Warming will not help crop yields

by fishhawk

A Warming Climate Could Wither Crop Yields
[Via AAAS News - RSS Feed]

A Warming Climate Could Cause Dramatic Reduction in U.S. Crop Yields, Expert Says

U.S. crop yields could fall by up to 20% between 2020 and 2049, and by up to 80% by the century’s end, a leading agricultural economist said at a Capitol Hill briefing co-sponsored by AAAS.

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There is a slim possibility that higher carbon dioxide levels might increase individual plant production – the data are not strong. But this is swamped out by the large disruptive effects of drought and changing weather patterns. The extremely fertile Midwest could see large drops in crop yields simply because of altered weather.

The researchers used data from 100 years back demonstrating that the number of hot days inversely correlated to crop yields. Too hot and the yields of a variety of staples decreases. These data are well known but have not been previously incorporated into climate models to look at crop yields.

When they included this data with the ‘business as usual’ climate models – that is, we do nothing to alter our carbon dioxide levels – crop yields in the US dropped by 20% by mid-century, and even more in the half-century after that.

We can argue about the merits of climate models but they certainly provide us with a place to start. What would happen to the US and the world if our crop yields, which help feed the world, dropped by 20%? During a time when the world’s population increases by 50%?

It seems to me that this could be devastating. The data certainly suggest it can happen. What is the probability and how high does it have to be before we take action?

I mean, would anyone accept a 10% failure rate for a nuclear power plant? Nope. Yet many seem to be willing to accept a possibility of crop failure that could be much higher than that.

Injecting nanoparticles made from estrogen-disruptors might not be a good idea

by davharuk

IBM Creates Nanoparticles That Burst Superbugs Like Popped Balloons
[Via 80beats]

What’s the News: Scientists are using nanoparticles to develop ways to fight bacteria that are resistant to conventional antibiotics. These tiny drugs physically punch holes through bacteria instead of killing them chemically, which means that they could be especially effective on antibiotic-resistant bacteria strains like the dangerous methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). “The applications are going to be very diverse, whether we’re talking about wound healing or dressing, skin infection, and quite possibly injections into the bloodstream,” James Hedrick, master inventor at IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California, told Popular Science.How the Heck:

Developed by IBM (yes, that IBM), but tested at the Singapore Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, the nanoparticles are made of bits of polycarbonate plastic that are amphilic: with one part that’s attracted to water (hydrophilic), and another that’s attracted to fats (hydrophobic). This means when you inject these particles into blood, for example, the hydrophilic parts of the polycarbonates hide within the hydrophobic parts, forming self-assembled clots about 200 nanometers wide. These nanoparticles then glom onto certain kinds of bacteria, including drug-resistant staph, because of

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There are some very important antibiotics that work by punching holes in the bacteria. So this is a nice way to engineer a manufactured approach.

But I became a lot less enthusiastic when it was mentioned that they used a polycarbonate plastic. Polycarbonate is often made using Bisphenol-A, a known endrocrine disruptor.

BP-A has been shown to lead to higher incidences of diabetes and obesity in mice. A recent review of the literature in Nature Reviews Endocrinology looks at the possible hazards of these endocrine disruptors. The authors feel that while definitive studies need to be done, there is enough evidence to warrant caution.

I would not be interested at all in looking at the benefits of these polycarbonate-based nano-particles without some really long term studies to determine if diabetes is an outcome. I’m not sure if the plastic they use has been examined for its endocrine disrupting effects but, based on the current work, I’d prefer to see some research into this before I get too excited about the possibilities.

Lots of liability there if stopping a bacterial infection then leads to diabetes, obesity and possible reproductive problems.

Cutting off social interactions makes students feel like they have fewer social interactions

Students face withdrawal, distress when cut off from Internet
[Via Ars Technica]

University students faced with a sudden Internet and media blackout begin to feel withdrawal symptoms after 24 hours, according to a study conducted by the University of Maryland’s International Center for Media & the Public Agenda. The study followed the reactions of 1,000 students around the globe after they were asked to abstain from all forms of media for a day, leading the researchers to believe that Internet addiction is a real phenomenon, even if there’s debate about it as a clinical diagnosis.

Students from 10 countries—including the US, Mexico, China, Argentina, the UK—all reported distress, isolation, confusion, boredom, and a feeling of addiction when they had to go 24 hours without any form of media, including Internet, music, games, news shows, and their cell phones. However, the numbers were not all equal—students from the US and China (mainland and Hong Kong) showed the highest percentages of feeling addicted, at 23 and 22 percent respectively.

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Yep, that is right. If you cut off someone’s ability to connect to other human beings, they feel anxious that their social interactions with other human beings are cut off. Somehow this becomes addiction.

Except that the ones who feel ‘addicted’ are a minority. 77% do not feel addicted yet the lede makes it sound like all of them do. And half the students that had to withdraw had to do it because school or work required it. In fact, almost as many students in the US felt there were benefits from unplugging as felt addicted.

This seems really stupid. It’s like putting someone in solitary and saying that they are addicted to human interaction. The fact that someone wants a richer level of social interaction than they are given makes them addicted?

Let’s ask people not to breathe and see i=how many are ‘addicted’ to air.

Humans are social animals who need social interactions. Why is anyone surprised that reducing those interactions makes some people feel bad?

I bet the same thing could have been said about getting cut off from all but face-to-face interactions for anyone. Sounds like a way to get people to spend lots of money at rehab for social addiction.

Report: Apple sold 3 times as many iPads in one day as Motorola sold Xooms in 2 months

by styro

Motorola’s Android 3.0 Honeycomb Xoom sales forecast slashed to 100,000 units
[Via AppleInsider]

Google’s flagship Android 3.0 Honeycomb competitor to Apple’s iPad appears to have failed at launch, with Motorola Xoom sales estimated by Deutsche Bank to have reached just 100,000 units, a figure far lower than initial projections of failure from Morgan Stanley and RBC.

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The first straight up competitor with the iPad, the Xoom had the size and it has the first touch-based operating system. But it simply could not compete. I imagine there will be a lot of cheap Xooms on sale soon.

April was supposed to be the month where competing tablets started obliterating the iPad’s lead. We shall see. Motorola and Samsung are already retooling their ideas. RIM requires a Blackberry to make the tablet useful. The portents do not seem favorable so far.

A smartphone that can be used for 4.5 hours at a time. Nice!

by scalespeeder

The Problem With 4G in a Nut
[Via Daring Fireball]

Jonathan Geller, reviewing the HTC Thunderbolt for BGR:

How does the Verizon Wireless’ first 4G LTE smartphone do in the real world? Well, not that great to be honest — especially with a 1400 mAh battery. Over 3G, the ThunderBolt can easily power through a normal workday. On 4G, however, I couldn’t get more than around 4.5 hours of usage at best… a figure that is not at all acceptable to me.

What makes matters worse is the fact that 4G can’t be switched on and off by the user. There is no widget to disable LTE and there’s not even a menu setting you can check on and off to enable or disable 4G.

4.5 hours of battery life.

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I can now see why Apple has not released an LTE phone yet. Not being able to turn off the battery hogging services is stupid. This is unacceptable usage time for any phone. One thing Apple realized is that people want it as a phone FIRST.  If it cannot provide that basic duty, then it is useless.

If social media existed during Exodus

I love the detail – CNN uses Western dates while Craigslist uses the Hebrew calendar. The maps are accurate.  The Pharaoh’s Palace is at 1 Eye of Horus Way. Both Moses and the Pharaoh have iPhones. Moses just friended Jethro. The Pharaoh has a .gov email address; Moses a gmail.com.

Amazon is still selling the Kindle and customers that bought frogs also bought lice and pestilence.

Check out Moses’ Twitter feed to see how many he is following. Or the Facebook events that Moses might not be attending, although he did make the Sinai Desert 10K.

Nicely done.

This all applies to biotechnology also

by kevindooley

Farming vs. Mining
[Via Daring Fireball]

Wil Shipley on farming vs. mining as a metaphor for running a software company:

In the mining model of software companies, the charismatic, flighty founders and their investors stand to make a lot of money. Their workers, their customers, and their secondary investors all get boned, because these companies and their products tend to suck.

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I was lucky to work for a biotech company that was a farmer. My wife has worked for a couple of miners. They have the same interest and results – exit strategy and the guys at the top make out like bandits while the rest are hosed.

And because the only real model involves VC investment, it is harder all the time to be any sort of farmer.