'Roadkill' project aims to help wildlife
DAVIS, Calif., Sept. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they're turning their attention to roadkill for a better understanding of the impact of the nation's roads on wildlife and the environment.
Volunteers like retired veterinarian Ron Ringen, 69, are taking photographs of killed animals and using GPS devices to record the precise location for the study, The New York Times reported.
"I'm almost a fanatic with it," Ringen said. "You get hooked."
He's among hundreds of volunteers collecting and uploading roadkill data to the California Roadkill Observation System, a mapping Web site built by researchers at the University of California, Davis.
The aim is to better understand where and why cars strike animals.
"For some people the only contact they have with wild animals is when they run them over," Fraser M. Shilling, lead researcher on the project, said. "This is the first time people have been able to record roadkill online and I think it will change our understanding of what our road system is really doing to wildlife."
Researchers say they will use the data to build statistical models to predict roadkill hot spots and suggest where animal road crossings, culverts and warning signs would be most effective on current and future roadways, the Times said.
China announces new submersible craft
BEIJING, Sept. 14 (UPI) -- China says its recently announced Jiaolong submersible craft is designed to go deeper than any other in the world.
Experts say the announcement shows Beijing's intention to take the lead in exploring previously inaccessible parts of the ocean floor rich in oil, minerals and other resources China would like to mine, The New York Times reported.
"They're in it for a penny and a pound," Don Walsh, a deep-ocean diving expert who recently visited the submersible and its builders in China, said. "It's a very deliberate program."
Named after a mythical sea dragon, the Jiaolong was announced publicly last month after eight years of secretive development.
It is designed to go deeper than any other submersible currently operating in the world, giving China access to 99.8 percent of the ocean floor, the Times said.
The craft is designed to go as deep as 4.35 miles, edging out the current world leader, Japan's Shinkai, which can go down 4 miles.
Russia, France and the United States lag further behind in the game of going deep, experts say.
The United States once held the submersible lead. In 1960 Walsh, then a Navy officer, went to the ocean's deepest spot, seven miles down.
But over the decades, it has lost its edge to France, Russia and most recently Japan, the Times said.
Better detector for hidden bombs sought
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., Sept. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say they're working to develop detectors for improvised explosive devices and hidden bombs that can penetrate shielding materials.
Scientists at Purdue University are taking part in the effort to develop devices that use sound and radio waves to detect the presence of hidden explosives, a university release said Tuesday.
Purdue is part of a $7 million initiative funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research.
The aim is to use sound and radio waves to penetrate objects, producing a new set of waves that bounce back to identify underlying materials.
"You want to get energy into the material, have it move around to pick up information and then be re-radiated so that we can sense what's inside," said Douglas Adams, a Purdue professor of mechanical engineering.
A major challenge is developing systems that use both radio and sound waves, which travel at different speeds, researchers say.
Because the two types of waves have different frequency ranges, they can reveal different kinds of information about an object to more accurately detect improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, they say.
Invasive fish not as fearsome as thought
NORFOLK, Va., Sept. 14 (UPI) -- Despite efforts to wipe them out, a species of invasive fish, Asian carp, in the Potomac River nicknamed "Frankenfish" is here to stay, scientists say.
The northern snakehead, native to China, Korea and Russia and resembling a cross between an eel, a snake and a piranha, has been found in wide areas of the Potomac basin, the (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot reported Tuesday.
"We're talking about 100 miles of waterway, in all these creeks and canals," John Odenkirk, a biologist with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, said. "There's just no way you could eradicate all of them."
Snakeheads have been found in almost every creek and tributary from Washington, D.C., south to the Chesapeake Bay.
Snakeheads are a popular, relatively cheap food fish in Southeast Asia, and because they can breathe oxygen and live out of water, they are believed by some to have medicinal benefits.
Scientists say they do not appear to be taking over the ecosystem, as some officials feared six years ago when the first population of wild, reproducing Asian carp was confirmed in the Potomac.
So far they have not damaged the Potomac's prized largemouth bass population, or that of any other fish, bird or amphibian on which they feed.
"We haven't seen any of the really bad, negative ecological effects," Steve Minkkinen of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said.
