilometers. Tourists turn up in high numbers from various parts of India and abroad to watch tigers, there is plenty of flora and fauna to watch out for in the Tiger sanctuary.There are more than 300 species of trees, 50 aquatic plants, over 300 species of birds, 50 aquatic plants and 30 mammals,sloth bear, wild boar, Chinkara, Porcupines and Jackals, Leopards, Jungle cat, marsh crocodile, Sambhar, Chital, Nilgai, Gazelle, Boars, Mongoose, Indian hare, Monitor lizards and large number of birds apart from the tigers which are the major attractions of this wonderful national park.

Ranthambore is best known for its large tiger population. As tourism in the park increased, so did the population of neighbouring villages. This led to increasing amounts of fatal human-tiger interactions and poaching. The Indian Government started Project Tiger in 1973 with an allotted area of 60 mi². It was later expanded to become what is now called, the Ranthambore National Park. Besides tigers, the reserve has thriving bird population with more than 270 different species of birds here.
In 2005, there were 26 tigers living in Ranthambore. This was significantly lower than the recorded tiger population of the reserve in 1982, which then stood at 44. According to non-government sources there were 34 adult tigers in the Ranthambore National Park in 2008. More than 14 tiger cubs were also recorded. This was largely attributed to sustained efforts by forest officials to curb poaching. Villagers in the region were being given incentives to stay out of the park and surveillance cameras were also fitted across the reserve. The Indian government also committed US$153 million for the efforts. These efforts have been successful with Ranthambore having enough tigers to participate in the Sariska Tiger Reserve relocation efforts. The first aerial relocation of the male tiger (Dara) from Ranthambore to Sariska was done using a Mi-17 helicopter on 28 Jun 2008 by Wing Commander Vimal Raj. Unfortunately, this translocated tiger died on 15 November 2010 due to poisoning.

10 Biggest Enviornmental Issues

As inhabitants and stewards of the planet, there is a lot we can do and a lot we need to do to maintain the best possible environment for all people to live in for generations to come. But where do the greatest challenges lie?
The following list includes the 10 biggest environmental issues facing the planet today:

Climate Change—This catch-all includes rising sea levels, changes in rainfall patterns, more severe droughts and floods, harsher hurricanes and other windstorms, and new pathways for disease.

Energy—For big energy users, resource and energy productivity may become a major point of strategic advantage (or disadvantage if they don’t learn to properly utilize future and existing resources).

Water—Companies around the world now face real limits on access to water. A rising population and growing economies are putting substantial stress on resources. Pollution is increasingly a concern.

Biodiversity and Land Use—Biodiversity preserves our food chain and the ecosystems on which all life depends. A key factor in the decline of biodiversity is habitat loss. Many companies face pressure about their contribution to sprawl, yet all humans are guilty of contributing to this problem.

Chemicals, Toxics, and Heavy Metals—Part of what makes air pollution - and all forms of pollution - more dangerous is the presence of toxic elements. The legal liability surrounding toxins can turn out to be virtually unlimited.

Air Pollution—Significant air-quality controls on factories, cars and other emissions sources have radically reduced air pollution levels over the past 30 years in the United States, Japan and Europe. But the air is still not clean in many places.

Waste Management—The EPA estimates that the 1,200 Superfund sites across the country will require about $200 billion to clean up over the next 30 years. Under the liability provisions of the Superfund law, anyone found responsible for the waste at a site can be held liable for the full cost of cleanup, even if the toxins were disposed of legally at the time.

Ozone Layer Depletion—With a thinned ozone layer, the world becomes a more dangerous place, reducing agricultural productivity and increasing the risk of skin cancer and other health problems.

Oceans and Fisheries—More than 75 percent of the world’s fisheries are over-exploited and beyond sustainability. For those whose livelihoods that depend on fishing, recreation and tourism, the effect of declining fisheries may be severe. Many cultures also serve grave impacts from reduced fisheries.
 
Deforestation—Every company that uses wood, paper or even cardboard packaging has some stake in, and responsibility for, the state of our forests, both public and private.

How Water is Changing All Aspects of Life!

Diseases from unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. Children are especially vulnerable, as their bodies aren't strong enough to fight diarrhea, dysentery and other illnesses.

90% of the 30,000 deaths that occur every week from unsafe water and unhygienic living conditions are in children under five years old. The WHO reports that over 3.6% of the global disease burden can be prevented simply by improving water supply, sanitation, and hygiene.

                                                             
                                                   
                                              

Ice loss by Global Warming..

Melting of Antarctica's submerged ice shelves accounts for as much as 90 per cent of ice loss in some areas, a new study suggests.

Iceberg production and melting causes 2,800 cubic kilometres of ice to leave the Antarctic ice sheet every year. Most of this is replaced by snowfall but any imbalance contributes to a change in global sea level, researchers said.

For many decades, experts have believed that the most important process responsible for this huge loss was iceberg calving - the breaking off of chunks of ice at the edge of a glacier.

New research, led by academics at the University of Bristol with colleagues at Utrecht University and the University of California, has used satellite and climate model data to prove that this sub-shelf melting has as large an impact as iceberg calving for Antarctica as a whole and for some areas is far more important.

The findings, published in the journal Nature, are crucial for understanding how the ice sheet interacts with the rest of the climate system and particularly the ocean.

During the last decade, the Antarctic ice-sheet has been losing an increasing amount of its volume. The annual turnover of ice equates to 700 times the four cubic kilometres per year.

Researchers found that, for some ice shelves, melting on its underbelly could account for as much as 90 per cent of the mass loss, while for others it was only 10 per cent.

Ice shelves which are thinning already were identified as losing most of their mass from this melting, a finding which will be a good indicator for which ice shelves may be particularly vulnerable to changes in ocean warming in the future.

The scientists used data from a suite of satellite and airborne missions to accurately measure the flow of the ice, its elevation and its thickness. These observations were combined with the output of a climate model for snowfall over the ice sheet.

They compared how much snow was falling on the surface and accumulating against how much ice was leaving the continent, entering the ocean and calving. By comparing these estimates, they were able to determine the proportion that was lost by each process.

"Understanding how the largest ice mass on the planet loses ice to the oceans is one of the most fundamental things we need to know for Antarctica. Until recently, we assumed that most of the ice was lost through icebergs," Professor Jonathan Bamber, from the University of Bristol's School of Geographical Sciences, said.

"Now we realise that melting underneath the ice shelves by the ocean is equally important and for some places, far more important. This knowledge is crucial for understanding how the ice sheets interact now, and in the future, to changes in climate," said Bamber.

Enviornmentalist Sundarlal Bahuguna and The Movements..

Sunderlal Bahuguna is a noted Garhwali environmentalist, Chipko movement leader and a follower of Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of Non-violence and Satyagraha. This idea of chipko movement was of his wife and the action was taken by him. For years he has been fighting for the preservation of forests in the Himalayas, first as a member of the Chipko movement in 1970s, and later spearheaded the Anti-Tehri Dam movement starting 1980s, to early 2004. He was one of the early environmentalists of India, and later he and people associated with the Chipko movement later started taking up environmental issues, like against large dams, mining and deforestation, across the country.india pays him a tribute for his contribution for the trees.
He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian honour, on January 26, 2009.

Chipko movement

Chipko movement started in 1973 spontaneously in Uttar Pradesh, in an effort to save trees and forests from felling by forest contractors. In Hindi, "Chipko" literally means "to stick" and people started sticking to trees when it was being cut. Chipko movement later inspired Appiko Movement in Karnataka. One of Sunderlal Bahuguna's notable contributions to that cause, and to environmentalism in general, was his creation of the Chipko's slogan "Ecology is permanent economy." Sunderlal Bahuguna helped bring the movement to prominence through about 5,000-kilometer trans-Himalaya march undertaken from 1981 to 1983, travelling from village to village, gathering support for the movement. He had an appointment with the then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and that meeting is credited with resulting in Ms. Gandhi's subsequent 15-year ban on felling of green trees in 1980. He was also closely associated with Gaura Devi, one of the pioneers of the movement.

Anti Tehri Dam protests

He has remained behind the anti-Tehri Dam protests for decades, he used the Satyagraha methods, and repeatedly went on hunger strikes at the banks of Bhagirathi as a mark of his protest. In 1995, he called off a 45-day-long fast following an assurance from the then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao of the appointment of a review committee on the ecological impacts of the dam, thereafter he went on another long fast another fast which lasted for 74 days at Gandhi Samadhi, Raj Ghat, during the tenure of Prime Minister, H.D. Deve Gowda, he gave personal undertaking of project review. However despite a court case which ran in the Supreme Court for over a decade, work resumed at the Tehri dam in 2001, following which he was arrested on April 20, 2001.
Eventually, the dam reservoir started filling up in 2004, and on July 31, 2004 he was finally evacuated to a new accommodation at Koti, a little hillock, along the Bhagirathi where he lives today, continues his environment work.
Sunderlal Bahuguna has been a passionate defender of the Himalayan people, working for temperance, the plight of the hill people (especially working women). He has also struggled to defend India's rivers.

Animals are beautiful people!

Animals Are Beautiful People  is a 1974 nature documentary about the wildlife in Southern Africa. The story is revolved around the Namib Desert, the Kalahari Desert and the Okavango River and Okavango Delta.

"This clip is about animals eating rotten, fermented fruit of the Marula tree. The intoxicated animals then stagger around for comic effect. In the morning, we see one baboon wake up, disheveled, next to a warthog, and quietly exit the burrow, as not to wake her."