The sheep that texted wolfsheepdogs have warned always herders of wolf attacks. But now the alert system just got a technological boost.
Jean-Marc Landry and colleagues from the research group Kora developed the system as a way to better control the increasing number of wolf attacks on sheep in Switzerland and France.
A prototype of the collar was tested on twelve sheep that were placed in an enclosure with two muzzled wolf dogs.
As the dogs poised to attack, the sheep s heart rate shot from a resting 60 to 80 beats per minute to 225,
which includes a collar outfitted with wolf repellent, will take place in fall 2012. The wolf repellent will use
either sounds or chemicals to drive the animals away without harming them. According to The Scientist, The final version is due to be tested in France and Switzerland in 2013,
and Norway, another country with wolf problems, has shown already interest in the device. Via The Scientist Photo via tonynetone
The state of innovation 2010: aerospace, agriculture surge; computing leadsif you could measure 2010 in terms of brainpower,
However, traditional computers retain the lion's share of the industry's patent volume, with 71 percent.
If everyone reading this article right now remembers to unplug their phone chargers from the wall
Preserving heritage and nature in Hong kong s urban jungle is not new even fruit bats might escape habitat destruction after conservationist lobbying.
Human breast milk gives human babies unique immunological defenses that they can't get from other animal's milk.
But man is that miniscule mound of gray matter finely tuned as the winged pollinator's mission control center.
They're building a computer model that unlike other AI projects does not mimic the brains of human, monkeys or mice.
Simpler organisms such as social insects have advanced surprisingly cognitive abilities Dr. James Marshall of the University of Sheffield says.
Save a bird: Turn off a light
To cut fire risk, San francisco airport hires 400 goatsshrubs and small trees around airports could become fire hazards for nearby homes
Populations of the endangered San francisco garter snake and the threatened California red-legged frog have made airport land their home.
200-acre plantation outside Charleston where the alligator hunt was about to take place. The Canadian, Connie Desousa, had asked to be designated the shooter.
A similar group hunted wild boar in Italy, scraped reindeer lichen off rocks in Lapland, made fruitless attempts to net ducks in Japan,
walking ahead to warn off poisonous snakes and alligators. Half the group cut the rice with hand sickles
Another group tried deer hunting, and in one of the rare organizational slips of the week, forgot about chef Eric Werner and left him alone in the woods for half of the day.
Meanwhile, the alligator hunt turned up nothing, even when the party tried dragging a beast out of the canal with a hook and line.
At lunchtime, the chefs grilled an alligator that had been killed the night before. Most everybody agreed it was bland and chewy.
Adriã Â came up with his idea on Monday evening while munching on stone crab claws, his mother's favorite food.
Jennings and JP Mcmahon served pigeon on bricks from Middleton Place the plantation where everybody was staying
Barns, Pocantico Hills, USA Sean Brock Mccrady's, Husk, Charleston, South carolina Jeremy Charles Raymonds, St john's, Newfoundland, Canada Andrã Â Chiang Restaurant
000 demonstration project funded by the U s. Energy department, the Israeli Ministry of National Infrastructure and the BIRD Foundation.
Turning tobacco plants into factories for cleaner pesticides For more eco-friendly pest control, scientists have modified genetically tobacco plants,
making them factories for producing insect pheromones. Pheromones, those chemicals produced by animals and released into the environment, are used by moths for finding mates.
Synthetic pheromones--which can disrupt pheromone communication in insect pests--have been used widely by farmers for decades,
Science explains, to trap insects or confuse them enough so they can t breed. As pesticides, pheromones are nontoxic and biodegradable,
and small amounts (just tens of grams per hectare) are needed to be effective--making them an environmentally-friendly alternative to traditional pesticides for trapping bugs.
But the commercial production of large amounts of synthetic pheromones requires the use of harmful chemicals (such as neurotoxins hexane
and dichloromethane) and generates dangerous waste byproducts. So, a team led by Christer LÃ Â fstedt from Lund University,
Sweden, created a plant factory for producing moth pheromone: They isolated four key genes involved in the production of natural sex pheromones of two moths:
the bird cherry ermine moth (Yponomeuta evonymella) and the orchard ermine moth (Yponomeuta padella. In the wild, females emit these pheromones to attract male suitors,
Science explains. Genes that code for pheromone biosynthesis were injected into the tobacco plant Nicotiana benthamiana via bacteria cultures (pictured.
By doing so, the team got the tobacco plants to express genes for moth pheromone production.
Their plant-derived compounds were quite effective at trapping moths in the field--attracting on average 130 male bugs per trap,
because farmers have ramped dramatically up their use of pheromones to control pests. LÃ Â fstedt tells Science:
Right now, the team still has to prepare baits for trapping insects using their plant-derived pheromone components.
the lion's share of water use comes from two places: irrigation and power generation.
losses of flora, fauna and ocean's ecosystems will impact food supply and the livelihood of millions who depend on these resources.
Wilson-Rich completed his Ph d. in honeybee health in 2005. In 2006, honeybees started disappearing.
We don't even find dead bodies, and it's bizarre. Researchers still do not know what's causing it,
There is a reason urban beekeepers take care to keep their beehives out of sight. Wilson-Rich wants to change that:
The way that urban beekeeping currently operates is that the beehives are hidden quite. it's not
Dennis vanengelsdorp provides an excellent TED talk on the role of bees and their demise in the United states. The potentially devastating impact of exotic pests such as the Varroa mite,
or from volunteers of the Beekeepers Club Inc. Each hive is checked approximately every 10 to 14 days by the MCRH,
and monitoring the hives. Å Our concept is different to a lot of other urban beekeeping movements:
Å By placing hives on the roof spaces of cafes, restaurants, hotels and individual gardens in and around Melbourne,
The couple s plan is to have a hive in every suburb and create a network of people interacting
and their hives for free by raising funds and asking local businesses to sponsor a hive
and rolling out beehives all over Melbourne, Â she says. Since launching in November 2010, popularity for the MCRH project has grown rapidly;
and/or sponsoring a hive. But despite this success, Kwiatkowski explains that the business of beekeeping is not a lucrative one.
 Community beekeeping The MCRH currently looks after 40 hives (approximately 2. 4 million bees) located across 18 suburbs in Melbourne.
The hives are looked after by hosts; which include 18 local businesses and six residents who live within a 5-10 km radius of the city s central business district.
and not the crazed stinging predators that some people think. Â She reassures us that a lump
Honey bees often get mistaken for the European wasp. The two behave and want totally different things,
This is a big problem as the European wasp is very aggressive and gives our poor honey bee a bad name.
If you are thinking of hosting a beehive, you should check local council regulations on keeping bees as they vary from shire to shire.
if you are keeping a beehive in Australia, you are required to be registered with the Department of Primary Industries (DPI),
and Queen of the Sun Become involved, donate, purchase local honey or sponsor a hive.
View the photo gallery on Smartplanet. Photos: Lachie Mathison
Urban farming goes underground in London When you think of urban farming, what comes to mind?
what would become an early Apple computer mouse, they cobbled together a roller ball (from a bottle of Ban deodorant) and a butter dish.
a hack of the traditional Port-a-Potty but one that could address the need for more public urination facilities
P-Planter developer Brent Bucknum wrote to tell me the urinal does, in fact, meet ADA dimension requirements and that he is working with community groups in SF
making an incredibly strong and naturally termite resistant building that is 100%recyclable. Wall cladding and structural bracing is fitted in ECO-ply plywood,
say, major wheat production centers with concentrations of Russian wheat aphids, a crop pest. The idea behind the Internet-based, bilingual maps, collectively called Agroatlas, is to promote world food security--with specific attention to nations who were a part of the former Soviet union.
on the flip side, identify foreign pests, pathogens or weeds that could harm local crops.
pests, and crop wild relatives. The project first came about as a successful proposal made in 2003
and flies with a cyclic lift motion like a helicopter. It has two moving parts
D c. How samara fly In a manner similar to insects, hummingbirds and bats, maple seeds fly by creating a vortex over the leading edge of the wing.
In October, five of the teams from the Summer of Smart conference will present their hacks to nine mayoral candidates
I think, stems from our simultaneous obsession with pork and animal-centric cooking in general. Ramen perfectly encapsulates our hedonistic pleasure in eating--it's comforting
Unlike many useful gadgets these days, it can sniff out bed bugs. Literally. The Bed bug Detective--modeled after canine bed bug detectives
which can nose out bed bugs with 98%accuracy--sniffs the air much the way dogs do.
Sensors inside the device detect the three signatures of a bed bug's scent: a combination of pheromones, carbon dioxide and methane.
It won one of Popular Science's 2011 Invention Awards
Water Wednesday: Smarter home irrigation technologiescontributor s Note: This is an ongoing column in water sustainability, consumption and management issues.
while causing malformations in frog and chick embryos. Detectable concentrations of glyphosate have been found in the urine of farmers and their children in two states.
from chirping birds to rustling trees, can tell humans a lot about the world --if they listen.
Bio-acoustics has been the study of the vocalization of animals, studying behavior, physiology, anatomy related to that.
We no longer listen to the birds or other critters. What are we missing when we don't hear these natural sounds?
because we have night hawks flying overhead. They're a key species that makes sounds at night in Midwestern urban areas.
Ambient sounds in the Algonquin National park in Ontario, Canada, are replaced quickly by the howls of gray wolves:
You only have a few birds singing. But you hear something in the background and you can't quite detect what it is.
Nighttime recording of forest elephants trumpeting around a bai: This is taken at the middle of the night.
You have crickets and frogs, but they're vocalizing at a low frequency. This is a unique soundscape.
You have a salt marsh where the elephants come and use it as part of their diet.
The structure of the landscape and the unique resource being used by the elephants create a one-of-a-kind soundscape.
We need to think about how to preserve the landscape around the elephant so the sounds can be propagated in a way that helps promote the animal.
Will you return to these locations to record how the soundscapes evolve? I'm trying to find funding to do that.
Listen to the birds. Listen to the water, if you have a stream nearby. Try to observe things that you've never listened to before.
Carbon is sequestered naturally in the environment, fixed in the wood of forests, the coral of reefs, the peat of bogs,
Enter the Butterfly Explorers exhibition Why you need to be biodiversity aware
Why thousands of bees are flying around with sensors  Wireless data-collecting sensors are everywhere:
So it's not surprising that they're now on honeybees to help solve a major problem.
Honeybees play an important role in pollinating roughly one-third of global food crops. But they are dying off annually in massive numbers.
Australia's national science agency, The  Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), is placing tiny sensors on the backs of 5, 000 honeybees.
 Bees are social insects that return to the same point and operate on a very predictable schedule.
so that they can be attached to smaller insects like mosquitos and fruit flies for future studies. Â Photo:
rooftop beehives have become popular symbols for businesses expressing their commitment to sustainability. From 2008-13 the number of beekeepers in Greater london tripled from  464 to 1,
237 and the number of hives doubled from  1, 677 to more than 3, 500.
hive density is quite high in London with 10 hives per square kilometer versus one per square kilometer in the rest of the country.
Good news for an insect that does so much for our agriculture but has been the subject of the terrifying colony collapse disorder,
 If a game park was short of food for elephants, you wouldn t introduce more elephants,
so why should we take this approach with bees?  The researchers calculate that to sufficiently meet the needs of every new hive, about one hectare (or about 2. 5 acres) of  borage,
a flower that mostly attracts honeybees, would have to be planted. Combine the high-density of bees with the fact that many of the new urban beekeepers are inexperienced and,
the researchers say, you have heightened risk for bacterial infections and other diseases in the bees that could require burning entire hives.
Of course, not every area has the beehive density of London. But if your city is also experiencing a beehive boom
you might be better off planting more flowers if you want to help the bees. Read more:
University of Sussex Photo: Flickr/nicolas. boullosa Related on Smartplanet: Finally, some (sort of) good news about honeybees
Why you need to be biodiversity aware2010 was the year the world s governments agreed to achieve a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss at global, regional,
and American samoa because little is known about sea turtles and their habitats. Sea turtles at Palmyra Atoll forage in a unique environment currently removed from pervasive human influence.
As part of the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation (CBC) s Sea turtle Research and Conservation program, our program goals here are to study sea turtle distribution and abundance, focusing on ecological interactions, behavior, conservation, health issues,
and connectivity or migratory linkages to other sites. We want to know more about these reptiles where they are unaffected relatively by people
so we can understand the natural processes, ecological roles, and human impacts. What surprises you most about Palmyra Atoll?
and hopeful that the research conducted by the CBC will contribute to the conservation of endangered sea turtle species. Each visit reaffirms my commitment to the incredibly important field of biodiversity conservation
but every living thing oe even organisms we know little about, such as microbes, fungi and invertebrates.
For example, the production and transport involved in a cup of coffee impacts myriad species, from invertebrates to birds to fish.
services such as nutrient and water cycling, soil aeration, pest control, and pollination are essential in sustaining the global food supply.
Wild monkeys with radiation collars to help Fukushima researchersresearchers from Fukushima University are planning to equip local,
wild monkeys with special collars to help track contamination levels in places that are hard for us to reach.
The monkeys will wearing radiation-measuring collars as they go deep into forests oe an area that has only been studied from the air via helicopters
This will help reveal the long term effects of radiation on animals as well as how radiation spreads in the forest as it transfers between animals and plants.
The collars worn by the monkey assistants will be equipped with: a dosimeter, a small radiation-measuring instrument GPS tracking a device that detects the monkey s distance from the ground as the radiation level is measured.
As the radiation moves from the forest to the ocean, it is important to set a baseline of knowledge to see how it affects humans and animals in the long run,
 Takahashi adds. The team plans to study the mountainous region up against Minamisoma city, about 16 miles north of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
As many as 14 groups of monkeys are residing in those forests. As early as February
2 or 3 monkeys will be tracked for a month or two, after which the collars will detach (via remote control)
Artificial plants could beat bed bugsbean leaves effectively trap bed bugs Bean plant leaves won't bite bed bugs back,
but they do impale the pests though their feet. The same mechanism could one day be used to make more effective traps.
A team of scientists from the University of California, Irvine and the University of Kentucky made the discovery
when they examined an old folk remedy of scattering bean leaves to stop the pests,
The scientists observed that tiny hooks on the leaves effectively immobilize the bugs. You might be wondering why bed bugs-the subject the famous childhood idiom sleep tight
don't let the bed bugs bite-are being taken so seriously by science. The pests have become a silent scourge in homes, hotels,
and even movie theaters throughout major cities worldwide. Social constructs don't matter to bed bugs: domiciles of the rich and poor are afflicted equally with infestations that can be costly and difficult to treat.
New york has a major bed bug problem. As a New yorker, I've been witness to friends being forced to vacate their apartments,
TV spots starring Roscoe the bed bug sniffing dog, mattress encasement ads on the subway, commercials with people freezing bugs,
and steaming the bugs. Bug sprays won't work. The pests, which have been a nettlesome problem throughout antiquity,
have mutated now to be resistant to insecticides, and their bite is just as bad as ever. It turns out that the bean leaf solution is as good as the best of those methods.
Borel traced the approach as far back as 1678 when English philosopher John Locke traveled across Europe with a supply of kidney bean leaves as defense against bed bug bites.
The Royal Austro-Hungarian Army used bean leaves to cleanse encampments and U s. researchers observed the effect in the 1940s, Borel noted.
It's possible to replicate the effect with synthetics that can be placed within the bugs'path around beds, doors, suitcases,
and other places where they reside. There's a market if the researchers scratch their entrepreneurship itch.
image credits: Â M. Szyndler and C. Loudon/University of California, Irvine; Wikipedia Commons) Related on Smartplanet:
Bedbug genome uncovers pesticide resistance Beyond bedbugs-lay your head to rest in the greenest hotel Watch robots climb trees,  helicopter  in and sniff bugs
They'll mix that in with  horse manure, old hay, wood chips. Do you bring the compost back once it's ready to use  in the roof garden?
Aztec"cuisine breeds gourmet taste for rare bugs"MEXICO CITY oe  Ant larva, wild boar, fly eggs, wild greens:
Meanwhile, an artist-turned-chef in San francisco, originally from Mexico city, is betting that health-conscious Americans are ready for bug tacos.
a downtown hideaway for pre-Hispanic cuisine in Mexico city, Chef Fortino Rojas serves plates of escamoles (ant larva), chapulines (crickets) and jabalã Â (wild boar),
Once derided, insects have become a symbol of exclusivity. Chefs catering to diners willing to pay for luxury will search high and low for the most sought-after species
. While insects are a striking feature of pre-Hispanic food, the cuisine encompasses a broad range of vegetables, legumes and game oe many
Meats that are considered pre-Hispanic include venison, duck, boar, armadillo or a squirrel-like rodent called tepezcuintle.
They say that the food of the future will include a lot of insects said Ricardo Muã Â oz Zurita, chef-owner of Mexican restaurants Azul and Azul y Oro.
But thankfully Mexico's insects aren't so well-known. Although he touts the healthfulness of protein-rich edible bugs,
Muã Â oz Zurita doesn't use native insects in his restaurants due to the scarcity and the cost.
The combination of depleted supply and increased demand for pre-Hispanic foods like gusanos de maguey, white worms that feed on the leaves of a maguey that grows as tall as a man,
or acociles, tiny native crayfish, make them pricey by default. That makes heavy commercialization unsustainable
waxworm larva tacos with pasilla pepper, and vanilla ice cream topped with caramelized worms and prickly pear syrup.
Photos: Crickets by Flickr/William Neuheisel Ant larva by Lauren Villagran
Baltimore's next steps: transportation, energy, green building, foodif Baltimores planning director has his way,
the citys east and west sides--known for blocks of abandoned and boarded up buildings--will be getting light rail
The big gorilla on the map is our new red line light rail that will connect East Baltimore to West Baltimore
I prefer that the animals I do eat lived in an at least somewhat healthful and respectful fashion,
Yes, a bug. Linacre has said that his design for the Airdrop Irrigation system, which uses a turbine to gather
The insect is able to find precious liquid even in the ultra-arid Namibian desert in Africa.
We talked about mice and spiders in space and why she wouldnt be a good candidate for space flight.
Say theres a researcher who wanted to conduct an experiment in space. Where do you come in?
Countryman loading a butterfly experiment that flew on STS-129 Tell me about some of the hardware youve developed to put the experiments on a spacecraft.
Our workhorse hardware is like a smart incubator, called a CGBA (commercial generic bioprocessing apparatus). We have two on the International Space station and two units on the shuttle, each about the size of a mid-deck locker.
There is an Amgen bone-loss experiment with a mouse; There is a microbe experiment; One is looking at virulents of salmonella to develop a salmonella vaccine;
An astronaut on STS-126 activating an experiment Tell me about the spider in space for your K-12 program.
There are two spiders up there oegolden orb weavers, native to southern parts of the United states. Theyre on the Space station, coming back on the 135 shuttle.
and they were living on fruit flies, but now theyre on their own living without too much food. They can live a long time without food,
But a new profile of the industry in the New york times demonstrates that this technology has its share of pitfalls.
Take a gander at recent articles about algae right here on Smartplanet: Video: Turning algae into oil the NASA way Scientists create high-capacity batteries from algae Pressure-cooking method makes an algae-based biofuel Plane takes first flight on 100
Building for the birds and the bees and batsbuildings are designed usually to house people, but a few recent examples provide shelter and protection for the fuzzier fellow citizens of planet Earth.
Great Britainin the UK, architect Charles Barclay built a custom bat barn that provides easy entry
Because of the declining bat population, British legislation protects bats and their roosts. Fungal disease and habitat destruction have endangered the bats and modern buildings pose new problems for bats pushed out of rural habitats to urban areas because of development.
which can disturb the animals. The concern is so great that the Royal Institute of British Architects is offering a course, in conjunction with the Bat Conservation Trust, on designing bat roosts.
China While guidelines for designs that don't harm birds have been published in the US, a library in China takes the idea one step further.
The Liyuan Library by architect Li Xiaodong encourages birds to build nests on its structure. The exterior is clad with more than 400,000 locally sourced sticks of firewood
which Li hopes will attract birds that will contribute mud and droppings to help plant-life grow.
United states In Buffalo, New york, saving bees is part of a local business person's vision for redeveloping a waterfront industrial site into a design district.
birds and even bats are ecologically important since they prey on pests, disperse seeds, and pollinate plants.
And humans, directly and indirectly, keep infringing on their natural habitats; it's only fair to give a little space back.
featuring an Aussie outback adventurer called  Les Hiddins (a Macgyver meets Bear Grylls character) who impressed us with his passionate knowledge of Indigenous foods.
She rolls her eyes every time the edible insects are mentioned. Shes somewhat frustrated with how little Australians know about their native foods.
bush tucker has enjoyed something of a niche market, with lemon myrtle and warrigal greens the most well known of Indigenous foods.
Of course, there are native animals that are edible too (such as kangaroos, crocodiles and emus), but Weatherhead prefers to educate us on the wonders of Australias native flora world.
Warrigal Greens (tetragonia tetragonoides
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