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Good morning! And welcome to the Daily Briefing for the weekend of May 15. To stay on top of Earth-friendly news all day, visit us at Mother Nature Network.
 BEAST OF BURDEN: Quick, what's the world's strongest animal? A gorilla? Grizzly bear? Ant? Nope, none of the above - the Mr. Universe of the animal kingdom is a 1-millimeter-long crustacean known as a copepod (pictured). It's both the strongest and the fastest animal on Earth, and its superpowers have served it well, since it's also the most abundant multicellular animal known to science. While we probably won't see copepods pulling buses with their teeth on late-night ESPN2 anytime soon, the powerful plankton are still shedding some of their secrets thanks to Danish scientists who used high-speed videos to analyze one of copepods' signature moves: their escape jump. "The copepods' evolutionary success should be seen in relation to their ability to flee from predators," says lead researcher Thomas Kiørboe. "Their escape jump is hugely powerful and effective." Copepods can jump more than 1.5 feet (about 500 times their body length) in one second, making them at least 10 times stronger than any previously tested animal, or even any human-made motors. They manage such powerful leaps by using two propulsion mechanisms - a set of forelimbs plus four to five pairs of rear swimming legs - that give them an edge over animals stuck with just one propulsion mechanism, such as a pair of legs, wings or fins. "The copepod does not experience material fatigue, because it has two systems of movement at its disposal," Kiørboe says. By studying the leaps of copepods, kangaroos and other jumpy animals, researchers hope to incorporate their abilities into space-exploring robots, potentially creating artificial astronauts that can easily jump over tall objects. (Sources: ScienceDaily, Discovery News)
 WELCOME TO THE BIG LEAKS: Amid all the confusion surrounding the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, one thing that has seemed relatively certain is the official estimate of how much oil is leaking out every day: 5,000 barrels. But a newly released video of the deep-sea oil plume (pictured) has led scientists to question that number, with many arguing the spill must be several times larger - possibly as large as 70,000 barrels daily. And while the video is hardly proof of the spill's exact flow rate, it has brought up the point that BP could actually measure how much oil is leaking out, even though the company calls such a task "impossible." An existing technique for measuring hydrothermal vents could offer a simple and reliable estimate of the oil's flow, but BP has canceled plans to meet with scientists who want to apply the method. "You can use this type of technique to determine the velocity of the particles," explains a scientist with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, "and if you know what the area is, it's relatively straightforward mathematics to determine what the volume is." BP has been reticent to acknowledge the leak's size since the beginning, protesting when the government first raised its initial estimate from 1,000 to 5,000 barrels daily. The company argues the spill's size is irrelevant: "[T]he estimated rate of flow would not affect either the direction or scale of our response, which is the largest in history," a BP spokesman tells the New York Times. Scientists counter that knowing the size of the spill is the only way to accurately predict its effects on the environment. On Friday, U.S. Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., said he will ask BP to be more forthcoming about the leak, and that he plans to launch a formal inquiry to determine how much oil is really being released. (Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, NPR)  CAP WITHOUT TRADE: As U.S. senators mulled over a newly introduced climate bill this week, the Obama administration moved forward on Thursday with plans to regulate greenhouse gas emissions on its own by using the Clean Air Act. The EPA announced that it's finalizing a rule designed to slash climate-warming pollution from the country's largest emitters, a proposal that would cover 67 percent of the emissions from stationary sources like power plants and oil refineries. The rule would soften the impact on small businesses by tweaking the Clean Air Act's standard for regulation - normally, facilities emitting 100 to 250 tons of a pollutant annually must apply for a federal permit, but since so many businesses emit CO2, the new EPA rule would raise that threshold to 100,000 tons a year. "After extensive study, debate and hundreds of thousands of public comments, EPA has set common-sense thresholds for greenhouse gases that will spark clean technology innovation and protect small businesses and farms," says EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. The rule will take effect in July 2011 and will affect about 15,550 sources in its first two years, the EPA says, although it's sure to face court challenges from critics. (Source: Washington Post) |
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