August 26, 2011

Canadian scientists are trying to turn dandelions into rubber. As reported in Macleans, there is a worldwide rubber shortage that will see the price of tires go up 32 per cent by Christmas and the solution to the problem may be the Russian dandelions currently being cultivated in test fields at the University of Guelph.

August 19, 2011

This article in the Vancouver Province runs through the public gardens that can be toured in Quebec. I have to admit that what drew me to the article was the photo of the lush rooftop herb garden on the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City. If I had a hotel, I'd definitely plant herbs on top of it.

August 12, 2011

As reported in the science journal Nature, researchers have uncovered the supergenes which allow butterflies to change their wing patterns in an effort to mimic those of other species. They still don't understand quite how the whole process works, but at least they now know what the mechanism is and from there it's just a matter of time before they figure out the rest.

August 5, 2011

Carbon offsets have always struck me as a bad idea and this article on Reuters confirms that they now rank as the world's worst performing commodity. If you want to offset your carbon-spewing lifestyle, plant a tree. Better yet, plant ten. Trees sequester large amounts of carbon and continue to do so for the life of the plant. If big business was forced to plant forests to offset their emmissions, we'd one day get the whole deforestation problem under control and reduce atmospheric carbon at the same time.