*BONUS Article* — Scientists Discover Unknown Lizard Species At Lunch Buffet

It may be an old menu standby to Vietnamese diners, but it's turned into a smorgasbord of discovery for scientists. (And you thought the Commons & Regatta's food was bad! I feel nauseous...)

Researchers have identified a previously undocumented species of all-female lizard in the Mekong River delta that can reproduce itself by cloning, and the story of how it was discovered is almost as exotic as the animal itself.

'Leiolepis ngovantrii' is a small lizard found only in southern Vietnam.  A Vietnamese reptile scientist who came across tanks full of the remarkably similar looking reptiles at small diners in rural villages in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province became intrigued when he noticed that all of the lizards appeared to be female.

So the scientist, Ngo Van Tri of the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, contacted an American colleague, a herpetologist at La Sierra University in California, who immediately dropped everything to come out and assess the find.

After the long flight and a grueling two-day motorcycle trip out to a restaurant where the owner promised to set aside a stash of the creature for study, they were faced with a little problem, says Grismer:

"Unfortunately, the owner wound up getting drunk, and grilled them all up for his patrons... so when we got there, there was nothing left." ---> To which I reply: LOL =)

After contacting local cafes for the rare delicacy and hiring children to track down as many lizards as possible, they had a surplus of about 60 and were able to perform DNA sampling.  Little did they know that this rare species packed another surprise: all of the lizards were female and clones of their mother! ---> To which I reply: STFU!

For the full article, click here to clone your mom =)

'Faith in Food' Program Seeks to Get Religions Involved in Sustainable Farming Food Systems

An international program seeks to marshal the hearts, minds, and buying power of the world's religious faiths to change farming and food systems seen by many as bad for the planet and people's health.

The goal is to "shift a billion people into eating, growing, purchasing, investing, and praying [toward] a proper relationship with their food and land," asserted Martin Palmer, the secretary general of the Alliance of Religions and Conservation, which is spearheading the Faith in Food program.

According to Palmer, the world's religions are major economic and environmental players as property owners, investors and consumers.  As much as 8 percent of the world's land surface is controlled by religions from farms to shopping centers to office buildings!  Religious institutions are the world's third largest investing group.

Many have long withheld investment in businesses that didn't match their moral interests, Palmer asserted.  Now, many are beginning to specifically invest in businesses that do things they like, he added, and 'people of faith' have the power to influence food and farming practices that don't deplete the soil and are more sustainable.

For the full article, click here to say a little prayer.

Whale Poop Pumps Up Ocean Health

Whale feces generally conjures images of whale-scale hunks of crud and heavy lumps that sink to the bottom.  But most whales actually deposit waste that floats at the surface of the ocean, "very liquidy, a flocculent plume," says University of Vermont whale biologist, Joe Roman.

And this liquid fecal matter, rich in nutrients, has a huge positive influence on the productivity of ocean fisheries, Roman and his colleague, James McCarthy from Harvard University, have discovered.

Their discovery, published Oct. 11 in the journal PLoS One, is what Roman calls a "whale pump."

Whales, they found, carry nutrients such as nitrogen from the depths where they feed back to the surface via their feces.  This functions as an upward biological pump, reversing the assumption of some scientists that whales accelerate the loss of nutrients to the bottom.

"We found that whales increase primary productivity," Roman says, allowing more phytoplankton to grow, which then "pushes up the secondary productivity," he says, of the critters that rely on the plankton.  The result: "bigger fisheries and higher abundances throughout regions where whales occur in high densities," Roman says.

For the full article, click here.

Rare Bat Found in Indonesian Forest Fragment

Conservationists say the discovery shows that even small remnants of forest are worth protecting since a rare bat has been found in a tiny fragment of a rainforest on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

Conservationists from the UK discovered the Ridley's leaf-nosed bat in a 740-acre fragment of forest during a biodiversity survey in West Sumatra, Indonesia.  Ridley's leaf-nosed bat (Hipposideros ridleyi) roosts in the cavities of trees (in hollows and cavities of standing trees, under fallen trees and logs) and is listed as 'vulnerable' on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species.

The forest fragment is surrounded by a palm oil plantations.  These plantations are often created on former forested area, and can encroach into areas that are important habitat for endangered species.  Many other species were also found by the biodiversity survey, including the sun bear, tapir, agile gibbon and banded langur, all of which are also of conservation concern.

The effectiveness of emphasizing conservation in small forest fragments has been in doubt, but the researchers say the discovery agrees with an earlier study suggesting it could be a tool for conserving certain species.

"Protecting large areas of connected forest will always be a priority for wildlife conservation, but if ambitious future plans for oil palm expansion are realized, conserving forest fragments within oil pal landscapes will also be important for maintaining Indonesia's biodiversity," said Sophie Persey of the Zoological Society of London.

For the full article, click here.

Banning the Bottle

Students' new green cause: promoting the most quotidian of beverages -- tap water.  According to the Earth Policy Institute, 86 percent of plastic water bottles in the United States end up as garbage.  Not to mention the $2 students shell out for a bottle.

Beginning this fall, Seattle University and the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point, join six other colleges and universities with a campus-wide ban on selling bottled water, reports the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.  Washington University in St. Louis started the movement last year.

Campaigns to curb consumption, though, have been hindered by contracts with beverage suppliers.  Last year, Cornell students were thwarted by the university's multiyear contract with Pepsi, which owns Aquafina.  After a full ban was rejected at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania, the student-led Just Tap It initiative won a concession: no bottled water on the meal plan.

For the full article, click here.

Scott Naturals: Tube-Free Toilet Paper -- When It's Gone, It's Gone

In the 'what will they think of next?' category, Scott Paper Company just announced the introduction of a new tube-free toilet paper.  The innovation, which is the result of a proprietary winding process, eliminates the cardboard roll that has formed the core of the roll since 1880.

According to information from Kimberly-Clark, a parent company of Scott Tissue that also makes Kleenex, 17 billion paper toilet paper tubes are produced every year in the U.S. -- that equates to about 56 rolls per person.  All those tubes result in eighty thousand tons of trash, or enough to make one tube a million miles long.

For the full article, click here.