You'd be blue, too: Compact fluorescent light bulbs save energy, but come with a number of problems.
Courtesy Tiago Daniel
We’ve written before about compact fluorescent light bulbs – a new type of bulb you can buy for your home that uses a lot less electricity than standard bulbs, and thus reduces pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. But are they all they’re cracked up to be?
Some environmental groups warn that the bulbs contain mercury, which can be toxic and difficult to clean up in the event of a broken bulb.
Researchers in England claim the bulbs can trigger migraines, epilepsy and lupus.
And a review panel assembled by the New York Times concluded that most CFL bulbs do not give off attractive light.
Though a step in the right direction, clearly there are still some bugs to work out of the bulbs.
Tags : As the price of gasoline rises, people are finding alternative means of getting around.
Homeless?: A preserve where rare pandas live and breed was at the epicenter of the strong earthquake that hit China yesterday.
Courtesy SheilalauAlong with the devestating human toll, yesterday's earthquake in China could be devestating to the small breeding panda population in that country. The primary preserve for pandas to live in the wild is extremely close to the epicenter of the earthquake. National Geographic as full details of the situation at this link. More Science Buzz links to the earthquake can be found here.
Mmmm...that's good eatin': It takes less energy to harvest seafood, including whale, than to raise animals on a farm.
Courtesy Sparky Leigh
The Norwegian whaling lobby has released a study, comparing how much energy is required to produce a pound of whale meat vs. a pound of beef, chicken, or other livestock. The results: one pound of chicken produces 2.4 times as much greenhouse gas as one pound of whale meat; pork produces 3.4 times as much; and beef 8.3 times as much.
Greenpeace quickly pointed out that this has nothing to do with whales themselves; all farm-raised meat requires a lot of energy. Catching fish and other seafood produce similar amounts of gas. Many whale species are threatened or endangered, and protected by international treaties. Nations that do a lot of whaling object to these restrictions.
Neil Young: Performing in Ottawa in 2006
Courtesy Adrian M. BussWhat do you get for the legendary rock star who has everything? How about naming a new species of spider after him.
That’s just what has happened to Neil Young, the rock/folk/blues icon from Canada who rose to fame with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Pretty much a full-time solo performer now, Young has a new spider named for him.
Specifically, it’s the scientific name Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi. No word on what the common name for the spider, which as discovered last year in Alabama, will be. I’d lean toward calling it simply Neil.
Jason Bond, a biologist from East Carolina University, found the new species of trapdoor spider and opted to name it after his favorite performer.
Besides being a talented musician, Neil Young directs movies and has a huge hobbiest interest 
Trapdoor spider: Performing in a cobweb near you.
Courtesy LA Dawsonin trains. I can’t track down what his feelings are about spiders, however. And Young is not the first musician to have a creature named after him. A species of beetle that looks as if it is wearing a tuxedo -- the whirligig beetle, or Orectochilus orbisonorum -- was named earlier this year after the late rock 'n' roll legend Roy Orbison and his widow Barbara.
Of course, there are some unintentional rock artists connected to the animal kingdom by name. The Red Hot Chili Peppers' bassist Flea comes quickly to mind. Can you think of any others? Share them here on the Buzz.
Tornado chasing: Tornado chasers in Attica, Kansas, captured a tornado passing by their equipment.
Courtesy Center for Severe Weather ResearchWith the forces of nature kicking up violently all over the globe in recent days –– an earthquake in China, typhoon in Myanmar and volcano eruption in Chile – getting somewhat overlooked is the rash of tornadoes already this season in the United States.
A total of 98 people have died from damage caused by tornadoes in the U.S. already this year, making it the deadliest tornado season since 1998, with a lot more months of twister action to come. This year already ranks as the seventh most deadly tornado season since records began being kept in 1950.
What’s giving with all of this? As our TV meteorologists always like to remind us, it’s due to the jet stream.
That movement of air at high altitudes has been ideal for tornadoes this year, mixing warm, wet air from the Gulf of Mexico with colder-than-normal air from the Great Lakes region. Here's a cool interactive graphic that shows how tornadoes brew up.
Traditionally, May is the peak month for tornadoes in the southern U.S. while July is the prime time for twisters in the north.
Monitoring consumption: By strapping this Scram device on someone's leg, officials can monitor the alcohol intake of offenders. Is this a good idea?
Courtesy Alcohol Monitoring SystemsThere’s a new tool for justice officials to use in dealing chronic alcohol abuser: the Scram. Scram stands for Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor.
It was recently featured in a medical column in the New York Times. Judges hoping to put some more death in the sentence for those involved with alcohol-related crimes order the convicted to wear a Scram on their leg for a prescribed amount of time along with a program of recovery treatment. The Scram senses the body’s intake of any alcohol by measuring air and perspiration emissions from the skin each hour. At least once every 24 hours, the wearer must download data the Scram has collected to a modem that reports the wear’s alcohol levels to a monitoring agency or probation officer. Should Scram show a level of alcohol use, which the sensors can gauge to within a blood-alcohol level of 0.02, authorities will follow up with the offender to see what happened.
In the time that the Scram has been used, authorities report that there’s been a high compliance rate among people not drinking. But occasionally there are misreads or misreports.
Consuming some types of baked goods, such as raisin bread or sourdough English muffins, have triggered Scrams to report alcohol use by an offender. And being an electronics-based device, malfunctions can occur.
On user of the device included in the Times story had two consecutive days of his Scram reporting alcohol use several months into wearing the device. A wary probation officer gave him the benefit of the doubt when he strongly denied any drinking, and further review found that a build up of sweat and grime under the Scram was causing the false alarms.
So what do you think? Is this a good use of technology to help people get over alcohol misuse? Proponents of Scram say that it helps enforce sobriety while the offender has time to learn and work a program of recovery. But is this an infringement of a person’s right to privacy? Does an alcohol offender give up some of his/her rights to privacy? How long should someone sentenced to wear a Scram have to wear the device? Are there better ways for dealing with this? Share your ideas here with other Science Buzz readers.
Nearly a year ago, the Buzz posted this 8-minute amateur video from YouTube called Battle at Kruger that showed an amazing - and at times brutal - natural struggle between a pride of lions, a herd of buffalo, and some crocodiles in a game reserve in South Africa.
Shot by David Budzinski, a tourist from Texas, this footage is truly stunning to watch, and to date has had over 32 million hits on YouTube! That’s a lot of people watching.
Last night, the National Geographic Channel (NGC) premiered an hour-long documentary detailing and analyzing those amazing 8 minutes captured on Mr. Budzinski’s consumer-model video camera. It’s believed to be the first hour-long documentary derived from a YouTube clip.
If you missed last night’s premiere, it repeats again at 9PM this Wednesday on the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANNEL. I’m sure there will be many more opportunities to see it as well, so check your local listing.
NOTE: In my original story of June 7, 2007, I had erroneously credited someone else (the person who had posted it on YouTube) as the shooter of this video. That error has been corrected.
From all the posts I do about ancient Egypt, can you tell I'm involved in developing an exhibit on Egypt? Here's a pretty cool interactive computer game where you get to explore the secret chambers of an ancient Egyptian tomb. Can you figure out who's buried there? Also, here's a link to an article examining the history of curses associated with those who go into mummy tombs. Don't worry, playing this game shouldn't make you vulnerable to the curse.
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