Rabbitsfoot Mussel
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is out with its annual list of proposed candidate species, or “candidate notice of review.” That is, plants and animals that the agency says may be designated as endangered unless conservation measures are taken to protect them.

Home farming
Philips Design recently completed a design probe looking at the future of food.  The project investigated how we might eat and source our food 15-20 years from now. the probe looks at social trends occurring today and extrapolates them to project possible futures.  The research led the designers to create three projects which solidified [...]

Genetically modified (GM) crops have been around for a generation but there are now new possibilities thanks to developments in understanding of the makeup of plants.
 

Glow Glow Mushrooms!

Biologists have newly identified seven mushroom species that glow-in-the-dark. (The mushrooms may look psychedelic, but they are not in the psilocybe genus.) San Francisco State University biologist Dennis Desjardin found the glowing fungi in Belize, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Japan, Malaysia and Puerto Rico. From National Geographic:

Desjardin and colleagues scouted for mushrooms during [...]

Boston architects Howeler + Yoon and Los Angeles digital designers Squared Design Lab have designed a conceptual structure for Boston, where an unfinished building would be covered in modular pods growing algae for biofuel.  The pods would be continuously rearranged by robotic arms (powered by the micro-algae produced) to ensure the optimum growing conditions for [...]

Doesn’t this make you want to go for a swim?
Waterways across the upper Midwest are increasingly plagued with ugly, smelly and potentially deadly blue-green algae, bloomed by drought and fertilizer runoffs from farm fields, that’s killed dozens of dogs and sickened many people.

Filoha Meadows in central Colorado
A refuge for the Ute Indians and a transit corridor for the marble quarried for the Washington Monument, Filoha Meadows in central Colorado has been used as farmland, an arthritic retreat center, and a movie set. Developers eyed it to build 15,000 square-foot homes, while others envisioned the entire area under [...]

Every year around this time, “leaf peepers” from all over the world descend on Colorado’s mountain towns to gape at the white-trunked aspen trees as they don their fall colors, setting the hillsides ablaze with bright swaths of yellow and orange foliage. But a mysterious syndrome may leave the Rocky Mountains aspen-free by 2090.

Super honey to helf fight off superbugs
Honey lovers, you have a whole new reason to feel dedicated to the sweet sticky stuff. We know that honey has been used as an antibacterial for cuts and scrapes for ages. The high sugar content strips much-needed water from bacteria. But a certain type of honey may be [...]

California and Australia have lately been making the headlines for drought problems. But Mexico is facing the worst drought it has seen in the last 69 years. That on top of the already existing water crisis, precipitated by terrible water management, is beginning to push things over the edge. Corn, wheat and other crops are [...]

A fun day at the beach..hmm I don’t think so.
SAINT-MICHEL-EN-GRÈVE, France — It should have been a perfect day for Vincent Petit, finishing an afternoon gallop on a wide expanse of beach along a pastel-colored bay. Instead, he and his mount were sucked into a hole of noxious black sludge.

Beauty come in many colors.

For most part of the year, the Caño Cristales river in Colombia is just like any other river in the world. But when the season is just right, it transforms into the most beautiful river in the world:
During Colombia’s wet season, the water flows fast and deep, obscuring the bottom of [...]

Its alive its alive…oh wait…no its not
Scientists say they have discovered a horrific flesh-eating fungus which is able to infect living creatures and turn them into “zombies”.

The newly discovered giant pitcher (Nepenthes attenboroughii)
A new species of giant carnivorous plant has been discovered in the highlands of the central Philippines.
 

Bio-accessories by Australian designers Ben Landau and Brittany Veitch are a series of wearable couture pieces which mask the unpleasant sights, sounds and scents of a city in an attempt to bring some of the natural world back into civil living. (Pics)
 

This new species seems to have developed an Adam’s apple
No, your eyes aren’t playing tricks.  That is an apple with a fish’s face on it. And yes, that’s a lion peeking out from a dandelion. (Pics)
 

Having more stamina is one thing but running to the bathroom afterwards is another..Oh wait thats prunes
Drinking beetroot juice boosts stamina and could help people exercise for up to 16% longer, a UK study suggests.

Producing electric current from mud and wastewater
University of Massachusetts researchers have made a breakthrough with “Geobacter”, a microbe that produces electric current from mud and wastewater.

A new monkey — dubbed Mura’s saddleback tamarin — has been discovered in a remote region of the Amazon in Brazil.
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) announced on July 7 the discovery of a new monkey in a remote region of the Amazon in Brazil.

An aerial view of a patch of deforested jungle
More than 800 animal and plant species have gone extinct in the past five centuries with nearly 17,000 now threatened with extinction, the International Union for Conservation of Nature reported on Thursday.
 
 

Desert Rhubarb 
Scientists have discovered the world’s first ’self-watering’ plant in Israel’s Negev desert – one of the driest regions on earth. The Desert Rhubarb can hold 16 times more water than its rivals and has developed a unique ability to effectively water itself in its barren habitat.

  Robert Buelteman uses high voltage photography
Forget the notion of a reverent nature photographer tiptoeing through the woods, camera slung over one shoulder, patiently looking for perfect light. Robert Buelteman works indoors in total darkness, forsaking cameras, lenses, and computers for jumper cables, fiber optics, and 80,000 volts of electricity. This bizarre union of Dr. Frankenstein [...]

 
Sagebrush exhibits communication only when air contact is allowed
To thine own self be true” may take on a new meaning—not with people or animal behavior but with plant behavior.

 
Marijuana smoke may increase the risk of cancer, scientists report
Using a highly sensitive new test, scientists in Europe are reporting “convincing evidence” that marijuana smoke damages the genetic material DNA in ways that could increase the risk of cancer.

When maple seeds become airborne they pick up downward speed and start to spin around their center of gravity, which is located in the nut.
The twirling seeds of maple trees spin like miniature helicopters as they fall to the ground. Because the seeds descend slowly as they swirl, they can be carried aloft by the [...]