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aamukherjee A Slice of Entropie -
alchymista Alchymista -
crownedrose Fading Like A Dead Star -
expose-the-light Quarks to Quasars -
ikenbot CWL -
abluegirl A Blue Girl -
perscientiamlibertas A Matter of the Most Pleasant Fraternal Confidence
White-nose syndrome, already responsible for killing some 6 million North American bats, has now been confirmed in Kentucky’s iconic cave system.
Ugh, nooo. White nose syndrome is no joke.
ikenboteveryone go homeNASA’s big announcement is.. that neil degrasse tyson is actually a bat.
Zooniverse, the folks behind the Seafloor Explorer citizen science project (and a whole mess of other citizen science projects) are asking for your help in classifying bat recordings! Sounds like a chance to do some spooky science.
One in five mammals on Earth is a bat! And the ultrasonic calls they use for hunting, navigation and social interaction are as poorly understood as they are varied. When scientists head out into the field to record them, they end up with hundreds of hours of sound to sift through. The problem is that computers aren’t as good as people at picking out bat sounds from background and pesky insect chirps. That’s where you come in!
After a little lesson in bat echolocation, you’ll be ready to help refine the data, classifying sounds in order to aid the research and design a better automated system in the future. You can be the Bat-man or Bat-woman you’ve always wanted to be!
Check out more on the Bat Detective blog, and for a full list of Zooniverse projects, check here.
(photo by Barry Mansell)
Killer fungus hits endangered gray bats
After killing 6 million bats from six other species, white-nose syndrome is now attacking one of North America’s most vulnerable varieties.
Message to Obama: Save the Bats!
Do you want to help save America’s insect-eating bats from extinction? Then tell President Obama.
People who love bats — or at least the multi-billion dollar agricultural benefits they provide — are urging Obama to include in his 2013 budget research on White Nose Syndrome, the disease that’s annihilating insect-eating bats across much of the eastern United States and Canada.
Caused by a fungus that was first identified less than a decade ago, scientists are racing to learn how to fight WNS. Federal research funding, however, has been minimal, with bat supporters scratching and clawing for the Beltway equivalent of couch change.
To ask for direct White House support, Bat Conservation International has set up a We the People online petition. We the People is the formal White House petition site, with a response promised to any plea with at least 25,000 signatures to back it.
