Our closest kin may vanish within 100 years

Recent data, suggests that humans’ closest relatives in the wild, the great apes, may not live to see the close of this century. The orangutans of Indonesia and the chimpanzees and mountain gorillas of East Africa are just a few of the species of great apes listed as endangered or critically endangered; their population may shrink by 80 per cent within three human generations. UN conservation agencies warn of the threat in The World Atlas of Great Apes and their Conservation.

Increased deforestation, both legal and illegal, in primate hot spots such as Sumatra and Borneo, in Indonesia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo is to blame. It destroys the already scarce habitats of the great apes, and increases their susceptibility to disease and viruses such as Ebola. Conservation agencies are scrambling to find a solution.

-Jennifer Bates

Source: BBC News

Scramble for the moon

Air, water, and electricity are crucial requirements for life, and must be produced on the moon in order to build a base fit for human habitation there. NASA is trying to do just that, using the Hubble Space Telescope to hunt for ideal locations. Sites with an abundant supply of ilmenite-a mineral from which oxygen, hydrogen, and helium could be extracted-are the subject of NASA’s search. In addition to producing air and water, some of those gases could be burned to generate electricity.

While construction has yet to begin, a handful of the 3.4-million people who have purchased lunar plots have made claims of ownership. Their hopes are buoyed by the 1967 United Nations Outer Space Treaty. Though the treaty states that no country or government can claim lunar land, it fails to address individual or corporate ownership.

-Wendy Gu

Source: BBC NEWS

To fill up on fibre, kelp can help

A high-fibre extract from seaweed could help make foods such as burgers and bread healthier, scientists at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne report. When the extract is added to white bread-and Dr. Jeff Pearson, one of the boffins involved, said he has baked some that passed muster with colleagues-it can increase four-fold the amount of fibre in a loaf. The brown-coloured seaweed is found in Asia, South America and parts of northern Europe, and its genus name is Laminaria. Alginate, as its extract is called, is already widely used in the food industry as a gelling agent and, oddly, to give lager beers a frothier head.

-Mike Ghenu

Source: University of Newcastle news service