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This week: The World’s Technology Correspondent Clark Boyd is back, with five stories about environmental change. Climate scientists show that, if it weren’t for greenhouse gases, the Arctic would be getting colder rather than warmer. Senegal struggles to maintain its once bountiful fish stocks. Indonesian communities nurture mangroves. Two scientists check in from research vessels–one in a slurry of swirling garbage, one off the shore of a recovering volcanic island. Plus, neuroscientists follow up on China’s Sichuan earthquake, and geologists expose a fake moon rock.

Elsa’s favorite science stories:

• Earthquake Trauma: Neuroscientists have detected the earliest known signs of psychological trauma in the brain. Researchers examined survivors of China’s 2008 Sichuan earthquake just a few weeks after the disaster. (The study.)

• Fake Moon Rock: Under a geologist’s microscope, a Dutch museum’s prized “moon rock” turns out to be common petrified wood. (Here’s a news story. We got the scientific details from geologist Frank Beunk.)

Arctic Ice: A new study provides the most detailed record yet of past Arctic temperatures–and confirms that recent warming is linked to greenhouse gases. Researchers used lake sediments, ice cores, and tree rings to reconstruct 2,000 years of Arctic temperatures. Only in the 1990’s did the enhanced greenhouse effect reverse a long-term cooling trend caused by a wobble in Earth’s orbit.
Report: By The World’s Katy Clark.

Senegalese Fisheries: In the 1970’s, thousands of Senegalese workers turned from mining and farming to fishing, and large foreign trawlers began to ply the same waters. Decades later, the fish are in trouble. The Senegalese government and local councils are now struggling to cut back on fishing and preserve what’s left of their marine resources.
Report: By Jori Lewis in Senegal. (See photographs here.)

Restoring Mangroves: In the past three decades, Indonesia has cleared more than half its mangroves for charcoal, firewood, and fish or shrimp farms. The destruction of these coastal habitats left the Asian nation more vulnerable to damage from the deadly 2004 tsunami. Now Indonesia is working to restore its mangrove forests.
Report: By Ari Daniel Shapiro in Indonesia. (See photos here.)

Life after Eruption: Alaska’s volcanic island Kasatochi erupted last year, burying the island in a thick layer of ash. It seemed that nothing could survive the scorching onslaught, but researchers have found some surprises as they document the gradual rebirth of Kasatochi’s ecosystem.
Guest: Entomologist Derek Sikes, University of Alaska’s Museum of the North.

Pacific Plastic: Garbage from the west coast of North America and the east coast of Asia ends up swirling in a giant, slow whirlpool known as the North Pacific Gyre. Scientists on a research ship near the gyre are trying to understand how marine organisms—from bacteria to whales—are interacting with the vast slurry of disintegrating plastic.
Guest: Oceanographer Miriam Goldstein, Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

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This week: As the U.S. works with China to cut emissions, we look at the green efforts of the world’s biggest greenhouse emitter. Europe debates the wisdom of biofuels. Plus, how a jockey can improve a horse’s speed, and six men survive being squeezed into a simulated space capsule for three months.

Dirty China: U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu visited China this week and talked about climate change. Many critics say the country must rely much less on dirty coal.
Report: By The World’s Mary Kay Magistad in Beijing.

Green China: China is embracing renewable energy and has plans to vastly expand solar and wind energy production. But can the country change fast enough to really make a difference for the planet?
Guest: Julian L. Wong, policy analyst, Center for American Progress.

Wong is also our guest in The World’s interactive science forum. Join us for a conversation on China and global warming — ask questions, share your fears, your hopes, your ideas.

Biofuels Debate: Scientists agree that the world must reduce its use of oil and other fossil fuels. A few years ago, biofuels seemed like a potential answer, and the U.S. and the European Union are trying to ramp up production. But many in Europe now say biofuels may make things worse.

Report: By Kathleen Schalch in Brussels.

Elsa (back from Bulgaria!) picks her favorite science stories of the week:

• How a jockey can help a horse go faster.

• Swearing eases pain.

• Simulated Mars mission accomplished. (Don’t miss the 17 entries in the volunteers’ Mars Diary!)

Music:
Shining Star, by Earth, Wind and Fire
Chill Out, by Black Uhuru

Researchers and surgeons in London are helping the blind to see.  They have devised an artificial retina—a crude bionic eye—that operates wirelessly.

Can evolutionary principles be applied to language?  Some biologists say yes. They have studied how English is evolving and have identified what they believe are the most ancient words.

In environmental news, a group of Belgian scientists in Antarctica just opened the first polar research base powered entirely by wind and sun. We talk with project manager Alain Hubert. We also hear about dramatic changes in U.S. environmental policy. Mark Hertsgaard, who writes about the environment for The Nation, says the Obama administration has taken a new approach to renewable energy. The administration has also changed America’s position on a global treaty to combat mercury pollution.

There’s a newly discovered creature in the sea (hopefully not ingesting too much mercury). Biologists have found a very colorful fish in Indonesia. They suspect the species has been around for tens of millions of years.

You know those drawings of Tyrannosaurus rex chasing after prey, with arms hanging loosely down? It turns out this image is incorrect. In reality, the dinsosaur’s palms faced inward, toward one another, just like their descendants, birds. Scientists have long suspected this, but they now have proof. Paleontologists have found fossilized handprints and footprints made by a large meat-eating dinosaur from 198-million-year-old rocks in Utah.

Music:
The Six Million Dollar Man Theme

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