By Zachary Shahan •
August 28, 2009
The “Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch” lies about 1,000 miles from the coast of California. It is in the North Pacific Ocean Gyre, which is one of the oldest and most diverse ecosystems in the world. The garbage patch has gotten a lot of media attention in the last year. However, due to the fact that one must get on a boat and go all the way out to the patch to study it, there hadn’t been any in-depth scientific analysis of the patch,… until now.
The Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastic Expedition (SEAPLEX) went on an in-depth search of the “Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch” this month. Their findings were varied.
By edfblog •
December 2, 2008
Most of America’s seafood counters display glistening mounds of all manner of fresh fish. But this bounty belies the fact that the oceans are in serious trouble. In the U.S., thousands of fishermen have lost their jobs, and signs of ecosystem collapse are on the rise, as nets get clogged with jellyfish rather than sought-after kinds of fish.
The graph below paints a sobering picture of how much fish populations have dwindled – and where they might be headed if we don’t act soon: In 1950, just 15 percent of stocks were overfished; in 2003, 70 percent were overfished or had totally collapsed
By Meg Hamill •
October 8, 2008
Two Americans, and one Japanese scientist, (Martin Chalfie, Roger Tsien and Osamu Shimomura) recently won a share of the Chemistry Nobel Prize for “borrowing” the glowing jellyfish trait and putting it to use.
Well, we’re at it again, “borrowing” the magical and bizarre wonders offered up by the natural world, and using these wonders to make humans healthier and happier. This time, we’ve isolated that strange trait that makes jellyfish glow in dark waters, and we’re using this trait for everything from cancer research to GMO’s.
They call it green fluorescent protein or GFP. Scientists can use what makes jellyfish glow, to show how brain cells develop or how cancer spreads. The glowing trait has also become important in biological engineering. When scientists are trying to change an animal or a plant, oftentimes they will use the gene responsible for GFP as part of the change. The “glow” will let them know whether the change has been successfully incorporated into the organism or not.
