Monarch Navigation, Whale-eating Worms, UN Climate Summit

This week: The United Nations hosts an international climate summit. Meanwhile, the Indian government pledges to cap its carbon emissions, and a scientist says China should harvest its tremendous wind power potential. We remember a cave-dwelling Italian scientist. And Elsa Youngsteadt brings us animal news: new species of whale-eating worms, paralyzed rats that can walk, and a surprising finding about how monarch butterflies navigate.

UN Climate Summit: World leaders met this week at the United Nations climate conference in New York. Many leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao, acknowledged the urgent need to reduce global emissions of carbon dioxide. But prospects for negotiating a climate treaty in Copenhagen this December look grim.
Report: By The World’s Alex Gallafent.

India Promises Cuts: India has refused to accept binding international limits on its carbon emissions unless the United States agrees to do the same. But this week the Indian government made a surprising announcement; it promised to cap its emissions by 2020.
Guest: Jairam Ramesh, Indian Environment Minister.

Wind Power in China: China has invested billions of dollars in renewable energy. The country hopes to get 20% of its electricity from wind and solar power by 2020. But a recently published study in Science magazine says China could think a lot bigger when it comes to renewables.
Guest: Michael McElroy, Professor of Environmental Studies, Harvard University.

Elsa’s favorite science stories:

• Marine Scavengers: Scientists have discovered nine new species of marine worms that scavenge on dead whales.
• Rats Recover from Spinal Injuries: An international team of researchers has succeeded in getting rats with spinal cord injuries to walk again. A combination of electrical stimulation, drugs, and exercise caused the legs to move and bear weight, although the rats’ brains were not in charge.
  The study
  Video of walking rats
  
  Video credit: Grégoire Courtine
• Monarch Navigation: Each year, monarch butterflies fly thousands of miles to Central Mexico using the sun as a compass. But how do the insects track the changing position of the sun? New research shows they use a biological clock that resides in their antennae.
  The study

Remembering a Cave-dwelling Scientist: Maurizio Montalbini subjected himself to some bizarre experiments. He spent a good part of his life alone, underground, in caves. His work gave us important clues about human biological clocks. We remember the scientist, who died of a stroke last week.

Music: In the Belly of the Whale, by Newsboys.

Tags: China, climate change, India, Italy, Migration, Monarch Butterflies, renewable energy, spinal injury, spinal nerves, United Nations, whales, Worms