Frederick L. Coolidge – Meat, Vegetarians, and the Evolution of Gut Flora

Increased meat in ancient hominin diets, beginning about 3 million years ago, meant that guts (large and small intestines) could become shorter because they could extract more expeditious calories in shorter lengths. This change in diet was directly responsible for the steady development of bigger brains beginning at this time. But what other factors might have helped the natural selection for shorter …

Research Confirms Hydroelectric Dams Not Environmentally Friendly After All – Sarah Lazare

A new study by University of East Anglia researchers confirms what numerous Indigenous communities have long charged: gigantic hydroelectric dam construction projects are not environmentally friendly, as proponents claim, but in fact pose a profound threat to biodiversity and life in the Amazon. Widespread Forest Vertebrate Extinctions Induced by a Mega Hydroelectric Dam in Lowland Amazonia was published Wednesday in the …

Retreating sea ice linked to changes in ocean circulation, could affect European climate

Retreating sea ice in the Iceland and Greenland Seas may be changing the circulation of warm and cold water in the Atlantic Ocean, and could ultimately impact the climate in Europe, says a new study by an atmospheric physicist from the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM) and his colleagues in Great Britain, Norway and the United States. “A warm western …

Connect the World or Capture It? Critics Raise Alarm Over Facebook’s Spurious Internet.org – Lauren McCauley

Privacy rights and open internet advocates are sounding the alarm after Facebook on Monday announced changes to its “free” Internet for the developing world, dubbed Internet.org, which critics say threatens to make the social networking company the de facto Internet “gatekeeper” for hundreds of millions worldwide. Branded as an initiative to “connect the two thirds of the world that doesn’t …

Select Committee report on GM is insult to science and danger to the public: Part I – Science abused

The Science and Technology Committee’s report blames Europe’s precautionary GMO regulation for preventing the adoption of GM crops in the UK, Europe, and the developing world. The pro-GMO Science Media Centre publicised the report with a welcoming selection of quotes from GMO advocates. For example, Johnjoe McFadden, professor of molecular genetics at the University of Surrey, offered the emotive claim that “The cost of …