DailyDirt: Biodiversity Makes Life More Interesting
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
The 1996 movie Bio-Dome made fun of ridiculously fruitless attempts to create an artificial biosphere, but the concept of designing a man-made biosphere is still pretty interesting (but it's just really, really hard to do, if you wanna make one that can sustainably support humans, indefinitely). And we're going to have to create one some day, it's just a matter of time -- measured in centuries, perhaps. Here are some interesting links on the biodiversity we're all currently enjoying.- How much money would it take to identify all the animal species on Earth? Let's ask Mr. Owl. He'll say, "Three" -- but another estimate puts it closer to $263 billion. [url]
- NYU researchers have found a fish species in the Hudson River that's apparently evolved to be immune to PCBs. Previously, other scientists found a worm that adapted to pollution in the Hudson by becoming immune to cadmium. [url]
- Berkeley scientists are looking into the possibility of a mass extinction of animals, estimating Earth's sixth mass extinction could happen in 3-22 centuries. And we'll be fossil fuels for the hyper-intelligent lizards a few hundred centuries after that. [url]
- Maybe super-smart elephants will help us save the planet. Elephants have just proven that they can work together, so... [url]
- To discover more interesting biological curiosities, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]
Filed Under: biosphere, elephants, hudson river, mass extinction
