All of this adds up to massive losses in the fields losses that will continue to mount as climate change feeds off billions of tons of greenhouse gasses spewed into the global atmosphere every year.
Agency officials also said to be careful with fire salts. The same heavy metals in these salts that produce magnificent colored flames can also wreak havoc on your gastrointestinal system so make sure they stay away from kids who may put them in their mouths.
CPSC officials said it's not a good idea to adorn your home with sharp heavy
Humans once dependent on these oemega mammals for much of their food switched to smaller game
and increased their gathering of plant materials to supplement their diet. Evidence indicates that about 10800 years ago the climate underwent a sharp cold turn lasting for several years.
By 8000 B c. the cultivation of wheat barley and other plants had spread from its origins in the Fertile Crescent through much of the Indo european world.
Limiting factors in the environment such as availability of food water and shelter evolutionary relationships like predator/prey ratios or presence of pathogens provide natural balances to populations.
Food safety experts have found that much of the honey sold in the United states isn't actually honey but a concoction of corn or rice syrup malt sweeteners or jiggery (cheap unrefined sugar) plus a small amount of genuine honey according to Wired UK.
The Science of Food: 10 Odd Facts This is a huge deal for the industry. This is the first admission by a U s. packer of knowingly importing mislabeled honey Eric Wenger chairman of True Source Honey told NPR.
Honey isn't the only food product subject to impurities and mislabeling. Olive oil is often cut with cheaper oils
or other food to find its unique carbon fingerprint and determine its origin. A sample of honey for example can be matched to the flowers of a specific geographic region through the laser analysis. You will know in the case of olive oil
but you can create a counterfeit product that looks very similar using sugar instead of bees David Bell director of Protium (manufacturer of the isotope ratio-meter) told Wired UK.
Getting something like honey to the market as a food product is pretty straightforward but for medicines the bar is set higher.
There are many different ways that new medicines are approved for public use. Drugs made by pharmaceutical companies for instance go through many years of expensive highly-controlled clinical trials comparing the effects of the new drug against a placebo control.
or nutrition though the search is complicated by the dozens of different chemical types that may be combining to contaminate the pollen bees collect for their hives.
Since the study has shown that bees eating such fungicides are much more likely to become infected with a deadly parasite USDA may need to change the way it regulates the use of those chemicals around crops
Likewise if CCD is linked to other components of the complex array of anthropogenic chemicals in pollen it will become even more difficult to protect bee colonies not to mention the other forms of life subjected to those chemicals as they spread through the food web and the broader environment.
CCD isn't just about the bees food crops and agriculture economies are affected too. Because bee populations are so low in the United states for example the surviving colonies are working overtime to pollinate crops in California and elsewhere.
or weeds might also have unintended consequences when combined and later spread outside crops. The solution could be as simple as labeling the harmful fungicides.
and which he has claimed his bill would address attempts by the U s. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to review the routine use of antibiotics in animal feed without a sound scientific basis. Rep. Fincher's worries largely are unfounded.
The FDA has shown little enthusiasm for regulating the routine use of antibiotics in livestock. Science is on the side of much more stringent regulation.
The UCS Food and Environment program citing substantial scientific evidence has warned that the routine use of antibiotics in livestock is a major factor in antibiotic resistance in humans a huge and growing public-health problem.
But if the Sound Sciencebill became law it would be even more difficult for the FDA to try to curb the dangerous overuse of antibiotics in our livestock and hence in our food supply.
The evolution of evolution sounds like a chicken-and-egg problem especially if you think as Goldenfeld does that life is by definition something capable of evolving.
One considers the rules of the game that the genetic code is just one manifestation of.
#How Birds Lost Their Penises How did the chicken lose its penis? By killing off the growing appendage in the egg.
That's the finding of a new study which reveals how most birds evolved to lose their external genitalia.
Turns out a particular protein released during the development of chickens quail and most other birds nips penis development in the bud according to the new research published today (June 6) in the journal Current Biology.
The findings have implications for genital development in general which is important because birth defects in the external genitalia are among the most common congenital defects in humans said study researcher Martin Cohn a developmental biologist at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the University of Florida.
anseriformes which include penis-wielding ducks swans and geese and galliformes which make up most land-loving birds
along with research assistant Ana Herrera and their colleagues grew embryos from chickens (galliformes) and ducks (anseriformes) and tracked their penis growth.
Chickens and ducks start to develop their genitalia in such a similar manner that they're almost indistinguishable.
By the time they're born chickens and their galliforme relatives are left with only an opening called the cloaca rather than an external penis. In duck embryos the penis continues to grow.
The disappearing phallus Next the researchers set out to find out what stops a chick's penis from growing
while allowing a duck's to reach startling lengths. They expected to find something missing in chickens some mysterious molecular factor that would have spurred
otherwise the penises to greater lengths. Instead the found just the opposite. In chick embryos penis development is halted by the release of bone morphogenetic protein 4 or Bmp4.
and replanting were behind the rapid spread of the Rim Fire fire experts say. To see the effect one has just to look at how quickly the wildfire raced through the Stanislaus National Forest compared to its halting progress in Yosemite national park.
and spatial scales that will not conserve forests into the future Stephens told Livescience. Tree ring studies show California's mountain forests evolved with frequent low-intensity fires every 10 or 15 years.
As the Rim Fire incinerated parts of Stanislaus Forest Stephens evacuated a four-person research crew studying an old-growth stand of trees that included sugar pine incense cedar ponderosa pine
A realtor in Macon Ga. decided to expand the number of cherry trees in his hometown after visiting Washington D c. in 1952.
New evidence shows how cranberry juice might prevent or cure urinary tract infections researchers say. Cranberry juice has been touted for at least a century as a remedy for urinary tract infections (UTIS.
Yet doctors remain divided over whether the fruit is truly effective in treating UTIS. The largest analysis to date a review of 24 studies including more than 4400 patients published in 2012 in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews suggests that any positive effect is minimal at best.
The limited evidence in studies regarding the effectiveness of cranberries however might be the way the fruit is used as a drink or as an extract in pill form according to Mcgill University scientists.
In their research led by Nathalie Tufenkji a professor of chemical engineering they added cranberry derivatives directly to laboratory dishes growing two bacteria mostly commonly associated with UTIS Escherichia coli and Proteus mirabilis.
but then suddenly grow elongated flagella whiplike appendages to propel them to a new region to inhabit. 6 Superbugs to Watch out For Tufenkji's group found that cranberry powder in a petri dish limited the growth of flagella
This study appeared in 2012 in the Journal of Medicinal Food. Tufenkji stressed that her study doesn't validate that consumption of cranberries could treat UTIS.
and made the jump to chickens at least twice. As the researchers studied the H7n9 flu they found a previously unknown virus called H7n7.
and chickens is common. Many flu viruses Guan noted don't cause people any problems. They spread through poultry populations
chickens ducks quail geese pigeons and partridges. They sequenced the virus's genomes and the results are published Thursday (Aug 22) in the journal Nature.
It seems to spread easily from chickens to people though there's no evidence of sustained person-to-person transmission.
A key development for the virus was altering its proteins so it could bind to the cells in the upper respiratory tracts of chickens.
However once the virus infects the chickens'upper respiratory tract people in close contact with the animals are more likely to be infected.
The simplest way to deal with outbreaks Guan said is to cull the chickens and ban the overnight storage of live poultry.
and a 2012 study found these measures reduced the spread of influenza. Racaniello emphasized that
#How Sandy Storm Damage Became NYC Playground NEW YORK Thousands of trees collapsed across New york city during Hurricane Sandy last year causing tangled messes that have left gaping voids throughout city sidewalks and parks.
#How School Lunches Can Help Fight Obesity Federally funded school lunches long derided as unhealthy
Students who receive such lunches as part of the National School Lunch Program are disadvantaged often from backgrounds
whether these free lunches just make matters worse. But the question cannot be answered it seems by simply comparing those who get free lunches with those who buy or pack their own because of the confounding factors of poverty and strained home life.
So researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) decided to compare individual states because state laws influence school menus.
or low-cost meals in states where lunches exceeded USDA nutritional standards were less likely to be overweight
or obese than students getting these meals in states that only marginally met the USDA standards.
More specifically the difference in obesity rates between those who got free lunches (often poor children)
The results are encouraging in lowering obesity rates among disadvantaged students receiving subsidized lunches said study researcher Daniel Taber a research scientist at UIC's Institute for Health Research and Policy.
Taber told Livescience that fewer than 10 of the 40 states analyzed were ahead of the curve by 2006 in requiring stronger nutritional standards than those dictated by the USDA to receive funding for the National School Lunch Program.
These states had the best success in improving the weight status of students receiving subsidized lunches.
The new USDA standards are posted at http://www. fns. usda. gov/cnd/governance/legislation/comparison. pdf. The study produced one other noteworthy result said Marion Nestle
a professor of nutrition at New york University who was not part of the study but who wrote an editorial in the journal.
Students did not compensate for the healthier school meals by buying more snacks or sodas on school premises a fear expressed by opponents of federal
or state nutritional mandates she said. The National School Lunch Program established in 1946 has had a history of shortcomings.
Many nutritionists complained early on that the program was aligned more to the USDA's agenda of helping commercial farmers than feeding poor children.
A decline in funding in the 1970s provided food conglomerates with a foothold to providing meals often of low nutritional quality.
In 1982 additional cuts led to the infamous recommendation that pickled relish and other condiments could count as a vegetable serving.
Considering ketchup as a substitute vegetable was mentioned never in the regulations but was the subject of news media editorials
and ultimately falsely attributed to Ronald Reagan.)Nestle said that the new study helps demonstrate that the stricter USDA guidelines based on science rather than politics can reduce obesity.
Objections to school nutrition standards must be recognized for what they do: place the financial health of food companies and their supporters in Congress above the health of the nation s children she wrote.
Christopher Wanjek is the author of a new novel Hey Einstein! a comical nature-versus-nurture tale about raising clones of Albert Einstein in less than-ideal settings.
#How Science Can Help You Cook a Better Thanksgiving Feast Preparing a Thanksgiving feast can seem like a daunting task
but understanding a bit about the science behind the cooking may cut down some of the stress in the kitchen this holiday season.
and meticulously test each step of the cooking process. It's exacting work but it helps the chefs figure out the most effective ways to prepare some of the most popular meals.
And with only days to go before turkeys hit dinner tables across the country the Test Kitchen chefs have been busy said Jack Bishop chef TV personality and editorial director of America's Test Kitchen.
From a cooking perspective Thanksgiving is the most important week of the year Bishop told Livescience.
For most people the holidays are all about the food. But the line between cooking a good turkey
and awful turkey is relatively small. It's not hard to cook a turkey well
8 Fascinating Turkey Facts Still the prospect of cooking a whole turkey should not intimidate chefs Bishop added.
and injecting a bit of science into the process even a novice can ensure the end result is a meal to be thankful for he said.
If possible Bishop suggests purchasing a fresh turkey rather than a frozen one. If you're willing to make the investment in time
The salt will change the protein structure within the muscle fibers so the turkey will hold onto more moisture in the cooking process Bishop explained.
Still Bishop cautions that more is not necessarily better and it's important to avoid making the brining solution too salty.
As a general rule he recommends using a half-cup of table salt for every gallon of water.
Before placing the turkey in the oven Bishop suggests brushing the raw bird with butter.
Cooks who opt for a frozen turkey do need not to worry about brining it in advance. Most frozen turkeys are injected already with brine
and kosher varieties are processed with salt Bishop said. The most important tip for using frozen turkeys is to let the birds thaw in the refrigerator before cooking them he added. 5 Myth-Busting Facts for a Safe Turkey Turkey temperature This year alone the Test Kitchen chefs experimented with more than 100 turkeys
to determine the optimal cooking method and temperature Bishop said. In the last 20 years Bishop estimates the Test Kitchen has cooked thousands of turkeys.
The tests'results indicated that roasting a turkey at 400 degrees Fahrenheit (roughly 200 degrees Celsius) works best.
But there are some challenging aspects to cooking a turkey Bishop said. For one the shape of the bird complete with a huge cavity in the center means it heats unevenly in the oven.
Plus the turkey's white meat and dark meat should ideally be cooked to different temperatures. You don't want white meat to be overcooked
because it begins to dry out Bishop said. Dark meat on the other hand shouldn't be undercooked because it'll be chewy.
The easiest and most reliable way to ensure parts of the turkey are not under
-or overcooked is to use a meat thermometer. Before taking the turkey out of the oven the white meat in the breast should be 160 degrees F (71 degrees C)
and the dark meat in the thighs and legs should be 165 degrees (74 degrees Celsius).
And there's no need to fuss around with the turkey too much while it's in the oven Bishop said.
The Test Kitchen chefs found that basting the bird does not actually improve the juiciness of the turkey.
Instead to brown and crisp up the skin Bishop recommends placing the turkey on a rack that sits inside a roasting pan.
This will allow air to circulate evenly and the skin will not get soggy from sitting in the drippings.
and the juices will run into the breast Bishop said. At the one-hour mark take two wads of paper towel
We've found that really helps get juicier breast meat and rather than basting the bird this is one thing worth doing.
and serving the turkey Bishop recommends letting the finished product rest for 30 to 40 minutes.
and physically contract Bishop explained. If you start cutting when it's hot from the oven the muscle fibers will expel juices
and all the juices will run onto the carving board. But if you let the meat rest the muscle fibers will hold onto their internal moisture as you carve.
But there's more to a Thanksgiving meal than just a turkey. Here are other tips from Bishop and the Test Kitchen team:
For perfect pie dough just add vodka: The secret to baking a flaky pie crust is to add vodka to the mix Bishop said.
Usually ice water is what brings pie dough together to make it workable but if you skimp on water you end up with a dough that's cracked
and hard to work with Bishop said. So most cooks add extra water which makes the dough easier to work with
but the extra water activates the glutens in the flour. And too much gluten makes the dough tough instead of flaky.
Test Kitchen chefs discovered that the ethanol in vodka helps moisten the dough but it does not activate gluten development.
As such Bishop recommends using half-ice water and half-vodka when making pie dough. And there's no need to worry about boozing up your pie dough.
The alcohol bakes off in the oven so you can't taste it Bishop explained.
 Use a ricer for lump-free mashed potatoes: For fluffy lump-free mashed potatoes Test Kitchen chefs found that a potato ricer is the best tool to use.
It's basically a big garlic press but you get very fine shreds so it's easier to work with the cooked potatoes Bishop said.
It's pretty cheap but if you can't get one then a regular masher can make light and fluffy potatoes too.
And which variety of potato is best for mashing? Russets are ideal but Yukon Gold potatoes can also be used Bishop said.
Cook stuffing separately not inside the turkey: Cooking stuffing inside the turkey's cavity may be a nice tradition
but it slows down the entire cooking process Bishop said. Stuffing has eggs in it
so it has to heat up to 165 degrees Fahrenheit to be at a safe temperature.
But in order to get up to that temperature you end up overcooking the bird Bishop said. You don't want to be waiting for the stuffing
and meanwhile the breast meat is drying out. If you don't want to cook the stuffing separately
however Bishop recommends warming it up before the stuffing goes inside the bird. Â Warming stuffing in the microwave so it's not ice cold will at least give it a head start he said.
Follow Denise Chow on Twitter@denisechow. Follow Livescience@livescience Facebookâ & Google+.+Original article on Livescience L
#How to Get Kids to Eat Healthy Without Breaking the Bank Childhood obesity has doubled more than in children in the past 30 years according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC.
The numbers are staggering and it's a statistic that we can clearly see when we're out at the park or grocery store.
But anyone who has fed ever their child fast food knows that it's hard to go back once kids get a taste for junk food.
So what can we do? Well a June study in the journal Psychological science study may give us an answer.
Researchers conducted an experiment with preschool-age children to test the theory that the kids would be able to understand the concepts of good nutrition.
Hold on to your seats folks! They found that not only did these kids understand the concepts
but those who read books about nutrition were more likely to make healthy choices. Of course they weren't reading Fundamentals of Human Nutrition;
they were given age-appropriate books that weren't too detailed but outlined some basic concepts of healthy eating.
So that should cover the how to get kids to eat healthy part? Knowledge is power.
But what happens when that isn't enough? What happens when your food budget is depleted all but
and you still have three days left in the week? Well we probably could have guessed this one on our own
but a June study from researchers at Dartmouth University shows that when shoppers are given a choice to buy for nutrition
or price they will choose the item with the lower price tag. But that's doesn't mean you have to  give in to that sugary-cereal sale just yet.
You may not have to compromise. Check out my best tips for creating healthy meals on a budget:
Add brown rice instead of French fries: Guess what? Pound for pound brown rice is cheaper than the fries.
You can probably even get a pound of dry rice for under $2. A cheap yummy and healthy snack:
Mix nonfat Greek yogurt with granola and berries. The big splurge here is the fresh fruit so during the off-season consider buying frozen and blending it into a puree.
Each serving of Greek yogurt may set you back $1 but it has a ton of protein to fuel those nutrition-loving minds.
Use frozen vegetables: Frozen veggies are usually very affordable and you'll often find them on sale.
There isn't really a time limit on when you have to use them either so it's a good investment
when money is tight. They work great in stir-fries stews and casseroles. Make pita pizzas.
Buy some whole-wheat pitas and top them with healthy pizza toppings. The pita and marinara sauce totals about $0. 80 per serving
but of course your total cost will depend on your choice of toppings. Here are some inexpensive ideas:
canned pineapple (drained) black olives mushrooms baby spinach garlic and leftover chicken (but not necessarily on the same pizza.
Healthy Bites appears on Myhealthnewsdaily on Wednesdays. Deborah Herlax Enos is certified a nutritionist and a health coach
and weight loss expert in the Seattle area with more than 20 years of experience. Read more tips on her blogâ Health in a Hurry H
#How to Get Kids to Like Vegetables: Study Reveals Tips One trick to getting kids to like their vegetables is simply to keep offering them a variety of veggies especially
when they are younger than 1 year old and at their most receptive a new study suggests.
The results showed that the more frequently a particular vegetable was offered to children the more they tended to like it.
When children reach 1 year old they start to reject novel foods the researchers said. 10 Ways to Promote Kids'Healthy Eating Habits The researchers also found children's liking of a vegetable was related to how often their mothers
Previous studies have shown that eating vegetables often and consuming a variety of them early in childhood contribute to healthier dietary habits that often continue into adulthood the researchers said.
In the new study the researchers looked at about 250 preschool children in the U k. Denmark and France.
in order to obtain pollen or nectar. How do they determine their speed when this type of optic flow is not available to them?
Baird and her colleagues trained free-flying bees to land on an experimental apparatus composed of a vertically oriented circular perspex disc with a tube in the middle connected to a sugar feeder.
Once the bees landed on the tube they could crawl through it to access the feeder.
The experiment was repeated several times each iteration with a different pattern on the disc (checkerboard a concentric ring and a pie-slice pattern.
When they approached the pie-slice pattern the bees didn t slow down until they almost hit the disc.
while the pie-slice pattern did not do so as effectively. Baird and her colleagues suspected that bees used the apparent expanding image to calibrate their speed by maintaining a constant speed of approach;
For decades people have clear-cut Sahelian trees the gum shea baobab and acacia to expand cattle land
Take the gum arabic and gum karaya trees of southern Mali. For generations villagers cleared the trees for cattle land.
and tap the trees for their high-value resins which the company exports to Europe to meet the rising need for such materials in products from pharmaceuticals to cosmetics to baked goods.
and pay for school fees medical needs and food in the lean months between harvests. Behind Produits du Sud are two local entrepreneurs Amidou Sissako
Leaves and fruits provide food fodder for livestock and organic matter to fortify the soil. More livestock means more manure which further enriches the soil enabling crops to be grown
and food purchased to tide families over.''''Conserving gum trees contributes to an overall vision of creating a green wall across the Sahel to serve as a barrier protecting the semiarid agricultural lands from the Sahara desert's southward creep.
Though the conflict that ripped apart Mali earlier this year had deep political and ethnic roots it was fueled by decades of drought food insecurity and poverty.
Agricultural development including wild-harvesting in conflict areas like Mali is one of the best opportunities for employing would-be combatants strengthening household incomes and food security and stimulating sustainable economic growth in remote rural areas.
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