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FRAGMENT
Science in the News |
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ISLAND OF MONTECRISTO TO BE BOMBED WITH RAT
POISON AFTER RAT INFESTATION JANUARY
15, 2012 Authorities are planning to use aircraft to
bombard the island with poison pellets in a bid to
tackle the infestation. Biologists estimate that there is one rat for every square yard of the island and say they pose a grave threat to the ecology of the nature reserve, which is part of a scattered archipelago of islands off Tuscany.
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HAIRY, CRAZY ANTS INVADE FROM TEXAS TO
MISSISSIPPI OCTOBER 3, 2011 |
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LEAPING ROACH, 'T-REX' LEECH AMONG NEW
SPECIES DISCOVERED LAST YEAR—MAY 23, 2011 |
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WITH 30 METERS LEFT TO DRILL, SCIENTISTS
LEAVE SUBTERRANEAN LAKE VOSTOK FOR THE WINTER, AMID
CONTROVERSY—FEBRUARY 9, 2011 |
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DAVID ATTENBOROUGH'S "FIRST LIFE" SERIES—OCTOBER
28, 2010
"In his new
documentary, Sir David Attenborough explores themes
fans of FRAGMENT will be amazed by, including
theories, specimens and fossil evidence that tell
the story of evolution, and an extended feature on
the extraordinary mantis shrimp that plays such a
thematic role in the life of Henders Island. If you
enjoy my work, please watch ANYTHING that David
Attenborough is associated with, but this special in
particular will enlighten you to a special part of
life’s miraculous evolution. David Attenborough is
undoubtedly the hippest biologist on the planet
Earth, even if he is 84 years old!"—Warren Fahy |
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THE AMAZING RED CRAB OF CHRISTMAS ISLAND |
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NEW SPECIES OF FISH DISCOVERED NEARLY 5
MILES DEEP—OCTOBER 11, 2010
“Our findings, which revealed diverse and
abundant species at depths previously thought to be
void of fish, will prompt a rethink into marine
populations at extreme depths,” said Jamieson, who
led researchers from Japan and New Zealand in the
project.
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NEW SPECIES OF 'MONGOOSE-LIKE' CARNIVORE
FOUND IN MADAGASCAR—OCTOBER 11, 2010 |
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ANTARCTIC SEAS EXPLODE WITH LIFE—OCTOBER 9, 2010
As part of the landmark
Census of Marine Life(COML), a $650 million,
worldwide, decade-long effort to catalogue the
creatures that live in the planet's oceans, 19
different voyages collected samples from more than
2,000 locations around Antarctica.
In the process, researchers inventoried 16,000
Antarctic species that are new to science. |
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STUNNING PHOTOS FROM 10-YEAR SEA CENSUS—OCTOBER
6, 2010
The project's 500-plus expeditions have amassed a
visual legacy as unique as the organisms uncovered. |
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145 NEW SPECIES IDENTIFIED IN GREATER MEKONG—OCTOBER
6,2010
Dracula fish, a bald songbird and a seven-metre (23
feet) tall carnivorous plant are among several
unusual new species found in the Greater
Mekong region last year, researchers
said Wednesday. |
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SCIENTISTS FIND 200 NEW SPECIES IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA—OCTOBER
6, 2010
The rugged, mountainous and largely inaccessible
terrain meant biologists had not even been able to
enter some regions and there were
large areas of New Guinea that are
unexplored biologically.
Sample animals were taken of a number of species and
genetic testing had confirmed that they were not
related to any known creature. |
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BEDBUGS STAGE A COMBACK IN US—OCTOBER
6, 2010
Blood-sucking bedbugs are everywhere these days, a
problem exacerbated by their growing resistance to
insecticides that are supposed to control them. |
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INVASIVE SPECIES STINK BUG THREATENS US FOOD
CROPS—OCTOBER 6, 2010
There is a very real possibility for millions of
dollars in damage to the United States’ food supply,
a large percentage of which is grown in California’s
central valley. Unless effective monitoring methods,
preventive measures and controls are developed soon,
this infestation could result in serious shortages,
higher prices, and more dependence on foreign
imports. |
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INVASIVE SPECIES RUN AMOK IN BAGLEY—OCTOBER
6, 2010
"Buckthorn is a very invasive species that has been
gobbling up the nutrients needed by our beloved
native plant species," said John Manydeeds, a Bagley
enthusiast with a "green thumb". Manydeeds said,
"This problem is only going to get increasingly
worse until the Buckthorn becomes too prevalent to
handle." |
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ZEBRA MUSSELS FOUND IN GULL LAKE—OCTOBER
6, 2010 |
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CANADA TO FIGHT BACK AGAINST
INVASIVE FISH—OCTOBER 6, 2010
The carp have been making their way north since the
1970s and are now within 25 miles of Lake Michigan.
Two electrical force fields are in place to stave
them off, but scientists fear that once a few carp
breach the blocks, the population will rapidly
multiply. |
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ASIAN CARP THREAT IN GREAT LAKES VERY REAL—SEPTEMBER
13, 2010
"If we don't act quickly and
effectively, I think the risk is very high that we
will have full fledged invasions." says David Lodge,
a scientist from Notre Dame. |
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KILLER SHRIMP ATTACK BRISTISH SHRIMP,
THREATEN ECOSYSTEM—SEPTEMBER
14, 2010
"It tends to aggressively pursue its prey, often
leaving it dead but uneaten. It is known to
have caused the extinction of several other species
in other areas." |
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A DEEP OCEAN WALLACE
LINE?—AUGUST 7, 2010
A joint American-Indonesian expedition is finding
new species in the Coral Triangle at an amazing
rate. |
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THE MOST BIZARRE LIFE STORY ON EARTH—APRIL 28, 2010
There's no question that discovering a new species
is very cool. But how about discovering a new
phylum? |
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GENE RESEARCH REVEALS FOURTH HUMAN SPECIES—MARCH
24, 2010
A fourth type of hominid, besides Neanderthals,
modern humans and the tiny “hobbit”, was living as
recently as 40,000 years ago, according to research
published in the
journal Nature.
The discovery by Svante Pääbo and colleagues at
the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary
Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, is based on DNA
sequences from a finger bone fragment discovered in
a Siberian cave. |
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SCIENTISTS GO 'GAGA' TO FIND CREATURES BENEATH 600
FEET OF ICE—MARCH 15, 2010
In a surprising discovery about where higher life
can thrive, scientists for the first time found a
shrimp-like creature and a jellyfish frolicking
beneath a massive Antarctic ice sheet. [...] The video is
likely to inspire experts to rethink what they know
about life in harsh environments. And it has
scientists musing that if shrimp-like creatures can
frolic below 600 feet of Antarctic ice in
subfreezing dark water, what about other hostile
places?
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SIGN OF THE APOCALYPSE: BLOOD
WATERFALLS—MARCH 2,
2010
It’s always surprising when an entirely alien
ecosystem is found on Earth. It makes me hopeful
that when we start to explore other planets, we’ll
find life in splendid and incredible varieties.
Nature is clever, vast, and has had a long long time
in the lab to experiment. If we can find things so
alien in a place so familiar, what will happen when
we explore a truly alien world? |
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60 NEW SPECIES DISCOVERED ISOLATED INSIDE 2-MILE
WIDE VOLCANIC CRATER IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA
—SEPTEMBER
7, 2009
A lost world populated by fanged frogs, grunting
fish and tiny bear-like creatures has been
discovered in a remote volcanic crater on the
Pacific island of Papua New Guinea. A team of
scientists from Britain, the United States and Papua
New Guinea found more than 40 previously
unidentified species when they climbed into the
kilometre-deep crater of Mount Bosavi and explored a
pristine jungle habitat teeming with life that has
evolved in isolation since the volcano last erupted
200,000 years ago. |
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GREATER MEKONG: MORE THAN 1000 NEW SPECIES
DISCOVERED—DECEMBER 15, 2008
“Who knows what else is out there waiting to be
discovered, but what is clear is that there is
plenty more where this came from,” said Chapman. |
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REPORT ON
IMPACT OF INVASIVE SPECIES IN 57 COUNTRIES RELEASED—JANUARY
26, 2010
Invasive alien species have been measured for the
first time in a large scale study that included 57
countries across the globe. The
Global Invasive
Species Programme (GISP) has released a report
showing that, on average, each country has 50
non-native species that are harming the biodiversity
in that country. From invasive rats causing the
extinction of bird species, to the spread of
chytridiomycosis - a pathogenic fungus, the results
of the study are illuminating, and worrisome. |
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30 NEW SPECIES
DISCOVERED IN MOUNTAINS OF ECUADOR—JANUARY
15, 2010
One look at a newly discovered species of gecko,
small enough at its full-grown size to rest
comfortably on the eraser of a pencil, and it's
difficult not to be mesmerized by the seemingly
boundless forms of biological diversity—while
simultaneously reminded of its fragility. |
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RESEARCHERS
PREPARE FOR NEW SPECIES DISCOVERIES IN TEXADA ISLAND
CAVE SYSTEM—JANUARY 18, 2010
“There’s a potential to find all sorts of new
species in caves because they are such a unique
biological zone and we don’t understand all about
caves or know all the creatures in there.” |
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ARREST WARRANT
ISSUED FOR MAN TRANSPORTING DANGEROUS ZEBRA MUSSELS—JANUARY
27, 2010
"We
appreciate the court’s help on this case," said
Bruce Bjork, chief of enforcement for the Washington
Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), which sought
the initial charges against Derderian. "We
need to do everything we can to keep zebra mussels
and other invasive species out of this state." |
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GIANT
NEW SPIDER SPECIES DISCOVERED—JANUARY
19, 2010
"The new discovery shows how much we still have to
investigate, and that there are likely to be many
more species that are unknown to us," said Shanas. |
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INVASIVE SPECIES THREAT GROWING GLOBALLY,
EXPERTS WARN—JANUARY 22, 2010
"This shows that although we are winning some
battles in the fight against invasive species,
current evidence suggests that we are losing the
war."
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SNAILS MOVE
SLOW BUT EVOLVE FAST IN ISOLATION—JANUARY
26, 2010
...snails and similar slow-movers may
split into new species more rapidly because they are
more likely to love those close by, rather than go
the distance for a long-distance relationship. |
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SOUTH AMERICAN
FIRE-ANT INVADES HAWAII—JANUARY 27,
2010
The tiny ant, from South America, is considered
among the world's worst invasive species, officials
said. It is about 1/16th inch long and pale orange,
and packs a painful sting that may cause large red
welts as well as blindness in pets. |
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EUROPEAN CARNATIONS FORM NEW SPECIES SURPRISINGLY
FAST, A NEW STUDY FINDS—JANUARY 26,
2010
What’s more, the researchers found that the rate of
diversification was not constant. After a slow
start, the rate jumped to seven or eight times
higher during a period between 2.0 and 1.3 million
years ago (during early half of the Pleistocene). |
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“HOBBIT” SPECIES ON ISLAND OF
FLORES HAD SPECIALIZED BRAIN—JANUARY
27, 2010
"Our analysis, together with studies of brain size
in island populations of living primates, suggests
we should perhaps not be surprised by the evolution
of a small brained, small bodied early human
species." |
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NEW
FOX SPECIES DISCOVERED IN CALIFORNIA—JANUARY 2, 2010
"The
fact that the evidence is pointing toward it as a
native species—and a native species that we
didn't know about—is kind of an amazing
development." |
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USDA AWARDS MORE THAN $4 MILLION
INVASIVE SPECIES RESEARCH GRANTS—JANUARY
21, 2010
"Invasive plants and animals are a major threat to
food and fiber production, costing U.S. producers
between $7 billion and $27 billion per year, but by
doing research on controlling and managing weedy and
invasive species we help protect the productivity of
America's farmers and ranchers," said Merrigan. |
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BACTERIA
FOUND THRIVING BENEATH ARCTIC GLACIER—APRIL
16, 2009
"Among the big questions here are: 'How does an
ecosystem function below glaciers?', 'How are they
able to persist below hundreds of meters of ice and
live in permanently cold and dark conditions for
extended periods of time, in the case of Blood
Falls, over millions of years?" |
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THE VEXING BUGS IN THE
GLOBAL TRADING SYSTEM—JANUARY
15, 2010
The yearly economic impact of invasive species in
the U.S. is estimated at $133.6 billion, according
to a study in Agricultural and Resource Economics
Review in 2006. |
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