Researchers have identified a genetic analysis technique that pinpoints the harvest location of trees—a breakthrough that could help officials detect illegally traded timber.
The multi-national research team tested the potential of two kinds of genetic analysis to differentiate the geographic origin of timber samples at the scale of individual forest concessions. Read more.
Steven Whitfield works as a conservation biologist at Zoo Miami. He was the lead author on an academic paper that was recently published in the American Ornithological Society’s journal The Condor as a way to answer that question. Read more.
In February 2000, he disappeared without a trace, and despite efforts by his family and friends to find him, Beck remained missing for 13 years — until the NYPD and the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner discovered he had died suddenly after showing up in a hospital emergency room.
The cause of death, according to his sister Rivka Fulda of Baltimore was a perforated ulcer. Beck was not carrying identification, making notifying his next of kin impossible. When his body was not claimed, it was sent to Hart Island, the burial place of last resort for the missing, unidentified or unclaimed, officials said. Read more.
What if humanity was not the first industrial civilization? What if, untold millions of years ago, amid the climate fluctuations and the struggles for dominance between the species, a society arose? Would its traces be detectable in the rocks and soil, the element isotopes themselves, after such a long period?
The hypothesis is an exercise published recently in the International Journal of Astrobiology. And although the scientists have their doubts about a proto-human population dominating the globe long before humanity’s family tree sprouted branches, they nonetheless hold that the investigation holds scientific value. Read more.
The results of an IAEA coordinated research project (CRP) on breastfeeding have confirmed how a series of breastfeeding recommendations by the World Health Organization (WHO) are beneficial to children's health. According to these recommendations, infants should be breastfed exclusively for the first six months of life, even when the mother is HIV-positive. Exclusive breastfeeding is observed with only 40% of infants globally. Read more.