Biodiversity

A Penn State anthropologist puts forth a new hypothesis: that the nearly universal human tendency to bond altruistically with animals is a unique trait that has evolved because it gives us many advantages.

"Tens of thousands of gray wolves would be returned to the woods of New England, the mountains of California, the wide open Great Plains and the desert West under a scientific petition filed Tuesday with the federal government."

"Five Great Lakes states filed a lawsuit in federal court Monday to try to block Asian carp from entering Lake Michigan, the third attempt to seek the closing of Chicago-area shipping locks through the court system."

"Dozens of endangered sea turtle eggs have been moved to Florida's Atlantic coast to protect them from the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said on Friday."

"They may not be the 500-pound 'Frankenfish' that some researchers were talking about 10 years ago, but a Massachusetts company says it's on the verge of receiving federal approval to market a quick-growing Atlantic salmon that's been genetically modified with help from a Pacific Chinook salmon."

"The Monsanto Company agreed to pay the Environmental Protection Agency a $2.5 million penalty for selling mislabeled bags of genetically engineered seed."

"A Japanese court on Wednesday convicted an anti-whaling activist from New Zealand of assault and obstructing Japan's whaling fleet in the Antarctic. But his sentence was suspended, meaning he will not be jailed."

"Earth-friendly perennial grain crops, which grow with less fertilizer, herbicide, fuel, and erosion than grains planted annually, could be available in two decades, according to researchers writing in the current issue of the journal Science."