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Caloric restrictions extend life of Monkeys .

A new research has shown that dieting monkeys survive longer than others without caloric restrictions. Caloric restriction (CR) extends survival in rhesus monkeys, as senior authors Rozalyn Anderson, University of Wisconsin, Madison, and Rafael de Cabo, National Institute on Aging, Baltimore, report in the January Nature Communications. This result in a nonhuman primate suggests scientists will be able to apply what they have learned about caloric restriction in shorter-lived animal models such as yeast and mice to humans. In monkeys, what and how much they eat absolutely influence how they age and with genetic similarity to people, there’s every reason to believe that would also be true in humans. The analysis combined two experiments begun in the late 1980s that tested whether caloric restriction improved health and survival in monkeys. One came from the University of Wisconsin, where scientists studied 76 adult monkeys . The other, from NIA, included 121 monkeys aged 1 to 23 and both studies put half the monkeys on a CR diet. At the NIA, some animals started the diet when they were young, and some when they were older. In the end, both studies agreed that there was a health benefit to CR if not an improvement in longevity. Animals on a restricted diet developed age-related conditions—such as bone and muscle loss, cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease—at half the rate of control animals.

The link between social media and animal cruelty.

There is a link between animal cruelty and social media,with craze for selfies with these animals causing deaths or discomforts in some cases. Recently,it was reported that a small dolphin died of dehydration when tourists took it out of water for selfies.Tourists killed a La Plata dolphin on a beach in the resort town of Santa Teresita. They passed the animal around while vying for selfies. Eventually it died of dehydration. Tourists mishandled two peacocks when taking selfies, resulting in the death of the animals. A man at Palm Beach in Florida dragged a small shark out of the water in order to take a selfie. Tourists snapping selfies in Costa Rica are stopping endangered sea turtles from breeding. And there is a dark side to those ‘cute’ viral videos of slow lorises. Many tourists see wild animals as exotic and adorable objects, as props for photos and nothing more. Social media highlights our tendency to view animals as merely things to be used, and often for the most trivial reasons. Selfies taken with wild animals and posted on Instagram may appear innocent and cute. Cruelty towards animals is not just wrong in itself as this kind of behavior may make people more cruel in general. continue

GPS tracking technology to ensure animal welfare.

GPS tracking technology to ensure animal welfare,because animal welfare on huge range-lands is a challenge. Researchers are now collaborating to find ways to help ranchers better manage livestock and improve animal welfare. Researchers in Australia are very close to having real-time or near real-time GPS tracking of livestock. Derek Bailey, professor in the New Mexico State University Department of Animal and Range Sciences, is working to find ways to help such ranchers better manage their livestock and improve animal welfare.His efforts include collaborating with researchers in Australia, where the rangeland is similar to that in New Mexico and other western states. On rangelands in New Mexico, in the western United States and in most of Australia, ranchers have extensive pastures on which they can't see the livestock all the time, the cows have to free -roam out in the range, so you can't watch them. The GPS device would be affixed to a collar that would send a signal to a nearby tower, potentially up to 10 miles away from the animal. That data would be collected and transferred to the ranch headquarters. Ideally, the information would be sent via the internet to a smartphone application.

Nordic countries and an energy transition.

Nordic countries are bringing about an energy transition worth copying. A new study by Professor Benjamin Sovacool at the University of Sussex offers some important lessons.The Trump administration's "First energy plan" criticizes the "burdensome" regulations on the energy industry and aims to eliminate "harmful and unnecessary policies such as the Climate Action Plan" which was introduced by President Barack Obama. It has also deleted all mentions of climate change and global warming from the White House website. Given the American leadership vacuum on energy and climate change, national and local planners looking to bring about energy transitions will need to look elsewhere. Five Nordic countries -- Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden -- could hold answers for how to make the transition to a more energy efficient society generating energy through renewables. About 83% of electricity generation in Nordic countries is low-carbon, of which 63% comes entirely from renewable sources. The Nordic countries are also facilitating other low-carbon transitions across other sectors including heat, buildings, industry, and transport. A new study outlines broad lessons for how this transition could be replicated elsewhere. The energy transition pays for itself (if you factor in the costs of air pollution) The total estimated cost of the Nordic energy transition is roughly $357 billion more than business as usual, which comes to a total of less than 1 percent of cumulative GDP between now and 2050. Almost all of these costs will be offset by fuel savings. Even the external costs associated with the health impacts of air pollution alone in the Nordic countries (about $9 to $14 billion annually) are roughly equal to the additional investment needed to achieve a carbon neutral scenario. Trade and interconnection with other countries are key for reaching energy targets Trade and interconnection with Europe are instrumental to the Nordic countries reaching their carbon and energy targets. Nordic electricity trade must expand considerably -- underscoring the need for paralleled, coordinated grid development and interconnections with Great Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. "It's as much a regional governance or European challenge as it is a national priority for individual Nordic states," says Sovacool, a Professor of Energy Policy at the University of Sussex's Science Policy Research Unit and Director of the Centre on Innovation and Energy Demand. Continue

Nanoparticle fertilizer could contribute to new 'green revolution'.

The 'Green Revolution' of the '60s and '70s has been credited with helping to feed billions around the world, with fertilizers being one of the key drivers spurring the agricultural boom. But in developing countries, the cost of fertilizer remains relatively high and can limit food production. Now researchers report a simple way to make a benign, more efficient fertilizer that could contribute to a second food revolution. Farmers often use urea, a rich source of nitrogen, as fertilizer. Its flaw, however, is that it breaks down quickly in wet soil and forms ammonia. The ammonia is washed away, creating a major environmental issue as it leads to eutrophication of water ways and ultimately enters the atmosphere as nitrogen dioxide, the main greenhouse gas associated with agriculture. This fast decomposition also limits the amount of nitrogen that can get absorbed by crop roots and requires farmers to apply more fertilizer to boost production. However, in low-income regions where populations continue to grow and the food supply is unstable, the cost of fertilizer can hinder additional applications and cripple crop yields. The researchers developed a simple and scalable method for coating hydroxyapatite (HA) nanoparticles with urea molecules. HA is a mineral found in human and animal tissues and is considered to be environmentally friendly. In water, the hybridization of the HA nanoparticles and urea slowly released nitrogen, 12 times slower than urea by itself. Initial field tests on rice farms showed that the HA-urea nanohybrid lowered the need for fertilizer by one-half.

Dog Rescued From Meat Farm sleeps standing up.

Harriet arrived at the shelter scared, sad and exhausted. After what she'd been through, it was completely understandable.A little over two weeks ago, the three-year-old Korean Jindo had been stuck in a cramped cage at a dog meat farm in Wonju, South Korea, with about 200 other dogs. Like most dog meat farms in South Korea, the conditions were deplorable. If Harriet had stayed there, she and the other dogs would have been killed for their meat, and probably in a horrible, painful way. They're tortured, and they aren't always dead when they skin them. Harriet was now thousands of miles away from the horrors at the meat farm, but she was still traumatized.Harriet continued to sleep standing up until she was assisted to lie down on the fuzzy blanket, which acted as Harriet's very first dog bed. see