Sonar Harmful to Marine Life

This month the Natural Resources Defense Council reported that sonar from military training, industry and shipping threatens whales, dolphins, fish and other marine species. Whales suspected of having been exposed to sonar were found to have bleeding in the brains and ears, as well as lesions in their livers and kidneys. A leading theory suggests that the mammals suffer from the bends; sonar causes them to panic and surface or descend too quickly, causing nitrogen bubbles to form in their blood.

Full Report in PDF Adobe Acrobat file (size: 2.4 mb)

Listen Up TV

This weeks Listen Up television program deals with Intelligent Design. Guests are William Dembski, Associate Research Professor, Conceptual Foundations of Science, Baylor University; Pamela R. Winnick, author of 'A Jealous God: Science's Crusade Against Religion'; Alanna Mitchell, author of 'Dancing at the Dead Sea'; Robert Mann, Chair of the Physics Department at the University of Waterloo; Gary Chiang.

Science meets Religion Comments

You can leave comments on Science Meets Religion: Shroud of Turin here. The article begins with the question "What do science and scientists have to do with the Shroud of Turin, an old piece of cloth which folklore describes as being the very linen that wrapped the body of Jesus as it laid in the tomb over 2000 years ago?" Read Shroud of Turin by Gary Chiang

Wollemi Pine

It's not everyday you see a tree in a cage. Animals at a zoo yes... evergreens in a park, not likely. Well, here is an evergreen in a cage in Wakehurst Place, Sussex. It is the Wollemi Pine, one of the world's oldest and rarest tree species. Once only known in the fossil record, living specimens were discovered in 1994 by a bushwalker in the Wollemi National Park just outside Sydney, Australia. Thus the reason for the cage; It keeps people out, not trees in.

Cuttings were sent to Botanical Gardens in Europe, Taiwan and Japan and until October there was no public access to the trees. October 23 Sotheby's auctioned trees grown from the first cuttings taken from the wild population. The 292 trees sold for A$1.5 million with each tree fetching between A$2000 and A$7000.

Unfortunately, it was reported November 4 that root rot fungus has infected one wild tree and that all of the wild trees are now at risk.