Biology in the News Explained

Conservation works — for economics

Sustainability is not just an ecological concept, it's an economic one. Are we making progress on fisheries?

Will we manage to create sustainable fisheries?

There is hope for the future of fish as for once the U.S. leads the way in dealing with an important global environmental problem.

We’re paying to destroy fisheries as fast as we can

The UN Environment Programme report makes clear with numbers what we are dealing with to save the dysfunctional fishing industry. Simply, we have to start spending money building stocks, instead of destroying them.

A good day for science and medicine

Myriad Genetics has rightly lost the lawsuit by plaintiffs trying to undo their right to patent genes. But given the makeup of our courts after eight years of President Bush, is their any hope for defending ourselves against the current pro-corporation onslaught?

A cash crop of insanity

When we could be growing our own food to get out from under the thumb of agribusiness, Americans instead put huge amounts of time, cash, and chemicals into a crop that we throw out immediately after harvesting.

Will the feds destroy the CRP with continuing ethanol subsidies?

Ethanol subsidies making it profitable again to grow crops we don't otherwise need are undermining an important conservation program.

Your high-fish diet will soon be a thing of the past

We are in the golden age of fish-consumption: high-tech harvesting hauling in huge catches to satisfy the world's appetite. Prepare for it to end soon as global stocks continue to crash.

The biofuels problem explained – Part 2

Because of the stupid way that we implement policy, the high demand for biofuels are more likely to increase carbon dioxide emissions than reduce them (Part 2).

The biofuels problem explained – Part 1

Ethanol as a "biofuel" is promoted by agribusiness, not by environmentalists, because ethanol production doesn't really save much fuel or reduce carbon dioxide emissions (Part 1).

Tangled Bank #91

Tangled Bank carnival is hosted at The Radula.

Circus of the Spineless #22

At Circus of the Spineless you can find out everything you always wanted to know about bugs.

Cool Bugs #8 – Carnivorous Hawaiian caterpillars

Hawaiian carnivorous caterpillars are the only known sit-and-wait predatory caterpillars.