The words “fly like an eagle” are famously part of a song, but they may also be words that make some scientists scratch their heads. Especially when it comes to soaring birds like eagles, falcons and hawks, who seem to ascend to great heights over hills, canyons and mountain tops with ease. Scientists realize that upward currents of warm air assist the birds in their flight, but they don’t know how the birds find and navigate these thermal plumes.
articles
From south to north, young lobsters find cool refuge in deep water
Maine fishermen hauled in 110.8 million pounds of lobsters in 2017 with a value of more than $400 million. While still incredibly large, this volume represented a 16 percent decline and $100 million loss compared to previous years of record-setting landings.
Mediterranean-Style Diet May Lower Women’s Stroke Risk
One of the largest and longest-running efforts to evaluate the potential benefits of the Mediterranean-style diet in lowering risk of stroke found that the diet may be especially protective in women over 40 regardless of menopausal status or hormone replacement therapy, according to new research in the American Heart Association’s journal Stroke.
Glacial Engineering Could Limit Sea-Level Rise, If We Get Our Emissions Under Control
Targeted engineering projects to hold off glacier melting could slow down the collapse of ice sheets and limit sea-level rise, according to a new study published in the European Geosciences Union journal The Cryosphere. While an intervention similar in size to existing large civil engineering projects could only have a 30% chance of success, a larger project would have better odds of holding off ice-sheet collapse. But study authors Michael Wolovick and John Moore caution that reducing emissions still remains key to stopping climate change and its dramatic effects.
Humpback whales are navigating an ocean of change
In late December 2015, Ed Lyman started getting calls from whale watching companies on the island of Hawai‘i. “Ed, how are the whales off Maui?” tour operators were asking. “We’ve never seen them arrive this late.”
Researcher using bird’s eye view to reduce building strikes
Brandon Samuels plans to set up cameras this January in hopes of catching footage of birds crashing into windows across campus. Honestly, he really is a nice guy – it’s for science.
     
     
    
     
     
    
     
     
    
     
     
    
     
     
    

