National Geographic Society

NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC

Orbiting from north to south, NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites pass over Antarctica many times a day, and with each pass they image a slice of the frozen continent.

The composite image above was created three days ago from data collected on various overpasses by Terra throughout the day, according to NASA. Each overpass is a pie-shaped wedge in the image.

The daily photo-like images of Antarctica -- made only in the austral summer when the southernmost continent is bathed in sunlight -- are valuable to scientists studying everything from ice to penguins, as well as to the crews of ships navigating through the southern ice pack, according to a caption published with this image on NASA's Earth Observatory page.

Get more information about this on NASA's MODIS Antarctica Project Page.

Related blog entries:

Obama Inauguration Photographed From Space

Chaitén Volcano Dome Collapses

Breaking Orbit: National Geographic News blog inspiring people to care about other planets

Now physicists at the University of Texas at Austin have designed a system that, when fully developed, would use fusion to relatively inexpensively destroy the waste from nuclear fission in nuclear power plants.

"Our waste destruction system, we believe, will allow nuclear power -- a low carbon source of energy -- to take its place in helping us combat global warming," said Mike Kotschenreuther, senior research scientist with the Institute for Fusion Studies (IFS) and Department of Physics.

There are more than 100 fission reactors, called "light water reactors" (LWRs), producing power in the United States, the release explained. "The nuclear waste from these reactors is stored and not reprocessed. Some other countries, such as France and Japan, do reprocess the waste."

"The physicists' new invention could drastically decrease the need for any additional or expanded geological repositories," UT said.

Camera trap photo by C Santiago Espinosa/WCS

This is one of 75 pictures of jaguars taken by camera traps in the first large-scale census of the elusive big cat in the Amazon region of Ecuador.

The ongoing census, which began in 2007, is working to establish baseline population numbers as oil exploration and subsequent development puts growing pressure on wildlife in Ecuador's Yasuni National Park and adjacent Waorani Ethnic Reserve, the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society said in a release accompanying this and other photos yesterday.

Camera traps photograph animals remotely when they trip a sensor that detects body heat. Jaguars photographed this way are identified individually through their unique pattern of spots.

"Preliminary data show far fewer jaguars in more hunted areas compared to remote study sites," WCS said in its statement. In the first survey at a heavily hunted site within Yasuni National Park, only three individual jaguars were identified. At a study site in a rarely hunted and remote area, 14 different jaguars were distinguished.

Camera trap photo by C Santiago Espinosa/WCS

"The main threats to jaguars in Ecuador are habitat degradation and loss due to various human activities," said WCS research fellow Santiago Espinosa, leader of the study team.

"Bushmeat hunting by local communities has increased due to road development that provides access to otherwise isolated areas. Additionally, people hunt bushmeat to sell commercially in local markets, rather than simply for their own consumption. There is competition for food as people hunt the same prey species as the jaguar. If the prey species disappear, the jaguar will be gone."

Espinosa and WCS plan to extend the jaguar camera trap surveys to other areas of Ecuador, working with local communities in both the Amazon region and along the coast where most of the forests are gone but still may provide refuge to jaguars.

Related National Geographic News story:

Elusive Jaguars Remain a Mystery, Even to Experts

The Splendid White-eye (Zosterops splendidus) is found only on the tiny island of Ranongga and is one of seven species endemic to islands of the New Georgia Group, Solomon Islands.

C. Filardi/CBC-AMNH

Birds within the family Zosteropidae -- named white-eyes for the feathers that frame their eyes -- evolve at a faster rate than any other known bird, researchers said today.

"White-eyes have long been dubbed 'great speciators' for their apparent ability to rapidly form new species across geographies where other birds show little or no diversification," according to a news release about the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Ernst Mayr and Jared Diamond coined the term after encountering white-eyes in the Solomon Islands decades ago, the statement continued. "Each island they visited had distinct white-eye species, whereas most other birds varied little from island to island.

"Mayr and Diamond could only guess at an answer, but both thought that some intrinsic trait was driving the extreme patterns observed among the white-eyes."

Their idea was spot on, said Christopher Filardi, biodiversity scientist for the Pacific Programs at the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation at the American Museum of Natural History. "There's something special about these birds. White-eyes quickly diverge into new species across water gaps as narrow as a couple of kilometers -- gaps that other birds easily bridge to maintain gene flow."

NGS/Michael Nichols

Elephants that survived the trauma of the poaching of their relatives may struggle for decades to build new social relationships, new research suggests.

Some may still be living alone twenty years after losing their families.

"An African elephant never forgets -- especially when it comes to the loss of its kin," according to researchers at the University of Washington. Their findings, published online in the journal Molecular Ecology, reveal that the negative effects of poaching persist for decades after the killing has ended.

"Our study shows that it takes a long time -- upwards of 20 years -- for a family who has lost its kin to rebuild," said lead researcher Kathleen Gobush, a research ecologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency and a former doctoral student at the University of Washington Center for Conservation Biology.

Paul Zahl/NGS

Add frogs to the list of animals we may be eating out of existence.

At least 200 million and maybe more than a billion frogs are being consumed by humans each year, researchers said this week.

"Frogs legs are on the menu at school cafeterias in Europe, market stalls and dinner tables across Asia, to high end restaurants throughout the world," said Corey Bradshaw, an ecologist from the University of Adelaide School of Earth and Environmental Sciences.

Bradshaw, who is also employed as a senior scientist by the South Australian Research and Development Institute, and colleagues are writing a paper that will be published online in the journal Conservation Biology.

The researchers say the global pattern of harvesting and decline of wild populations of frogs appears to be following the same path set by overexploitation of the seas and subsequent "chain reaction" of fisheries collapses around the world.

They called for mandatory certification of frog harvests to improve monitoring and help the development of sustainable harvest strategies.

"The frogs' legs global market has shifted from seasonal harvest for local consumption to year-round international trade," Bradshaw said. "But harvesting seems to be following the same pattern for frogs as with marine fisheries -- initial local collapses in Europe and North America followed by population declines in India and Bangladesh and now potentially in Indonesia.

"Absence of essential data to monitor and manage the wild harvest is a large concern."

NGS photos above are by Bianca Lavies (top and bottom) and Paul Zahl (center)

Indonesia is the largest exporter of frogs by far and its domestic market is 2-7 times that, Bradshaw said.

Others in the study team included researchers from the Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada, the National University of Singapore, and Harvard University.

News stories about this research:
A billion frogs on world's plates (BBC News)
In pictures: The over-harvesting of amphibians (BBC News)
Surprisingly, too many frogs are being eaten (Seattle Post Intelligencer)
Frogs under threat as diners hop into legs (The Australian)
Frogs are 'on their last legs' (The Sun, UK)

Related National Geographic News stories:
Frog Extinctions Linked to Global Warming
Photo Gallery: Frog Survival Linked to Eco-Health
"Frog Hotel" to Shelter Panama Species From Lethal Fungus

NatGeo News Watch blog entries about frogs:
Four out of Ten Amphibians in Decline, New Study Finds
Frog With Green Blood, Turquoise Bones Found in Cambodia
Warming is Killing Yellowstone's Amphibians, Researchers Find
Tree Frog Once Thought Lost Is Found
Researcher Licks Poison Frogs in Pursuit of Science (with video)

National Geographic Magazine:
Your Shot Frogs
The Fragile World of Frogs

Illustration courtesy FWS

NASA

Climate scientists have long believed that while most of the rest of the globe has been getting steadily warmer, a large part of Antarctica -- the East Antarctic Ice Sheet -- has been getting colder.

But new research, depicted in this illustration released by NASA today, shows that for the last 50 years, much of Antarctica has been warming at a rate comparable to the rest of the world.

"In fact, the warming in West Antarctica is greater than the cooling in East Antarctica, meaning that on average the continent has gotten warmer," said Eric Steig, a University of Washington professor of Earth and space sciences and director of the Quaternary Research Center at the UW.

"West Antarctica is a very different place than East Antarctica, and there is a physical barrier, the Transantarctic Mountains, that separates the two," said Steig, lead author of a paper documenting the warming published in the January 22 edition of the journal Nature.

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet, with an average elevation of about 6,000 feet above sea level, is substantially lower than East Antarctica, which has an average elevation of more than 10,000 feet. While the entire continent is essentially a desert, West Antarctica is subject to relatively warm, moist storms and receives much greater snowfall than East Antarctica.

This NASA/JPL image from space on the right shows that giant, snow-covered swaths of Antarctica melted in January 2005.

The researchers determined the temperature changes by devising a statistical technique that uses data from satellites and from Antarctic weather stations to make a new estimate of temperature trends.

"The thing you hear all the time is that Antarctica is cooling and that's not the case," Steig said. "If anything it's the reverse, but it's more complex than that. Antarctica isn't warming at the same rate everywhere, and while some areas have been cooling for a long time the evidence shows the continent as a whole is getting warmer."

A major reason most of Antarctica was thought to be cooling is because of a hole in the Earth's protective ozone layer that appears during the spring months in the Southern Hemisphere's polar region. Steig noted that it is well established that the ozone hole has contributed to cooling in East Antarctica.

"However, it seems to have been assumed that the ozone hole was affecting the entire continent when there wasn't any evidence to support that idea, or even any theory to support it," he said.

"In any case, efforts to repair the ozone layer eventually will begin taking effect and the hole could be eliminated by the middle of this century. If that happens, all of Antarctica could begin warming on a par with the rest of the world."

Related National Geographic News story: Antarctica Heating Up, "Ignored" Satellite Data Shows

Nile Delta vegetable farmer photo by Dean Conger/NGS

The coastal Mediterranean fishery off the Nile Delta has expanded dramatically since the 1980s, thanks to run-off of fertilizers and sewage discharges in the region, according to a researcher at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography.

Autumn Oczkowski, a URI doctoral student, used stable isotopes of nitrogen to demonstrate that 60 to 100 percent of the current fishery production is supported by nutrients from fertilizer and sewage, according to a university news statement.

Her research is reported today in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Photo credit: White House

The luncheon served to Barack Obama immediately after he is sworn in as America's 44th President tomorrow will be hosted by members of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies.

Designed to reflect the theme of the 2009 Inaugural ceremonies, "A New Birth of Freedom," which celebrates the bicentennial of the birth of President Abraham Lincoln, the menu draws on historic ties to the Presidency of Abraham Lincoln, according to the U.S. Senate's Inaugural Web site.

"Growing up in the frontier regions of Kentucky and Indiana, the sixteenth President favored simple foods including root vegetables and wild game. As his tastes matured, he became fond of stewed and scalloped oysters. For dessert or a snack, nothing pleased him more than a fresh apple or an apple cake," the Web site says.

The dining preferences of the Presidents have long been a topic of great interest to the rest of us. Just how much has been published about what the Presidents eat and serve to guests is apparent from the extent of a resource guide on Presidential Food compiled by the Library of Congress.

Barack Obama's Inaugural luncheon menu, from the U.S. Senate Web site

San Diego Zoo is holding a contest to name the koala joey, using the opportunity to give public talks about the conservation of the animals in their native habitats.

National Geographic News reported in 2007 that Australia's iconic koalas face an uncertain future as their fragmented habitats shift in response to climate change, fire, and drought.

Our most popular story about the tree-dwelling marsupials was in 2002, about how on the north coast of New South Wales, Australia, koala researchers, a property developer, and local citizens joined forces to create the first housing development planned around the needs of koalas.

Australian scientists announced in 2006 they had invented a new way to create koalas in a lab. You can see the picture of an abundance of koala cuteness here.

For more photos and a profile of koalas, click here.

Photo on this entry taken Jan. 15, 2009, by Ken Bohn, San Diego Zoo

Photo by James L. Stanfield/NGS

For Enric Sala, saving the oceans is personal.

By personal he doesn't mean only himself. He means me, and you, and every one of our six billion fellow humans.

"If we all did something it would be huge," he said at a lunchtime forum at National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C., today.

Sala is a marine ecologist and a National Geographic Fellow. His research was used to justify scientifically the proclamation of vast new marine monuments in the Pacific Ocean, announced by President Bush earlier this month.

Photo by James L. Stanfield/NGS

Sala also has been educating National Geographic employees about the consequences of eating certain types of seafood.

All the genes that the Tasmanian Tiger, an extinct carnivorous marsupial, inherited only from its mother will be revealed by an international team of scientists in a research paper to be published today in the online edition of Genome Research.

"The research marks the first successful sequencing of genes from this carnivorous marsupial," according to a news release by Penn State University.

"Tasmanian Tiger" is a common name of the extinct thylacine species (Thylacinus cynocephalus), which is more closely related to kangaroos and koalas than to tigers. The last known specimen died in a Tasmanian zoo in 1936.

Thylacines have played a central role in discussions about the possibility of bringing extinct species back to life, but despite the availability of many bones and other remains, previous attempts to read thylacine DNA had been unsuccessful.

But now Penn State researchers have cracked the problem, using new gene-sequencing technology and computational methods developed by Webb Miller, a professor of biology and of computer science and engineering, and Stephan C. Schuster, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology.

"The gorilla birth is significant for the National Zoo," the zoo said in a statement.

"Western lowland gorillas, which are native to tropical forests of West and Central Africa, are listed as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources Red List of Threatened Species, primarily due to habitat loss and fragmentation and poaching."

The baby was born to 26-year-old female Mandara and 16-year-old Baraka. The newborn is the seventh successful gorilla birth for the zoo since 1991.

"This is the sixth offspring for Mandara," the zoo added. "The newborn joins siblings Kigali, Kwame and Kojo, as well as group member Haloko at the Great Ape House. All of the Zoo's gorillas will remain on exhibit."

The baby's sex has not yet been determined.

Photo Credit: Pepper Watkins/courtesy Smithsonian's National Zoo

The zoo's gorilla breeding program participates in the Species Survival Plan, in which North American zoos collaborate to encourage the development of a self-sustaining zoo gorilla population, helping to ensure the survival of this endangered species. Each SSP manages the breeding of a species in order to maintain a healthy and self-sustaining population that is both genetically diverse and demographically stable.

Mandara, the mother of the new gorilla, was born at the Lincoln Park Zoo in April 1982. She came to the National Zoo in October 1985. Baraka was born at the National Zoo in 1992 to Haloko and Gus.

Update January 12:

 Photo credit: Mehgan Murphy, Smithsonian's National Zoo   

Photo of Brady Barr with giant salamander courtesy National Geographic Channel

Brady Barr, we once reported in National Geographic News, is a man whose work bites.

"I've had so many bumps, bruises, and broken bones, it's sometimes hard to get out of bed in the morning," he told me earlier today.

He's also been bitten a few times -- including last year, when a 12-foot-long python plunged its fangs into his leg.

Sometimes known as "Gator Doc," he's being doing this work for National Geographic for 21 years and has appeared in more than 70 National Geographic films, including in the earlier series "Reptile Wild With Dr. Brady Barr."

I asked Barr what he thought was the most dangerous moment in a career of wrestling crocs and catching giant snakes by the tail.

"It's a really tough question," he said, "because it always seems like the most recent experience was the most dangerous."

An adult male of the pink iguana from the Galápagos on the rim of the crater of Volcan Wolf. The newly recognized species of iguana may already be endangered and could become extinct, scientists warn.

Photo courtesy of Gabriele Gentile

Had Charles Darwin explored the Volcan Wolf volcano when he visited the Galápagos in 1835 he might have spotted this pink land iguana, a species that originated in the islands more than five million years ago.

The northernmost volcano on the island of Isabela is the only home of the "rosada" iguana, a newly identified species of the land iguana Conolophus, scientists said today.

Photo by Michael Nichols/NGS

The United Nations and an international coalition of zoos have declared 2009 the Year of the Gorilla.

Announced last month, Year of the Gorilla (YoG) aims to unite the needs of both the largest living primate and the people who live in gorilla range states.

YoG "aims to boost conservation of humankind's closest relatives and their habitats by boosting the livelihoods and incomes of local people," according to a news release issued by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Photo by Michael Nichols/NGS