On January 21, 2010, a cold, clear day, Dean Pierson woke up early, as usual. The 59-year-old put on a pair of blue jeans and a hooded coat before the sun was up, then went to his barn, turned on the lights, closed all the doors and windows, powered off the fans and cranked up the volume on the radio. He then shot each of his milking cows with a .22-caliber N1 carbine rifle, about 51 of them, between their horns and eyes, hitting their brains and killing them instantly. Pierson then sat down in a wooden chair with an upholstered seat, pulled a ski mask over his face, picked up a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun and shot himself once in the chest.

Around 9 or 9:30, a truck driver from the Agri-Mark co-op arrived to collect milk from Pierson’s tanks. The driver saw a note attached to the barn door warning whoever found it not to enter and to call the police. He called his dispatcher, who called Pierson’s milk inspector, who telephoned Bill Kiernan, the farmer next door.

Kiernan sent his grown son, Walter, and an employee to check on their neighbor. On the way to the barn, Walter ran into […]

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An average Neanderthal and a prehistoric human were about as close, genetically speaking, as any two humans walking the Earth today. That is the conclusion of a new Israeli study that finds that only 0.12% of difference, on average, separated the Neanderthals’ genomes from those of early homo sapiens.

This makes Neanderthals definitely similar enough to mate with early humans and to essentially be considered the same species with them. Human genomes today differ from each other by about 0.1%, on average. For comparison’s sake, chimpanzees, our closest nonhuman cousins alive today, are a comparably more distant 98.8% genetically identical to us. Gorillas share a similar 98.4% of our DNA.

Two researchers from Hebrew University in Jerusalem-Liran Carmel, computational biologist; and Eran Meshorer, stem cell biologist-led the study, which used computer models to compare the epigenomes of Neanderthals, homo sapiens, and a third human relative, the Denisovans. The epigenome is the record of genetic change, consisting of genes that are turned on or off even while the genetic sequences remain intact. This differs from studying the genome, which is the entire record of all of the 3 billion molecules that constitute our DNA, including all active and inactive genes alike. The research […]

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WASHINGTON — Biofuels made from the leftovers of harvested corn plants are worse than gasoline for global warming in the short term, a study shows, challenging the Obama administration’s conclusions that they are a much cleaner oil alternative and will help combat climate change.

A $500,000 study paid for by the federal government and released Sunday in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Climate Change concludes that biofuels made with corn residue release 7 percent more greenhouse gases in the early years compared with conventional gasoline.

While biofuels are better in the long run, the study says they won’t meet a standard set in a 2007 energy law to qualify as renewable fuel.

The conclusions deal a blow to what are known as cellulosic biofuels, which have received more than a billion dollars in federal support but have struggled to meet volume targets mandated by law. About half of the initial market in cellulosics is expected to be derived from corn residue.

The biofuel industry and administration officials immediately criticized the research as flawed. They said it was too simplistic in its analysis of carbon loss from soil, which can vary over a single field, and vastly overestimated how much residue farmers actually would […]

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MARK COLVIN: Researchers at James Cook University have found that acid in the ocean is doing strange things to fish. The acid that they’ve been looking at is carbonic acid; it’s created by carbon dioxide in the ocean.

There are fears that human-induced climate change will make the world’s oceans more acidic. The scientists wanted to know what effect that would have on fish.

Felicity Ogilvie reports.

FELICITY OGILVIE: In the waters off southern Papua New Guinea, underwater volcanoes are releasing carbon dioxide into the ocean. When the carbon dioxide dissolves it creates carbonic acid.

For Professor Philip Munday from James Cook University, it’s a natural laboratory to study what effect ocean acidification has on fish.

PHILIP MUNDAY: These are quite unique areas of coral reef where there are carbon dioxide bubbles coming up from deep underground, through the reef and into the ocean water above the reef, and that causes the water around these, what we call ‘CO2 seeps’, to actually become acidified, become more acidic – in a way that’s very similar to what we would expect in the second half of this century if we keep putting carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, and then some of those get absorbed by the […]

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Homeowners and businesses that wish to generate their own cheap, renewable energy now have a force of conservative political might to contend with, and the Koch brothers are leading the charge. The L.A. Times, to its credit, found the positive spin to put on this: Little old solar ‘has now grown big enough to have enemies.”

The escalating battle centers over two ways traditional utilities have found to counter the rapidly growing solar market: demanding a share of the power generated by renewables and opposing net metering, which allows solar panel users to sell the extra electricity they generate back to the grid – and without which solar might no longer be affordable. The Times reports on the conservative heavyweights making a fossil fuel-powered effort to make those things happen:

The Koch brothers, anti-tax activist Grover Norquist and some of the nation’s largest power companies have backed efforts in recent months to roll back state policies that favor green energy. The conservative luminaries have pushed campaigns in Kansas, North Carolina and Arizona, with the battle rapidly spreading to other states.

…The American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, a membership group for conservative state lawmakers, recently […]

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