"REBOUND EFFECT" UNDER INCREASED ENERGY EFFICIENCY

[Reproduced from SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN]

Does Increased Energy Efficiency Just Spark Us to Use More?

By David Biello | January 24, 2013 |  24

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Last year, the U.S. raised its fuel economy standards for cars and trucks for the first time in decades. By 2025, the fuel efficiency of vehicles will be required to double. As a result, oil consumption is predicted to fall and—given that the U.S. remains the world’s largest consumer of oil—global crude prices might fall as well. That makes using oil cheap again, encouraging yet more consumption that ends up reducing the energy saving impact of the initial policy.

That is the story of the so-called “rebound effect,” more properly called Jevons paradox, after W. Stanley Jevons, the British economist who first proposed it in his 1865 book “The Coal Question.” Jevons paradox is undoubtedly real and has to be considered in any energy efficiency policy. After all, the last time the U.S. raised its fuel economy standards significantly in the late 1970s, global oil prices cratered not too long thereafter in the early 1980s. Or consider the refrigeration paradox: freezers have become better and better at using less energy to keep food cold. As a result, many Americans now have two: a modern, efficient one in the kitchen for comestibles and the old fridge in the garage or basement to keep the beer cold and freeze extra supplies.

But, although the rebound effect may be real, it is “too small to derail energy-efficiency policies,” argues a team of four economists in a comment published in Nature on January 24. (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group.) Using data from the Energy Information Administration’s annual forecast, the researchers estimate that the rebound effect will reduce energy savings from the new fuel efficiency standards to 5 percent from 7 percent.

The economists take care to note the distinction between direct and indirect effects. So, for example, savings on fuel leads to an increase in driving, eliminating nearly a third of the efficiency savings. At the same time, money not spent on fuel is then often spent on other items that in turn require energy to produce—causing an indirect drop of five to 15 percent. Finally, at the scale of the national and global economy, oil not used in cars in the U.S. will be used in cars in China, along with other displacement effects.

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SALAMANDER + ALGAE = CURIOUS SYMBIOSIS

[Reproduced from THE  JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY, after New Scientist]

Intracapsular algae provide fixed carbon to developing embryos of the salamanderAmbystoma maculatum

1. Erin R. Graham1,*, 
2. Scott A. Fay1,3, 
3. Adam Davey2 and 
4. Robert W. Sanders1

+Author Affiliations

1. ¹Department of Biology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA
2. ²Department of Public Health, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA
3. ³Berkeley Initiative in Global Change Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA

1. ↵* Author for correspondence (erin.r.graham@temple.edu)

• Received June 25, 2012.
• Accepted September 10, 2012.

SUMMARY

Each spring, North American spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum) females each lay hundreds of eggs in shallow pools of water. Eggs are surrounded by jelly layers and are deposited as large gelatinous masses. Following deposition, masses are penetrated by a mutualistic green alga, Oophila amblystomatis, which enters individual egg capsules, proliferates and aggregates near the salamander embryo, providing oxygen that enhances development. We examined the effects of population density of intracapsular O. amblystomatis on A. maculatum embryos and show that larger algal populations promote faster embryonic growth and development. Also, we show that carbon fixed by O. amblystomatis is transferred to the embryos, providing the first evidence of direct translocation of photosynthate from a symbiont to a vertebrate host.

NB  The embryos release waste material, which the algae feed on. In turn the algae photosynthesise and release oxygen, which the embryos take in. Embryos that have more algae are more likely to survive  and develop faster than embryos with few or none.

IN THE STATE OF ACRE, BRAZIL ...

Trying to make standing forest more valuable than logging or ranching.
[From THE ECONOMIST]

http://db.tt/PirL72mo

IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO (RE)START LIVING

[Reproduced from New Scientist, 21st December 2012]

Cadaver stem cells offer new hope of life after death

Dead bodies can provide organs for transplants, now they might become a source of stem cells too. Huge numbers of stem cells can still be mined from bone marrow five days after death to be potentially used in a variety of life-saving treatments.

Human bone marrow contains mesenchymal stem cells, which can develop into bone, cartilage, fat and other cell types. MSCs can be transplanted and the type of cell they form depends on where they are injected. Cells injected into the heart, for example, can form healthy new tissue, a useful therapy for people with chronic heart conditions.

Unlike other tissue transplants, MSCs taken from one person tend not to be rejected by another's immune system. In fact, MSCs appear to pacify immune cells. It is this feature which has made MSC treatments invaluable for children with graft-versus-host disease, in which transplants aimed at treating diseases such as leukaemia attack the child instead.

Stem cell therapies require a huge numbers of cells though, and it can be difficult to obtain a sufficient amount from a living donor. Could cadavers be the answer? After death, most cells in the body die within a couple of days. But since MSCs live in an environment that is very low in oxygen, Gianluca D'Ippolito and his colleagues at the University of Miami, Florida, wondered whether they might survive longer than the others.

To investigate, D'Ippolito's team kept the finger bones of two cadavers for five days. The group then extracted MSCs from the bone marrow of each bone and let them grow in a dish. After five weeks D'Ippolito was able to transform the stem cells into cartilage, cells that form bone, and fat cells. He presented the results at the World Stem Cell Summit in West Palm Beach, Florida, earlier this month. The team are now trying to get the cells to become nerve and intestinal cells, too.

While only limited amounts of bone marrow can be taken from a living donor, a cadaver represents a plentiful source of cells, says D'Ippolito. "From one donor, you could take the whole spine, for example. You are going to end up with billions of cells."

Paolo Macchiarini, who researches regenerative medicine at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, describes the work as an excellent advance but says that the cells may not be as healthy as they seem. Their DNA may be affected by the death of surrounding tissue and exposure to cold temperatures. "We need to make sure the cells are safe," he says.

Corneal stem cells taken from the eyes of fresh cadavers have already been used to treat blindness in people with eye conditions that result from injury and scarring, but Chris Mason at University College London sees a potential hurdle in using such MSCs in therapy. "The work is novel and intriguing... but it would be better to use a living donor," he says. That's partly because medical regulators oppose treating individuals with stem cells from more than one source."You can always go back and get more stem cells from a living donor if you need them, but if you use a cadaver, you'll eventually run out."

LYRE BIRD: A WONDERFUL GIFT FROM NATURE

A Lyrebird is either of two species of ground-dwelling Australian birds, that form the genus, Menura, and the family Menuridae. They are most notable for their superb ability to mimic natural and artificial sounds from their environment. Lyrebirds have unique plumes of neutral coloured tailfeathers.

Lyrebirds are among Australia's best-known native birds. As well as their extraordinary mimicking ability, lyrebirds are notable because of the striking beauty of the male bird's huge tail when it is fanned out in display; and also because of their courtship display.

Watch this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjE0Kdfos4Y&feature=youtube_gdata_player

CLIMATE CHANGE EFFECTS ON ECOSYSTEMS AND SPECIES

Plant and animal species are shifting their geographic ranges and the timing of their life events – such as flowering, laying eggs or migrating – at faster rates than researchers documented just a few years ago, according to a technical report on biodiversity and ecosystems used as scientific input for the 2013 Third National Climate Assessment.

Copy / Access and see the report:

www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=3483&from=rss_home

PIGMY MARMOSET: A LITTLE MASTERPIECE OF AMAZONIAN NATURE

The pygmy marmoset or dwarf monkey (Cebuella pygmaea) [in  Portuguese: "sagui-leãozinho"] is a New World monkey native to the rainforest understories of western Brazil, [SEE THE MAP BELOW] southeastern Colombia, eastern Ecuador, eastern Peru, and northern Bolivia, with an altitudinal range of 200 to 940 m. It is most common in river edge forests, but also can be found in secondary forest and moderately disturbed forest. The pygmy marmoset has been viewed as somewhat different from typical marmosets, most of which are classified in the genera Callithrix and Mico, and thus is accorded its own genus, Cebuellawithin the family Callitrichidae. Pygmy marmosets live 11-12 years in the wild, but in zoos, they live into their early twenties.