President Richard Nixon established the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970. In 1971, he strengthened the Clean Air Act and extended the Clean Water Act, andhe banned the pesticide DDT the next year. Nixon was a shrewd politician. He understood that hisRepublican Party had to embrace the environmental movement that was popular at the time. Americans still support environmentalism and are even more dependent onenvironmental services than we were 50 years ago. Just ask residents of Toledo, Ohio, orFlint, Michigan, about their drinking water. But Republican politicians have rejected Nixons insight that they should be on the right sideof Americans' relationship with the environment. A prime example of this about-face recently came when the new EPA director, Scott Pruitt, appeared on CNBC. Pruitt said: I think that measuring withprecision human activity on the climate is something very challenging to do, and therestremendous disagreement about the degree of impact, so, no, I would not agree that(human activity is) a primary contributor to the global warming that we see." In environmental biology, measuring anything with precision is a challenge. We pursue our science because it has so many moving parts. We cant measure precisely many influences that we nonethelessknow shape the biological systems … Continue reading →

University of Delaware's College of Earth, Ocean and Environment will be running its popular TIDE camp for high school students with an interest in marine science Sunday, July 16 to Friday, July 28. Taking an Interest in Delaware's Estuary Camp is a residential, instructional program for students entering 10th to 12th grades. The program focuses on the atmospheric, oceanic and biogeochemical processes at work in the Delaware Bay. Camp academic activities include classroom instruction, discussions, lectures and visits to modern oceanographic and atmospheric laboratories, as well as field excursions to the Delaware Bay for sampling and exploration. Spending time at the college campuses in Newark and Lewes, students will gain an understanding of sea breeze, tides, habitat loss, species adaptation, saltwater marsh filtration, sediment transport, regional climate change, mitigation/adaptation opportunities, local impacts and strategies, and alternative energy. Students must have completed at least one year of high school and not yet graduated prior to the camp. Those entering ninth grade or recent graduates are not eligible for TIDE Camp. Scholarships are available to students who qualify. For more information and applications, go to http://www.udel.edu and search TIDE camp 2017. Applications are due by Friday, April 7. Read the original: UD … Continue reading →

The UKs Wellcome trust has selected 22 pictures and images that capture the wonders of the life sciences. Theyre now on exhibition in the UK and Ireland. The Wellcome Image Awardscelebrates this year 20 years of bringing us the best biology images around the world. Theawards are destined to visual masterpieces that communicate key aspects of the world of biomedical science and healthcare. One of the most successful images has been a close-up of an intraocular lens iris clip, taken in Cambridge by Mark Bartley. This small lens is fixed to the iris with a tiny surgical incision, 3mm long, and is used to treat myopia and cataracts. The patient of whom the picture was taken from, regained almost full vision thanks to the clip. Going down to the microscopic level, another of the winning images depicts a synthetic polymer created at MIT with the aim ofenabling the delivery of microRNA therapeutics to cancer cells. Taken using fluorescence microscopyby Joo Conde, Nuria Oliva and Natalie Artzi, the picture directs our attention to the huge breakthroughs in medicine that biotechnology is bringing. But the overall winner this year is Stickman, an image depicting an alter ego from the artist, Spooky Pooka, … Continue reading →