Author: Jonas D.

In 1997-98, orange juice producer Del Oro thought it had scored a win-win deal when it signed an environmental services contract with authorities in charge of a neighboring conservation area called Área de Conservación Guanacaste in northern Costa Rica.  The deal was Del Oro would donate part of their forested land to the Área de Conservación Guanacaste.  In exchange, Del Oro could deposit its orange peel waste for biodegradation, at no cost, on degraded forest land within the park.  The motivation for the agreement orchestrated by husband-wife team Daniel Janzen and Winnie Hallwachs, both dedicated ecologists at the University of Pennsylvania, who worked...

Well as space exploration has gotten its second wind of late, maybe it’s not too soon to think about interesting places to visit.  If you’re into flash and bling scientists have conjectured about diamond rain falling in our solar system. Neptune and Uranus are long suspected to be diamond rain makers, with extremely high pressures that would squeeze the carbon atoms in the atmosphere.  Also, both these gas giants have atmospheres comprised of 15% methane, and the temperature does not get to over 3,820 Kelvin (6,416°F), the melting point of diamonds. This means that the precious stones that fall are most likely encrusted all over the planets surface meaning pun intended...

Among a breathtaking setting, a mammoth volcano lurks under Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming that powers all of the park’s famous geysers and hot springs. The supervolcano erupts about every 600,000 years, and it’s been about that long since the last Yellowstone eruption so in some sense it is due. The Yellowstone site is just one of 20 known supervolcanoes on Earth. Over the course of earth history, it is estimated there has been a major eruption from one of these supervolcanoes occurring on average once every 100,000 years. An eruption today from one of these supervolcanoes could cause...

Many baby boomers are familiar with the term ‘Magic Mushroom’ and its psychedelic drug effect that comes from the active ingredient psilocybin.  More than 200 species of mushrooms are collectively known as psilocybin mushrooms.  In the 1950s and 1960s, researchers enthusiastically studied the psychological properties of psilocybin and LSD and on many mental disorders and other health related issues.  The results reported were frequently positive, but in 1970, with recreational use of hallucinogens on the rise, President Nixon signed the Controlled Substances Act making psilocybin a “schedule 1” drug. This effectively also halted all academic research into psychedelics.  In recent...

The NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science are currently leading an 18-day expedition aboard NOAA Ship Nancy Foster to map, survey, and sample deep-sea coral ecosystems from August 12 – 31, 2017, in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the South Atlantic Bight. The photo above and video below though show an area the NOAA’s Okeanos Deep Discoverer remotely operated vehicle (ROV) discovered on July 25, 2017, 7,700 feet below the sea.  This bizarre deep-sea ‘forest’ scene was part of the Laulima O Ka Moana expedition: Exploring Deep Monument Waters around poorly known deepwater areas in the Johnston Atoll...