End of routine acquisitions for the Thematic Mapper, secondary sensor is still sending data. [update, March 2014: the Landsat 8 mission launched successfully last year and the new satellite is sending great data back home. USGS decommissioned Landsat 5 in 2013.] By Liza Lester, ESA communications officer. The US Geological Survey’s Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper has been a faithful friend…
By Nadine Lymn, ESA Director of Public Affairs Last night was the 18th consecutive year that researchers and policymakers came together over finger food and beverages to talk about the science and education projects funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). “STEM Research and Education: Underpinning American Innovation” is sponsored by the Coalition for National Science Funding. Its goal is…
By Nadine Lymn, ESA Director of Public Affairs Extreme events such as the eruption of Mount St. Helens and the severe fires in Yellowstone National Park initially seemed to have left behind wastelands. Yet ecologists and other researchers discovered that in both cases, plants and other life rebounded much more quickly than anticipated. Now a new study of sandy beaches…
By Nadine Lymn, ESA Director of Public Affairs The old expression “there’s nothing new under the sun” certainly does not apply to the still largely unknown territory of the deep sea. Although our capacity to explore life in these dark, deep (2,100 meters /7,000 ft) underwater locations has improved with such technological wonders as remotely operated underwater vehicles and submersible,…
Are exotic pythons devastating Florida’s Everglades National Park? By Liza Lester, ESA communications officer Sometimes the snake wins. The exotic Burmese python is a new and deadly predator allegedly squeezing the wildlife of Florida’s already environmentally pressured Everglades. Large snakes have been observed swallowing American alligators and 80-pound deer, but more common prey are small mammals like raccoons, rabbits, and…
Overabundance of an essential nutrient is not always a good thing. – by Liza Lester, ESA communications officer. A tractor spreads manure. Excess fertilizer seeping out of fields has a host of consequences for ecological systems and human health. Credit, flickr user eutrophication&hypoxia, 2010. NITROGEN is both an essential nutrient and a pollutant, a byproduct of fossil fuel combustion…
This post contributed by Nadine Lymn, ESA Director of Public Affairs Their silent, shimmery beauty has long stirred human aesthetic appreciation and for centuries individuals have sought to unravel the secrets of snowflakes. Why are there so many varieties? Why do all snowflakes have six “arms”? And why does each flake appear unique, no matter how many fall from the…
This post contributed by Nadine Lymn, ESA Director of Public Affairs The roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) is a tiny laboratory animal that researchers have worked with for decades. As a hermaphrodite, C. elegans makes both sperm and eggs and can reproduce by self-fertilization. In contrast to humans, where hermaphrodites are rare, for C. elegans, this is its normal state. …
This post contributed by Liza Lester, ESA communications officer. As winter storms pick up along the California coast, a harvest of giant kelp comes ashore with the tides, torn from seafloor anchorages by the rough action of waves. Waves are the most powerful force shaping the kelp forest, superseding the influence of temperature, nutrients, and hungry animals, say University of…
This post contributed by Liza Lester, ESA communications officer On the slopes of the Antisana volcano in Ecuador, the plain-tailed wren sings a sophisticated song. It is not a solo, but a duet, a rapid-fire call-and-response so fast that you might mistake the singers for a single bird, even if you have the luck to stand betwixt them and…
This post contributed by Terence Houston, ESA Science Policy Analyst On November 2, the Ecological Society of America sponsored a congressional briefing entitled “Using Science to Improve Flood Management.” Featured speakers were Emily Stanley (University of Wisconsin, Madison, Center for Limnology) and Jeff Opperman (Senior Freshwater Scientist, The Nature Conservancy, Ohio Field Office). The briefing drew 40 attendees, including congressional…
This post contributed by Heather Kirk, a post-doctoral researcher at the Institute of Agricultural Sciences at ETH in Zurich, Switzerland In the science fiction horror film “Alien” and its sequels, extraterrestrial monsters stalk human space travelers, and ultimately use their human prey as hosts for their own offspring. The alien implants its offspring into the body of its human host,…