The report’s estimates are a significant update from a World Bank report released in May, which placed the value of illegal logging at $15 billion to $20 billion. The report used data from an older World Bank report from 2006. “Since that time, however, the size of the timber industry has grown significantly, both in quantity and in value,” said Davyth Stewart, team leader for Interpol’s Law Enforcement Assistance for Forests (LEAF) project....
WHO WOULDN’T LOVE A PONY? Horse domestication changed the course of human history, and the starting point seems to be at least 5,500 years ago with the Botai people, who lived in what is now northern Kazakhstan. Scientists found evidence of mare milk in nine ancient cooking vessels from the area, as well as damage in 15 horse jaws from bits or bridles, suggesting that the Botai had horse farms. Their findings appear in the March 5 Science....
The 2020 wildfire and hurricane seasons broke records, with wildfires burning more than 10 million acres in the U.S. and 30 named storms roaring through the Atlantic Ocean. From the standpoint of the insurance industry, however, they could have been worse. Most of the year’s storms struck sparsely populated areas, and the overall cost of the insured losses from natural catastrophes in the country rang up a relatively modest $81 billion....
By Mari Saito RIKUZENTAKATA, Japan (Reuters) - Hatsuko Ishikawa never got a final look at her 36-year-old son, a firefighter, before he was swept away by the tsunami that devastated Japan’s northeast coast three years ago. Ishikawa only heard his voice, bellowing from his fire engine as he sped towards the sea to try to evacuate people before the wave struck. As the truck raced past, Ishikawa heard her son call out to her grandson, telling the boy to evacuate to higher ground....
Recently, the first planet to orbit a white dwarf—the latter named WD 1856+534—was discovered through its transit in front of the tiny star once every 1.4 days. Remarkably, this giant planet, WD 1856b, is seven times bigger than the stellar remnant it transits. Most likely, there are rocky, Earth-size planets at similar distances from other white dwarfs—in which case they would possess a surface temperature similar to that of Earth. This hits us close to home....
In issuing the Clean Air Mercury Rule this past March, the Bush administration hoped to ease health concerns about mercury from coal-fired power plants. The White House enacted a “cap and trade” approach to reduce emissions of the element nationwide by about 20 percent in five years and 70 percent by 2018. In formulating its rule, the administration noted that power plants emit only 48 tons of the metal every year–just a small fraction of the total amount of mercury in the atmosphere....
Tyrannosaurus rex wasn’t the only meat-eating menace with teeny-tiny arms. Like its distant relative, T. rex, a newly identified dinosaur, named Gualicho shinyae, sported small arms and hands with two clawed fingers. “We’re slowly getting more information on this sort of pattern of limb reduction, and getting at this question of why tyrannosaurs and some other theropods shortened their forelimbs,” said study corresponding author Peter Makovicky, curator of dinosaurs at the Field Museum in Chicago....
Shortly after a baby’s first wail at birth she or he receives a tiny prick on the heel. A few drops of blood are caught on special filter paper to screen for myriad diseases. Across the U.S. almost 30 standard tests for medical conditions in infants rely on sampling from those blood spots. Now the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is considering adding another disease to its list of recommended newborn screenings....
Donald Trump is known for his climate-denying stance. Scientists are fearful that, as president, he will wipe out the progress that has been made to address global warming. But Corinne Le Quéré, a leading climate scientist at the University of East Anglia in England, thinks a Trump presidency does not necessarily have to be bad news for the climate. She says that even if Trump does not believe in human-caused global warming, he still might be convinced that the Paris agreement and clean energy underlie good business strategies....
Your Brain Franklin Institute, Philadelphia. Ongoing (general admission: children ages three to 11, $14.50; adults, $18.50) Lights flash as you scramble through a two-story maze of netting. The netting, which represents our neural pathways, lets you experience your brain on a microscopic level: from the perspective of a neurotransmitter passing from a neuron’s axon to its dendrite. With each flash, you know that the neuron in which you are clambering has fired....
Chess never moved me. I played a little bit of poker and pool, but not enough to earn a nickname like Slim or Fats. No, my game was always Scrabble, almost going back to my days as a zygote, which, when pluralized to zygotes and placed propitiously, can score enough points to please a tsar or, better, a czar. Or, best, a cazique. Anyhoo, before the Internet, we played Scrabble huddled in small groups, hunched over the board....
Dinosaurs ceased to walk the earth 66 million years ago, yet they still live among us. Velociraptors star in movies, and Triceratops toys clutter toddlers’ bedrooms. Of these charismatic animals, however, one species has always ruled our fantasies. Children, filmmaker Steven Spielberg and professional paleontologists agree that the superstar was and is Tyrannosaurus rex. Harvard University paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould said that every species designation represents a theory about that animal....
July 1967 End of the “Monkey Law” “Tennessee’s ‘monkey law’ prohibiting the teaching of evolution in the state’s public schools has been repealed. The law was adopted in 1925 and led later that year to the celebrated test case involving John T. Scopes, William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow. The 11-day trial became a bitter contest between religious fundamentalism and biological theory; the judge held, however, that only evidence on whether or not Scopes had taught evolution was admissible, and Scopes was convicted....
The United States is not on track to meet its Copenhagen climate change target, according to a new major study that could undermine the Obama administration’s claims to the international community that it is headed in the right direction. The findings from the World Resources Institute show the United States could still achieve its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 17 percent below 2005 levels by the end of this decade even if Congress won’t pass legislation....
By Nicola JonesSome of the unusual animals that lived in the sea 500 million years ago thrived tens of millions of years later than previously known, a treasure trove of fossils in Morocco has revealed. The fossils prove that the famously bizarre creatures of the Cambrian (542 million to 488 million years ago) didn’t die out at the end of that period–something that fossil hunters had suspected, but could not back up with evidence until now....
HUMANS ARE UNLIKELY to win the animal kingdom’s prize for fastest, strongest or largest, but we are world champions at understanding one another. This interpersonal prowess is fueled, at least in part, by empathy: our tendency to care about and share other people’s emotional experiences. Empathy is a cornerstone of human behavior and has long been considered innate. A forthcoming study, however, challenges this assumption by demonstrating that empathy levels have been declining over the past 30 years....
Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Constantinople at first had much in common with the temporary capitals of the 2nd and 3rd century CE and the tetrarchic capitals. It was an existing city of medium size, well located on the road network, and unlike most of them, it was also well connected by water....
Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The dog as “man’s best friend” has a long history going back to the ages long before the civilization of ancient Egypt was established but the Egyptians were among the earliest people to recognize the value of the dog and show their appreciation for its particular skills and talents....
Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. Hannibal Barca (l. 247-183 BCE), the brilliant Carthaginian general of the Second Punic War (218-202 BCE), had the military talent, expertise, and skill to have won the conflict but was denied the resources by his government. The Carthaginian senate repeatedly refused Hannibal’s requests for aid and supplies even as they were relying on him to win the war for them....
Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The Roman theatre of ancient Arausio (modern day Orange in southern France) is one of the best-preserved examples from antiquity. Built in the 1st century CE, it once had capacity for 9,000 spectators and is dominated by its massive stage wall with an ornate façade decorated with columns, doorways, and niches....
