Once upon a time, thousands of panthers roamed throughout the North American continent. Puma concolor are a highly adaptive species that inhabited a variety of habitat types. However, within 200 years after European colonization, they were eliminated from the entire eastern half of North America due to hunting and habitat loss. All that remained was
Australia is trying to kill all the bunnies that have invaded it, and all for environmental conservation. This seems counterintuitive, but ever since rabbits were introduced more than 150 years ago, they have been wreaking havoc.
Anyone lighting a lamp in 19th century America almost certainly used whale oil. Several products, from bows to baskets to corsets, were made of baleen, which are essentially plates in a whale's mouth used for filter feeding. As a result, more whales were killed during this century than the four centuries before it combined.
Americans buy bananas in larger quantities than apples and oranges combined. However, this favorite potassium-filled fruit could soon go extinct. Panama disease, caused by a new strain of fungus called Tropical Race 4 (TR4), is slowly spreading around the world and causing entire crops of bananas to be eradicated.
Evolution runs on the principle of “survival of the fittestâ€- individuals that are better suited to their environment will be able to survive and reproduce more successfully. Following this logic, one would think that only the ‘good' (advantageous) genes are passed on through generations, and the ‘bad' (disadvantageous) genes are eventually eradicated. Thus, it is
Gregor Mendel, an Austrian monk, is credited with discovering the basic principles of genetics in the 1860s and known as the father of genetics. According to his results, the two parents contribute one set of genes each, which forms the genotype (genetic makeup) of the child. The genotype expresses itself in the physical characteristics (called
My parents encouraged my sister and I to start reading from a very early age. I am pretty sure that as a child I read every book I owned about a hundred times. So imagine my joy when I saw a packed bookshelf at a friend's house that belonged to her four-year-old sister. Surprisingly, my
by Sonny Thakur, Athens Science Café One of the more direct and disturbing ways that humans are causing environmental damage is poaching, or illegally hunting wild animals for commercial reasons. The two most highly valued items that are obtained from poaching are rhinoceros horns and ivory from elephant tusks. The worst part about it is
Plastic is probably the most important material in our lives today. We see it all around us and use it all the time. So much so that we throw away enough plastic waste each year to circle the planet four times. Why do we consume so much plastic? Sure, it makes our lives more comfortable,
